I like the idea of doing a quarterly review of my annual theme, as a way to reset, re-evaluate, figure out what I want to change and celebrate what I did actually accomplish.
I set my intention for the year as “health”, and in Q3 I tried to keep up momentum from Q2 whilst also catching up on some of the things that missed. The result was an overall theme of bureaucracy I had been putting off. Probably the most boring and least creative quarter this year, but my mortgage has been renewed, and my citizenship application is in. August-Sepember, I was also super run down and had to lean into rest and recovery. It was really frustrating to watch all my progress seemingly evaporate but I’m trying to be kind to myself as I rebuild.
The happier theme of this quarter was one of celebration. Many of our trips were for birthdays, and my partner and I also had a low key but meaningful celebration of 5 years together, and then a bigger event for his birthday – where I had a lot of fun gift wraping the inside of a suitcase, a symbol of all our adventures yet to come.
An important part of the word “health” is the core habits that keep me grounded. In Q3 I:
- Caught up and then once again dropped behind my 500m/m goal. Currently ~150 minutes below the end of Q2 target of 4500.
- Read 14 novels including Julie Chan is Dead (lived rent free in my head for weeks after), The Education of Kia Greer (a YA novel I found on a list of books you’d like if you loved the 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which you know what, I did), The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth (the latest Barbara O’Neal) and The Academy.
- Read 3 non-fiction books: Scaling People (mixed, very process driven but some useful insights), The Next Day, Laziness Does not Exist.
- Finished one small crafting project, started an enormous Monet Waterlillies x-stitch that I’ll be happy if I can finish in 6 months… currently on sheet 3/6.
- Wrote 5 blog posts
- Sent 4 WTHIC letters.
Q3 I mainly stayed in Ireland but there were a number of adventures:
- A mad dash over to the Netherlands for my mother in law’s retirement party and seeing a friend from Australia in Amsterdam.
- Dublin to see Taylor Tomlinson live.
- A night at Liss Ard for a friends birthday (it rained).
- Dublin (again) for a friend’s birthday
- A short trip to London for a birthday party at the RAF club (when am I ever going to get invited to such a place again).
- A hen party! My first ever. I bought the glam with gorgeous cake from the Menu Cakery, a selection of fizz, and a sheet mask bar.
- A getaway to Killarney with two of my girlfriends (it also rained).
- A night in Kinsale with Bas’ friends for his birthday.
When I’m stressed I tend to stay with things that are familiar, so one of the things I’m paying attention to is how many new experiences I have, aiming for at least one each month.
- Food: We went to restaurant Eden in NL – amazing food, weird-in-a-bad-way dessert, unfortunate service. We also went to Hang Dai in Dublin (amazing).
- I saw Taylor Tomlinson and Paul Chowdhry live.
- One of my friends gave me a class in flower arranging for my birthday. I learned about the grid and how to use height and folliage!
As I mentioned at the start, Q3 was big on bureaucracy and paying down the life debt:
- The car got it’s NCT (Irish roadworthyness test). Having had the last car fail an NCT, we always get very intense about it, the car got a full service, new tyres, and a deep clean. It passed with flying colors and we were both very pleased with it.
- I had a final round of botox on my jaw, which has been an absolute game changer. I can actually move my face again, I had not realized how stuck everything was from tension. So glad I did this.
- We hung art on the lower stairs, one of the few places we don’t have art rails, making it a much harder decision. Some gorgeous prints we found in Northern Ireland by the artist Kathryn Callaghan.
- Filed my taxes!
- Got an updated valuation for the house after all the building work, and used it to get a (marginally) better mortgage rate. Also did so much paper work to switch my mortgage only to be ghosted by the broker. Infuriating.
- Organized all my jewelry. I have bought many new pieces this year and it was getting a bit choatic. It’s nice to have everything tidy again.
- Got all the paperwork together for my citizenship application – including 6 years of financial stuff, an intense spreadsheet of all my travel since 2019 and my birth certificate. My friend Pri both supervised me and motivated me through that, for which I am incredibly grateful. Now the application is in! And I just need to wait and see.
My professional dev this quarter was pretty minimal. I did:
- The Confident Commit podcast – really happy with how this came out.
- My Getting More Strategic post was a long time coming but pretty popular (first page of the orange website, on some mailing lists etc).
- Made progress on a project I’m working on with a friend.
- Work with my coach on a Leadership Circle Profile.
Looking forward to Q4 I’m trying to finish the year strong. Rebuild after this period of being run down (iron supplements have been helping) and stay on the core habits. We have some more adventures planned (Barcelona, Rotterdam and London) and I hope my friend and I can launch this project.
This system of goals and quarters has been working well for me overall, even though I’m never satisfied with how much I get done! I’m starting to put things in the next year bucket in order to focus on what I think I can get done before the end of 2025.
I hope you had a good Q3, and if not, we have one more Quarter for 2025. Let’s go!