Realistic February Goals

I’m not TOO into astrology, but I have to tell you, I read my yearly horoscope this morning and shit was SPOT ON.

Financial troubles on the horizons? Well, my car didn’t start again this morning, so I’d say yupp!

A month-long slump in January? Definitely.

September is going to be about reaching towards my long-term goals? Hello grad school applications!

I guess Mercury is finally out of retrograde, meaning that I’ll be feeling more productive, happier, and a lot less like my whole world is falling to pieces. According to my horoscope, 2016 is the year I will be “giving structure to my dreams”.

So to kick February off on the right side of the bed, here is a list of my small-ish February goals:

1. Buy a vehicle. This is ESSENTIAL.
2. Create a realistic and maintainable budget on paper/in excel format so that I can hold myself accountable to every penny I spend.
3. Read my three new books; The Body Book by Cameron Diaz, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, and You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero.
4. Do something cute, hand-made, and special for my sweetie for Valentine’s Day.
5. Get a move on in this blog – set it up on Bloglovin’, figure out what the heck an RSS feed is, try to get comments enabled and a newsletter – generally a giant list of things I have absolutely no idea how to do. (FYI: This blog is never going to have one of those fancy headers called “Blog Resources” like most successful blogs do because I don’t know the difference between CSS and SEO… so there’s that).
6. In the theme of Valentine’s Day pampering, take care of MYSELF more. Deep condition my hair, use the thickest body butter, paint my nails and massage oil into my cuticles… all of this is ideal and wonderful but I often have no idea how picture-perfect, put together girls have the TIME to rub all of these cremes and oils into their hair and body. This month I’m going to try to figure that out!
7. Pass Spinning certification and get assigned at least one Spin class to teach at the gym I work at!

Goals are great, they hold you accountable and if you verbalize them or write them down, they make you feel guilty if you don’t complete them!

WEEKEND WRAPAROUND

Saturday morning yoga class, setting the intention of letting go. 

I love when my boyfriend brings me random treats :) Apparently this has minerals in it that are really good for you and provides extra hydration! Which I'm obviously all about. The color definitely weirded me out but it tastes just like regular water!

We also went to my boyfriend's dog's birthday party... yes you heard that correctly. Birthday present and cake included. 

Date night with my love. A restaurant called Tisane's does half off bottle of wine on Sunday nights so we went there for wine, chocolate fondue, and I also got a chai latte that came in a cup almost as big as my head.

We built this bookcase with our OWN TWO HANDS.
And let me tell you, it was stressful.
But just look at those results. 

Look at those fake plastic plants from Target.
In love.

More fake plastic plants.
#aesthetic.

And last but not least, this beautiful tapestry that we got in Newport, RI for only 20 bucks! 

I had a wonderful weekend of recharging, redecorating, and good energy.

ART THERAPY

I don't know what was wrong with me yesterday but I was having an epic existential meltdown. Maybe I was over tired. Maybe I was over worked (I had to stay after work an extra half hour because I'm an overachieving employee...). I don't know but yesterday when my boyfriend came home from work he found me sitting on the floor of the living, pouting, and whining about how life is so short and I'm not going to be able to accomplish everything I want to do.

~ PAUSE ~

I try as hard as I can to flood my life with optimism and positive thinking. I don't know what is getting into me, but I think it might be the bitter cold yesterday and the dread of the next few months of winter and class that is getting under my skin. I need to find a way to address this and deal with it ASAP.

~ UNPAUSE ~

So my boyfriend and mother were obviously a little bit worried about me as I sat there stewing in my puddle of self pity and helplessness.

I have three adult coloring books and got a case of art supplies for my birthday so my boyfriend went and got those and we started coloring. I wasn't really interested in the coloring books actually; they're supposed to be zen inducing but sometimes they honestly stress me out. I'm someone who loves to finish something once I start it and all of those intricate details make it impossible to finish a single picture in one go. So I got some white printer paper and starting drawing and smudging on those with a set of colorful pastels.

And within about 45 minutes, I felt so much more calmmmmmm.

My phone was in the other room charging so I actually didn't check it once while we were getting artsy in the kitchen. So this is my advice:

UNPLUG & CREATE.

I can't tell you how wonderful it felt for 45 solid minutes to not be checking my phone and to be spending quality time (albeit silent, since I was so focused on what I was doing) to sit and create something in the space of two other humans whom I love. I can't tell you the last time I just drew pictures and colored outside of the lines.

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE

Without a trip planned yet for 2016, I am suffering from some extreme wanderlust and general anxious feelings about the future and decision making.

Lately I've been having episodes of an existential crisis where it occurs to me so clearly:

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE. 

(that we know of).

I don't know why, but that YOLO phrase is echoing in my head so loudly. You only live once so what are you wasting your time for? What is it you want to do? How are you going to do it? When are you going to start? And here's a good jumping off point once you figure out what it is you want to do, both long and short term.

1. Make a vision board. I haven't done this yet but I can picture it in my head. It's a giant cork board filled with images of tropical beaches, stretches of rolling landscapes, mountains, ancient ruins, serene humans doing yoga outdoors, unbelievably athletic people in high scale gyms on Spinning bikes, sun kissed girls doing stand up kayaking on a sea of turquoise, puppies, occupational therapists at work, and books.

2. Determine, based on your vision board, what is most important to you. For me, it looks like this would be travel, health & recreation, puppies, and education.

3. Make a realistic time-line of that importance. What can you do soon and as soon as possible? Realistically, you're going to have to be looking at your finances and budgeting. Maybe I can get Spinning certified in three months but I have to wait three years to save up for yoga certification. In the meantime I'm saving up for grad school and going on mini vacation every few months, but one big vacation per year. It's wonderful to want to do everything at once, but it also has to make sense and be possible.

4. Do it. Take the first step. My first step of 2016 was realizing that if I don't get a move on applying to grad school, then sooner or later I'm going to be 30 and still not have my degree. I want it now, as soon as possible, and I have to be willing to put in the work. So I threw my hands up in the air and registered for a class at a local community college that I'll need as a pre-requisite for grad school (since I majored in Psych and decided a year after graduating that I want to be an Occupational Therapist). The phone call was my first step. Because your first step has to be action, not just dreaming about it.

5. Figure out the second, third, fourth, etc steps. In February I plan to get Spinning certified. At the end of May I'd like to go on vacation, but I haven't decided where yet. I'm going to call some grad schools next week to check up on any other pre-requisites. This is action. Make the phone call. Start the plan.

WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?!

A Restless Soul

Probably the most frustrating part of being young, restless, and not having any money is the ache to just leave and go somewhere else; and not being able to afford it.

My family never brought us anywhere for travel. I have never been on a European vacation, a cruise, a Caribbean getaway, or an African safari. I've never even been to Disney World with my family, and the first time I flew on a plane with my parents was this past August to visit relatives in North Carolina. When it came to family vacations in my childhood, it was on the East Coast and we drove. Since growing up a little bit and having some (but hardly any) of my own money, I've been trying to see some of what this beautiful earth has to offer.

In the past few years I've been to:

Myrtle Beach
Oregon
Maine
New Hampshire (briefly)
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Costa Rica
Sunset Beach, NC

Atlanta

Before I started actively "traveling", I had only been to:
New York
Boston
North Carolina
Virginia Beach
Orlando, FL
Rhode Island

Now I would say the sky is the limit, but my bank account certainly doesn't agree. This is what is most important. 

You need to prioritize your life. 

What is most important to you? And there's no right answer. My boyfriend recently just bought a 2014 Mercedes with the bells and whistles for a what I view to be a ridiculous amount of money per month. To me, that money should be going towards paying off student loans and saving up for travel. But some people want fancy cars. And sometimes you can have both, if you're really bringing home the bacon. But anyways. 

In 2016 I want to go to: 
Vermont
The Grand Canyon & Horseshoe Bend
New Orleans
Canada
& on a cruise.

Can I do all of that?

It's completely and totally up to me.