100 Day Countdown
On this week’s “Happier’ podcast, Gretchen and Liz discussed the fact that September 23rd starts the countdown of the last 100 days of 2023. They reviewed their “23 for 23” lists to see if there were any neglected areas they need to focus on before the year is over. That’s a good idea! I pulled out my own “23 for 23” list, which unfortunately only has nine things on it. Oops. But let’s review those nine: Go to the gym regularly (2-3 days a week.) – CHECK! Run a 50K – CHECK! Increase my protein intake- CHECK (I’m doing great so far!) Read 50 books- Still possible unless I fall off the schedule in November-December as I usually do. Participate in NaBloPoMo 2023- Oh yes! More on that below. Organize my closet- Absolutely not. Fix foot- hahahahahahahaha! That’s a good one. I’ve had plantar fasciitis in my left foot for three years and it’s still going strong! Focus on getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night- Er. More on that below as well. Send Christmas cards. I like that last one- obviously when I made the list I was feeling guilty because I only sent out three cards last year. I did buy a box of cards in January, so I’m cautiously optimistic that this one will happen. Let’s go back to #8, sleep. After a lot of big talk and small actions, my sleep is pretty much where it was a year ago. I do go to bed earlier now, but I also get up earlier. It’s very rare that I get eight hours- it’s usually between six and seven, and there are always a couple disastrous nights thrown in there of five or less. WHY? The good news is, I normally turn off all screens at least an hour before bed. The bad news is, I use that time to read and sometimes I stay up too late reading. I love reading at night when everyone else is in bed, but it just doesn’t fit with going to bed early. That’s problem #1. Problem #2 is that once I get in bed, sometimes I have trouble falling asleep. This can be for various reasons, and doesn’t seem to correspond to anything in my life. Sometimes I have to pee several times. Other times, I drink an entire can of sparkling water before bed and sleep soundly. Sometimes, I have the “moveable itch” phenomenon (this is probably self-explanatory.) Sometimes I’ll sleep really well after a long run or hard gym workout, but sometimes I’ll toss and turn for a couple hours. AND, when I’m up late reading, often I don’t really want to go to bed because I’m not sure if I’ll fall asleep, or just lie there miserably. SIGH! There are still a lot of things I haven’t tried, and I’m going to renew my focus on sleep for the last 100 days of the year. Let’s move on to a more pleasant topic: NaBloPoMo 2023! Oh yes, I’m doing it again. Not only am I doing it, but I have a THEME for this year, and some potential NaBloPoMo “projects.” Ooh! Exciting and mysterious! I can’t wait. Did you make a “23 for 23” (or any list of goals) this year? Is there anything you want to focus on especially for the last 100 days? Who’s doing NaBloPoMo with me this year??? Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash