I wanted to write this blog post mainly as an accountability tool for myself. At the beginning of the year, I wrote out my goals for 2017 and just wanted to give an update on how things were going. BTW it’s crazy how half this year is already gone.

Here are the goals I listed for 2017 and an update for each one:

• Consistently work out/ jog at least 3 times a week.
  I have been doing this, back in May I did a 30-day challenge to do the 7-minute workout for that month. I completed that with only missing 2 days that month. This helped me build a habit that I have stuck to. Not every day but at 3 to 4 times a week. Plus I have been swimming mostly every day this summer. So I’d say I’m on track with this goal!
  
• Grow business by at least 15%
  This has been a standing goal every year since I started my business. This year so far I have seen an 8.5% increase in revenue over last year. I’m happy with that but I have some things planned for the latter half of the year to try to make it into double-digit growth territory. I also switched SeedProd.com over to automatic renewals in May so hopefully I will see bigger gains by next year’s update.
• Finish becoming debt-free.
  I was on track at the beginning of the year to have been completely debt-free by mid-2017. But then my 2000 Honda Accord gave up the ghost. So I ended up buying a new car and had a little larger tax payment in April than I was expecting. With that said I’m still on track to meet this goal by the end of the year! 
• Strategize an investment/retirement plan and contribute more to my kid’s college funds.
  Even though I’m still contributing I have not sat down to figure out a long-term plan and projection. This has been deferred until I finish paying off the little that I have left on my mortgage.
• Never stop learning.
  I bought a Kindle early this year and have been reading like crazy, in fact, I rarely watch TV anymore. I have been reading mostly personal and business development stuff. I also love the “Send to Kindle” Chrome browser extension. So instead of breaking my concentration during the day when I see an article come across I want to read, I send it to my Kindle so I can read it before I go to bed.
• Focus on learning Marketing better
  I’m currently reading and learning everything I can about email marketing. I think this is a marketing channel I’m really not taking advantage of. I just finished reading “Email Marketing Demystified” by Matthew Paulson who was one of the speakers I saw at Microconf this year. I loved the book and I’m implementing the techniques I learned in it. 
• Review goals monthly and write more about my experience on this blog.
  I have been reviewing my goals each month but not writing about them. Right now I’m planning on doing a 30-day blogging challenge to build this habit to rectify this. I think communication and self-brand are key for entrepreneurs. So I need to build that skill.

OK so that’s it, so far I’m pretty happy with my progress. To keep up my momentum I’m going to start doing monthly challenges every month to help me improve on the areas of my life and business that I want.  So subscribe and keep up with my progress. I’ll be announcing my July challenge which I have already started later this week.