I'm hoping to get a bunch of homework done on the plane tomorrow morning so I can truly RELAX for a week!
*Gonna put the the world away for a minute
Pretend I don't live in it
Sunshine gonna wash my blues away
Had sweet love but I lost it
She got too close so I fought her
Now I'm lost in the world trying to find me a better way
Wishing I was knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze and it don't seem fair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there's a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise
Wrote a note said be back in a minute
Bought a boat and I sailed off in it
Don't think anybody gonna miss me anyway
Mind on a permanent vacation
The ocean is my only medication
Wishing my condition ain't ever gonna go away
Cause now I'm knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there's a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise
This champagne shore washing over me
It's a sweet sweet life living by the salty sea
One day you could be as lost as me
Change you're geography
Maybe you might be
Knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there's a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise
Come on in the water it's nice
Find yourself a little slice
Grab a backpack of lies
You never know until you try
When you lose yourself
You find the key to paradise*
-Zac Brown Band
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
One Week
Life has been non-stop for the past week and a half. My days of boredom at home are long gone and that realization is bittersweet, for sure. There's a lot of introspection going on over here and I can't even think about everything I have to get done this week in a very small amount of free time without crying. THE reason I'm going to be able to get through it is that this is my reward...
Hawai'i! To say I'm so excited would be an understatement! Have you ever been? Any recommendations on what to do on the big island?
Hawai'i! To say I'm so excited would be an understatement! Have you ever been? Any recommendations on what to do on the big island?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Doughy Smoothie Bowl
I've been looking for something a little different to eat for
breakfast. I try to mix it up between eggs and oatmeal because both are
pretty filling, but both have also gotten a little old lately. This
morning, I blended up a doughy smoothie inspired by this recipe.
1 cup milk of choice
3 Tbs. dried, unsweetened coconut
1 banana
pinch of cinnamon
splash of alcohol-free vanilla
I placed these in the blender overnight and then whirred it up in the morning. Quick and easy!
This is a porridge/smoothie hybrid so I actually popped it in the microwave for 45 seconds to take the chill off and then ate it out of a bowl. It would be even better with some crunchy granola, flax seed, or nuts sprinkled on top.
Doughy Smoothie Bowl
1/4 cup raw buckwheat groats1 cup milk of choice
3 Tbs. dried, unsweetened coconut
1 banana
pinch of cinnamon
splash of alcohol-free vanilla
I placed these in the blender overnight and then whirred it up in the morning. Quick and easy!
This is a porridge/smoothie hybrid so I actually popped it in the microwave for 45 seconds to take the chill off and then ate it out of a bowl. It would be even better with some crunchy granola, flax seed, or nuts sprinkled on top.
Monday, January 16, 2012
What is Your Life's Blueprint?
It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and as I was driving to work today, I heard a recoding of a speech King gave to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. It gave me a lot to think about as I walked through the spring-like (?!?) morning into work. And a lot to think about as I slogged through a busy, noisy day. It takes a lot of energy to be "on" for 12 hours at a time. Especially when you're on your third shift in a row, which just reiterates this wonderful food for thought:
I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint?
Whenever a building is constructed, you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.
Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.
I want to suggest some of the things that should begin your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you fell that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well.
And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you. Doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and your fathers — and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great essayist, said in a lecture in 1871, "If a man can write a better book or preach a better sermon or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."
This hasn't always been true — but it will become increasingly true, and so I would urge you to study hard, to burn the midnight oil; I would say to you, don't drop out of school. I understand all the sociological reasons, but I urge you that in spite of your economic plight, in spite of the situation that you're forced to live in — stay in school.
And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.
Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.
— From the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, January 9, 2012
On My Mind Lately
I'm feeling so chaotic and disorganized as of late. Ross was out of town for a week after the New Year and the state of the union apartment quickly grew to reflect the state of my mind. Stereotypes be darned, the man in my life is 1,000,000,000 times neater and more organize than me. Thank goodness opposites attract!
Since I can't type a paragraph without rambling, here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:
-2011 went by ridiculously quickly. It was JUST June, right?
-This winter weather is starting to creep me out. It was nice to cheat the cold in November, and snow-free roads were great for Christmas travel. But seriously? It's just weird. I liked mild winters... in Texas! I feels very wrong here. And if we don't get some moisture soon (just a little, mind you, not a lot) the farmers around here are going to have a very disheartening spring.
-Despite all of my grand ambitions to eventually be a nurse practitioner in some specialty, I don't know if it will ever happen. The NICU has a magnetic pull on me. I go through baby withdraw if I'm off work for more than 5 or 6 days.
-I love Body Pump. But I really miss running. I ran for 1 minute (one measly minute) on the treadmill the other day and my right IT band still hasn't forgiven me. WTF?!
-My schedule is about to get out-of-control busy and I'm a little freaked out. I can rise to the challenge. I must rise to the challenge. I will rise to the challenge!
Since I can't type a paragraph without rambling, here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:
-2011 went by ridiculously quickly. It was JUST June, right?
-This winter weather is starting to creep me out. It was nice to cheat the cold in November, and snow-free roads were great for Christmas travel. But seriously? It's just weird. I liked mild winters... in Texas! I feels very wrong here. And if we don't get some moisture soon (just a little, mind you, not a lot) the farmers around here are going to have a very disheartening spring.
-Despite all of my grand ambitions to eventually be a nurse practitioner in some specialty, I don't know if it will ever happen. The NICU has a magnetic pull on me. I go through baby withdraw if I'm off work for more than 5 or 6 days.
-I love Body Pump. But I really miss running. I ran for 1 minute (one measly minute) on the treadmill the other day and my right IT band still hasn't forgiven me. WTF?!
-My schedule is about to get out-of-control busy and I'm a little freaked out. I can rise to the challenge. I must rise to the challenge. I will rise to the challenge!
*It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these
things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will
reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running,
but life is on a stroll.* {Donald Miller}
Friday, January 6, 2012
27 Rules for Conquering the Gym
I love "January Joiners." I practically am one this year. More people = more energy. Here are 27 rules for conquering the gym, straight from the Wall Street Journal. Take it with a grain of salt (I disagree with #4, for example. Anything that gets you to the gym is a good thing.) But most of them are pretty funny!
1. A gym is not designed to make you feel instantly better about yourself. If a gym wanted to make you feel instantly better about yourself, it would be a bar.
2. Give yourself a goal. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you want to quarterback the New York Jets into the playoffs. But be warned: Losing 10 pounds is hard.
3. Develop a gym routine. Try to go at least three times a week. Do a mix of strength training and cardiovascular conditioning. After the third week, stop carrying around that satchel of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.
4. No one in the history of gyms has ever lost a pound while reading "The New Yorker" and slowly pedaling a recumbent bicycle. No one.
5. Bring your iPod. Don't borrow the disgusting gym headphones, or use the sad plastic radio attachment on the treadmill, which always sounds like it's playing Kenny Loggins from a sewer.
6. Don't fall for gimmicks. The only tried-and-true method to lose 10 pounds in 48 hours is food poisoning.
7. Yes, every gym has an overenthusiastic spinning instructor who hasn't bought a record since "Walking on Sunshine."
8. There's also the Strange Guy Who is Always at the Gym. Just when you think he isn't here today...there he is, lurking by the barbells.
9. "Great job!" is trainer-speak for "It's not polite for me to laugh at you."
10. Beware a hip gym with a Wilco step class.
11. Gyms have two types of members: Members who wipe down the machines after using them, and the worst people in the universe.
12. Nope, that's not a "recovery energy bar with antioxidant dark chocolate." That's a chocolate bar.
13. Avoid Unsolicited Advice Guy, who, for the small fee of boring you to death, will explain the proper method for any exercise in 45 minutes or longer.
14. You can take 10 Minute Abs, 20 Minute Abs, and 30 Minute Abs. There is also Stop Eating Pizza and Eating Sheet Cake Abs—but that's super tough!
15. If you're motivated to buy an expensive home exercise machine, consider a "wooden coat rack." It costs $40, uses no electricity and does the exact same thing.
16. There's the yoga instructor everyone loves, and the yoga instructor everyone hates. Memorize who they are.
17. If you see an indoor rock climbing wall, you're either in a really cool gym or a romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson.
18. Be cautious about any class with the words "sunrise," "hell," or "Moby."
19. If a gym class is going to be effective, it's hard. If you're relaxed and enjoying yourself, you're at brunch.
20. If you need to bring your children, just let them loose in the silent meditation class. Nobody minds, and kids love candles.
21. Don't buy $150 sneakers, $100 yoga pants, and $4 water. Muscle shirts are for people with muscles, and rhythm guitarists.
22. Fancy gyms can be seductive, but once you get past the modern couches and fresh flowers and the water with lemon slices, you're basically paying for a boutique hotel with B.O.
23. Everyone sees you secretly racing the old people in the pool.
24. If you're at the point where you've bought biking shoes for the spinning class, you may as well go ahead and buy an actual bike. It's way more fun and it doesn't make you listen to C+C Music Factory.
25. Fact: Thinking about going to the gym burns between 0 and 0 calories.
26. A successful gym membership is like a marriage: If it's good, you show up committed and ready for hard work. If it's not good, you show up in sweatpants and watch a lot of bad TV.
27. There is no secret. Exercise and lay off the fries. The end.
11, 12, 14, 19, 25, and 26 are my favorite. How about you?!
1. A gym is not designed to make you feel instantly better about yourself. If a gym wanted to make you feel instantly better about yourself, it would be a bar.
2. Give yourself a goal. Maybe you want to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you want to quarterback the New York Jets into the playoffs. But be warned: Losing 10 pounds is hard.
3. Develop a gym routine. Try to go at least three times a week. Do a mix of strength training and cardiovascular conditioning. After the third week, stop carrying around that satchel of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.
4. No one in the history of gyms has ever lost a pound while reading "The New Yorker" and slowly pedaling a recumbent bicycle. No one.
5. Bring your iPod. Don't borrow the disgusting gym headphones, or use the sad plastic radio attachment on the treadmill, which always sounds like it's playing Kenny Loggins from a sewer.
6. Don't fall for gimmicks. The only tried-and-true method to lose 10 pounds in 48 hours is food poisoning.
7. Yes, every gym has an overenthusiastic spinning instructor who hasn't bought a record since "Walking on Sunshine."
8. There's also the Strange Guy Who is Always at the Gym. Just when you think he isn't here today...there he is, lurking by the barbells.
9. "Great job!" is trainer-speak for "It's not polite for me to laugh at you."
10. Beware a hip gym with a Wilco step class.
11. Gyms have two types of members: Members who wipe down the machines after using them, and the worst people in the universe.
12. Nope, that's not a "recovery energy bar with antioxidant dark chocolate." That's a chocolate bar.
13. Avoid Unsolicited Advice Guy, who, for the small fee of boring you to death, will explain the proper method for any exercise in 45 minutes or longer.
14. You can take 10 Minute Abs, 20 Minute Abs, and 30 Minute Abs. There is also Stop Eating Pizza and Eating Sheet Cake Abs—but that's super tough!
15. If you're motivated to buy an expensive home exercise machine, consider a "wooden coat rack." It costs $40, uses no electricity and does the exact same thing.
16. There's the yoga instructor everyone loves, and the yoga instructor everyone hates. Memorize who they are.
17. If you see an indoor rock climbing wall, you're either in a really cool gym or a romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson.
18. Be cautious about any class with the words "sunrise," "hell," or "Moby."
19. If a gym class is going to be effective, it's hard. If you're relaxed and enjoying yourself, you're at brunch.
20. If you need to bring your children, just let them loose in the silent meditation class. Nobody minds, and kids love candles.
21. Don't buy $150 sneakers, $100 yoga pants, and $4 water. Muscle shirts are for people with muscles, and rhythm guitarists.
22. Fancy gyms can be seductive, but once you get past the modern couches and fresh flowers and the water with lemon slices, you're basically paying for a boutique hotel with B.O.
23. Everyone sees you secretly racing the old people in the pool.
24. If you're at the point where you've bought biking shoes for the spinning class, you may as well go ahead and buy an actual bike. It's way more fun and it doesn't make you listen to C+C Music Factory.
25. Fact: Thinking about going to the gym burns between 0 and 0 calories.
26. A successful gym membership is like a marriage: If it's good, you show up committed and ready for hard work. If it's not good, you show up in sweatpants and watch a lot of bad TV.
27. There is no secret. Exercise and lay off the fries. The end.
11, 12, 14, 19, 25, and 26 are my favorite. How about you?!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Carpe Diem
I have been beyond exhausted lately but this morning when my alarm went off, I actually got out of bed. (Okay, I pushed *snooze* twice and then got out of bed). Why did I set an alarm on "my Saturday?" Body Pump!
Now I'm home a my muscles are spaghetti in the best way possible. Time for a hot bath, and then a CLEANING FRENZY! Today I plan to:
-work out done!
-clean the apartment
-try on all my clothes and see what still fits and looks responsible per my monthly resolution
-find something to do with my hair besides throwing it in a frizzy ponytail
-plan some meals for the week and go grocery shopping
-clean up my computer inside and out
This way tomorrow, I can:
-run a bunch of errands (namely, see if any after Christmas sales are still applicable at Ulta (I need big-kid makeup), Lululemon (because, seriously), and TJ Maxx (do they have business casual?);
-go to lunch with a friend (sushi!) and
-study for my last stats test ever!
-go to small group-- it feels like I haven't been in forever
All of this so that Friday, I can:
-go to Body Pump again
-go to a part-time job interview
-hopefully take my stats test, and then...
-RELAX with NO weight on my shoulders before the real craziness of TA-ing and classes begins again!
What are your goals for the week?
Now I'm home a my muscles are spaghetti in the best way possible. Time for a hot bath, and then a CLEANING FRENZY! Today I plan to:
 |
| * |
-clean the apartment
-try on all my clothes and see what still fits and looks responsible per my monthly resolution
-find something to do with my hair besides throwing it in a frizzy ponytail
-plan some meals for the week and go grocery shopping
-clean up my computer inside and out
This way tomorrow, I can:
-run a bunch of errands (namely, see if any after Christmas sales are still applicable at Ulta (I need big-kid makeup), Lululemon (because, seriously), and TJ Maxx (do they have business casual?);
-go to lunch with a friend (sushi!) and
-study for my last stats test ever!
-go to small group-- it feels like I haven't been in forever
All of this so that Friday, I can:
-go to Body Pump again
-go to a part-time job interview
-hopefully take my stats test, and then...
-RELAX with NO weight on my shoulders before the real craziness of TA-ing and classes begins again!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Shameless Plug
If you read This Place in Time on your Google Reader, or via an RSS feed you may not have seen my new tab: Habits. 'Tis the season for New Year's Resolutions but after I came up with and dismissed a few lengthy lists, I realized that one. thing. at. a. time. may be the way to go. Little changes can make a big difference.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Ringing in the New Year
I had plans for a long post re-capping everything I haven't blogged about in the past few weeks, but first I was too busy and then I had a long day mentally, physically, and emotionally at work yesterday.
2012 has been off to an interesting start. I rung in the new year by working all day NYE and then spilling water on my laptop (NOOOOOO) while I was eating dinner after work. (Lesson learned. Spend less time on the computer, dumb@ss.)
Then I made cookies from the Babycakes cookbook Ross got me for Christmas :-)
The next day, I brought a frozen dinner with black-eyed peas to work with me to celebrate New Year's Day and I got a 10-minute break to shovel it in. As I was eating inhaling my lunch, I recalled that the last time I brought this lunch to work, I also had a busy day and didn't get much of a lunch break. Conclusion: while tasty, balck-eyed peas are not particularly lucky for me. I will just eat them at home from now on ;-)
Despite January 1 being a busy day, it was full of meaningful and sobering moments and I resolved to live more fully this year. I got home at 9:30 pm last night, I ate an Udi's bagel, took a long hot shower, and fell into bed. I didn't even brush my teeth!
I woke up well-rested, certainly, but a bit dazed and I consequently spent the morning and early afternoon in front of the computer doing nothing at all (so much for my NYE lesson). I think that blog-reading is an avoidance strategy for me. Don't want to worry about your own life? Read about someone else's. This is a problem. I really need to sit down and journal about yesterday to process it, but conveniently I wasted all my time and now I need to hurry up and clean the apartment a bit before rushing to a co-worker's house to see some of my favorite babies!
But before I do that, here's what's been happening:
-Ross and I drove to Amarillo on Christmas Eve and went to a candlelight service with Ross' family.
-My sister-in-law owns the Hunger Games which I've been wanting to read. I consequently read a book a day until I was done with the trilogy. Seriously.
-Christmas morning, we opened presents and then spent the rest of the day reading (see above) and relaxing. Overnight, Amarillo went from brown grass to SNOW! We woke up to a true white Christmas for the first time I can remember and it kept snowing all day long.
-I was so thankful I left my laptop at home. I needed a computer detox in a bad way.
-I also painted my nails for the first time in who knows how long. Emily's nails were a plummy gray shade for the holidays and I immediately coveted the polish. (It's Fearless Fog by Sally Hansen).
-I harangued Emily into going to Body Pump with me twice. I think she liked it! I'm jealous her gym offers more day-time classes than mine does.
-On December 29, I hightailed it out of Texas before sunrise to get back to Kansas City to see my family. My mom, dad, and 2 brothers came down for the resurrection of what used to be an annual tradition after Christmas: walk around the Plaza and look at the lights and then eat a huge dinner at Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse with my dad's brother's family. So fun!
-December 30, I got a blissful morning off due to low-census and I went to Beer Kitchen in Westport with my family. Delicious. I want to eat there daily. Then I went in to work around 12:30.
-Work
-Work
-Work
-Lay around and be lazy. And here we are.
Do you have a New Year's Resolution? I had a lot last year, and I'm sure at some point this month I'll look them up and see how I fared. But judging by the fact that I can't remember most of them, I think I know how that's going to end.
I've been making monthly goals the last few months and I like those better. This month's goal (not off to a fresh start considering I've spent the first two days in scrubs or pajamas thus far) it to dress for success.
I'm going to be a TA/clinical instructor for the entire year of 2012. This is no small task. Most of my students will be older than me. I'm 26 but I dress like I'm still in college. If I want people to take me seriously, I can't keep waiting for glossy hair and a put-together outfits and an acne-free face to magically appear. (But... if only that could happen)! Any advice?
Wish me luck!
2012 has been off to an interesting start. I rung in the new year by working all day NYE and then spilling water on my laptop (NOOOOOO) while I was eating dinner after work. (Lesson learned. Spend less time on the computer, dumb@ss.)
Then I made cookies from the Babycakes cookbook Ross got me for Christmas :-)
The next day, I brought a frozen dinner with black-eyed peas to work with me to celebrate New Year's Day and I got a 10-minute break to shovel it in. As I was
Despite January 1 being a busy day, it was full of meaningful and sobering moments and I resolved to live more fully this year. I got home at 9:30 pm last night, I ate an Udi's bagel, took a long hot shower, and fell into bed. I didn't even brush my teeth!
I woke up well-rested, certainly, but a bit dazed and I consequently spent the morning and early afternoon in front of the computer doing nothing at all (so much for my NYE lesson). I think that blog-reading is an avoidance strategy for me. Don't want to worry about your own life? Read about someone else's. This is a problem. I really need to sit down and journal about yesterday to process it, but conveniently I wasted all my time and now I need to hurry up and clean the apartment a bit before rushing to a co-worker's house to see some of my favorite babies!
But before I do that, here's what's been happening:
-Ross and I drove to Amarillo on Christmas Eve and went to a candlelight service with Ross' family.
-My sister-in-law owns the Hunger Games which I've been wanting to read. I consequently read a book a day until I was done with the trilogy. Seriously.
-Christmas morning, we opened presents and then spent the rest of the day reading (see above) and relaxing. Overnight, Amarillo went from brown grass to SNOW! We woke up to a true white Christmas for the first time I can remember and it kept snowing all day long.
-I was so thankful I left my laptop at home. I needed a computer detox in a bad way.
-I also painted my nails for the first time in who knows how long. Emily's nails were a plummy gray shade for the holidays and I immediately coveted the polish. (It's Fearless Fog by Sally Hansen).
-I harangued Emily into going to Body Pump with me twice. I think she liked it! I'm jealous her gym offers more day-time classes than mine does.
-On December 29, I hightailed it out of Texas before sunrise to get back to Kansas City to see my family. My mom, dad, and 2 brothers came down for the resurrection of what used to be an annual tradition after Christmas: walk around the Plaza and look at the lights and then eat a huge dinner at Hibachi Japanese Steakhouse with my dad's brother's family. So fun!
-December 30, I got a blissful morning off due to low-census and I went to Beer Kitchen in Westport with my family. Delicious. I want to eat there daily. Then I went in to work around 12:30.
-Work
-Work
-Work
-Lay around and be lazy. And here we are.
Do you have a New Year's Resolution? I had a lot last year, and I'm sure at some point this month I'll look them up and see how I fared. But judging by the fact that I can't remember most of them, I think I know how that's going to end.
I've been making monthly goals the last few months and I like those better. This month's goal (not off to a fresh start considering I've spent the first two days in scrubs or pajamas thus far) it to dress for success.
I'm going to be a TA/clinical instructor for the entire year of 2012. This is no small task. Most of my students will be older than me. I'm 26 but I dress like I'm still in college. If I want people to take me seriously, I can't keep waiting for glossy hair and a put-together outfits and an acne-free face to magically appear. (But... if only that could happen)! Any advice?
Wish me luck!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Habits
(I'm cleaning up my blog to prepare for a blog makeover, and this habits page makes me laugh. So many good intentions... I'm going to turn it into a New Year's post, even though it lasted 3 whole months.)
I've come to realize over the last few years that, as the fellow Kansas City native Gretchen Rubin says, "the days are long but the years are short." I don't want the legacy of my 20s to be that I spent them in front of the computer reading about other people's lives on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Reader. I want to live my own life.
I've come to realize over the last few years that, as the fellow Kansas City native Gretchen Rubin says, "the days are long but the years are short." I don't want the legacy of my 20s to be that I spent them in front of the computer reading about other people's lives on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Reader. I want to live my own life.
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| * |
Leo Babuata, the author of Zen Habits
suggests the power of changing or learning one habit at a time. I know
that personally, this makes me much more likely to make 12 true
lifestyle changes a year (heck, I'd be happy if even 6 of them stick).
By 'lifestyle' I literally mean anything in your life: fitness, dietary
changes, practicing mindfulness, replacing one negative habit with a
related but positive habit, praying daily, avoid gossiping, etc.
They
can even be baby steps: eat one fruit or vegetable at every meal, go to
church every Sunday even if you sit in the back and don't participate,
or focus on doing 5 minutes of activity a day. Pick a habit or a goal (if it's a goal, make it specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely)
and really, truly, focus on living it out for 30 days. I love this!
This way, instead of staring at a long list of things to do all at once,
I can make a deliberate effort to work one change into my life over the
course of a month. This requires more patience (I have a whole list of
ideas on the back-burner) but I'm hoping it's actually worth it and
leads to real change.
If you find some goals too overwhelming but you really want to make a change, keep in mind what Leo says:
For the most part, my habits are little changes that can make a big difference, but at least once a year I'm going to dare to dream. Maybe it means a few months of habits all directed toward a bigger goal. Maybe it will mean doing something outside my comfort zone for a month. Whatever it is, it'll be fun to do the crazy thing once in a blue moon.You can create habits without goals — I define goals as a predefined outcome that you’re striving for, not activities that you just want to do. So is creating a habit a goal? It can be, or you can approach it with the attitude of “it doesn’t matter what the outcome of this habit change is, but I want to enjoy the change as I do it."So enjoy the habit change, in the moment, and don’t worry what the outcome of the activity is. The outcome matters very little, if you enjoy the journey.
Without further ado, here are my monthly habits. Feel free to follow along or even better, make some for yourself! If you blog about it, put a link in the comments so we can cheer you on.
outcome
December 2011
Goal: get in the habit of doing something active 6 days a weekoutcome
November 2011
Goal: spend less time on the internetoutcome
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Looking for inspiration?
-The Happiness Project (I definitely recommend reading the book first. The website can be a little overwhelming.)
-Zen Habits (just don't try to read them all at once)!
-Find a church. Join a small group. READ YOUR BIBLE.
-Travel
-Write
-Take pictures
-Spend a month asking yourself who you are, who you have been, and who you want to be! Where were you 1, 5, 10 years ago? Where do you want to be 1, 5, 10 years from now?
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