De-stressing

Alright, tad bit late on my goal post. I worked longer than normal this weekend and ended up completely disorganized, but I'm back, my assignments and plans for the week are written down (and color-coordinated!), and I'm ready to get back on schedule.

Going with the idea of long work hours, looming midterms, and plenty of class projects, I'm taking this week to start scheduling in "de-stressing" times. So, goal 29 is to take a little bit of time out each day to just turn away from all forms of distractions or technology, and take just a few minutes to breathe on my own, stop focusing so hard on whatever I happen to be doing, and just take the time to relax.

Stress is tiring and unhealthy, not to mention frustrating, and it'll be nice to try and get away from that a little bit each day.

Focusing on Money

Here it is, another Monday, and another day of reading textbooks I don't want to read for classes that I have tomorrow. Thankfully the classes themselves are at least somewhat interesting. This week is a crazy one for me--I had work yesterday, tomorrow I have class, Wednesday I work, Thursday I have class again (until 9:00 at night, have I mentioned that?), Friday I work, Saturday I work, and next Sunday I work, too. Basically, this is my only day off. I'm pretty happy that I actually planned ahead last week and didn't procrastinate for once--I have a project and a paper due on Tuesday; I finished both of them by the end of Saturday.

Anyway, none of that has to do with my goal of the week. While I am working more (and earning more money, woo!) I need to evaluate my spending as well. Along with my cleaning efforts, I've somehow stopped enjoying shopping as much as I once did. Last week I had a 40 dollar coupon to spend (no fine print except the expiration date; the benefits of buying things at Kohl's), and I literally had trouble finding things to buy. I got the two things I needed, and still had 20 dollars left to spend. I found myself wishing that 20 dollars was cash, because I'd rather have saved it than needed to spend it. Despite this, I'm still noticing that I'm spending close to what I make each week.

So goal 28 is to pay more attention to where my money goes, and to try to decrease my spending; i.e. refusing to let the caffeine-loving half of myself convince me to buy an iced latte just because I'm at school again and "deserve a treat". I can go home and enjoy a mug of tea or something for literally a fraction of the cost. Buying gas is essential, but I can pay attention to which gas stations have cheaper prices when I know I'm running low.

Overall I need to kick my saving efforts up a notch, and cut down on extraneous spending. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy a latte every once in a while, but I'm definitely not buying one two times a week just because it's available.

-M.

This Goal Post Brought to You By:

(well, still me, but) a 20 year old! Which has thrown me into a whirl of panic, because 20 sounds like the age when you are supposed to be much more responsible than I currently am.

Either way, I present to you goal 27: Try new things. Be daring. Do things that slightly terrify me (no, this does not include sky diving).

As example, I present to you the fact that yesterday I went to work with only eyeliner and mascara on my face (/awkward phrasing). Please note that I'm the girl who refuses to go down the driveway to the mailbox without wearing foundation, blush, eyeliner, mascara, the whole works.

Yesterday I pushed the envelope and did something (non-dangerous) that scared me a bit none-the-less. I looked in the mirror, told myself I was pretty, and decided I didn't have to smear stuff all over my face to prove it. I still wore my signature eyeliner, but that was it. And no one said anything. A risk worth trying.

-M.

Goals 14 and 15

Keeping in mind my rapidly passing summer, and the fact that I want to do something with my spare non-school time, I’m adding on more goals that I’m hoping to keep for the summer months.

During the school year, I’m kept pretty busy studying text books that range from interesting to the most deadly weapons I’ve ever seen (either useful as blunt objects to hit people with, or to force people to read until they die from the horribly written thing). If I’m not reading straight-up text books, there’s usually websites and research bits of text to read to help with whatever essay I have to write for class. Needless to say, I rarely get any time to just read what I want to read, and trust me, I love to read. Depending on how many hours my new job gives me, I’m hoping to get through a book a week. I might change that—to fewer, or greater—next week, but I guess we’ll see. Currently, though, goal 14 is to read at least one book a week.

I usually have trouble with scholarships, because I know I need them, but I usually forget about their deadlines until they’ve passed, which is pointless. I also have trouble getting over the idea of writing an essay that won’t get me a good grade, isn’t necessarily on a topic I enjoy, and might have been written for no purpose (such as if I don’t get the scholarship). The thing is, I need the scholarships, and it’s actually worse to do like 5 scholarships in one day, than if I’d spread out a few across a couple of weeks. Not to mention that the written portions of my scholarships get significantly better if I haven’t already written something unappealing earlier in the day. At the very least, if I don’t get the scholarships, I can help improve my writing. So, goal 15 is to find and complete at least 1 scholarship a week. (Preferably in some kind of order that correlates to when they’re due.)

As far as last week’s goals, they’re going pretty well so far. Except for yesterday, I woke up between 10 and 10:30 every day, and I went to bed by 2 on most days—though that could use some improvement. And here I am, writing another weekly post, so hopefully I keep up with that, as well. I have orientation for a new job this evening, so that might put a little bit of force behind my time schedule, too…

-M.

On Smiling:

You know the concept that if you smile even when you don't feel like it, that you'll end up smiling for real, or just feel happier anyway? They may have scientific mumbo jumbo on it, but I don't all the way buy it. I've faked a smile too many times in the past to believe it. Smiles on the outside don't always mean smiles on the inside.

Real smiles begin with happiness and fond memories and people we care about or who care about us. So this week, my goal is to make a list or a computer folder of things that make me smile. The websites that post pictures of adorable kittens that make me squeal, the people who always make me happy,--that doesn't include people who you get upset with sometimes, this is a permanently happy list--pictures of my favorite animals, my favorite books, favorite episodes of my favorite tv shows, etc. So, Goal 10, Week 11 is to make an entire list of things specific to my happiness....and Goal 11, Week 11 is to smile for real after I've had a lousy day or I've gotten upset, with a little help from my new list.

-M.

Goal 1, Day 5

Happiness is:

1) A valentine with BACON on it from one of my other best friends (:

2) Starting to read "Before I Die" (a valentines present)

Goal 1, Day 2

Happiness is...

1) Cuddling up with 2 stuffed animals that were given to me by people I really care about (:

2) Getting a message on tumblr that said this:


(seriously, this made my day!)

3) Making coconut shrimp for dinner.

Goal 1, Day 1

Happiness is…

1) Girl Scout cookies.

2) A phone call from a friend I haven’t talked to in months.

3) The little texts I get from Kyle throughout the day. Every one of them makes me smile (:

4) Hot tea or fizzy powder lattes later at night…

Make the choice, be happy.

On a regular basis we should strive to do more than just exist.  If all we do day after day is mindlessly just walk around, there's no point to us being alive except to create the next generation of people who will....what? Do the same thing?  What's the point of continuing the human species if all we do is work and make money and have kids and die?

I want to make a weekly goal that I plan on sticking to (and blogging about so you can see that I actually did it), and I'm not going to lie, it'd be pretty awesome if some of the people who read this did the goal, too.  The point of this is to actually live, not just exist.  And, hopefully, week by week I'll learn more about what living feels like. So,

Week 1, Goal 1: Be happy.

It's pretty simple, 2 words, a verb and a noun, and it makes a lot of sense.  Quite simply, being sad or angry sucks.  Yet we allow ourselves to fall off the happiness path on a pretty regular basis (from the people I see, anyway).  Being happy is feeling something, something different from the norm, something that triggers other emotions, and laughter, and creativity and 100 other things.  Being happy changes who we are in that moment.  It's pretty awesome, actually.

On a regular basis I'm not necessarily sad, but I'm not happy, either.  I'm existing.  If you tell me to do something (wash your dishes, go buy some bread), I'll probably do it [unless it's something seriously stupid].  I might do it in the most half-hearted way you've ever seen, but it'll get done, and that's that.  Most of my day in this hazy "existence" stage is spent via hours on the computer or watching tv, and eating food.  When I "exist" I eat like I've forgotten the last time I've eaten.   And that's kind of true.  When I'm just going through the paces in my zombie-mode I don't remember much of what I've been doing, so ah, wth, I'll eat a couple more cookies, finish off the bag of chips, go back later for a sandwich and a few spoon-fulls of peanut butter.  The thing of it is, when I wake up from my crazy trance days or weeks later, I look back and go "geez, what did I even accomplish during that time?" The answer is generally "er...I did the dishes a few times.  AND I WROTE AN ESSAY. (in 2 hours. That was kinda just thrown together. That I should have been working on all week seeing as it's worth a quarter of my grade...)."  It's not exactly impressive.  Actually, no, worse than that.  It's pretty pathetic.

Which brings me to this weeks goal: happiness.  If I can find happiness on a day-to-day basis, hopefully it'll help keep me afloat in the real world, where I can keep feeling more than alive.  Broken down,  I plan on finding the little things during the day that bring me the most joy.  On a daily basis, I'm sure there's at least a few little things that bring me some level of happiness, I've just failed to notice them any time in the past I-don't-know-how-many years.  This week I intend to uncover those things and, ultimately, make the choice to be happy.