Author: joypetite

Day 85: New Job!

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I started my new job yesterday! Still at the same company, but in a different position due to my promotion (whoo!). To be honest, there were a few people who applied for the position who have seniority over me and I thought they would get it. I knew I had the most experience, but my company is very hierarchical and I didn’t necessarily think that I would get it, but I did!

It’s only been a few days, but it feels like it’s been much longer! I knew what the job entailed, but it’s all new projects and new people and new processes. I’ve been really tired the past few days because I’ve been on alert to make sure I absorb all the new information coming my way! It’s exciting, but also really tiring.

I did not exercise today since I have a trip coming up and have a few last minute things to take care of. I also immediately regretted that I didn’t go, so there’s that. Hopefully I’ll be better next week. Fingers crossed!

Until Tomorrow.

279 days to go.

Day 83: How many times can I fail

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Multiple! I was supposed to exercise twice this weekend! And I did neither! Because I am terrible at exercising!! I really need to figure out a way to establish a long running habit which I will only break occasionally for vacations and birthdays and engagements and weddings. Ugh.

 

Well this week is a new week and I went to see the ballet today and got all inspired by what I wish I looked like. I decided I need to do something every day to work towards getting better, which means going to yoga or stretching at night. It really is helpful to get “re-inspired” once in awhile to show you why you wanted to do something in the first place. Of course, I know I’ll never be professional, but there’s a reason I started going to ballet and it’s because I just really enjoy it.

I’ve thought about it and I think there’s a few ways to get myself to go.

PLAN OF ACTION

  1. Prepare! – If it’s a workday, I need to prepare dinner ahead of time and bring my exercise clothes to work so I can change at work and eat dinner around 5:55 at work (or in the car.) If it’s a weekend I should be fine, but can bring a change of clothes if I plan on doing something before or after.
  2. Sleep! – I need to get a good night’s sleep the night before and take my vitamins so I’m not too tired at the end of the day. An extra boost of caffeine in the afternoon wouldn’t hurt (I know I shouldn’t rely on this, but if it’s the way to get my exercise habit started, then so be it.)
  3. Future Me! – If I’m thinking of skipping I need to think about how good I feel when I go and how regretful I feel when I don’t go.
  4. Accountability! – And I need to make friends in class so I have accountability partners.

So there we have it. My plan of action! PSFA (PASF? PAFS!!!)

Tuesday. I will go. And report back.

Until tomorrow.

282 days to go.

Day 80: Success!!!

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Hooray! A second success! (Sort of.) I mentioned before that I cut out the whole middle section of my book. It was a pain, but I think the book is better for it. Or at least I hope it is. It took a lot of work and a lot of Pomodoro time, but I finished this morning!

Side note – Preparing to fail, I’ve been writing in the morning and not counting on myself to write at night. (Yay!)

There’s still a bunch of work ahead since I need to go back and edit everything and make sure it’s cohesive. I tend to let story elements fall away and then I’ll remember the villain is meant to be doing this or that and I’ll bring them back, so I need to make sure it’s even throughout (where it makes sense.) Taking a few days off and then I’ll inch towards completing my book ten minutes at a time.

Double Hooray!

Until tomorrow.

285 days to go.

Day 78: Sacrifice

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The thing about wanting to achieve my goals is that there’s never enough time or energy for everything. I spoke about this previously in my 100 blocks post. (Day 5! That seems ages ago!)  I wish I was a high energy person, but that’s just not the case and so I just have to deal with it instead of pretending I’ll be high energy when I get home. I know that if I blog, then I’ll have less time and energy for writing and if I cook dinner to save money then I’ll basically be too tired for anything else.

Part of it is about planning to fail. I know I get tired after cooking, so I make a large batch of something and have that sustain me throughout the week. Part of it is deciding what’s more important to me. Right now in my life it’s important that I cook instead of eating out to save money. It’s important that I blog some days instead of writing (or writing less) because it keeps me accountable.

What this really comes down to is that I KNOW I won’t have time and energy for everything so I need to prioritize what’s important to me. That means saying no to dinners and drinks so I can save money and have time to write. It means giving up on dating for awhile if it’s taking up too much of my time. (That is TBD at the moment…) Basically it means sacrificing some things I enjoy now, so I can be proud of where I am in the future. Now I just need to figure out what’s more important. Part 2 coming soon!

Until tomorrow.

287 Days to go.

Day 76: Be Terrible

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Yes! Success! For the first time in a couple months I went to ballet class. I was initially apprehensive about going because I haven’t been in awhile and even when I was going, my attendance was quite spotty. I’ve realized recently that often times my decision not to go to class had only to do with my own fears and anxieties. I was the one standing in my way because I was worried my teacher would judge me for all the progress I’d lost! Which is ridiculous! I’m not going to become a professional ballerina or even go on to dance in any sort of recital. This is for exercise and for fun. For my health! The thing I should be least worried about it what my teacher will think of me.  The thing I should be most worried about is making sure I attend class, so I can take care of my body and myself. And so this is another lesson I learned. Be Terrible.

Okay… don’t be terrible, but don’t be afraid to be terrible at something. I’m an adult! I have a job I find moderately rewarding and pay my own bills. Everything else is just for my own enjoyment and happiness. So what if I’m terrible at pirouettes.  At least I’m getting out there and spinning across the floor like my four year old self would be proud of!

This advice is important for not just exercise, but also for writing! I’m often worried of what will happen at the end of writing my book. Will all the hard work be for nothing? Will it be rejected? Will I even get an agent? Will it arrive on shelves and then sit there until it’s put in the bargain bin and I’ll never write another thing again? Or will I be a wild success so I can quit my day job and just spend my days writing and writing and writing? (Yes, please!) But none of these are an option if I don’t at least finish the book. So let my story be terrible and I’ll fix it up afterwards. After all you can’t even read empty pages.

Until tomorrow.

289 days to go.

 

Day 75: Preparing to Fail

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I fail a lot as I work towards my goals (clearly). I think most people do, but we just don’t hear about it very often. We do hear about how many businesses a person started before they succeeded or how many books a person wrote before they got published, but I feel like we don’t often hear about the day to day failures.  Those days we didn’t exercise or didn’t write or didn’t practice the instrument we’re trying to learn. These days can be very discouraging and can often roll over and over until months have gone by. Of course I don’t want months to go by! So, I’m always finding ways to make sure sure I succeed every day (or most days). I often don’t, but the best advice I’ve come upon so far is to “Prepare for Failure”.

I love this because it assumes I’m going to fail. It assumes I’m going to be tired after working all day and not want to write/exercise/blog, which I am and is often the reason for my not doing something. So instead of thinking you’ll be your best self and accomplish all the things you wanted to accomplish, this little nugget of advice assumes you won’t. And that you should figure out what you can do to make sure failure is less of an option.

For me this means writing in the morning because I know I’m going to be tired at night and put off doing it after work. It means changing into my exercise clothes at work and NOT GOING HOME to just “rest for a moment”. It means preparing a list of blog topics in advance so I don’t have to think up things at 9 or 10 at night.

So think you’re going to fail and then you’ll succeed.

Until tomorrow.

290 days to go.

Day 72: Goals for thought?

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Only 72 days in and  I’ve completed one of my goals for the year…it’s strange how some things happen faster than we expect them to and others drag on and on….  But the past few days I’ve been wondering if I should add another goal to replace it or if I should double down on my current goals. It’s strange how some things happen faster than we expect them to and others drag on and on.

I am tempted to double down on my current goals and then perhaps add another one in November or December. Or at least try and pick up another hobby since my last one was rather uninspiring. After all, October is supposed to be Ballet month and only four days in I’m not doing very well. I have no idea how work can be so absolutely draining, but it is. I’ll try to get back on the wagon this weekend. It really is the goal I find the hardest to make any headway.

Until tomorrow.

New update: 293 days to go

 

Day 69: Happy October!

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Eek! It seems like I was just doing one of these at the beginning of September. It positively flew by and now we’re here – October 1.

I know we just had a monthly check-in, but there is an update!

  1. Become a Novelist
  2. Ballet
  3. Promotion
  4. Credit Card debt
  5. In a relationship

That’s right! There was a job open and I was waffling about applying for awhile, but I did and I got it. It’s a bit too soon to celebrate since we’re still discussing salary, but I think it’s just they’ll give me what I ask for or they’ll keep it the same. There’s not a danger that I would turn down the job or that they’ll un-offer the job to me. 🙂

Hooray! What good news for the start of the month. Of all the goals I’m slacking on the most I think Ballet is the one I’m having the hardest time with, so I want to make October my ballet month. I’ll do my very best to get back on track this month and I’ve made a few adjustments to my schedule, so it should be easier (ahem…should be…but we’ll see how that goes.

Perhaps in a few months I’ll be able to cross off one more of these. Nothing happening yet! Just wishful, positive thinking.

Until tomorrow.

Day 63: Doing what I want

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“A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” -Bob Dylan

I read this quote about a month ago and it really defines what success is to me. I want to be able to wake up in the morning and have my day belong completely to me and then go to bed at night. Like a Saturday, but every day.

I suppose I do live this quote right now in my own way now. I work a job I’m pretty happy at and do my own projects on my own time. Sure there’s room for improvement (hence the blog…), but I think the general spirit is there. If I get done thing things I want to do and work towards the goals I want to accomplish, then that’s success. It doesn’t feel big, but that’s still a success in it’s own right.

Sometimes I feel like I want to get everything done at once, and I get frustrated I’m not moving faster.  Rarely do things happen as quickly as I expect them to, so it’s okay if they don’t happen right away as long, as I keep working. Things take the time they take.

Until tomorrow.

Day 62: Monthly Check-in

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Gah! I’ve sort of neglected this project the past few weeks. It’s been busy! I took a cooking class and a ceramics class and have been going to a whole bunch of events after work. It’s been two months already since I started so it’s time for my second monthly check-in!

  1. Work on my Novel – I cut out the whole middle part of my novel, so that was sort of a set back, but I feel it will be stronger in the end. (And make more sense!) I’ve been working on it pretty steadily, so I’m pretty pleased with my progress here.
  2. Ballet – I haven’t done much here! I had some really special events come up, so I skipped class for the past month. It’s not great, but I’ve planned out my week this week so hopefully I’ll get back on track!
  3. Promotion –  A position opened unexpectedly in my department and I applied! It’s looking good so far, but we’ll see what comes of it. I’m not sure if it’ll be a good decision in the end or not, but I guess we’ll find out. Stay tuned!
  4. Get out of credit card debt – Still chugging away. I think by end the end of the year I should be out of one and then I can start seriously paying off the second. (Ugh!) But hopefully if I do get that promotion, I’ll be able to pay it off more aggressively. 🙂
  5. In a relationship – I joined Bumble. It’s still early stages, but at least I’m making an effort. I don’t want it to take away from my other goals, so I think I’ll limit how much time I spend on Bumble and going on dates. It is a very time consuming thing.

So there’s my second monthly check-in. Sixty two days in and I’m a little farther along with all my goals except Ballet. It’s almost October so perhaps that will be my October goal. I’ll also try to blog more.

Until tomorrow.