life goals – marginalia and such

life: January – month in review

month-in-review-january

Plans were made, habits were started, and more tarot cards were read.

Some good things:

Finished Draft 1 of the secret angst project.
Completed all 30 days of YWA’s Home yoga program.
Started decluttering the stuff that’s been taking over my home for the last year or so.
Read some good books. (video coming this week)
Limited my coffee intake and stayed within budget (for lattes).

Some challenges:

Grumpy face kitty had to go to the vet. Lots of trauma for all. She’s ok though; have to monitor her bladder sitch and feed her a vet diet (I have thoughts, but not going to challenge this).

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video: 2010 – 2020 | 10 year retrospective 🌟 goals and achievements

Looking back on the last ten years: moving forward, growing in my field, and considering non-traditional markers of success.

How do you measure success?

Take 5 minutes to write what you did in the last ten years, you’ll probably surprise yourself.

MENTIONED

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books, Episode 386: High Fives and Forget ‘Should:’ Talking Goals and Resolutions with Scarlett Cole

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life: 2020 intentions

2020-intentions

More tarot practice

More daily yoga

More walking in general

More adventuring and “flaneuring”

More cooking

More personal and professional development

More [herbal] tea

More joy

Less twitter

Less self-criticism

Less coffee

Less distraction

Less of the stuff that saps my energy

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5 things by 35

five things

I turn 35 this month. Here are 5 accomplishments I will reach/have reached by the day my birthday rolls around.

grow out my hair

I’m a short hair girl. I begged my mother to bob my hair when I was 6 and never looked back. I’ve had long hair exactly 2 times in my life: in 10th grade and again in my last two years of undergrad. Last year, I decided to let my hair grow until I turned 35—not that I’m cutting it any time soon, I just needed a goal to ease the itch… Friends, I did it. Even with the awful Florida heat.

dive into the query trenches

I’m not one of those writers who needs to be published by a certain age, but I cycle my projects around my birthday, and this year I really wanted to start querying, even if it comes to nothing. Experience is a win either way.

take control of my finances

I’ve posted a couple of videos on my budget lately. I don’t have any major debts and have the privilege of a steady job, but there’s always more work that can be done. This year, I committed to taking serious control of my finances and being a careful steward of my money, which means…

(re)start investing

I’ve saved enough money to start investing. I tried my hand at stock picking some years ago, but that’s definitely not the way to invest. I’ve been reading a lot of finance books for this very reason.

use up a tube of lipstick

Not so lofty as my other goals, but for the first time ever I am going to use up a tube of lipstick and it feels like the most epic of accomplishments.

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2017 in review

While it had its ups and downs, 2017 managed to leave me relatively unscathed (minus a personal crisis or two).

There were two big accomplishments:

I completed my application for promotion (When one of those two crises hit, I contemplated putting my promotion on hold, then thought better of it. I’m glad I did.)
I wrote 105,037 words (as of December 28th, I may update this number before the year ends).

A few fun things:

I accepted a very excited proposal to co-host The Bluestocking Circle Podcast and I’m so glad I did.
I rediscovered my love of Batman comics with the Rebirth series (though Doomsday has me like)

giphy

And a couple of health breakthroughs:

A re-evaluation of my thyroid health and maintenance plan.
A possible PCOS connection that explains a lot about my hormonal headaches and unpredictable cycles.

All said, not too shabby.

Happy New Year!

video: a vlog! life, writing, decluttering, and more!

Because it’s been so quiet around here, I decided to film a vlog explaining ALL. Watch me rock the wet hair, no-makeup look, as I blather on about all the things.

life: headspace and budgets

Howdy y’all! So I’m in a weird headspace… literally. Feeling tired, wired, and spacey all at once. In short, I am a squirrel. Kind of manic, but lazy at the same time. Could be hormones, could be the weirdness that comes before a migraine… could be both (probably both). Anyhow, it’s going to be a week.

But back to real talk… I’ve been adulting. It’s been a while since I took a good, hard look at my finances and spending habits. I’ve gone through at least one raise and one rent hike, so it’s about time I take a good look at where my money is going. After several failed attempts at using a cash budget and an online tracker, I’ve decided to just keep a written log of my spending—keeping my receipts, tracking my purchases, and just reviewing where my $ is going at the end of the week, when I’ll pop it into a spreadsheet and tally up the amount. I tried tracking in my bullet journal, but that just didn’t work, so I’m using a dedicated notepad just for spending.

I’m fine when it comes to money, but I would like to scale back and take better control of my spending. Mostly impulse buys… and coffee. That’s kind of a problem, but one I hope to address by building better habits. We’ll see.

life: February updates and March goals

It’s been a month. Seriously.

So my Whole30 was an epic failure, but that’s ok. I realized half-way that it just wasn’t the right time. I wasn’t in the right mindset, and mindset is a HUGE part of that program. I will try again, but not right now. I’m just going to focus on eliminating the foods that make me feel sluggish, sick, or throw off my digestion. Focusing on health and feeling good, rather than restriction or program rules.

Yoga happened. Not every day, but it happened. Walking, not so much. There were migraines. Lots of them, and stretching and relaxing was my main priority.

On the upside, I finished my edits for the month! With time to spare! Yay!

Edit wordcount: 13531.

I call that a good run, so I decided to film an update video to pat myself on the back. Check it out 🙂

Goals for March:

Finish the draft! Do it!
Prepare for April NaNo experiment
Try to complete 30 Days of Yoga Camp, because I really enjoyed that series and feel ready for a repeat.

video: scent collection and project use up my stuff

No video last week because life was a whirl…

This week, I’m reviewing my scents and analyzing my current collection. Two of the scents mentioned are part of my “project use it up“, so those will be in constant rotation during the coming month. My plan to is to use up what I have, cull what I don’t wear, and curate a minimalist scent wardrobe to match my mood. Baby steps. This is an edited collection and one that will be curated with time.

life: new year, new outlook

2017

My goal is to stay positive and live fully in 2017 (and in the years to come). I’m not entirely optimistic about the state of the government and such, but I’m cautiously hopeful and pragmatic—I can’t fix everything, but I can fix the little things and be open and aware.

I’ve filmed a couple of videos for January 🙂 so there’s some newness to look forward to, but I’m keeping it simple with the goals for 2017.