After lamenting the darkness and dreariness of November in last month’s update, November was a pleasant surprise with lots of sunshine and snow to brighten things up. Did that give a boost to my motivation? Find out in my November 2025 goals update.

November goals update

A sunny day always lifts my spirits and gives my energy level a boost, and the surprising string of sunny days in November definitely helped me make progress on my goals. Let’s see how I did with my goals for the month.

Fitness goals

• For workouts, I was able to mostly transition from seated workouts to low-intensity standing workouts. I exceeded my goal of 250 minutes of physical activity a week, with an average of 276 minutes a week for the month. I also exceeded my strength training goal of 2 sessions a week, but fell slightly short of my 3 balance/flexibility sessions. Overall a good month.
• As for walks, the sunshine definitely helped me to get outside for a short walk most days. I only missed 6 days, and managed 2 walks on 4 days. Making a walk part of my early morning routine seems to help.

Reading

After achieving my 2025 Goodreads goal in October, I kept up the momentum in November—meeting my goal of reading 5 books. Here’s what I read in November:

• All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
• The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty
• Living Me to We by Craig and Marc Kielburger
• The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
• The Fraud by Zadie Smith

Music

• Choose Christmas music for our church choir. DONE

Work/Other

• Explore volunteer opportunities for 2026 related to a couple of areas of interest. DONE
• Finish Christmas shopping. DONE

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My December goals

I mostly stayed on track in November, although a nasty cold did slow me down a bit at the end of the month. The Christmas season is here so my December list of goals is a little lighter than usual. Here are my plans for this month:

• Fitness:
  • For workouts, I’m keeping the goal of 250 minutes of physical activity a week, including 2 strength training and 3 balance/flexibility sessions. I will dust off my Christmas workout playlist to keep things interesting.
  • And I plan to continue to get outside for a short walk every day, before 9 a.m. if I can.
• Reading: My goal for December is to read 4 books, including a Christmas novel or two.
• Writing: Complete a first draft of my chapter for the Retirement Coaches Association book.

Thanks for dropping by to check out my November 2025 monthly goals update. Do you have any exciting news to share? Drop me a comment below to let me know.