Last time we looked at the first three of my five resolutions and goals for 2011. This time we'll review #4 and #5.

To recap, my goals for the year are below:

1. Love my friends and family completely.
2. Make better decisions.
3. Continue to meet new people and grow my circle of friends.
4. Give and experience as much as possible as a marketer and author.
5. Stay healthy and fit. 

So picking up where we left off…

4. Give and experience as much as possible as a marketer and author. My work has taken me to new and exciting areas in 2011, which is motivating me to give to my work in ways that I haven't before. With new challenges comes a new
excitement and drive to succeed. I've always loved a good challenge and the dare to rise to the occasion. As a result, giving to my work has been a priority over being an author a little, though I do have some exciting speaking engagements coming up this fall. More is to come on that in future posts. I'm learning how to make better decisions in regards to prioritizing and managing my level of commitment. Overall it's blending well into a rich and rewarding experience. I have so much more that I want to give and plan to spend a lot of my energy doing so.

5. Staying fit and healthy has been fun and challenging this year. I've been taking advantage of Groupon and Living Social deals to try new workout programs around the Dallas area. This helps me to meet my health and meeting new people goals. One program I did was the Camp Gladiator Boot Camp. The experience was meaningful enough that I wrote a post about it. Another program I did was two weeks at Exhale Spa doing challenging Core Fusion classes. It was all going swimmingly until I was injured in my regular yoga practice. My knee got strained, and that has capped my working out for a while. As I'm in the middle or rehabilitating my knee, I'm being challenged to explore different exercises like biking and swimming that are kinder to my knee than the twists and bends of my ashtanga yoga practice.

All in all things are progressing on my New Year's resolutions. My most noticeable observation about the course of events is that none of the progress is happening as I imagined. Life throws the unexpected at you like a new work project or an injury that makes you adjust your approach to how you are doing things. Through the adjustment in approach to your daily life, you will also likely change your perception of the lessons you learn each day. Shifting gears isn't always fun or easy, but it does help you to grow as a person so five years from now you can look back and see how much smarter you are. You can!