energy

Day 140: Reframing

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Hellooooooooo!

I’ve been MIA again for awhile. This time I haven’t been working so many hours, but I have been doing a great many things. December is a busy month with the holidays! Everyone is trying to cram in last minute get togethers and there’s holiday parties and shopping galore. So basically I’ve been busy, which isn’t always an excuse but sometimes it can be.

But I wanted to share something I discovered recently which I’m pretty excited about. Podcasts!

Just kidding. I know all about podcasts, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to them since I switched jobs. There’s just too much to do and I can’t really concentrate on the podcasts unless I’m cleaning or sorting laundry or doing some other mindless task.

Enter driving to ballet. The class I like is pretty far away, especially after work when it’s rush hour. It’s been a definite issue in the past with me not wanting to drive half an hour after work to go exercise. My willpower is low in the evening and the commute doesn’t help.

Then while I was listening to Happier with Gretchen Rubin they were talking about reframing. Basically you take a negative task or idea and frame it in a different light so it becomes a positive. And then it hit me! The perfect time to listen to my podcasts is during my dreaded commute to ballet class. It’s a good chunk of time, so I can listen to the longer podcasts and it’s something I look forward to, so I’ve finally found a way to overcome the commute obstacle. A perfect solution to a thorny problem. 🙂

Until tomorrow! (Podcast & ballet day!)

225 days to go.

Day 117: Hi again!

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It’s me! I’ve been MIA for many, many days. I got my promotion at work and then radio silence basically. A few team members were sick or traveling for work and then we had a major event coming up and so I really only had time for one thing. My life the past few weeks has just been work, eat, sleep, repeat. I’ve never clocked over forty-five hours previously, but now I’m getting close to sixty. It really is exhausting.  I don’t know how people do this for years.

I really haven’t had time to do anything else in my life these past few weeks. I wrote for ten minutes today before I had to rest and take a nap. I skipped ballet and I’ve cancelled on so many dates in the past couple weeks, I think of myself as a flake now. It’s no good. (I am making way more money than I thought though…)

I didn’t think it was going to be like this. And maybe it’ll get better in the future. It really has to. Maybe it’ll be better once I know what I’m doing and can just do it at the drop of a hat without doubting myself…but if it doesn’t then I don’t think I can do this in the long term. We’ll see. I need to go take my second nap of the day now.

Until tomorrow.

248 days to go.

Day 100!

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Happy Day 100 Me! There are way more milestones to check in than I thought! I have the first of the month, the monthly check-ins I set aside for myself and now 100 days. (Today also happens to be the first of the month so it’s double check in day.)

I’m not going to do a check in since I just did one, but I do want to say it’s good to have “check-ins” on a regular basis. Just take ten minutes to yourself and see what you’ve accomplished and what steps you still need to take to move towards your goals.

I generally do a life check-in at the beginning of each month (today!). I have a habit tracker that I fill out every day to see if I’m building the habits I want to make part of my life. I check off the boxes every day, so if ever there’s a long string of empty boxes, I know I have some work to do. Sometimes it’s empty because someone was visiting or I was traveling, so my routine wasn’t the same as usual, but if I know there are no different circumstances around those days, I know I need to do something! I also have a longer term goals check-list which I carry over from month to month so I can see what I’ve completed and what I still need to do.

So check in with yourself! And hopefully it’ll help you see trends of your behavior and days over time.

Until tomorrow!

265 days to go!

P.S. Went to ballet. Yay!!

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 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 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 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 39: Happy September!

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Happy September! I get older every year (obviously), but September always brings the excitement of fall and new beginnings. I no longer live in a place with seasons (Hi, LA!) and I’m several years out of school, but I still can’t wait for the cooler weather that comes with September.

At the beginning of every month I make my habit list in my journal, my new budget in excel and my monthly list of goals I want to accomplish. It’s a good way to check on how much money I’m spending, how often I’m doing the things that are important to me and what things I want to accomplish during the month. It’s SO easy to let the days pass you by and leave things left undone.

There’s only 24 hours in the day. 8 spent sleeping. 10 spent working and commuting and 6 left for everything else (fun things, chores, exercising and the like). It’s really not enough time which is why you have to have priorities. If you spend time on one thing, you’re not spending time on other things.

I find the first of the month is a good time to check on my priorities. It’s easy for a year to go by and not have accomplished anything you want, so a quick check in to go over my annual and monthly goals every month is really helpful. Maybe I don’t want the things I wrote down anymore and that’s okay. But I also have to be sure I want the things I’m working towards. And what better day to check in than the first of the month.

Off to do that now. Until tomorrow.