Week 26: Book Outline and Quarterly Planning

This week's goal was #59 from my list of 60 and a work-related goal:

Create outline for book about Agile in everyday life

Kind of difficult to write an interesting blog post about creating an outline. There's not even a picture I can post! However, I've been toying with the idea of writing an Agile-related book for years, and so this was the first step.

Something I discovered when working on this is that at this time of my life, I don't want to spend solitary time in front of the computer.  I struggle to even get this little weekly blog post written so I'm really not motivated to take on a book.

That being said, I went to an Agile user-group meeting this week and it's always fun for me to spend time with other Agilists. Every time I start talking about Agile (especially with others in the field) I realize how much I really love the mindset and philosophies and want to stay active in that world. And my ego got a big boost when the organizer of the group publicly recognized me and wrote me an email about how happy he was to have me at the meeting.

So, even though I did not feel like 'working' during this beautiful summer week, I'm very proud of myself that I got my butt in gear and not only wrote the outline for this book, but pitched a couple of articles to TechBeacon. I'm a frequent contributor for them and I've already talked to some of the publishers before about reusing some of my content for a book and they were all for it!

I'm also exploring a lot of options so that I can stay active in the Agile community without having to do the traditional thing of going into an office every day.

What worked well:

• Helped me organize my thoughts around different book ideas that have been rummaging around in my head.
• Good to go to the user-group meeting and reconnect with other Agile coaches.
• I have a lot of good ideas for alternatives to a book that I could do to stay active in the Agile community.
• I pitched a couple of articles and wrote a first draft of an article that might be used at TechBeacon and repurposed for a book.

What could have been better:

• I'm just not in a place right now where I want to spend a lot of time writing. But even if I don't use the outline to go on to write a whole book, I might use it to create ebooks, a course, blog posts, podcasts, etc.

And since it is the end of the quarter (Happy Half New Year's Eve!), it's also time to do some reflection and planning for next quarter! Yippee!

Reflections:

What's working well:

• Overall, I've kept up my pace of accomplishing and blogging about one goal a week.  I feel healthier, happier, and like I have better relationships. I've met a lot of new friends and am much more intentional and mindful in my every day habits.
• I haven't missed a single day all year of getting at least 10K steps and I've really enjoyed meeting new people in hiking Meetups.  I'd logged over 1000 miles for the year by early June, so I'm on track to get 2019 miles by the end of the year.  

• I made my second set of slideshows of my '60 until 60 celebrations.'

• I've made a lot of progress on house projects and learning new things, especially Spanish!

What could be better:

• I haven't kept up with my weekly 1:1 celebrations and I don't want to pressure friends who are very busy to have a 1:1 celebration with me, so I may not end up having 60 of these.  In fact, "Taylor" from my slideshow, wasn't even a "real friend" but someone who was part of this DCPA "Blind Date Experience" (Still, it was a cool, unique experience, so I "counted" it!

Plan for next quarter:

There are a bunch of goals that I've already planned for or started working on or that I think I can complete in the next quarter. Though I may change my mind, these are the goals that are in good shape to be completed before the end of September:

• Hike in beautiful spots Including Crested Butte during wildflower season) 
• Try PickleBall
• Contribute to any cause that a friend asks me to support
• Practice the piano and be able to play some of the pieces I used to play well along with some new pieces.
• Explore an acting class or group and try to get a part in a play
• Go to the Meowolf exhibit in Santa Fe with Stella and Matt
• Visit Minnesota friends in August
• Dress up and go to a musical at the theater
• Sell, give-away, throwaway and organize what’s left of my games, puzzles, and toys
• Put DIY walls in basement that will allow me to hang pictures, etc.
• Label and repair my breaker box
• Get rid of or repair floor lamps
• Hang pretty lights in basement and bedroom

Yay!!