I am so late to the “4 Simple Goals” party but thought I would just jump on the bandwagon because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about my life and the results haven’t been pretty. I need something to add some “oomph” to my life. I think the idea of just giving four easy goals to end the year is perfect. Onto my goals:
1. Figure out my finances.
I suck at finances. I suck at money and saving and budgeting. I don’t make much to begin with and it’s really hard to figure out a budget when my paycheck varies every time. I’ve made a few budgets but then they just sit on my computer, never to be thought of again. So I’m making this a priority. I need to figure out my budget, see where my money has been going, and take control of my finances.
I suck at finances. I suck at money and saving and budgeting. I don’t make much to begin with and it’s really hard to figure out a budget when my paycheck varies every time. I’ve made a few budgets but then they just sit on my computer, never to be thought of again. So I’m making this a priority. I need to figure out my budget, see where my money has been going, and take control of my finances.
2. Disconnect on the weekends.
I’ve been thinking about taking a technology break for the past few days, but due to one of my classes, I can’t totally disconnect from social media. Instead, I’m going to disconnect from all technology on the weekends. This means I won’t be spending hours tied to my computer to catch up on blogs I failed to get to through the week. It means no Twitter and Facebook. It means taking time away from my computer to recharge. I think it’s also going to help me in the homework department to catch up and focus on school and family time. I’m too attached to technology and finding self-worth in blog comments and Twitter replies. It’s time to take a step back.
I’ve been thinking about taking a technology break for the past few days, but due to one of my classes, I can’t totally disconnect from social media. Instead, I’m going to disconnect from all technology on the weekends. This means I won’t be spending hours tied to my computer to catch up on blogs I failed to get to through the week. It means no Twitter and Facebook. It means taking time away from my computer to recharge. I think it’s also going to help me in the homework department to catch up and focus on school and family time. I’m too attached to technology and finding self-worth in blog comments and Twitter replies. It’s time to take a step back.
3. Pitch 3 stories to a newspaper/magazine.
This semester I’m taking a few courses where I’ll be writing stories that have the potential to be published – if I write them well enough. I want to put a lot of work into interviewing, researching, and writing these stories so they can be publishable and hopefully end up in a local newspaper or magazine! At the very least, I want to pitch them somewhere just so I get the experience.
4. Value myself.
I’ve been really down on myself lately. This is due in part to my unhealthy ways of the past month (and past years), school issues, rejection, and so on. My heart has taken a beating and I’m getting really sick of letting how others think of me define my worth. I want to be able to look myself in the eye and say, “You are beautiful and you are worth it.” It would feel like a bald-faced lie if I did that now.
I really like #3! Let me know how it goes. I have a goal of getting an op-ed published this year.
Good luck girl! If you were closer, I'd help you with your finances, you could enroll in Alyssa's Hard Knocks Finance Plan. Matt was enrolled, not by his choice and he's in a much better place financially. Put your mind to hit, girl, and you can do it!
Oh goodness love, I can completely relate to #4. I hear people say "just look in the mirror and tell yourself you're beautiful" all the time and I definitely feel like it would be a total lie, so I hear you. But at the same time, we are all our own worst critics and never seem to give ourselves enough of a break. From what I can see, you are doing amazing things lately, and your spirit, determination, and strength continue to amaze me. You ARE a beautiful person inside and out.
I'm excited for your story pitching!!
Great goals, Stephany. Unplugging and taking a step away from technology is something that, as you know, I firmly believe in. I do it a lot on the weekends. I do take time to catch up on blogs that I haven't gotten to and what not but I also dont feel pressure to be online all the time any more.
I just left this quote on another persons blog, its from AA Milne, from Christopher Robin to Pooh: "Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Always, always remember this!
You are beautiful and you are worth it. No lie.
disconnecting is weird! i guess for hte past month i have been a little bit just because we've had visitors and i've been spending all my time with them….but i def missed it 🙂
Steph these are FANTASTIC!
Disconnecting can be a good thing. I do that whenever I go to visit my parents and it can be SO relaxing.
I definitely need to do the whole "disconnect on the weekends." For the most part I'm pretty good, but having an iPhone really makes it hard. I need to start turning it off or leaving it at home so it's not a temptation…
I've been taking control of my finances this month & I love being in control and knowing where my money goes. Let me know if you want some tips since I keep track of my spendings on an excel sheet on docs.google.com so that way I can have access to it anywhere I go.
I think these are wonderful goals. I think that if you work on gaining confidence in yourself, all other things will fall into place.
What thing makes you feel the best and most confident? When do you love yourself the most? – do that thing often!
XO
These goals are great…I believe in you! You can do it.
Definitely used to have the variable paycheck problem. One day it clicked – Budgets are not static! I started changing my budget every week to reflect that – depending on what I made I'd spend more or less on certain things, you know?
Now I basically put my pay straight into a different interest-bearing account, and "pay" myself the same amount out of it every week. It means I save any overtime etc without wanting to spend it, and eliminates the fluctuation issue.
If you can get to the stage where you're slightly AHEAD of your bills, it's also a good way to go.
These are very cool goals — good luck! Judging by all the comments, I think I can safely say that you've got a lot of people rooting for you. (Myself included, of course :P)
I think these are all great goals! I have been trying to disconnect from things a bit more on the weekends too – or at least I try not to be constantly checking my phone or email!
Good luck! You can do it!
Glad you came up with some too – better late than never! And I'm glad I wasn't, like, the last in the blogosphere to do them. 🙂
And I LOVE yours. I wish I'd pitched my college stories to magazines…
Oh, I'm gonna do this, but I'm going to try and make them slightly different than yours even though we aspire to attain the same goals. 🙂 Especially number 4. And definitely number 1. As for number 3, change that to literary mags, adn we're about the same there. 🙂 I admire your resolve for the technology goal. I, too, should take a step back from it. Like, right now, for instance, I'm in the building's computer lab for my next class messing around on the Internet, when I could probably be reading something…tsk, tsk.
taking a break on the weekends from technology is one of my favorite things EVER. I highly recommend you give it a try 🙂 I'm refreshed and refueled for the week (usually) after a weekend away from all things tech related!
These are GREAT goals! You can definitely do all of this!! #2 would be good for everyone!!
Great goals here. I like the thought of you pitching stories!