February- An (almost) complete failure!

50% completion is a failure in almost any case that I’m aware of. And that’s exactly what I scored on my personal goals for the month. Let’s tally it up:

Learn how to write a blog – PASS (I guess) – I even wrote a blog about writting a blog.
Complete photography class- PASS (yay!!)
Complete videography class – FAIL (but I did watch some YouTube videos, completed an udemy, and a good buddy’s class. Check him out – Caleb Copeland (@copecreative and @rednecktechpodcst)
Complete a public speaking class- FAILURE

So yea, 50%. JUST A BIT OUTSIDE! What does this mean? If you say you’re going to do something, do it, or people quit listening. But there’s an old saying that I love: “How you do anything is how you do everything.” And that’s precisely why I was a failure in February. But, there’s a bright side. And that is just to DO SOMETHING. I did get it half right, which is more than what I would have done had I not made any goals! You’re going to succeed, and you’re going to fail, probably more often than succeed. Push past your fear and GET AFTER IT.

Some of you reading this may follow me on one of the various social mediums and notice that my January goal was 30/30 workout days in a row. And I crushed (that may be a strong word) that one. It gained a lot of positive momentum for me personally, but I didn’t realize how many people were following along and actually using it as their “accountability mirror” until I missed a day. I was in Vegas for SHOT show, which is insanity and you should 100% go. I went out a LITTLE too late the second night and was riding the struggle bus hard the next day as I walked 7-8 miles and shook 57,000 hands.

This is the type of insanity that’s at SHOT show. Who wants one?

So, I naturally said, “I’ll just skip today because I feel like hammered dog crap.” And ended up not going. Well, damn if I didn’t wake up the following day to 20 or so texts and Instagram messages putting me on blast for not working out. Half were buddies making fun of me, the other half were people who legitimately were worried why I hadn’t worked out because “that’s how I force myself to workout every day.”

Obviously, this had a profound effect on me and was really the catalyst to start this blog. Anywho, I vowed I’d make it up (twice) and actually ended up doing 31 workouts in 30 days.

So back to this debacle of a month. I can make excuses for why I didn’t make it happen, but that wouldn’t matter to anyone. So I have to move them to a subsequent month ON TOP of what I already have planned.

Speaking of, it’s March, right? So what’s planned for March? Check them out!

Cold shower every morning – The worst thing I (or Trey Humphries – a friend and mentor- look him up) could possibly think of. This is a YUGE deal for me. I hate cold water like a dog abhors a vacuum. Or like an Atlanta driver hates paying attention.
No complaining – I have to take a cold shower and can’t complain about it? Le sigh… I did this last year during January, and it had lasting effects. There are obviously situations where you have to make a negative comment, but nothing like being tired, cold, hungry. Opinionated remarks like “He’s an ass, idiot, etc.” Yelling at traffic (that’ll be tough), slow people or getting flustered because some eggshell got in the scrambled eggs. So no complaints about cold water? Right.
30 Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) – this one will be fun and terrifying. Some of these are random, others are. Here’s a cool and easy way for you to do this as well: Random Acts of Kindness ORG. I will do the following things this month:
- Help a random person with directions- done- 3/1!
- Buy random people’s coffee- done- 3/1!
- Buy lunch for someone behind me
- Write 5 thank you notes to people for their kindness to me – Failed
- Call 5 people to thank them for the positive impact they’ve had on my life – done- 3/27
- Hand out flowers to old ladies leaving the grocery store – Failed
- Compliment a complete stranger – done 3/2!
- Put money on a strangers layaway bill – Failed
- Donate all my old clothes – Donated some- Pass
- Say hello to everyone I see for a day- done 3/2!
- Send dessert to a random couple at dinner – Failed
- Volunteer at a soup kitchen – done- 3/13
- Give high fives to strangers one day – done 3/18- while running.
- Clean up the weight room at my apartment – done 3/22
- Pick up a trash bag of litter at an Atlanta park- failure- picked up trash at my apt instead.
- Leave encouragement letters on random peoples cars- done- 3/20
- Write 20 positive messages on Facebook/Instagram- done 3/7!
- Call my grandparents once per week- done
- Pick up strangers’ dog poop from dog run at the apartment (selfishly, this mainly is for me)-done 3/6!
- Do something special for my significant other (Amanda)- done
- Schedule a charity event at one of my Businesses for the less fortunate– done
- Organize a men’s fellowship retreat – done, but fell through. Going to replan!
- Leave quarters in a laundromat – failed
- Gift a book to someone who’s interested – done 3/5!
- Take someone to shoot archery – failed
- Sign up for a run for a cause- done 3/3! Rock-n-roll Half – St. Jude
- Leave a surprise in my mailbox for the mail carrier – done
- Learn a joke and tell it to 10 people in one day- make people laugh – done
- Give away 5 items for free on craigslist – failed.
- Put my phone away during intimate times with others – dinner, movies, coffee, etc. – The whole month.– done