Hey 2017, I’m Ready for My Check-In

So how’s the year been going for you so far, other than too quickly to even notice that it’s already halfway gone? What happened to your grand resolutions, your goals, your plans? It’s not too late to kick them back into gear, and get yourself back into the running

Blamestorming with my brothers pic.twitter.com/GiPSQrNy4m

— Dave Luis (@TaineMcLean) July 22, 2017

We landed in the new year with an overwhelming sense of relief that 2016 and its endless stream of celebrity deaths, Brexit and US elections was behind us, and maybe we were a little naïve in our faith that 2017 was going to be a breeze and would follow a set, orderly and calm plan from Here to Success.

With all the best intentions in the world, I looked to 2017 and said “Right, I’m ready! Let’s rock this!”

May has come and gone. So has June, and the winter solstice. Even though the dark, icy mornings tell me Spring is a lifetime away, we’re officially heading that way. Time for a mid-year check-in!

First things first. A quick review of the personal goals I’d pinned to my 2017 vision board. Um. Well, that vision board now has a wet towel draped over it so that’s not a great start. I obviously haven’t been as focussed on it as I should have been. Haven’t visualised and manifested my 2017 destiny like a boss. Yet.

There are still more kilograms to lose, study modules to complete for my crisis management certificate, debt to pay off, and an eye test to do. Lots of unchecked boxes on my vision board, vision being one of them. Far more unchecked than checked boxes.

But that’s OK. If 2017 has done nothing else, it has reminded me that the distance between the point in time where you set a goal and that goal being achieved is anything but a straight line. It deviates more than Cape Town’s N2 detours.

Things are going well at work. Really well. My studies are driving me forward and for the first time in a long time, I can actually say I have a 5-year plan. Had you asked me this at any time the last couple of years, I would have given you a vague grunt and told you that my retirement plan was to die before I needed a retirement plan.

But now, thanks to a fantastic mentor, I’ve been able to look at specialising in my role, and this is opening up new opportunities for me in the company. This was not on my vision board in January, but it’s come along as an unexpected bonus, thanks to the basic planning I did back then. So this is good. Check that career box!

The other big focus this year has been my health. The #savedave campaign. My eating plan was going to be one, long advert for a health and lifestyle magazine, and I was going to run marathons and become a lithe, athletic machine. Yes. Well. Easter happened.

It’s all about accountability, so as much as I’d like to blame the Easter excesses, that dismal discipline was mine alone. So the weight yo-yoed a bit, but 15 kilograms has come off so far. A slight detour, but nothing to panic about. There are still six months left to achieve that goal.

These days my Good Food Choices happen for five out of every seven meals, which is a lot more often than they happened before, when it was maybe one healthy meal per month. This is possibly the most significant, most positive change. Well done, me!

The real surprise is that I have started running. Yes. Read that again. I am now a runner. This was not on my vision board, and it was never, ever even a whim of an idea. Not once in my life have I wistfully dreamt what it would be like to be out on the road at dawn, running. Not even in my zombie nightmares.

But it has happened, and now most weekends I am down at Betty’s Bay, running on the beach as the Chariots of Fire theme song plays in my head (hey, we all have our own in-the-moment motivators, right?) and every other night I huff and I puff my way along Cape Town’s promenade.

I am not the fastest, or most graceful, in fact I am probably the oddest, most loud and heavy breathing runner out there, but who cares, I love it.

So if I step back and take a look at things, 2017 is running along nicely. Things are moving forward. We’re doing okay. And that’s really all you can ask from life, right? Bring on the rest of the year. I’m ready.