practice

Day 31: Monthly Check-in 1

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Sooo…somewhere along the line my days got messed up and I’ve been numbering everything wrong for the past month. Typical, but that’s okay because I just googled how many days it’s been since July 23 and the answer is 31. Back on track! (Hopefully)

I’ve decided to do monthly check-ins to see how I’m progressing in the long term and where I can improve! TO THE EXCEL DOC!

Screen Shot 2017-08-24 at 9.23.39 PM

Okay, it’s a screen shot of the excel doc. Now let’s revisit my goals in Day One.

  1. Become a Novelist – The righthand column with the bunch of “Yeses” are every day in the past month (plus some) that I’ve written. Sometimes it’s only a few minutes, and sometimes it’s much longer, but the important thing is that I work towards what I want every single day. I’m not there yet, but now I can see patterns in my behavior. Weekends seem to be tough for me to write some reason. I know 8/5-8/7 and 8/15-8/20 were the days I was dog sitting. And the end of July was when I got sucked into Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Still, I think I’ve written more consistently since I started this project and that’s a win. Hopefully next month it’ll be a row of green.
  2. Ballet! – I took a few months off of Ballet and I’ve just gone back. I’ve also tried to take up yoga, which I’ve gone to a few times and pop physique (groupon!), which I haven’t managed to go to yet. I’ve made a little progress in that I’ve started going to something once a week, but I really do need to go more and hopefully once I make it part of my routine, I’ll be more green and less red.
  3. Promotion – No movement on this front, but I didn’t think things would happen in a month, so I’m content to wait. I should ask for more opportunities at work to learn new things so I can be a good candidate when the time comes.
  4. Credit Card debt – Still chugging away on this one, but I’ve been set back a bit because I had to buy a few flights. Next month I hope to make a serious dent in it, but it looks like it’s going to take longer than expected. (As many things do.)
  5. In a relationship – Nada on this front too. Although I did try a few new activities and met some new people. Who knows what the future holds there? 🙂

So that’s my monthly check in. I’m doing better overall than I was a month ago, but I still have a long ways to go and need to put some serious work in.

Until tomorrow.

Day 4: Oops

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Miss Fisher
I want her hat. And her lipstick.

Oops! Day 4 and I already skipped a day of blogging! I don’t even have a good excuse. Just watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. It’s just so good. (If you haven’t seen it go watch it now!) This is why I try not to watch TV on the weeknights.

Sometimes I think I spread myself too thin. It’s why I had to write down a list of my goals – the things I really, truly want to accomplish in the next year. I just tend to overestimate what I can do in a day. Here’s my list: French lessons, write, meditate, blog, stretch, read, journal, clean, photography class and floss. I’m trying to make all of these into habits, but each one chips away some willpower throughout the day so when I try to get things done at night, I’m too tired. (Plus work chips away a whole lot of willpower.)

Luckily, I’ve already turned French into a habit. I’ve been doing it steadily for the past six months and so now when I wake up in the morning I don’t even have to think about it. I accidentally skip a day here and there, but for the most part it gets done with no problem and no thought or willpower drainage. The power of habits!

So now my plan has changed. Instead of trying to do everything, I’m just going to focus on one or two things and make them into a habit. Then I can add more and more and stack them up until I have them all. 🙂

Since I want to have my book on the way to being published in the next year I think the most important focus is writing.

Until tomorrow.

Day One

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07/23/2018

I was driving to work this week and for some reason it dawned upon me that I don’t particularly like my life. Sure, it’s fine, but there’s very few things I do on a day to day basis that I enjoy. Reading, watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, writing in my journal. Those are all fun (solitary) things, which enjoy, but the life I currently lead is vastly different from the life I have in my head. (Maybe not vastly, but some hyperbole is allowed.)

So I’ve decided to change my life. Today is (music swells) the first day of the rest of my life. And a Sunday to boot, so how fortuitous – unless you think the week starts on on Monday.

But, back to changing my life. This day next year, I want my life to be closer to what I want. Closer to who I want to be. So here’s what I want.

  1. Novelist – I’ve been working on a novel for the better part of the past year. It’s a children’s book which I find amusing, but I’m not sure if anyone else will. So this time next year I want agents to have been queried, publishers to reject me and hopefully one who’s accepted me. Maybe I’ll have a pile of rejection letters, but at least it’s out there in the world.
  2. Ballet! I wrote a few posts about ballet and have not really done much. Work and life gets in the way, as it does to all things. This time next year I want to have moved up to the next level at my studio.
  3. I want a promotion. This is a bit tricky because someone has to leave for a position to even be open unless they add more teams and jobs. But too often I get in my own way and curtail my ambitions, so if I position comes open, I’m going to apply.
  4. Get out of credit card debt – Ugh this is the worst. I racked up a bunch when I was unemployed and I’ve been paying it off pretty aggressively, but I think by this time next year I should be out of it or almost out.
  5. In a relationship – This would be nice, but would be like a bonus to my life (the frosting on the cake, as it were) rather than something I really truly want to aim for.

So there we have it. The things I really want out of the next year. Of course, there’s tons of other things I want to do as well: learn French, how to fly a plane, go on a trip, learn to play the piano. But those are other things for other days and other years and right now I’ll just focus on these. Maybe on July 23, 2018 I can put some of those on my list.

Until tomorrow.

Ten Thousand-ish

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Ballet

 

For the past few years I’ve been taking ballet classes off and on. Adult ballet classes. I never took them as a child, but I always wanted too. I remember at a young age asking my one ballet friend all about class and performances and what being part of a production was like. To me it just seemed like magic. Even as a teenager, I looked for adult classes I might be able to join. Sadly, there weren’t any in my area.

Then one day a few years ago I suddenly realized – I’m an adult and I can do whatever I want, whenever I want (for the most part, as I am very law-abiding and rule oriented). So I signed up for a beginner class! By myself. It was scary doing something new and all alone, but I loved it! It’s been a few years since I took that beginner class and so I want to get back in the saddle (or rather in the shoes). I’ve been having trouble making it to class for the last year or so and I want this blog to be some sort of accountability. I know I’ll never dance on stage, but I’d at least like to make it into pointe shoes! At least once.

They say you need 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. Maybe I’ll never make it there, but I want to get as close as I can. (I even have a tracker on my phone. It’s called Mastery.) So here’s to the start of 10,000 hours and some sort of accountability. And practice. Lots and lots of practice. I’ll update my progress along the way with some other blog posts thrown in about things I love. This is – after all – a blog about finding things in life which bring me joy, however small.

xoxo