Perfect 10 Challenge Week 10 Update (AKA The End)

This 10 week challenge went by way too fast for me. I had grand ideas about what I was going to accomplish and I think I fell a little short of my own expectations. That is the beauty of me though. SuperWoman complex always and forever.

Here is what my original goals were

On with the show.

1. ACSM. Boy oh boy has this one been a serious challenge for me. Not only have I not yet taken the exam (Friday, March 19th) but I'm not even close to being done with the preparation. In fact, I'm so far behind that I now have to cram. Talk about procrastination. With a plan and everything, I still managed to procrastinate right up to the wire. Good thing for me, I perform magnificently under extreme pressure. I did learn something about myself in this goal though. Well this one and in my guitar practice actually. It is finally clear to me that whatever I spend time and energy on, I rock it hard unless and until I feel like I don't understand or am not good at it. I don't want you to think that I just do enough to feel inadequate then I quit because that is the furthest thing from the truth. With the studying ACSM stuff, I'm reading and studying and spending hours trying to figure it out. I'm pushing through hoping and praying that eventually it will start making sense. But it's not. Not even a little. I still feel today as though I should be pre-med to be able to understand these books. No matter what I do or how much I do it, it feels like I'm reading another language. So, I want to procrastinate hoping that when I come back to it, it will make more sense. Too bad that's not working either. Oh well, upward and onward. Eventually the clouds will part and my brain will finally translate everything I'm reading and I will be brilliantly knowledgeable.
2. House. Not even. I didn't even get it started. Too preoccupied with ACSM and eating right and exercising and everything else in life.
3. 8 of 10 actions. I actually did a great job with this one this week. Still struggle to get enough water every day but I'm definitely getting better. And the guitar practice is the same story as the ACSM studying. I'm not giving up though. NEVER!
4. 5K. Not even close. I blame the shin splints. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Well, for now anyway. ;)
5. 1lb per week. Hahahaha. Whatever! I just looked back at my weigh-ins for the past 10 weeks. What a joke. Jan 3rd I weighed 166.4. Last Sunday I weighed 163.6. Total loss is 2.8lbs. That's a whopping average of .28lbs/week. Woot woot! Hahaha. But you know what? I'm noticing other non-scale related results from my work over the past 10 weeks. I had some crappy things happen that would have in the past been enough to make me quit altogether. But I'm still here. I'm still doing what I need to do. And I'm still feeling great about it. 10lbs or not, I still feel good.
6. 4week challenge. Done.
7. Ski. Done. I'm definitely taking a mulligan with this one though. Not this year but I will do it again and do it right. Hubby says everyone's first try is a disaster. Not sure if he was just trying to make me feel better or what.
8. Nephew. I never met him. Never even got a response from my brother. But I tried. I did what I needed to do. Whether it actually happened or not was completely out of my control. I am calling this a successful goal just because I did what I could.
9. Pasta. Done.
10. Yard. Still in progress. I spent all last weekend digging in the dirt and there's more to be done but I'm well on my way. It should be done this weekend.

Secret time....

I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Okay, I'm already grown up. But I still don't know what I want to be. What I want to do with myself. Even as a kid I couldn't make up my mind. I remember wanting to be a ballerina like every little girl does. I wanted to be an astronaut and a scientist and a writer and a pilot and an artist and an Olympic gymnast and an entrepreneuer. As of now, I'm a financial executive in corporate USA. Sure I'm good at it, really good at it and I have over 11 years of experience doing it. I like numbers and math and playing with spreadsheets. Always have. But thinking about where I want my career in 5 years or 10 years, I draw a blank. I don't know. I guess I could be happy climbing the corporate ladder and being financially responsible for a company's well being. Believe it or not, that actually excites me. I think right now, I'd honestly be satisfied to be paid what I'm worth regardless of what I'm doing. I'm so ridiculously underpaid for what I do and how I do it, it's embarrassing.

Living where I live is ok I guess. Born and raised in Seattle and I'm still here. I've wanted to get out of this area since I was 12 years old. Not to run away or escape anything but because I'm an adventurer at heart and I just feel the need to get out and experience more of the world. I'd love nothing more than to transfer my life across the country or even to a different country. I'd love to take a job in the UK or France or Hong Kong or New York. Oh how I love New York. Too bad they all say "give me a call when you get here" when I contact recruiters. I can't get there without having a job to go to. Get it?

Thanks for this awesome 10 week challenge, Steve. It wasn't "perfect" but I really enjoyed participating.