Celebrating Summer Successes

On Saturday Jessi and I headed over to Newport to hang out on the beach. We set personal goals for each other at the beginning of summer and the reward, if we met our goals, would be a trip to the beach. We try to follow the SMART method when setting goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely - though I think A & R are the same...) and it worked this summer. One goal for Jessi, for example, was to set up and hold a woman's health night once a month during summer. She did that, and it was a blast (so I hear).

As you can tell, I'm a firm believer in goal setting, visualizing and rewarding. I felt this was going to be especially helpful for Jessi this summer because without work (teaching)... summer... can... quickly... slip... away and... you wonder... what...happened... to... all those... plans. I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.

So, we headed out to Newport after doing our weekly team Univera call. I tend to try and fit as many activities as possible into a day so here's what we did:

• We started out with a picnic on the beach. The weather was still cool and the waves were crashing hard. I kind of (kind of!) wished I had brought my swimming suit.
• We tried flying Jessi's kite. The experience was OK. The wind was blowing, but not really hard enough to just stand there and let the kite do it's thing. As a result, I did a lot of running...
• Afterward we took a break. I half napped while Jessi read out loud. She's currently reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. I must say, it's an entertaining book and packed with a lots of great information about trends in the nutrition industry.
• With enough sand in our pants we headed over to Newport's Bay to hunt for Salt Water Taffy. We found a great shop called Doodle Bugs that supplied us with more than enough candy for the night.
• We then watched the sea lions and did some superficial window shopping. My favorite part was guessing how much this one tiny house for sale was selling for. If you can cobble together $495,000, this tiny house that almost has a view could be yours.
• Next, we walked around the piers and checked out all the fishing boats. Since it was a Saturday evening by now 90% of the ships were docked. We spend time guessing how they worked and what type of fish they caught. I decided it would be fun to work on a fishing boat for a week or so, but realized it might be a while before I realize that dream.
• We finished up the night eating at a restaurant called Pier 839. It's a relatively new place and definitely worth checking out. We ate in the place called the living room. We literally sat on a couch near a fireplace with a view of the bay. I know. For the first half of dinner we had the place all to ourselves - very romantic. :) I was determined to get some seafood and they came through on that promise. The best part was that their prices were great. While walking around earlier I had downloaded Yelp's iPhone app and that's how we found this place. This experience has certainly made me a Yelp believer.

So that was our day of celebrating summer successes. We took 15,700 steps and each one was a total blast.

Looking forward, our next checkpoint will be the end of the year. So far I have mixed results on my yearly goals, but there's still time. ha ha. I highly encourage everyone to set, accomplish and reward a couple goals in these next three and a half months.