September has come and gone. And with it, another month of goal pursuits.
Welcome to my September goal report! In these reports, I pop my head up from the sea of daily to-dos and take a look back; providing a recap of my goal progress for the past month.
A few things to note before I jump in…
- First, you can see past goal reports for August here and July here.
- You can see the goals that I’m currently working on right here (updated often).
- And most importantly, if you want to start achieving your goals as well, be sure to enroll in my goal success course here.
With that taken care of, here are my goals from September 2020 (listed in no particular order).
My Goal Report For September 2020
- Complete two books a month (physical or audiobook)
- Take my daughter on a date once a month
- Go on a date with my wife once a month
- Go to the beach twice a month
- Improve my home in at least one way each month
- Prepare my daughter for the world in at least one way each month
- Practice speed reading twice a month
- Do 50 one-arm kettlebell rows (50 reps per arm), four days a week
- Consume 50 or fewer grams of net carbohydrates a day, five days a week
- Contact up to two people a day, five days a week
- DONE: Fast for 24 hours, once a week
- Donate 30% of my birthday gifts to the non-profit, First Book
- My four QuickBooost goals
- Cold email five bloggers, five days a week for web design work
Complete two books a month (physical or audiobook)
In September I completed five books:
- 9/14 – Titan by Ron Chernow (Physical book)
- 9/18 – Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (Audiobook)
- 9/22 – Goals by Zig Ziglar (Audiobook)
- 9/29 – Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes (Audiobook)
- 9/30 – Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (Physical book)
The books by Gary Taubes were particularly mind-blowing and I recommend them to anyone with any interest in nutrition whatsoever. Also, a little foreshadowing, his books have inspired one of my new goals (more on that below).
*PS: You can see every book I’ve read this year, here.
Take my daughter on a date once a month
If you’ve been following my goal reports for the last couple months, you might be able to guess what we did for our date…
Any guesses?
None?
You don’t even want to try?
Wait… what was that? Did you mutter something? No? Ok fine I’ll just tell you. We went on a picnic.
Go on a date with my wife once a month
For the first time in a long time, my wife and I went to a restaurant for our date.
We sat outside and enjoyed eating food while the food was still hot; as opposed to the soggy, luke-warm state that occurs when you pick it up and drive it home.
Like most people, I enjoy hot food when it is hot.
Go to the beach twice a month
Another month, another two trips to the beach. Nothing too exciting to write about here.
Improve my home in at least one way each month
Our daughter is now mobile and… it’s terrifying. So this month’s goal was well spent by completing the first round of baby proofing. There are certainly more rounds to follow.
Prepare my daughter for the world in at least one way each month
If this is your first time reading one of these reports, this goal may sound impressive, but it’s not. It’s generally just an important, but dull, daughter-related task. For instance, in September I opened a college savings account for said daughter.
Boring, but it’s creating a better tomorrow for her.
Practice speed reading twice a month
Faced no qualms when it came to speed reading in September. I completed my practice on:
- 9/1
- 9/20
If you want to learn about the other strategies I’ve used this year to read more than ever before, check this out.
Do 50 one-arm kettlebell rows (50 reps per arm), four days a week
As I mentioned in my August report, I decided to end my kettlebell swings goal in lieu of kettlebell rows.
This exercise should do a better job targeting the muscles I want to strengthen. As far as progress is concerned, it’s been going well. I’ve done it at least four times a week, if not more, and I’m about to begin week six.
Will keep this goal going.
Consume 50 or fewer grams of net carbohydrates a day, five days a week
Another goal revolving around the number 50? Weird…
I alluded to a nutrition-related goal earlier and this is what I was talking about.
Based on the findings of the books by Gary Taubes (listed above), it appears that a low carbohydrate diet is ideal for enhancing leanness and preventing illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, various cancers, and even Alzheimer’s. *Read his work and decide for yourself what’s best for you before changing your diet.
So I’m going to test it out and see if it works.
Well… I’m going to see if the weight-loss aspect of it works. I can’t really test the validity of illness prevention. However, the science Taubes describes seems sound and I’m excited about the implications.
I’m being cautious though.
Before starting this goal, I weighed myself, checked my blood measure, and recorded my various measurements (calves, thighs, chest, you get it). After one month I will go through that process again and note the results. If I like what I see, I’ll keep it going and/or may make it more challenging (like dropping to 20 grams a day).
If I don’t, I’ll return back to doing calorie restriction.
An aside on carbs
A quick aside in the name of transparency. I am currently finishing up week two of this goal. No issues with week two.
Week one, on the other hand, was a little trickier. I actually started this goal at 100 grams a day but didn’t find it challenging (hence, the 50 grams per day now). Early on in week one though was my birthday and I decided to cut the week short so that I could binge on ice cream and tiramisu.
So I only went 3/5 in week one, but I don’t expect to have any such issues like that in the near future. It was definitely more of an edge case.
Moving on.
Contact up to two people a day, five days a week
This goal was inspired by the book, How to Be a Power Connector, by Judy Robinett (learn more here). This rewarding goal is straightforward and has, just like the previous months, been extremely fun and rewarding.
DONE: Fast for 24 hours, once a week
Simply, while I enjoy doing fasts, I don’t feel like I know enough about them to produce any real benefit. So I’m ending this goal for now; although I am on the hunt for any books that discuss the scientific benefits gained through fasting.
Have a book I should check out? Let me know!
Donate 30% of my birthday gifts to the non-profit, First Book
The better we educate our children, the better the world will be (less poverty, more acceptance, more innovation, etc.). These donations won’t be major by any means, but even though minute, my hope is that they will help move the world in a positive direction.
If you’re interested, you can learn more about First Book, and donate, right here. In a nutshell, they provide books to impoverished schools and families.
*Note: When I say “Donate 30% of my birthday gifts”, I mean that instead of having someone give me a gift, I had them take 30% of what they would’ve given me and instead they donated it to First Book.
For those that sent cash directly to me, I’ll be making the 30% donation next week.
My four QuickBooost goals
For QuickBooost in September, I had four goals.
- Five days a week, publish one new post here
- Share one post on Medium
- Tweet three times
- And send out five cold emails for my Goal Success Workshop (essentially, this, in workshop format)
I got everything done and am exhausted… the post that you’re reading right now is actually my last one for the month. So even though you’re reading this in October (or even later), I published this thing on September 30th.
Time travel!
Cold email five bloggers, five days a week for web design work
I do a little freelance web design on the side in addition to QuickBooost. This month, similar to my workshop outreach for QuickBooost, I did a great deal of cold emailing.
That was my September. How was yours?
Comment below or send me an email. Did you make progress? Did you fall behind? Let me know! I always respond back.
And as always, if you too want to start achieving your goals, be sure to sign up for my goal success course here.
