It has been another extended break from writing for me, but one that has been productive.

Upon reading my previous blog post, I set myself three clear goals to enable me to move closer to what I find important in life.

• Quit my job.
• Train for a marathon.
• Take some course that I find interesting.

Reviewing these three bullet points, I was pleased with the progress I made towards them.

Two weeks ago, I left my job. This took longer than anticipated, but as Tony Faddell reflects the greater responsibility you have in a role, the longer it takes to extract yourself from it.

Therefore, over the past few months, I focused on closing off or handing over projects and laying in place the organizational structure for my team to function and grow without me.

I am glad I took this time, as I left feeling satisfied with my contribution and there was a lot of goodwill amongst my team and colleagues that meant I did not leave under a shadow.

Now then, training for a marathon. I will start with some context. Two months ago, I was 25lbs over my happy weight and tipped the scales at just over 200lbs.

This was my ‘final straw’ moment and I enrolled for HIIT classes and started getting serious with my running regime, which had been off and on.

8 weeks in, I have lost 15lbs, going to HIIT classes four times a week and running close to every day and just completed my first 10km distance in over two years. The time is slow but at this stage it is miles on the clock that count.

Finally, I started taking courses and currently in the middle of the Google UX design certificate.

I am not sure how exactly this will fit with my goal of starting a business, but it seems relevant and piques my interest in design.

What is next?

Well first comes sustaining. I need to ensure that I continue to progress with my fitness, and I booked a fitness camp between jobs to ensure I accelerate my fitness targets.

Secondly, I was very considered in choosing my next role. I said that my current job was going to be the last one in the Bay Area, and I am relocating to the UK.

In addition, I am going into the education/consultancy field with the opportunity to work with a range of different companies and technologies.

This opportunity will provide the chance to make more connections and be exposed to more ideas. In addition, I will have more time to develop my business idea.

This comes to the tricky part, developing the business.

At some point I need to get out of the ‘motion’ loop into the ‘doing’ loop. The ‘motion’ loop is characterized by reading, taking courses, and thinking about business ideas.

In contrast, the ‘doing’ loop is taking defined actions in developing a business, doing a competitive analysis, building a minimal viable product, and marketing your services.

Presently, I do not have a defined enough idea to start undertaking the tasks in the ‘doing’ loop. However, I have resolved that I don’t need the most revolutionary idea as most new businesses are:

1. Hard to get started.
2. Exist in a boring space.
3. Have existing competitors.

It is how your idea will disrupt these spaces that is important.

In addition, even if my idea is not perfect, I need to start testing and evaluating it. It is through iteration that the idea will be refined and product-market fit established.

Considering, my progress towards my goals, I can update them for the next three to six months and check in on them regularly.

• Finish UX Certificate and develop five business ideas and do competitive audit to evolve them.
• Continue resistance training, increase running distance to 10miles and register for a competitive race.
• Settle in my new role/location and develop a scope of work.
• Develop a budget and purchase a house.

To ensure that I progress on these goals, I need a system to be able to measure if I am putting the hours in on each goal.

Therefore, I will develop both a financial and time budget.

For the time budget I will allot specific hours each week to exercise, work, developing a business. Included in this time budget will be a session each week to check in on how I am performing on these goals.

With regular check-in on the time spent on my goals in conjunctions with meaningful reflection baked into those hours, I can start being more intentional on the work I do, clarifying my trajectory as a go.

Next time my update will not be six months from now! I expect my goals to continue to evolve and will share how they progress and evolve with a meaningful summary of my check-in time.