Mid-year Goals Review: I'm my own worst enemy

A few other (horsey) bloggers have done a review of their goals around this time and it makes sense since I'm also doing my performance review at work. You'll recall that the goals I set out for 2015 were listed in this post. There was a combination of personal, kitty, riding and reading. For a bit, I wasn't confident that I'd make what I wanted to accomplish. I was having challenges at work and I was starting to feel really overwhelmed with all the things that I had to do, outside of the goals I set for myself here just to maintain some sort of order in my personal life. I'm fortunate that +ADW (and my parents to a degree, since I try not to worry them and keep most to myself) is supportive and (mostly) patient of my frustrations and personal tribulations and I have amazing friends who commiserate with me when I need a moment (or two).

Let's get right into it, shall we?

PERSONAL

• Finish all my "stuff" half an hour before I intend for bed--10:30pm bed time! (hopefully my caffeine habit will reduce too!)
  This hasn't REALLY happened b/c I am a night owl. But, I have been trying to just go to bed the minute I'm tired. I mitigate things by getting prepared by 10pm and then seeing when I wanna keel over for the evening.
• Getting active daily (by week), minimum: yoga twice, cycling once, cardio once, get off 1 stop earlier to walk home
  I have not tried hard enough. At the risk of making excuses, I have been struggling with work so I've been distracted; but, it's June now (not cool). I will start getting off a stop earlier twice a week this week and do my yoga stretches (maybe not the full session?) twice as well.
• Complete a preliminary project management course
  So this is on like right now... but I might need to postpone with all the other things that have taken priority.
• Complete my Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt
  In process. I am going to make it my goal to have the exam successfully completed by July 20th.
• Study and successfully pass the MCAT
  This doesn't seem necessary any more... but I have to double check to be certain.
• Be on time for stuff
  I'm doing pretty well for this one!
• Make more of an effort to get out with friends
  This one is one of the easier ones... and I've done some "clean up" too.
• Limit Facebook time to once a day, 20 minutes (this one is tough b/c I love procrastinating!)
  I think I average 20 minutes daily. I'm going to continue to be more direct and specific here so I can bring it to 10 minutes.
• Maintain a regular blogging schedule so I can aim to have a minimum of 10 posts per month
  I'm all over the place with this one. I have had good months and not so good months. That said though, sometimes it's simply a lack of subjects to post about. I'd say I'm doing well so far.
• Decorate my new home by finding spots for all photos or other images
  I have started. I suspect this will be a long-term work in progress.
• For my piano, improve enough to get to grade 4 by end of year and perfect the Christmas tunes I've been practising for the last 2 years (only around the holidays!)
  I am not being realistic, based on the current trend. My teacher is treating me like I am doing this for the first time (that's not bad, but not moving fast enough since it's not enough of a challenge sometimes). That said, I'm an adult student so I can do whatever I want. I'm going to see to make some amendments to this and see if I can at least be plowing through grade 3 by year end.
• Complete 2 more speeches in my Toastmasters ACB set
  This has taken a major stall. My office location has really limited me to be able to complete this. I have looked up after work sessions near home (to no avail) and nothing is nearby (no open clubs anyway). I will be looking for alternative ways to continue to practice my speaking and communication skills (see practice for job interviews ;) )

BUCKINGHAM/STANLEY C. PANTHER

• Clicker train Stanley in the basics and ensure he comes when called
  For the most part, he comes when I call him. But without consistency. Good start so far. We'll be working on refinement.
• Set-up the ultimate cat-terrium indoors
  This project has sort of exploded... I will be pushing updates into our sun room to accommodate this so that the boys can go into the room on their own and stare outside. Windows have been opened so that has been a good start. We also are dealing with a community cat issue so I don't know how far along this will get. Getting things done in the house is correlated with the decorating so I feel this will take time. In the meantime, they are all over and have 2 trees, allowed on all tables and counter-tops and Bucky's bed is by a window.
• Get Stanley to wear a collar without ripping it off
  Success!

RIDING

• Ride every moment of a lesson with intention--don't waste time
  I'm doing pretty well here. Even on days I'm kind of tired, I push myself to get through the burn and keep going.
• Communicate with half halts for transitions consistently to reduce that ear pinning and tail swishing
  Good progress here too--especially at gait transitions. Need to translate to other tasks/asks.
• Participate at one adult show at Touch N Go Farms - Adult Schooling Series (not aiming to place--just get over nerves and gain ability)
  My first goal to getting there was to successfully ride courses of 2'3" before I even attempted anything further. With the way things have been going on in other aspects of my life, this goal might need to be postponed to next year. But I will continue to push forward.
• Improve my hip/seat flexibility and overall fitness so I reduce/eliminate my physical short comings
  Related to my fitness goals... not really improving at this time.

READING

• Finish the reading list proposed from 2014 within 12 months
  To be determined but things aren't looking great right now :|
• Read as many of those books as possible, through paper based books as opposed to electronic
  No problems here!
• Pick up a few "non typical" Deb books and incorporate into 2015 or 2016
  I have met a major bookworm so I assume this will be no problem!

Overall, this has been a struggle for me on the personal side of things. To be fair to myself though, a lot has been happening that I have been working through that I won't get into here b/c you never know who reads these things. But those who know, know it's a real pain in the arse and it's just on me to change things. I have to want it though... you know? I gotta be hungry for the change and act on it every.single.moment.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this image of my beloved baby Stanley doing what he does best: looking oh so cute.

He's seriously THIS CUTE all the time. It's hard to say no...

Clicker Games

Those of you who've been following along for a longer time know that I clicker trained my big cat Buckingham. My rational for training him was to ensure that I could get him back to me if there was an instance where he dashes out the door. This cat is the cat that has been the recipient for all my new fangled dedication (or obsession... call it as you will :P) with doing better than the last.

Some background... my family had two cats (you'll see them in the "In Memory" section on the right hand column) that we lost too early due to what I would consider, avoidable illnesses. The elder, we put down because of her advanced state of cardiomyopathy--something we were expecting at some point but were still happy she managed to tough it out for as long as she did; she was the one who got me hooked on the feline species. Then there was my parents' favourite and my rival sibling whom I spent his life at some sort of odds until the end where we did make peace before he left us too.

Even reflecting about it now, I still get really sad and there is not a day that I don't think about them. When Buck unexpectedly appeared in my backyard after a long mourning period and wondering if I could ever let another cat back into my heart, I knew that (it sounds a bit nutty) he was brought to me to try again.

For a year, Bucky became my project cat and I worked really diligently at learning to communicate with him and understanding what his needs are. My mom would tell you that the two of us are probably inseparable and the best of friends. Without much further ado, I post the game we play in the back yard where he disappears into the bush and I would call him back out.

Stanley See, Stanley Do

I'm almost caught up with my lesson posts before this Thursday's lesson. Phew, it sure has been challenging. Some of the reasons are just plan out of my control (and stupid) but some have been awesome. I've been really busy with work and there are days I get home and all I want to do is lie around and watch tv or worse... do nothing. Add to that, that +ADW and I bought a house and adopted a kitten who happened to get very sick and I was getting incremental decreases in sleep because I spent a lot of time caring for him. But, now, he's up and about and even having a good time with his big brother Buckingham.

Hi, I'm Stanley C. Panther and that big guy over there is my awesome big brother Buckingham.

The introductions went well and they do play with one another when Stanley comes out of his room during supervised evening visits. But since Bucky's a full adult with an obsession of the backyard, he doesn't have a lot of time to tolerate Stanley's shenanigans. Every now and again, Stanley gets a smack down that lets him know he's gone too far. But, he still thinks Bucky is the bee's knees and cat's pajamas.

Feline Pageantry

Happy belated Easter, everyone! I'm so excited to tell you about something I've been preparing for months... Bucky's cat show! I've been told it sounds a little "crazy cat lady" and I suppose most outsiders might look in and think that but it was such a great experience and a lot of fun! The casual on-looker might think this is a bunch of crock full of childless single cat-obsessed ladies but this couldn't be further from the truth; handlers/owners were animal lovers who treated these felines like family.

My mom, +ADW and I accompanied Bucky to the All About Pets show in Toronto for a single day participation. This was going to be a challenge because naturally, cats are homebodies and are most content with what's familiar to them and rarely will place themselves out in the open making them vulnerable to attack or otherwise. This show was to be challenging with the birds, reptiles, dog and other cats.

My main objective was to expose him to travel and adapting to new situations. I started months ago, by getting him on a harness and walking him around outside. He doesn't walk like a dog... and usually gets me into knots while weaving in and out of bushes or the porch. But, he started out terrified of going outside and walking about on his own; he'd almost immediately crawl back into my lap while cautiously eying everything around him. He was skittish to noises and strange people walking by. It was a regular effort and the winter didn't really help... though I still took him out when there was snow:

Yep! Those are skulls on his winter vest

It required a lot of reassurance, exposure and patience to encourage him to build his confidence to do things on his own... considering at home, he's what Jackson Galaxy would label a "Mojito Cat". As he became braver, I moved to exposure in the car since he had an accident previously. I'll still need to get to the vet regularly for weightings (and exposure) since he had a lot of trips to the vet (a story for another day!) at the start of our time together.

I didn't know how a cat show worked, previously: in a single day, there are 4 judging rings that an entrant cat would participate in. Each ring gives the cat the opportunity to win top 5 or 10 (depending on the number competing). Each cat gets a giant blank rosette ribbon and each placing meant that they would receive a plaque to stick on their ribbon. When it was your cat's turn, you'd take him to the ring and then place him (naked--without collars or the like) into cage and each cat would be removed and judged by the judge. For cat shows, there's no training or any real skill that judges are looking for. For Bucky's section of Household Pet, most of his points were placed upon temperament/disposition. For cats in strange situations, this is tough because they're so tense with all the stimulation around them. The judge would place the cats and be awarded points; points were added up for the weekend, and then further, there are top 3 places given to the top of each category.

Waiting to be judged (aka, crapping his pants--if he was wearing any)

All the diligent work paid off. We got him to the International Centre without a single peep--he was actually just laying in his cage calmly. And he made it through the 8 hour day without having a complete meltdown. There were a few moments where I wasn't sure if I needed to rescue him and return him home but he placed 5th on one of the rings and we had another milestone of progress forward on his training! It's too bad it wasn't a competition for tricks though... because I've been clicker training Bucky and he's getting really good at the tricks he does know ;)

Proud!