December Goals & November Review

Dec 4, 2022

Let’s jump right in and keep this as simple and straightforward.

Table of Contents

November Review
December Goals
Lessons for December
Inspirational Content from November

November Review

Top Highlights of the Month

Made the MOST progress I have seen in over a decade for my sleep health and schedule consistency. November 7th became “Austin’s New Year,” thanks in large to my Creator Coalition community being engaged in a new daily check-in/accountability format. This alone makes November a massive win.
Completed round 2 of the Creator Coalition, a mastermind for creatives, and set the stage for round 3 starting next week.
Posted more frequently on Facebook (writing/photo-shares) as practice for consistency in “showing up” for creativity:
Learned and created shortform content for a recent dance video (“I Can Feel It”):
Spent regular time with a couple dance friends and brainstorming around the resurgence of the Fort Wayne Westies in 2023.
Invested in a couple pieces of gear to fill a couple significant “problem areas” in my creation workflow.

Goals With Progress

Schedule around sleep (significant) and work (moderate).
YouTube videos: learning to make shortforms, but no progress on a new video.
Decluttering/KonMari: decluttered & purged and consolidated pending clutter areas.
Regular/daily creation: posted more posts on Facebook (later to be put on the blog).
Facilitated progress on the Creator Corner (weekly mastermind calls, daily check-ins, cowork calls).
Progress made on Interfusion/Virginia plans.

There were a lot of goals and intentions I wrote down in the previous article that I barely touched. My focus is to forge forward using a core lesson from November to lead into December with: SIMPLIFY. Focus on the few(er) things that have a larger impact (in terms of outcome or is weighty to the heart).

Overall Assessment: 7/10

There were quite a few days I felt I “under-utilized” or got too in my head, but the wins and progress I made balanced it out.

I rate November a 7/10 in terms of overall progress/success for myself, factoring in:

notable creation output (albeit not my intended YouTube video goal)
Creator Coalition consistency, development and connection, and
sleep goals being abso-friggen-lutely demolished (I could almost cry).

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.” — Jordan B. Peterson

December Goals

Having “overdone” my goals last month and dropped the ball on MOST of them, I want fewer goals this month. I don’t regret having drafted out so many objectives. It was a helpful process to reflect on the month, shape my thoughts into tangible words, and set the stage for the next month — just as I am doing again.

Primary 3 Goals

Post 1 YouTube video.
Improve evening routine & schedule consistency.
Finish planning and preparing for Interfusion & Virginia + start learning Zouk.

Secondary Goals

Establish and practice a consistent “creation and professional schedule.” “When am I sitting in the seat to work exclusively on YouTube creation [same for client work, writing, DYP, etc.]?”
Complete my 7 day “Quest of Quiet.”
Pick a date for or complete a Soul Quest. (Schedule in DYP time.)
Finish Konmari: clothes and basement (bonus: paper).
Complete my “daily share challenge” and share results.
Start the digital decluttering deep dive (files, Google Keep, OneTab, Bookmarks, Notion).
Continue sharing more online. (e.g., Creator Coalition, work, dance, mindset, personal).

Reminder — now that you have identified these: schedule them in. You have constantly felt flowy and floaty during your weeks, forgetting that you have identified a handful of projects that are important to you.

On the flipside, be wary of overwhelming yourself too much. Simply come back to this list and your schedule as guides. Do your best to show up to them and to follow your schedule, but don’t be a tyrant about it. Baby steps. 💜

Lesson For December

There were many that I had during November, but these are the ones that come top-of-mind while writing:

Find any way possible to be around people who lift you up or can be a space for you.
Express. Nobody needs to see it, but it needs to come out of you. Write, record a solo video/audio clip, talk while you walk. Anything.
Focus on one thing. Clear the decks. Nothing else is important while addressing the current project. They’ll be there when you’re ready to move on to the next thing. MONOTASK. One tab. One project. One page. Turn off distractions, put away the clutter, put away the list of things to do. One thing at a time.
Voluntarily take on things that you want to take on. Have that conversation with yourself first. Do it in the private silo of your own mind and heart. You first. Build that internal locus of control. You have to first decide, on your own, that you want to do the thing. You have to do it FOR YOU first. In your mind, are you making that decision as a conversation with yourself, or are you playing out the mental scenario of telling someone else about it?
Show up consistently by sitting down and opening the page your heart really wants to work on. Don’t wait for inspiration to arrive to sit down: you sit down first and show inspiration that you are ready. There are always waves of inspiration — on blank pages, pending projects, photo inspirations, etc. — but you have to be in the chair to receive the wave.
Tune the world out. Remember: Quest of Quiet (no inputs, silence) and the Black Cave of the Soul.

Inspirational Content from November

Just a few of the ones that spoke to my soul during this month:

Podcast/Talk/Video

Music

Dance Video

Inspiration as I plan my next major dance adventure in January:

Gui + Evelyn – Brazilian Zouk Flow / Lumen by Five Seasons

Enjoying Brazilian Zouk’s Basics – Gui & Valeska – Linda Bo E

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to join the Creator Corner, my lil’ corner of the internet for creatives, people looking to cowork, and those that want a space for accountability: come say hi!

Cover photo (of Austin): by David Fennig

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