November Goals?

HAPPY NOVEMBER! ... I cannot believe how quickly October went by.  It was a great month: I ran my first half marathon and went on some fun trips, including a visit to Charlotte, NC and to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA!

One of my favorite bloggers Sarah has a habit of setting goals each month, although she has recently moved into focusing on one goal per month.  Every time she posts about her goals I think, I should really do that on my blog!  I advise a local chapter of my sorority here, and whenever I help the girls set goals we always make sure we set SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.  So, keeping those in mind, here are some November goals:

1.  Stick to my workout routine for the entire month (details of this plan to be forthcoming).  This includes cardio 6/7 days per week and strength 3/7 days per week, with one rest day.  I am going to say right away that I will NOT hold myself to sticking to this plan while I am away for Thanksgiving, but I will come up with a modified and more realistic schedule for those days.

2.  Cook at least 4 new recipes during the month and share them on the blog.  I'm taking suggestions - especially if you have ideas for healthy dinners to feed picky eaters who dislike most vegetables, haha.

3.  Work on my research project.  I don't even want to say this out loud, but I need to get more serious about my current milestone project.  This has been failing because there is no current structure.  I need to create some structure and then stick to it.  I'm not even sure how to make this a SMART goal.  Set a minimum time per week to work on it?  A goal of number of articles read?  A goal of having a more complete outline or certain sections read?  Something must be done... sigh!

Is anyone else setting November or monthly goals?  I like monthly goals so much better than New Year's resolutions - I can't even recall what my New Year's resolutions were this year, or if I even made any!  Hopefully on November 30th I'll still remember what these were :-)