Tag Archives: volt planner

I Feel Like Every Monthly Challenge Is The Same (or Will This Be The Month I Get Back On Track?)

Posted on September 1, 2020 | Comments Off on I Feel Like Every Monthly Challenge Is The Same (or Will This Be The Month I Get Back On Track?)

The longer we are told to stay at home, the harder I’m finding it to figure out new monthly challenges. My life seems stagnant. I don’t feel like anything in my life is moving forward. I’m trapped in this moment of time and nothing is changing. I know I’m not alone in this feeling, but that doesn’t make it easier to deal with. I’ve said that this year is going to be the lost year. I have to understand that I might not accomplish much at all this year. But if not accomplishing much means I stay safe and healthy, it’s worth it.

Most of my monthly challenges lately have been about trying to stay positive in this difficult time. And that’s exactly what last month’s challenge was all about. I wanted to try to focus on the good and track good things that happen to me each day. I know I need to remember that even on my worst day, there is something that was good about it. It might be something as small as eating something I like or being able to watch a good show on tv. But no matter what, there is always some good every single day.

I wasn’t sure how I would track these things, but it ended up just being easiest to combine it with my gratitude list that I made each night. I made sure that at least one thing listed on the gratitude list was something that made the day good. And there were some days that I had really good things like being able to see a friend or having an amazing workout. And there were plenty of days where the only good thing was that I slept ok or that I didn’t do something destructive. August wasn’t a horrible month for me, but it was still a tough one and I needed to make sure that I didn’t make things worse for me by forgetting the good that I had.

I’m planning on continuing this idea because I know that with each month that passes with the pandemic still being a huge concern, I’m feeling more and more disconnected from my life and what I have liked to do in the past. And I need to be reminded that things are not all bad and that there are some things from my life that I am still enjoying or that are good.

My monthly challenges for the past 6 months have all been along the same line. My motivation to do a lot of things isn’t that high right now, so I am trying to find challenges that aren’t too difficult to accomplish. And I try to find things that I know I need to do, especially with the setbacks that I’ve been encountering while staying at home.

And this month’s challenge is no different. I know I’m not on track with so many aspects of my life. I have been letting things go, ignoring stuff I should focus on, and haven’t been caring enough about things that I used to care about. Some of this is about my health and weight. My workouts haven’t been what I know they should be. My food is much worse than it’s been in a while. My sleep is still tough at times and I’m sometimes having a week or two with under 4 hours a sleep a night. And some of these things about my physical health is taking a toll on my mental health so I’m not focusing on doing things that I know will make me happy.

So this month, I want to work on getting back on track. I need to figure out a schedule for myself, even if I don’t have much to do. I need to prioritize myself more and to make sure that I’m setting myself up for things that will be positive for me. I need to get my food under control (or at least more regular). And I need to push myself harder in my workouts when I can.

I have gained weight in the past 6 months. I’m not happy about it. I don’t feel like myself. I hate that my clothes don’t fit me correctly. I feel like I have ruined so much that I have worked so hard for. I know that weight is not everything, but I want to get back to a place where I feel like myself, and I know weight is something holding me back. And hopefully getting myself back on track with other things will result in at least a little weight loss. I’m not too concerned about getting back into weight loss more than getting myself back to where I was at the beginning of the year. If I lose more than that, then I do. But that’s not the goal I’m giving myself right now.

Hopefully, focusing on the things that have been getting out of control will result in a lot of good things for me. And maybe it will make things easier for whenever we start transitioning back to what life was life at the beginning of the year. I know that eventually, that will happen and I want to make that as easy as a switch as possible. And if I can get my life to feel close to what it used to feel like, then I think that will be an easy change for me when it happens.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAlmost Through A Year Of Monthly Challenges (or Picking A Good Challenge For November) Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailFailing And Succeeding In One Monthly Challenge (or Another Repeat Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month) Default ThumbnailMy First 2017 Monthly Challenge (or Working On My Tumors)

Comments Off on I Feel Like Every Monthly Challenge Is The Same (or Will This Be The Month I Get Back On Track?)

Posted in Health

Tagged , , ,

Doing The Opposite Of My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Focus On The Good)

Posted on August 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Doing The Opposite Of My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Focus On The Good)

My monthly challenge last month was to focus on things that made me happy. I really did want to update my happiness checklist to see if there were new things I could add and take some old things off. I have been using the same checklist for a while with very little editing. So I felt like it was time for an update.

My plan was to focus my month on what things were making me happy and keeping track of those so I could see what should be on my updated checklist. And that was a really good plan when the month started. That’s just not what happened. What I ended up doing was almost the exact opposite.

Instead of tracking what I was doing each day that made me happy, I noticed things that were not making me happy and seeing if I could eliminate them from my life. And while there are a lot of things I don’t like to do that I have to do, there were plenty of things that I could just stop doing or get rid of. For example, if there was someone annoying me on a dating app, I didn’t try to stick it out. I let them know I didn’t think we were a good match or I wasn’t interested and unmatched with them. I am starting to not feel the desperate need to try to make any match work. I know there are plenty of other guys I will match with. And when dating apps were annoying me in general, I stepped away from them. If I didn’t feel like doing dishes immediately (which I do try to do), I would rinse them off and wait a bit longer before scrubbing them. And when the entire day just felt like too much for me and I needed a break, I took a nap.

While I wasn’t necessarily finding things that made me happy, I was doing things to make my day happier. And I think that is a big accomplishment for me. My checklist might still be the same, but since the overall goal was to be happier I think I did accomplish that.

And my challenge for this month feels like a continuation of last month. I want to put focus on the good things in my life. This was inspired by a podcast I listen to that is all about the good happening in the world right now. There are good things in my life right now, even when it doesn’t feel like it. I am very lucky in many ways and I want to focus more on that.

So I’m going to work on tracking the good in my life each day. I’m going to do this along with my gratitude list that I do each evening. I’m going to try to make at least 2 of the things on my gratitude list things that are good each day. That way, even when I have a bad day I can remind myself that not everything is bad.

I need this challenge as being isolated is getting to me more and more. I don’t want my mental health to be a struggle and I can see how I can get to that point if I am not proactive about it. So this is something I am doing in order to make sure I stay more positive than pessimistic each day. I know this won’t fix everything or magically make my life better, but I know that it will at least force me to acknowledge that I do have good things in my life even when I don’t feel like that is true.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Monthly Challenge (or Just Trying To Keep Things Going) Default ThumbnailMy August Challenge (or Being Selfish To Be Happy) Default ThumbnailAdjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness) Default ThumbnailBuilding Upon My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Work On Shopping) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Check-In (or Doing My Own Version Of An OTF Challenge This Month)

Comments Off on Doing The Opposite Of My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Focus On The Good)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Still Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy)

Posted on July 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Still Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy)

The beginning of another month brings one monthly challenge to an end and the start to another. And these challenges haven’t been my strong point lately. Figuring out challenges to do while I’m stuck at home shouldn’t be as tough as it is. But I’m also lacking some of the motivation I normally have. So even though a lot of the challenges I’ve done before could easily be done while at home, it’s not the same. I’m really trying my best, but I also know that I probably could do more.

My challenge last month was to try to get back on track with my physical and mental health. I really don’t know how to rate myself with that challenge. I think I took some great steps forward but also had some big falls back. I think my physical health had the most progress, mainly because I have figured out a few things that are helping me with food right now. Food is still a huge struggle for me, but anything that makes it a little easier is so nice. But my mental health took some serious swings. I recently had one of the lowest days I’ve had in a while. I got out of it quickly, but being in that type of funk isn’t good when I don’t have a lot of the usual things I can do to feel better.

And that inspired what my challenge will be for this month. I want to find new things that make me happy. I need to almost create a happiness checklist for isolation. What can I do to keep me happy that doesn’t require me to go out? For example, on my happiness checklist, I have going out for a meal because that does make me happy. Getting delivery food isn’t the same. So I need to figure out what else can temporarily replace that on the list. Same with the idea of going out with friends. I can’t do that right now. I need to find something that I can do in my house that gives me some happiness to replace it on the list.

Even though things are starting to reopen here, I don’t know how long that will last or if things will continue to reopen. Some things that have reopened and have needed to be closed again. So as much as I want to believe that things are getting better and I can start venturing out of my house more often, I’m trying to prepare myself for being in isolation at home for a lot longer. I don’t want to believe that it will take until there is a vaccine before that happens, but that might just be the case. If I have to stay home for a year in order to stay healthy then that’s what I’ll do. It’s not easy staying inside and as I’ve mentioned I am struggling a bit, but I have to remember that I’m doing this for a good reason. I just have to make staying home easier and more tolerable.

I wish I would gain some motivation back so I could do some better monthly challenges. But right now, I feel like I’m in survival mode and my brain really can’t take on too much. Maybe if I can find more ways to be happy, next month I can find a better challenge. But if all my challenges while in isolation are low effort like this, then that’s what will have to be. My time right now is not normal. I can’t expect to have my normal motivation either.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailStruggling To Figure Out Challenges Right Now (or I’m Just Going To Try To Stay Hopeful) Default ThumbnailI Feel Like Every Monthly Challenge Is The Same (or Will This Be The Month I Get Back On Track?) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Monthly Challenge (or Just Trying To Keep Things Going) Default ThumbnailAdjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness) Default ThumbnailGetting More Productive (or More Monthly Challenges) Default ThumbnailRecapping My June (or Still Thinking Up New Monthly Challenges)

Comments Off on Still Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy)

Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Hope And Health (or I Don’t Have The Motivation To Do A Bigger Challenge)

Posted on June 3, 2020 | Comments Off on Hope And Health (or I Don’t Have The Motivation To Do A Bigger Challenge)

When I was struggling to figure out monthly challenges in the past few years, I had no idea how tough it would be to plan them when I’m isolated at home. Even though many of my challenges don’t involve me leaving my house to do them, my motivation while isolated is nowhere near it normally is. I don’t feel the push to do a ton every day. Some of this is due to physical exhaustion and some of this is mental exhaustion. This isn’t an easy time for any of us, but I’m trying my best. I am working on being gentler and kinder with myself because it’s so easy to compare myself now to myself before. But we are living in a different time and that’s not a fair comparison.

Because of those factors, my monthly challenges lately haven’t been very intense. They have mainly been about taking care of myself. Last month, I challenged myself to stay hopeful. And for the most part, I think I did an ok job with that. I paid attention to the news to see how things were progressing with testing and cases in LA. The news was sounding better. Things were starting to be able to reopen. Even if I wasn’t going to go to places, I was hopeful that them being reopened was a good sign. And I was staying hopeful that we were through the worst of this wave (I still fear another wave in the fall, but that’s another issue).

But then at the end of the month, it became harder to be hopeful. Not because of the pandemic but because of police brutality. I was saddened to see those stories happen, but I tried to stay hopeful in amplifying the voices that needed to be heard and working on being a better ally. I wasn’t quite as hopeful as I was before, but I also became more aware of the racism and discrimination out there that I might have been blind to before. I found hope in seeing people taking action and learning how to take action myself. I am hopeful that one day, we will find a way to have systematic change with law enforcement and how people are treated. I am not hopeful that it will happen soon. It will take a lot of work and we cannot let up.

This month, my challenge is related a bit to wanting to be hopeful. I want to work on my health. This is about both my mental and physical health. For my physical health, I need to find ways to work out harder and I need to eat better. Those aren’t easy, but they can be done. And they are things that I have been working on for a long time.

But more importantly, I want to work on my mental health.

I am overwhelmed with everything going on in the world and it would be so easy to retreat and hide. But the more I learn about racism the more I know that I cannot use my mental health as an excuse to avoid hearing these stories. I need to find a purpose and actionable things to do whenever I hear stories of police brutality or racism. I need to find a way to not let these affect my mental health because I need to be a source of amplification of voices who may not have the same privilege that I do. I need to find a way to turn this activism into a positive thing for me and not an upsetting thing. This is a huge shift in my mindset, but I know it will be for the better. If these situations don’t make me run and hide but instead make me feel like I can help and seek ways to do so, I will be a better ally for so many people. I will likely be able to handle other stress in my life as well, but that is not my focus. My main focus is to turn the feeling of being overwhelmed or sad into the push to get to action.

I have already been working on this idea. Yesterday was Blackout Tuesday where we were not supposed to post on social media. Originally, I thought that meant we were supposed to stay off of social media and I was planning on doing that. It would be an easy way to avoid and hide from things. But my friends corrected me and said it was not about being silent but about sharing and amplifying the voices that should be heard right now. And that’s what I did. I found posts from leaders in the Black Lives Matter community and shared them. I took time to educate myself, find reading and watching lists, and followed new accounts that I know would continue to share information. I didn’t hide and avoid things because that would have been easier. I took in the information, which wasn’t always easy, and made sure to share it. And I feel like I felt better doing that than I would have if I didn’t.

Hopefully, I will be able to continue to strengthen and repair my body and mind this month. My mind is the priority to me because I know that being able to be focused and taking action is more time-sensitive. I know that it is needed now. And I am hoping that doing that will lead to other positive changes with my mindset and how I react to things that might be negative or upsetting. I want to be a voice of change and not a silent supporter.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Update Time (or One More For 2017) Default ThumbnailStill Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy) Default ThumbnailMileage And Motivation (or Another New Challenge) Default ThumbnailDoing A Health Check-In On Myself (or Seeing Where I’m Slipping) Default ThumbnailRunning For Cancer (or Health Supporting Health) Default ThumbnailMental Health Month (or Better Late Than Never)

Comments Off on Hope And Health (or I Don’t Have The Motivation To Do A Bigger Challenge)

Posted in Tough Stuff

Tagged , , , , , ,

Struggling To Figure Out Challenges Right Now (or I’m Just Going To Try To Stay Hopeful)

Posted on May 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Struggling To Figure Out Challenges Right Now (or I’m Just Going To Try To Stay Hopeful)

March felt like it lasted 6 years. April felt like it just flew by. I guess that’s a sign that we are getting used to isolation and the days are starting to go quicker. But there’s no question that I’m ready to see how we try to find a new normal. It will take time and this won’t be happening overnight. But I know that it will happen. And until it does, everything I do has to be something I can do at my house.

And figuring out monthly challenges while in isolation isn’t easy. Even though very few of my challenges require me to leave my house, there is a different mindset that we are all in while isolating. Motivation isn’t the same. It’s hard to plan but at the same time, most of us have nothing but time.

That’s why last month, my challenge was to try to get a better handle on how I was handling things. I could feel my life feeling out of control. And while there are very few things that I can control right now, I spent April focusing on what I could control. And those things focused mainly on things related to a daily schedule.

I do still need to wake up at my normal time a few days a week, but I was getting into some bad sleep habits with going to bed late and sleeping in if I could. Sleeping in didn’t mean I was sleeping very late, but I wasn’t getting up with my alarm. And that is a habit that I didn’t want to start. Sleep schedules aren’t easy for me to get into, but very easy to ruin. So I wanted to make an effort to be better about that. I haven’t been perfect this past month, but it’s been much better than it was in March. I haven’t slept later than my alarm, even if I was up too late the night before. Yes, that results in me being tired sometimes. But I’m working on fixing that too.

I also wanted to get better about when I was eating. With nothing really dictating my schedule, it was hard to get into a routine. Just like with sleeping, I am still working on this. I’m pretty much having 2 meals a day (which I don’t know if that’s good). I pretty much have brunch and dinner. I eat brunch after I do my little bit of work or my workout (depending on the day). And dinner is pretty much at a normal dinner time. I’m cooking a lot, which is a good thing. But I also want to get better about what I’m cooking and adding variety to my recipes.

I’m glad that I made my monthly challenge last month to try to get things back to how they should be. I needed that sense of control and regularity in my life. And even though I still have moments that I struggle, April was much easier for me to deal with than March.

And for May, I wanted to continue working on feeling better. But I did struggle again with what I could make my challenge to be. Doing something like picking up a new skill doesn’t feel right for right now. So I decided to make it another challenge related to being in insolation and the state of the world right now.

My challenge for May is to work on staying hopeful. I want to be hopeful that things will be ok. I want to be hopeful that we will be able to be out with our friends and family again soon. I want to be hopeful that I will stay healthy and so will the people I love. And I want to stay hopeful that I will get through this and soon enough it will be just a memory. It’s not always easy to stay hopeful, but I know I need to do it. I need to work on keeping a positive mindset as much as I can. And hopefulness will do that for me.

Hopefully, when I do my recap of this challenge, we will have a better idea of when things will be changing to close to normal again. But if not, I know that day will come one day. And it’s going to be so amazing when that happens.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailRecapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself) Default ThumbnailAlmost Through A Year Of Monthly Challenges (or Picking A Good Challenge For November) Default ThumbnailStruggling To Figure Out A Monthly Challenge (or Finding Myself Again) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Work On Myself (or More Reflective Challenges) Default ThumbnailAnother Attempt At Mindfulness (or I Think I Need To Work On This Until I Figure It Out) Default ThumbnailGetting More Productive (or More Monthly Challenges)

Comments Off on Struggling To Figure Out Challenges Right Now (or I’m Just Going To Try To Stay Hopeful)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

An Isolation Monthly Challenge (or Just Trying To Keep Things Going)

Posted on April 1, 2020 | Comments Off on An Isolation Monthly Challenge (or Just Trying To Keep Things Going)

When I set up my monthly challenge for March, I had no clue what the month would end up being like. I really had all the best intentions to work on my budgeting and to get back on track with where my money was going every month. I know that this is something I need to do and that’s why I created the challenge. And for the first week or so, I was doing ok with trying to figure out a good plan for myself with what I wanted to do.

But then everything went crazy. I’ll do another post another time about my mental health right now because it’s been a lot. I’ve written a few things about it, but I feel like how I feel is swinging back and forth a lot. And part of the struggle with mental health has meant that I have neglected to do some things that I wanted to do. And budgeting did slip off my radar.

I have tried to catch up this month with getting back on track and I know I am making some good strides toward it, but there is a lot that I wanted to get done this past month that I didn’t even get close to doing. I wanted to do the online classes with how to use the software the best way possible and I never did that. I occasionally had to look up how to do something so I did learn a bit, but nothing like what I wanted to do. I still feel like there is so much I need to learn in order to feel comfortable with budgeting things the way I was able to do it before.

But I had to be gentle with myself because I know that I had the best intentions going into the month and I didn’t have any control over things going crazy. I know that maybe some people would have been fine and able to continue working on the goals that they had set up for the month. And maybe under other circumstances, I would have been able to do so. But that’s not how things worked out this time for me and I am ok with that. We are all dealing with something that we have never experienced before and we don’t know how we will react or deal.

And being in an unknown situation is what made me think of my monthly challenge for this month. I know that there is a chance that I will settle into how things are right now, but there’s a good possibility that I will be struggling the same way that I am now. Things keep changing so there is no way for me to feel settled or like I can be comfortable with how things are. I cannot control the world around me, I can only control my reaction to it.

And that’s what my challenge is for April. I want to stay more in control of how I’m dealing with everything. And the main part of that for me is trying to maintain a somewhat normal schedule. I do still have 4 days a week that I have to get up at my usual time to do work, but I have 3 days a week that I can sleep as late as I want. I did take advantage of that last week, and it’s thrown off my sleep schedule. Things aren’t my normal schedule and I can’t always do everything when I’m used to doing them, but I can create a new schedule for myself that is as close to normal as possible.

And along with that schedule, I can get better about regular meals. I have been cooking more, but I haven’t been great about eating as often or when I should. Having dinner at 9pm isn’t good for me, but it’s happened more than once. I usually don’t eat breakfast, but I have been doing that lately and I think it is out of boredom. I need to plan meals the best that I can and work on scheduling when I am going to cook and when I am going to eat.

The only thing I have been ok at trying to maintain is having a few fun things in my life. They are limited to things I can do on my computer or phone, so that is a bit of a struggle for me mentally. But it does help when I have something to look forward to in the afternoon or evening. I’ve mainly been doing movies with friends, but I should try to find other things that I can do virtually with friends. This will be over one day, but it might not be soon. I need to get to work on adjusting my life so I will thrive during this time. Surviving isn’t enough for me right now. I need to find ways to continue pushing forward and working on myself. And I think figuring out a plan for this time is the best way I can do that right now.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailTaking A Month To Reset (or This Doesn’t Really Feel Like A Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge Down (or The Prosperous Heart) Default ThumbnailThinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First) Default ThumbnailStill Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge (or What To Do When You Are Crazy Busy) Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge)

Comments Off on An Isolation Monthly Challenge (or Just Trying To Keep Things Going)

Posted in Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged , , ,

Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Posted on February 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Last month, I set a monthly challenge to only read self-help/improvement books. I really was excited about this challenge because I had so many books on my library list that I wanted to read. I thought I’d be able to go through a big chunk of that list and I started the challenge assuming it would be easy to do and I’d get it done.

Then, only a week into the month, I realized that this challenge might not be the right one for me. It was actually stressing me out to not have reading as an escape and I had to read something that wouldn’t make me have to think too much. I wasn’t sure what a new version of the challenge would be, but I was open to exploring other options. But this was before I started to feel horrible so I think my ideas just weren’t realistic for me. All the ideas that I was thinking about trying just didn’t happen.

What I did end up doing was spending one or two days reading a self-help/improvement book after completing a fun book. This ended up being once or twice a week so I did get quite a bit of reading done in the book I started working on. I think part of the struggle was how close to home the book I was reading was hitting me and it was tough to get through. I was taking everything in that I was reading and I had to take some time to let it sit. I didn’t want to start reading another chapter when I was still thinking about what I just read. So only reading a little bit at a time and then taking a break did end up working for me. That just wasn’t what I was planning on doing. But this routine is working for me right now and I plan on continuing it as I work through this book and hopefully as I read a few more books I have on my list.

I’m not declaring last month’s challenge a total fail because I did adjust things as I need them. That’s not something I normally do, but I am proud of myself for realizing I did need to do that in order to have a bit of success.

This month, I’m doing a challenge that I’ve told myself I needed to do for a while. It’s been a long time since my old therapist had me work on a happiness checklist. I’ve made some minor changes to the list, but for the most part, I have the same things on it that I’ve had since the beginning. And that’s just not working for me anymore. I need to take some time to find what makes me happy and what doesn’t and adjust the checklist accordingly. And in the past, when I’ve tried to change up what’s on the checklist, I don’t think I’ve taken enough time.

There are a few things on the list that are easy for me to decide that I want to remove. Either they aren’t important to me anymore or they are things that I don’t feel add to my happiness in life. For example, getting 10,000 steps is currently on my list, but I don’t really care as much about this anymore. I would love to be able to get 10,000 steps a day done, but that’s not always possible. When I’m extremely busy with work or I’m feeling nauseous, I know I won’t get my steps in. And I don’t want to stress about not getting that done just so it can be checked off when I don’t care.

But when it comes to what I want to add to the list, that’s a bit harder for me. There are some things that I think would be good on the list, but I don’t know if I want to have it as something I worry about getting done. So this month, I want to test out a few different ideas to see how doing them regularly affects me (or stresses me) and I also want to take notes on other things that make me happy or bring me joy. I might discover something I didn’t think about having on the list because doing it randomly made me so happy.

I’m not going to rush into making any final decisions about what I want on the list until closer to the end of the month, but I will play around with different list ideas and probably make some mock-up checklists to see if they feel right to me. Right now, I have 10 things on my list, but I don’t know if that is going to stay the same. I don’t know if I want to have way more than 10 or how low I want to go below 10. 10 seems like a good number, but it doesn’t have to stay there if I discover having 9 or 11 on the list works better for me.

Hopefully, at the end of this month, I will have a better idea of what I want my checklist to be. I might not have the final checklist idea, but I want to have at least some adjustments to it to reflect what makes me happy a bit more. And by having a better checklist, I hope that I can find ways to be happier more often and I will find the checklist as useful to me as it was when I started using it.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailFirst Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement) Default ThumbnailThinking Of Changing Up My Monthly Challenge (or I Guess This Would Be A First) Default ThumbnailRecapping My June (or Still Thinking Up New Monthly Challenges) Default ThumbnailGetting More Productive (or More Monthly Challenges) Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge Down (or July and August Challenges) Default ThumbnailStill Trying To Get Back To Normal (or Isolation Monthly Challenges Really Are Not Easy)

Comments Off on Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , ,

First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

Posted on January 3, 2020 | Comments Off on First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

As I have done for several years, I am using a Volt Planner to work on my goal setting for the year. And that includes the monthly challenges that I’ve been doing every year I’ve had the planner. When I started using it, I think I was a bit more successful with the monthly challenges. Maybe I was doing easier challenges or maybe it was the novelty of it. But in the past year or so, I haven’t been completing them as much as I used to. I don’t know what I can do to change that, but I’m going to try hard to pick challenges that push me but are doable.

And my challenge for December was one that I was able to be successful with. I wanted to spend my month getting prepared for this year. A lot of that meant getting organized because I know a cluttered space makes things more chaotic for me. I did get a lot of organizing done with different spaces in my house. It’s not a completed project, but it’s significantly better than it was before. I also wanted to be in a better mental place for the new year and I feel like I was finally able to release some negative feelings and people from my life. I didn’t do anything special to do that, but I did make a focus on why I was dealing with those feelings and somehow they faded away. Maybe I just needed to acknowledge them and that allowed my brain to know they were there and I didn’t have to think about it more. I still have a few things that bring me down that I want to let go, but just like my organizing, it is a work in progress. But the most important thing is that I got started on the right path and I know it will be better for me.

Going along with the idea of being ready for the year and in a better mental place, my January challenge will be another one that hopefully will put me in a better space. My challenge for this month is to only read self-help and self-improvement books. I usually do a mix of self-help/improvement books with fiction or fluff books. Lately, I’ve been neglecting the non-fiction books and I’ve just been reading things that make me happy or are an escape. But I want to get back into the habit of changing up what I read and I want to catch up on books that I’ve been putting off.

I have several books on my Kindle that are self-help/improvement ones that I bought when they were super cheap and told myself that I would read them soon. So I already have lots of books to choose from. I don’t know if I have enough to read to get through the entire month, but if I need more I know I can get some e-books from the library. I have been putting some books on my wishlist that would be good options. I usually buy these books instead of getting them from the library because I like to take my time reading them. But I think that reasoning isn’t the best one. I can always get something from the library to make sure I like it and then if I want more time with it I can buy it. My book purchasing habit is significantly less than it was before, but I do want to find more ways to save and this is one way. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure all the books I bought are ones that I will like so I’m not too worried that I wasted money.

Since I read every day, I know I’ll get a lot of reading done this month. And since I will only be reading books that fit into this challenge, I feel very good that I can be successful at it. I will need to resist the temptation to read something silly as a break, but maybe I can find a self-help/improvement book that isn’t as serious or intense to read if I need that mental break. But challenging myself to not go easy on me is a part of this challenge that I want to try to do. I know that I can try to do something hard but I want to prove that I can complete what I set out to do. And hopefully, that will give me the boost I need to keep pushing through future challenges if they seem too hard to do.

I’m excited to work through this challenge this month. Not just for proving to myself that I can do it, but also to see what I will learn from what I read. I know that I will learn something from every book I read even if it’s not exactly the perfect book for me or my situation. And those things I learn can only benefit me in my life.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailAnother Monthly Challenge Down (or July and August Challenges) Default ThumbnailAdjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness) Default ThumbnailNot Perfect This Month (or Challenged With The Monthly Challenge) Default ThumbnailMonthly Challenge Update Time (or One More For 2017) Default ThumbnailDecember Monthly Challenge (or Wrapping Up For The Year) Default ThumbnailAlmost Through A Year Of Monthly Challenges (or Picking A Good Challenge For November)

Comments Off on First Monthly Challenge Of The Year (or Setting Up For The Year And Self-Improvement)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , ,

2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Posted on January 1, 2020 | Comments Off on 2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Happy New Year! Even though I know that the start of a new year (or a new month or week) doesn’t have to mean a lot, I like the idea of a fresh start and kicking off the time with something new. And that’s exactly what I’ve been able to do for the past few years.

And just like the last several years, I’m going to be using a Volt Planner to do my goal tracking and monthly challenges. They are really beautiful planners and they are laid out perfectly for what I want to. They do keep me organized and I spent some time this past week working on what I wanted my goals to be for 2020. Some of them are new ones, but there are several that I feel like I have tried to do multiple times. But just because I didn’t accomplish a goal in the past doesn’t mean I can’t get it done this year.

My first goal shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I want to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes this year. This goal is one I have been setting each year (or at least I would have a target number of classes I wanted to get to) and it’s a goal that I know I don’t have to think about much. I typically go to 4 classes a week which will easily get me to 200 classes. It also allows for a bit of flexibility if there are a few weeks that I can’t do 4 classes. Of course, something could come up that would prevent me from working out, but I’m not expecting anything to do that so this goal should be one that in a year I can say I was able to do.

My next goal is that I want to cook more often. I have had this goal several times and the reasons for it have always been the same. I know that it is healthier for me to cook at home plus it is a good way to save money. I have the ability to cook, I just don’t have the motivation. I need to work on finding the motivation because I know that it’s the main thing holding me back. I also want to work on finding recipes that inspire me and can become something I cook regularly.

The next goal is one I already have started. I want to continue to work on my home organization and be able to maintain it. I have slowly been going through my house and seeing what I really need and what I might be able to get rid of or donate. I’m also getting things that help me organize what I do keep. For example, my bathroom is tiny and there is no storage space. But I finally found a little basket I can use to keep my cleaning supplies together so they don’t look as cluttered. It’s not necessarily organized, but it looks that way. My big challenge will be organizing my desk, but I’m giving myself plenty of time to work on it.

Next is a bit of a combo goal. I want to get back to my job hunting as well as working on my budget. I’ve been doing ok with my budgeting work. The app that I use has made huge changes and I finally had to switch to the new system. There is a bit of a learning curve with it, but that’s why I want to make budgeting one of my goals. I can see how easy it would be to let this slip, and I don’t want to do that. I do not want to get back into credit card debt and the best way to do that will be to budget carefully. And along those lines, budgeting would be easier if I had more income. And that’s why I need to get back to my job hunting. I am so lucky I have the job I have right now, but it’s not enough. It’s never made me enough money and I can’t keep ignoring that fact.

Another combo goal is to be more social and to have more fun. I have a tendency to be a bit of a homebody. And even though that is something I choose to do, I get a bit lonely when I do that and I crave going out. I need to be more productive in making plans with friends and seeking new ways to go out and have fun. And part of this may be working on expanding my circle of friends and finding different groups to be a part of. It’s not easy making friends at my age, but it’s not impossible either. And I can’t make an excuse to not do it because it might be difficult.

And the last two go together even though I consider them very separate goals. I want to be more active in union service and I want to focus more on my acting career. I have gotten very involved in union service and it has been an amazing addition to my life. I love what I have been able to be a part of and how much more I understand my union. But I know there is so much more I can do and I want to work toward that. I have more ways to be involved and I want to get more people involved. And along with that, I need to focus on my acting career. That is my goal in life and I need to get things back in order because I didn’t prioritize them enough in the past year. Some of the things I need to do cost money and that was holding me back, but I need to find ways to make it happen because my career is important to me and I don’t want to waste time not doing it.

I think I have a good variety of goals for 2020. Some of them I know will be easier to do than others, but they cover a variety of areas in my life. And even if I only get half of them done this year, my life is going to be so much better with them accomplished.

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailWhat I Plan To Do This Year (or 2015 Goals) Default Thumbnail2014 Goals (or Hoping To Get More Goals Done This Year) Default ThumbnailMy 2016 Goals (or I’ve Got Some Big Ideas This Year) Default ThumbnailAn Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals) Default ThumbnailMy 2017 Goals (or I Know This Year Will Be Amazing!) Default ThumbnailMy 2013 Goals (or I’m Not Calling Them Resolutions This Time)

Comments Off on 2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Posted in Acting, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Saving, Work

Tagged , ,

I Actually Wrote A Book! (or Getting Myself Ready For 2020)

Posted on December 3, 2019 | Comments Off on I Actually Wrote A Book! (or Getting Myself Ready For 2020)

Last month, I did a repeat monthly challenge. I’ve attempted to write my book about online dating for several years now and I’ve never been able to complete that challenge. I knew going into it this past month that even if I complete the challenge it doesn’t necessarily mean that I finish a book. But I wanted to see what I could get done and I was hoping it would be better than my past attempts.

I had changed what my book was going to be about when I thought about it earlier this year. Instead of just telling stories about dates I went on and guys I met, I wanted to organize it into lessons I’ve learned through dating. This allowed me to work on the book without figuring out where things were going or needing to have an ending to it. This book has the potential to be a work in progress with new chapters for a while, so I didn’t want to have to feel like I needed a way to wrap things up. And by making it more about life lessons got me into that mindset.

I was following the NaNoWriMo plan again this year as I had in the past. I knew that I might have some days where I wrote more words than I needed to and other days would be fewer words. My goal was to work on one lesson (or one chapter) a day. And while I had done a lot of research and planning, I knew I would need to plan more lessons during the month because I wasn’t going to have enough. It wasn’t always easy, but I figured out how to split things up differently and new lessons to add so I had enough to work on one a day. And on Saturday, the last day of the month, I made it to the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words!

Writing this book ended up being very therapeutic for me. I had to work through some things that I didn’t realize I wasn’t completely over. I had to revisit some moments that are not positive or that I am ashamed or embarrassed about. I had to be brutally honest with myself as I wrote things because I’m not always the hero of the story. Every day that I worked on the book, new emotions came up but at the same time, I found new peace with some things as well. I didn’t realize how much I needed to write this book for me.

Since I know this is still a work in progress, I don’t want to say that I finished a book. There are still things that may change about it, but I have a full draft of the book as of right now. And I want to start working on the editing process on the chapters I have completed so far. I have several friends who have offered to read it, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that just yet. I can do some editing on my own first and that’s what I plan on doing. Hopefully, soon I will feel ready to share it with some friends for some feedback and editing. And then after that, I can do some more research on what it would take to get my book published in the future.

For this month, I wanted to do another reflective monthly challenge. Not only is this the last month of the year, but it’s also the last month of the decade. That seems monumental and made me think about how I started this decade. I was in the middle of a lot of change and it was a very chaotic time for me. This decade hasn’t always been the best, but I think that I’m in the best place I’ve ever been in with my life so far. And I want to continue doing that into the next decade (and beyond).

So my plan for this month is to spend the time preparing to kick off the new year and new decade as my best self. I want to work on being in the best place I can mentally and working toward the best place physically. And some of the mental work includes working on my physical space, which is something I have been working on lately. I’ve been cleaning up my house and getting it more organized. I’ve been working on finding new ways to store things so my space doesn’t feel as cluttered. It’s been a process, but I’m feeling much better about how my house looks now.

I need to do some serious organizing work with my kitchen and it feels right to do that before the new year. I want to find ways to use my kitchen more and more efficiently. I also have a plan to do some food reaction testing soon and I need to have my kitchen in a good place to do that the best I can. I’m also looking at other things around my house that I want to change because I have lived here for almost 10 years now and some things are things I got when I moved here. I think updating my space after 10 years seems right.

I’m so excited that I’ve finished my first draft of my book (so far) and that I’m in such a good headspace for the new year. Now, I just want to make sure I’m continuing to work on those things so I can kick of 2020 with a bang!

You Might Also Like

Default ThumbnailNot Sure How I Did With My Last Monthly Challenge (or Another Attempt At NaNoWriMo) Default ThumbnailFiguring Out A Plan For My Book (or I’m Not Sure What’s Next) Default ThumbnailYet Another Book Rewrite (or Letting My Blog Posts Inspire Me) Default ThumbnailRecapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself) Default ThumbnailNaNoWriMo Take 2 (or Still Working On The Same Book) Default ThumbnailContinuing To Work On My Book (or I Wonder How Many Versions I’ll Have Before I Finish It)

Comments Off on I Actually Wrote A Book! (or Getting Myself Ready For 2020)

Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged , , , , , ,