My 12-week plan (November 16 – February 8th)

Oh my gosh, I am taking a bath for the first time in forever and it has epsom salts in it and it feels amazing. My host agreed to make a donation to meeting in exchange for a review of his book and he said he would put it in my name. He said that I was the “most unintrusive guest imaginable” and the only inconvenience was that our sleep cycles were very out of phase so he didn’t get to come down all day to use his shop. I was so worried and sure that I was intrusive in some way. Just hearing that was healing and again and again lately I have had the experience of being afraid of things that never end up happening. There were two potential rejections that I was afraid of this week but both those fears turned out to be of no significance. My equine therapist / riding instructor (now what do you call him) texted me that he was sorry he had to cancel but he is still getting the barn ready and it takes time. He asked if I wanted to resdhedule in December and I said yes. I still hang on the fear of rejection and when I feel rejected I make all sorts of stories about what that rejection means and it is impossible to convince myself those stories aren’t true.

Now I have a little time to prepare to go to Guatemala and I have more freedom to organise my schedule in ways that work for me. I have noticed that just being interrupted once or twice throughout the day can end up meaning that I accomplish *much* less. I think now I am going to start my first 12-week year: see how much I can get done in 12 weeks which is a great concept to me because it is long enough to accomplish something significant but not so long that… well, planning for the whole year is hard and I do not know what I will be into 12 weeks from now so being able to reassess every 12 weeks instead of trying to accomplish so much in a year feels really helpful.

It is November 16th. A week from now is the 23rd, which is right around when I head to the airport. Then it is the 30th, the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. Hey, that’s multiples of seven! So I am focused on what I can get done between now and February 8th. That is the perfect timeframe to accomplish something significant. My goals, which Inwill clarify, are:

1. Finish the book I am reading in Spanish and also read El General en Su Labirinto by García Márquez. Possibly take Spanish lessons in my short time in Guatemala. Write something that feels significant in Spanish. Do a significant grammar brush up especially on the various subjunctive forms. Convince Zoraida Córdova to publish a Spanish edition audiobooks of the Brooklyn Brujas series. Watch Spanish language TV, maybe News in Slow Spanish, and listen to Radio Ambulante on NPR.
2. Develop a solid grasp of options and the options strategies I want to use. Do lots of technical analysis and buy options on a simulation. Keep a journal of it and of and my ideas and my reasons for choosing a particular stock or instrument and an options strategy and be clear sboit what I know and do not know and how that shifts between now and February. Trade at least one option contract by February.
3. Set a goal and make considerable progress on monetizing content creation. I have a built in structure already to take me through the process. I want to write at least one article a week and let me just set a goal by February of $200, which will shift as I get clearer on things. It could well be $2000 or more but $200 is a good place to start.
4. Learn as many kanji as I can and figure out how many it is reasonable to learn in a week. Make that times 12 my goal for 12 weeks.
5. Feel conversational in basic Irish. I am learning how I learn a totally new language now which is helpful if I want to help people learn more effectively. I am starting from almost zero. The first two words I happened to learn today are rince (dance) and trá (beach). I said the teo words together to practice what I know and realized that is the kind of thing that could get me banned on my old Facebook account. I guess I also know how to say see: féach, which is pronounced, coincidentally or not, like a common Irish English expression which is a less serious alternative to a common English expletive that lacks the sexual connotations. But the word féach with that spelling means to see. I like just learning piecemeal words right now and of course I will start reading dialogues and such too but my goal is to build up my vocabulary. I may do Irish language word search puzzles to help me remember words.
6. Know enough Python that there are all sorts of simple programs I can come up with off the cuff using the knowledge I gain over the next 12 weeks. See if there is a pronect I want to do that I want to have completed by February 8th.
7. Brush up on reading standard notation on guitar. Brush up on chords and scales in lower positions. Write one song.
8. Okay, try to watch more movies and TV! This almost feels like the hardest one so far. Maybe I will aim for teo series and five movies.

Every week I will reflect on my progress and current reality and adjust my goals if that feels helpful. Honestly the 12-week planning thing is so helpful because when I then set goals, as I just did, it is the perfect amount of time to set goals that are challenging but doable and easily quantifiable. I am sure there are other benefits to this approach to planning and this worked out well so far so I am excited to learn them.