Tag Archives: volt planner

Listening And Learning (or A Brand New Monthly Challenge)

Last month, I challenged myself to listen to my body more. I think many things were coming together that made me feel like I needed to do this. I was struggling a lot with sleep, but that didn’t account for everything I was feeling. I just had an odd feeling of being off. I don’t want to assume that my iron issues were causing this, but I will say that taking my new supplements has been helping with that feeling so maybe that was it. But I just knew I needed to listen to my body with so many things and I needed to find a way to feel like myself again.

I think sleep will always be an on-and-off issue for me. I naturally don’t wake up early, but I make myself do it so I can go to my workout. I make an effort to go to bed early and not stay up as late as I’d like, but that doesn’t always mean I’ll fall asleep quickly. I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, and I don’t know why I do that. It’s not that I’m thirsty or in pain, I just don’t always sleep all night. But I made sure to note when that happened and took things a bit easier the next day since I knew I’d be tired.

But I think the biggest thing I did with listening to my body was to use that with how I ate. Just like sleeping, I know food will always be an issue for me. I can’t just always eat what I want, but I know that listening to my cravings can help me manage food better. I also didn’t stress myself out as much about eating at official meal times. I did try to have 3 meals in a day, but sometimes it was more like 2 meals and 2 snacks. I don’t track calories or other nutrition like that, but I do have a general idea of how much I’m eating and I know I’m staying within the right amount of calories. And I was feeling more satisfied when I did try to indulge in my cravings a bit more. If I was craving something sweet or salty, I didn’t ignore that. I didn’t necessarily eat exactly what I would like if it wasn’t the best choice, but I tried to figure out something that would help that craving. And yes, sometimes I did eat the “bad” thing because I knew that was going to be the only thing that I wanted.

Overall, I’m happy with what I did with my challenge in February. I feel much more like myself now. I still have some physical ailments that I know won’t be resolved by listening to my body, but things are much easier on me when I don’t have extra things I have to work through.

And for March, I decided to go back to the type of challenge I did when I started doing these. I recently got a new-to-me camera from a friend. It’s a very nice camera and so far I’ve only used it with all the auto settings. But because it’s the first camera I’ve owned that has all these settings and ways you can take amazing photos, I want to learn how to do that. So I’ve decided this month that I’d like to take some online photography classes.

I’ve already saved a few different free classes I found online and I’m going to work through them. I don’t think I’ll be able to get through them all within the month, but I’d like to have some idea about how to use more than just the auto setting on the camera by the end of the month. I don’t know how often I might use this new camera since the main reason I got it from my friend is to do self-tape auditions, but I think it would be fun to be able to take nice photos from time to time. I don’t want to get myself in a situation where I regret not learning how to use the different features before having an opportunity to use it.

I’m hoping by the end of the month, I will feel more comfortable using the new camera and I’ll start to have some fun with it. I don’t know if I’ll pick up photography as a new hobby, but you never know. New hobbies start after trying something, so maybe I’ll end up finding a new creative way to express myself!

Finding New Ways To Accomplish Old Goals (or Feeling Good About Some Challenges)

To kick off 2024, I wanted to work on budgeting again. I’ve done this so many times in the past, but it’s still something I struggle with. I’ve heard a lot of people say they are making the most money they’ve ever made right now but also feel the poorest they’ve ever been. I totally related to that feeling. So working on budgeting for my January challenge seemed like the right thing to do.

Things didn’t go the way I expected them to go last month, but I still feel like I accomplished my goal. I still don’t necessarily have a budget created for myself to track my money, but I’m a lot better about how I’ve been spending money. And a big part of that is working on using coupons and deals a lot more. I have been pretty good about using coupons at places like CVS that make them really easy to use, but I haven’t been as good about doing that at the grocery store. And honestly, it’s silly that I haven’t been doing that. But I’m now working on being a lot more mindful about what I buy each week at the store and trying to make sure I look up any coupons ahead of time so I can make the best choices.

I also signed up for a rebate app that does money back on top of coupons I might find online. I know there are a bunch of rebate apps out there, but I went with iBotta. That one seemed to be mentioned a lot and was pretty user-friendly. I know that I can do a lot more with that app than I’m doing now, but I’m starting off doing what I can and I’ve already gotten just over $20 back from the past month. I know that’s not a huge amount, but it’s still $20 I wouldn’t have had if I didn’t do it.

Once I’m better with doing these things, I do want to figure out about how much I spend in a month for groceries so I can use that to help me work on making a budget. I don’t think a super strict budget will ever end up being the right thing for me, but saving money where I can and being aware of how I’m spending it is something I know I need to continue to be better about.

And being mindful of things connects a bit to my challenge for February. This challenge will be a little harder to see if I’m successful or not, but I want to work on listening to my body more this month. I’ve had a lot of things that affect my body in crazy ways and I’ve just been working on going with the flow. But that’s not working for me anymore. Especially with side effects from medication, I’m tired of letting those things control my life as much as it has. I know I can’t be fully in control, but I can be a lot more aware of how things will affect me based on different factors. Maybe if I eat differently at different times of the day, things will be better. I’m sure I need to continue to get more sleep, but finding the right amount of sleep would be good too. I know that when I can sleep in, if I sleep too much I feel tired just like I do with a little too little sleep. I also want to focus on the hip pains I’ve been having lately so I can see what I can do to make that a little easier to deal with. So much is out of my control with pain and side effects, but there are still things I can do to try to make things better for me. I’m not willing to just give up and accept how often I have bad days anymore. I need to work on making things work for me again.

Just like so many other challenges I’ve done, this one will likely last more than just a month. But I’ve already been noting things about how different medications are affecting me and finding small changes I can try to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m hopeful that I’ll have at least a few new routines that work for me by the end of February!

Ending The Year With A Very Productive Challenge (or Starting Off 2024 With Another Repeat)

My monthly challenge for December was one that I knew I needed to do. I wanted to get myself as ready as possible for 2024 with my acting career. This was something that had really taken a backseat in my life over the past few years. I was still pursuing acting, but I knew I wasn’t doing things the best way I could. Things haven’t been what we all considered normal for the industry between the pandemic and the strike. But that’s also just an excuse because things have been happening since the pandemic, and commercials weren’t affected during the strike so there was still a possibility for me to audition. However, I discovered that I no longer had an agent during the strike. That was the kick in the butt that I needed to get back in gear.

I knew I needed new headshots, but I wanted to see if I could get a new agent first since that agent would likely have an opinion on those headshots and I didn’t want to do a shoot only to need to do another one after that. It’s been over a decade since I’ve had to look for an agent, so I wasn’t sure how things worked now. So I decided to start with people I knew since that would be the easiest way to start and I would love to be represented by someone who really knows me and doesn’t just see me as another actor on their roster. My first submission was to someone I have known since I was in college. We did improv together when I was in my 20s so we’ve known each other for over 2 decades. She transitioned to being an agent and I knew that her agency represented actors both theatrically (for film and tv) and commercially. It seemed like it could be the ideal situation for me and I was hoping she would think the same. And fortunately, that’s exactly how she felt and I was signed to her agency when we met! I know I’m insanely lucky how easy it was for me to get a new agent and this isn’t how it is for most people. And I’m also grateful that I have stayed in touch with people I’ve been in classes with for this long so I would still have this connection.

Getting a new agent was a huge win for my challenge and technically that was the only thing I got done during December. I did shoot new headshots last week after discussing what looks my new agent wanted to see. That shoot was in January, but I think it still can count as a win for my December challenge since it only was delayed because of the holidays. And now, I feel like I’m really back to acting and I hope that the combination of the new agent and new headshots will result in some amazing auditions and some bookings!

I know that not all challenges can go as well as my December one did. I didn’t even expect it to go that well and was thinking I might still be submitting to agencies and trying to get meetings through the next month or two. But it was a great way to end 2023 and I’m hoping that my challenges in 2024 will be close to that successful.

For my first challenge of 2024, I’m doing a bit of a repeat again. But I’m modifying it so hopefully I can be a bit more successful at it. I’ve tried multiple times to create a budget for myself and get on top of my finances. I’m doing much better with it now than I did before, but I’m still not great at having a budget. So this month, my challenge is to find the parts of my life that I can create a budget for. I might not be able to budget for everything, but I can try to budget for certain categories so I can be more mindful of my spending. I think that creating a budget for meals (both groceries and going out) would be a smart one to have. Also, I’d like to have some sort of entertainment budget. I don’t go out that much right now, but budgeting to go out and do things would be smart as I try to be out and social more. I also want to look more carefully at regular or recurring expenses to make sure there aren’t things I don’t use anymore that I’m paying for.

Maybe by budgeting for a few categories, I can ease into creating a larger budget for myself. I have some unplanned expenses right now that I don’t have the funds for and I need to save up. Knowing where all my money is going will help me save for what I need to do now and what might come up in the future. I know that I don’t make a lot of money, but finding any extra money right now would be so helpful. I don’t expect everything to be perfect, but I’d like them to be better than they are now so I can continue to get things in order as I have more things in my life that cost me money.

Cleaning Up And Getting Ready (or Still More Prep For 2024)

It’s the last month of the year, which is insane to me! This year has flown by, but not just in the normal way that it has been in the last few years. So many of the things that seem to mark different points of the year haven’t happened the same way they have before. Having the strike happen made time feel like it stood still and skipped by at the same time. Even though it feels weird to be in December, I’m also feeling ready for this year to be done. It hasn’t been a horrible year necessarily for me, but I like the feeling of a fresh start with a new year and I feel like I have been setting myself up for what things might come my way in 2024.

In November, I had the challenge to work on cleaning out things that I no longer need. I have been noticing that I’ve had things that I just held onto because they were in my old place and they aren’t really useful anymore. And because I got a lot of new things when I moved, I had a lot of extra stuff that was taking up space that I didn’t need to use up. I didn’t clean out as much as I expected to do this past month, but that’s because I kept finding more things I wanted to go through. I know my desk will continue to be a project because I have so much that I used to use but don’t anymore. But I was able to get a lot of stuff cleared out of my closet and my kitchen drawers. I’ve also started to replace things that I have had for years with higher quality things so I am getting rid of the duplicates.

Even though I didn’t clear out as much as I thought I would by the end of the month, I did make a significant dent in the project and I’ve been creating new systems for reviewing what I still need to go through. And just like so many other challenges I’ve been doing recently, this one isn’t ending just because the month ended. I’ve been starting to work on my dresser, and I’ve gone through about a third of my stuff and found a lot of things that I was able to get rid of or donate.

And my challenge for December is yet another one to set myself up for the new year. But this is one that I’ve been needing to do and finally am getting around to it. I want to get all my stuff ready to really be back in the acting world again in 2024. This is going to be a big process and I know it won’t all be done in December, but I’m working on making a list of what I need to do and trying to get as much of it done this month.

The biggest thing I need to do for my acting career is to find a new agent. I found out that my agent can no longer represent union actors and they also might have gone out of business. I don’t know exactly how long ago this all happened because I discovered this randomly and I wasn’t notified by my agent. No matter how long I’ve been without an agent, I need to find a new one to really be back in the game. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to find representation, so I’m easing into this again by starting with reaching out to people I know. If I could get represented by an agent who already knows me, that would be amazing! If I have to start reaching out to agencies that I don’t know personally, then I’ll do that but that won’t be until the new year.

I also need new headshots. The ones I have are fine and I still look like those photos, but they have been used for a while, and having fresh headshots can help when I’m being submitted for auditions. The timing of doing the new headshots depends a lot on whether I get an agent that I already know. I would prefer to be signed by a new agent and then get new headshots so I can do the photos that they want for me. But if I have to start reaching out to new agents that I don’t know, I should get some new photos to add some more variety to what I have and then I will probably expect that I will have to still get more photos after I sign with someone. So that’s another reason for me to hope that I can find a new agent soon.

I also worked on cutting a new version of a demo reel, although I don’t have a lot of work that I can choose from that is recent. But I made something that I think looks better than what I had before. I did some work on my acting resume, but I might be making some more adjustments on that after I’ve had some more time to think about it. And I’ve been working on my stuff on the online casting sites so everything is updated and ready to go.

Some work has been coming back as the strike has been suspended (by the time you are reading this, hopefully, the new contract has been ratified and the strike is officially done), but things are still slow. It’s normally slow this time of year because of the holidays, and most productions don’t want to start up only to have to shut down again for holiday time off. But I’m hoping that once the new year starts, things will be getting back to a more normal pace and I want to do whatever it takes so that I can be a part of the acting world again. I’ve had too much time feeling disconnected between the pandemic and the strike, and I’m ready to go full force again and see what wins will come my way.

Still Getting Ready For 2024 (or I Feel Like I Keep Finding More To Do)

Happy November! I know I say this all the time, but this year has been flying by so quickly. I think it’s been a bit of an unusual year and it doesn’t feel like certain time markers I’m used to have happened. Some of that might be because of the strike and how there is usually a lot around the new fall tv shows and that didn’t happen. Or maybe I’m just in the same routine I’ve been in for a while so I’m not noticing some things as much as I used to. But no matter the reason, I can’t believe we are in the last 2 months of the year!

Last month, I set my monthly challenge to work on getting myself set up for the new year. I didn’t accomplish everything that I wanted to do, but I did put a big focus on doing the financial things that I wanted to get set up. My planning took a bit of a turn when some of my annual expenses were higher than planned. For example, my condo insurance was about 30% higher than I paid the year before. I was able to call in and negotiate a lower rate by raising my deductible, but it still was more expensive than I budgeted for. I had the same issue with my property taxes. I thought I budgeted enough for what they would be, but I was about $1,000 off. Fortunately, I did have enough saved up so I was able to get the money from other saving buckets I have so I was able to pay for it all. But it did make me think about how I need to maybe overestimate my budget goals more than I already did so I don’t run into this problem again. And I’m hoping to be able to afford a few fun things in 2024, so I need to make sure I don’t pull money from a fun fund in order to be able to pay bills. And I want to be able to do something like afford a monthly cleaning service, so I need to be able to budget for that without making my bills an issue.

Even though I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to do, such as working on creating more reminders for myself, I did get a lot done. And I’m working on those reminder ideas, I just haven’t found the perfect system for myself yet. But I did do work on organizing my calendar and email so whatever new system I put into effect will work with those better.

And this month’s challenge continues on the trend of getting set up for the new year. It’s also something that I probably need to do a bit more regularly. I want to go through my things and see what extra stuff I have that I could donate or find a new home for. I did a lot of this when I moved, but somehow I feel like I filled my new place so quickly even though it’s 3 times the size of my old place. I don’t think that anything is cluttered or necessarily messy, but I also know there are a lot of things here that I’m just storing. For example, I have a lot of old books I got from my parents. I had some friends who took books for their kids, but I have so many left. It’s not the end of the world for me to keep holding on to them, but I do want to get new furniture for my office and those books won’t have a spot when I do that. So I should just take them to the library to donate so someone can enjoy them. I finally donated my old tv, which was just sitting on the floor after I got my new one. And I have a few other things that I think I just don’t need but I need to take the time to go through everything and make a plan for where they should go.

I think maybe once I do a lot of this cleaning and donating in my office, I will finally have a better idea of what furniture will work here. I have needed a new desk since I moved, but I just haven’t found a good one. But maybe I’m looking at what will fit what I currently own and not what I think I will keep.

I also want to go through stuff in my kitchen because I do want to get some new pots and pans, but I’m probably not going to just buy a set since I want to get just the pieces I need. But to know what I need, I have to figure out what I have and what is still in good condition so I can continue to use it. I can’t guarantee that getting new kitchen gear will make me cook more, but it would be nice to not have to look at a recipe and realize I don’t have the right equipment to make it.

I don’t know why I keep feeling like I need to set myself up for a really good 2024, but I have a pull to keep working on that. Maybe there are some really good things to come for me and this is getting me ready. And even if next year isn’t anything spectacular, all these things I’m doing will still be positive for me and the coming year.

Doing More And More Cleanup (or Feeling More Setup For Things To Come)

I made my monthly challenge in September to be working on digital organizing. I probably should do this more often than I do, but I really noticed that I needed to work on it over the summer. I just needed the push to get it done, and setting it as my challenge was what got me started.

I only worked on my phone since that’s where most of the extra apps have been. I do need to work on organizing and cleaning the files I have on my computer, but that’s a much bigger project and might take a few months since I need to see what I have saved in various folders. But there were so many apps on my phone that I forgot about and was easily able to delete.

With the way that you can set up an iPhone now, you can hide apps from your main app folders but keep them so you can search and open them back up. I don’t know if I hid a bunch of apps in the past or if my phone automatically did it when I wasn’t using an app that often, but I had so many hidden apps that I had no clue were still on my phone. Going through the hidden apps made things a lot easier to decide on since I knew if I forgot that I had that app, I didn’t need to keep it. I also did find a few apps that I forgot about that could be useful, so I made a new app folder of apps I want to test out this month so I can decide if I should keep them or not.

I really felt like doing the digital organizing was a success last month. I got more done than I expected, even if I only worked on cleaning up my phone. And I feel like doing that work set me up for being more efficient with using my phone going forward.

And the idea of being efficient and ready for things to come inspired my challenge for October. My challenge this month is to continue to get things set up for myself for the coming year.

This new challenge involves a few things, but I basically want to have some new systems and plans set for 2024. I have said so many years in a row that I want to take a vacation. I haven’t had the time or the money to do it. Now, I’m in a slightly better financial place than I have been in and I have the ability to continue to save money. I want to work on some budgeting and savings plans in order to be able to afford a vacation at some point in the next year. I also want to have some time management plans in place, such as working on setting aside time to make sure I cook more often and use the time I have outside of work better. It’s not easy to do that since I’m usually so tired after work and I have only 1 day off a week between my two jobs. But I need to really work on focusing on creating a plan that maximizes the little free time I have in my week. I have gotten into a routine lately, but it’s not the best routine for me since I’m not accomplishing as much as I know I could.

I also want to work on setting up more reminders and systems for myself so things don’t slip through the cracks. I am pretty good about setting up annual doctor appointments, but sometimes I only remember to call to make the appointments after the time I’d like to do that. It’s easy enough to have a reminder once a year (or however often I need it) so that I don’t forget. And when I’m doing regular shopping, I usually am putting together a list at the last minute and seem to forget one or two things. I’ve been using email drafts to work on creating lists as I go, but I know there has to be a better system for that and I’m going to take some time to figure it out. And yes, that might mean I will be adding more apps back onto my phone, but if they are helping me get through the errands I have to do regularly and make it so I don’t spend as much time focusing on them, then they will be good additions to my phone.

There are a lot of things that could make my time and money more efficient and used wiser. I haven’t been taking the time to figure those out because I haven’t really cared as much as I do now. And I think I’m thinking about it more now because there have been a lot of articles and stories coming out about how single people have additional costs and struggles because they are only relying on themselves to get by. I can’t have someone else make dinner because there is only me (but I do order in if I know I don’t have the energy to make something). All tasks that have to be done must be done by me unless I hire someone to do something like clean my home.

It’s a lot that I have put on my plate without realizing that I need to maybe adjust things considering that it’s just me doing all the work. And I’m hoping that working on setting myself up to have the best year ever next year will really help me find out how to make my life better and easier so I don’t have burnout as often. I deserve to have some fun and more than just the day-to-day routine I’ve been doing for a while. I just have to do some work now to maximize what I do have in order to make that happen.

Celebrating And Organizing (or And Yet Another Repeat Challenge)

I set out to make sure that I celebrated my birthday in August as my monthly challenge, and I would say that I accomplished that. I know that some people might do a lot more to celebrate their birthday, especially if it’s a milestone one like mine was, but I did exactly what I wanted to do. I had a party with friends, and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time. I’m not great about planning things for myself, but I am glad I did it and loved seeing different friend groups coming together and having fun. I also got to continue my birthday tradition with my birthday twin and had our dinner out. It might have been a bit different than we thought it would be, but it was still perfect and made us so happy to continue the tradition.

I also just tried to be excited about starting a new decade of life, and I really did feel that way. I know realistically that turning 40 means that I’m not that young anymore or at the beginning of my life, but just because I might be in the second half doesn’t mean my life is over. I still love my life and have a lot of things that I enjoy doing. I’m planning for more fun things in the future and I truly believe that my life is just going to keep getting better as I age. And I feel healthier now than I did in my 30s, so that is helping me really enjoy my new age and new decade.

I’m really happy with how my August turned out and the celebrating that I did. And I know that I will continue to celebrate being in my 40s for a while. But I also want to set myself up for as much success as possible, and that helped to inspire this month’s challenge. I’ve done this challenge before, and it always has been helpful for me. I want to do another digital organizing/detox with the different apps and systems I use on my devices.

I have added a lot of apps to my daily routine over the years. Some of these are from challenges in the past, like using Duolingo to learn French, and some are apps I use to do other sorts of tracking in my personal life. But a lot of these apps or routines are just routines and are not really benefitting me anymore. I’m stubborn and want to continue a streak of doing something just to prove that I can keep it going, but that’s not the best use of my time. And even though most of these apps take minimal time from my day, it can add up and I don’t want to keep doing something that takes time if it’s not really doing much good for me.

When I’ve done this type of challenge before, I’ve gotten rid of apps that I know now were really just taking up time. Like the different food tracking apps that I didn’t use accurately so they weren’t benefitting me. Even though I had the best intentions to use it properly, it wasn’t working for me so I was making a minimal effort to maintain a streak but it wasn’t providing any results or data for me that I could use for other things.

There are a few apps I have in mind for this month. I’ve been doing my habit tracker either on paper or on my phone for over 8 years now. I haven’t changed the habits that much over the past few years and most of the things on there are things that I do on a regular or daily basis. I have reading listed as one of my habits, and the only time I can remember a day that I didn’t read was when I had horrible vertigo and couldn’t keep my eyes open. I have going to workouts on my list, and that’s something I do regularly and don’t need to have on a checklist as a reminder to do it. As much as I love seeing the streak of habits I’ve got going on the app, I think it’s time for me to let that app go since I really don’t use it for the reasons I started it years ago.

That’s probably the app that I use the most that I’m thinking about getting rid of during this month, but there are a lot more that I know I will probably delete. I plan on dedicating time to going through my various app folders because the way I organize apps means I don’t see a lot of what I have on there. And I know that keeping apps on my phone isn’t a big deal or makes using my phone harder, but I just want to streamline things. I want to do something similar on my computer, but with the various documents and things I have saved and not necessarily apps since I don’t put too many apps on my computer. And while I should do this on my iPad too, that device is starting to become a brick and not that useful, so I’m not using it that much. I don’t know if I’ll get another tablet anytime soon, but if I decide that I want one, then I might just start from scratch instead of transferring over all my old apps. So that’s a low priority for me. Working on my phone is at the top of my list and I’ll work on my computer after I feel like that work is done. If it takes me more than just this month, then I’ll continue into next month. But my plan is to really dedicate time so this should be done in the next few weeks.

Hopefully, while I work on getting rid of apps that don’t benefit me anymore, maybe I’ll also discover gaps in what I could be using to make my life better and I’ll find new apps or new routines that I want to add to my life. I just want to do whatever it takes to make sure that I’m not wasting time on unhelpful routines and that I maximize the free time that I do have in my life.

A Few Months Of Celebrating (or Enjoying Each Age)

I set my monthly challenge for July to be to celebrate the last full month of my 30s. I know that’s not really a challenge like some of the ones I’ve done in the past, but I did want to make an effort to celebrate my age because I think it’s important to do so. Age is such a weird thing and I hate the stigma that seems to come with certain ages.

I didn’t stress as much as I thought I would 10 years ago about turning 30. I think turning 29 was almost a harder birthdate. For some reason, there was a block in my mind about what I was supposed to accomplish before 30 and I saw my 29th birthday as the cutoff to get those things accomplished. I don’t know why 29 was as tough for me as it was, but I was grateful that turning 30 wasn’t as bad as I feared.

I haven’t had a big issue in my mind about turning 40. I find it a bit tough to believe because I don’t feel like I’m 40. I think the pandemic made a few years feel like they didn’t happen, but also there was an idea in my mind when I was a kid about what 40 meant. I remember seeing all those over-the-hill gag gift things for someone turning 40, and I don’t feel like I’m headed toward the end of my life. I actually think that my life has been so much better in my 30s than in my 20s had been. I think I really stopped caring about some things that don’t really matter, and that made things a lot better for me. I also had some really great steps with improving both my mental and physical health and that helped this past decade a lot too.

I think every age is important, and it was extra important to acknowledge all the things that happened to me in my 30s. I had so much growth and celebrating that felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t do anything in particular, but I did make sure that I got out and spent time doing fun things with my friends to enjoy the last full month of my 30s.

And my challenge this month is kind of the same as what I did last month. Turning 40 is a milestone birthday, even if it doesn’t have the same feeling now as I thought it might when I was younger. I think it’s awesome that I’m turning 40 and I think that this coming decade will be even better than my 30s. I never knew how amazing my 30s could be, and I am so excited to see how my 40s surprise me. I don’t fear growing older or a specific age, so I want to celebrate how cool it is that I will be 40!

I am planning a casual birthday gathering since I haven’t really celebrated my birthday in the past few years. And I have the usual birthday traditions that I’m planning on doing again this year. I want to start off this decade by trying to spend time doing things I want to do, which I don’t do often enough. I’ve been doing better about getting out of my house and seeing friends, and I want to keep doing that. I want to make sure I take advantage of this month and enjoy as much time as I can. I know that I won’t be able to do that all the time, but making the effort to celebrate my birthday and my new decade is important to me.

I know this is another easy challenge to do, but I think it’s the perfect one for me this month. I haven’t had other life milestones yet that a lot of other people have that they celebrate (like a wedding), so celebrating a big birthday is an important one for me and I want to make sure I start off this decade in the best way possible!

Giving Myself Some Breathing Room (or Just Getting Ready For Other Things This Summer)

I feel like I’m picking the right monthly challenges at the right time. I seem to know that I will need to do something in the coming month and focusing on it really allows me to make sure I do what I need to do. Sometimes I don’t know why I need to do something until the month is over, but it’s always a great lesson for me. And this past month was no exception.

The overall challenge I set for myself was to be ok with not being perfect. I wanted to let myself use that idea for different things throughout the month, but it mainly concentrated on one part of my life. And that was how I plan out my blog posts. I’m almost 11 years into writing and until May I wrote a post every weekday. Coming up with 5 posts a week is not easy. Sometimes I have ideas for each day and I can be excited about what I want to write about. But more often, I struggle to come up with ideas and I know that my posts can become repetitive. So my challenge with not being perfect was about being ok with not writing every single day.

As you can tell from the posts I posted last month, I did go down to 2 posts a week. My Monday post was my workout recap and then my Wednesday post was about something else. I debated if I wanted to also do a Friday post because I did have things that I wanted to write about, but I knew that it would be a better challenge if I did limit myself to just 2 posts a week. Sometimes I didn’t write about things as quickly as I normally would. For example, this post would have been on Thursday or Friday last week if I had my old writing schedule. I had to be more selective about what I was going to share, but that also allowed me to not focus on turning things I do into posts. I liked not having that stress and I know that this was the exact thing I needed to do for myself.

Giving myself permission to not feel perfect really did release something from me that I didn’t know I seriously needed. And my plan is to continue to not worry about posting every day. Right now, I think keeping it to twice a week is a good option. Later, I might want to add in a third day, but I want to do another few weeks with just 2 posts a week to see how I feel about it. And maybe it’s something I keep flexible and I write 3 posts if I have things I want to share but only do 2 posts if I don’t feel like I need that third post.

Releasing the stress of having to always think of posts has been great for my mental health. And I think I will need as little stress as possible as I get prepared for a potentially stressful summer. This summer is election season for my union, and that’s what inspired my challenge for June. This month, I challenge myself to stay involved in union things as much as I can and try to help others be involved as well.

I’ve already been working on this with the strike authorization vote. I worked on making sure all the people I knew voted and understood what the vote meant. Most people understood that the authorization vote didn’t mean we were going to strike, but we were giving the negotiating committee the ability to call a strike if necessary. And I’m so proud of the union because we had a really good voter turnout (at least for us) and almost 98% of the members who voted approved the strike authorization!

Union elections are always stressful, but adding in contract negotiations adds to that. We will have our regular elections plus we could be voting on a new contract if one is presented to the members. And if we don’t get a contract, there is a chance that we will strike. This is a lot of information for members to take in, especially if they haven’t been involved in the past. Even for me, things can get overwhelming with staying on top of all the things we should know to be informed voters.

But with all the craziness and potential stress, there are so many ways for me to stay involved and connected with my acting career. I know that I will be stressed (and not having to write as many blog posts will help to not add more stress), but it will be worth it. I know I feel better when I’m involved and active with the union. I look forward to the different opportunities that will be coming during this election season and contract negotiations. I might feel like it’s too much in the moment, but once I get through this summer I know I will be grateful that I did whatever I have the ability to do.

I’m Picking Some Good Challenges For Myself (or Being Ok Not Being Perfect)

I’ve been doing monthly challenges for several years now, and sometimes I pick really good challenges and sometimes I struggle to figure out what I want to do. It’s ok that it’s a mix, I know they can’t all be exactly perfect with the challenge I pick. But I’m always so happy when I pick a challenge and something just clicks with me and I feel like I’ve started a new habit that will continue for a while.

For April, I set the challenge to have less food waste. I knew I needed to do this challenge because I was getting lazy and wasteful with the food I bought. I might have all the best intentions when I go grocery shopping, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I feel the same way when it’s time to cook things. And while I have no issues eating leftovers, I also don’t want to eat leftovers several days in a row of the same thing so sometimes portions go back. Whenever I throw out food, that’s wasting money and I’ve been trying really hard to improve my spending. So I wanted to see how much I could reduce food waste to save money and be better about planning meals and making sure I don’t just order in if I get lazy.

I was surprised at how well I did with this challenge. I did still have things I had to throw out if they expired, but it was significantly less than what I normally would do. I was very careful about what I was buying from stores and opted to buy more frozen things like vegetables so I didn’t have to worry about things going bad quickly. I also started to make easier meals so they were only one or two servings. So I might make something like meatballs and some vegetables, but only make enough to have something for the next day instead of having it for 3 more days. I did still occasionally order in or go out to dinner, but with what I bought and made at home, I really reduced how much I wasted. And after last month, I feel like this is something I can continue to do and improve upon.

And for May, this challenge I feel has already started for me. This month, I want to work on being ok with not having perfection with things in my life. There are some parts of my life where I’m ok not always being perfect, but there are others where I really stress and get anxious if things aren’t exactly how I feel like they should be. One example of this is the frequency of my blog posts. I know I wrote last week that I was reducing how often I post on here, but I also really debated about doing a post yesterday because it felt so odd not to have something up when I’ve written every weekday for years. But I knew that I wanted to try to post less and had to be ok with the anxiety that brought me. I’m not being perfect with my writing the way I’m used to. I know it’s for the best, but that doesn’t always make it easier.

And there are other things that I know I only want to do if I can do them right. Sometimes the fear of not being perfect stops me from trying and I want to work on that feeling. I know that I won’t fail with everything I try, but I need to remember that it’s ok. I have failed at monthly challenges before and that has been ok. I have had bad workout days and that’s ok. I don’t know why I’m ok not being perfect in those ways but then with other things I just can’t get over it. And it’s not just being perfect, it’s also the fear of starting a task that I might have to split over a few days instead of getting it done in one. If something isn’t accomplished in the way I feel is right or perfect, sometimes I just can’t get started with it. And that’s not a good way to be.

I’m not going to try to deliberately fail at things, but I’m going to try to be more flexible with how I can do things and what accomplishing a task or idea means to me. If I want to get my whole house cleaned in one day but have to split it up in 2 because of time constraints, that’s ok and I need to remember that. I can’t necessarily predict what I will need to let go of the idea of perfection with, but I know that I will encounter that feeling several times over the month.

This is a challenge that I also have to accept will not necessarily be perfect since there will be times I let this feeling stop me. But all I can do is hope that I can overcome it more often than not and see some positive results by the end of the month.