Happy Friday! I am so glad the weekend is just around the corner. This week has felt extra super long so I can’t wait to have two days to relax and recharge my batteries before doing it all over again.

I thought I’d do a post I saw on Caroline and Allison’s blogs a while back. It looked like fun!

A – Apartment living. I’ve lived in apartments for most of my life and while I’ve had my fair share of bad neighbors and unhelpful maintenance staff, I still much, much prefer renting an apartment.

B – Bubble baths. I take one almost daily. A book, a hot bath, and some alone time? Always what I need to recharge!

C – Cruising. Oh, what cruising has done to open my eyes to the wonderfulness of traveling. I have been bit by the travel bug and want to see the world now!

D – Dutch! I mean, duh. This boy is my favorite.

E – Exercise. As much as it hurts to wake up early or go to the gym right after work, I always feel so much better about myself when I get daily exercise. It feels so good!

F – Football. There is no sport in the world like football. What started as a way to make my father happy has morphed into one of my biggest passions.

G – Grandma. My hero. My cheerleader. And the strongest person I know. She is battling cancer again, but I know she has the grit and determination to make it through this once more.

H – Holidays. The holiday season is my favorite time of year. I get so wrapped up in the emotion and magic of it all!

I – Ice cream. The one treat I can have in the house that I can eat in moderation.

J – Jesus. He’s kinda awesome, you know?

K – Kindle. I read almost exclusively on my Kindle. I know this probably makes me a “bad” book lover since I rarely read from actual books, but I don’t really care. It’s convenient and I have so much love for my Kindle.

L – Lazy days. My favorite kind of day.

M – Mom. My best friend, travel buddy, and biggest supporter. I do not know what I would do without her.

N – Nephew. He’s four, so he’s at this incredibly fun age where he’s learning so much and talking so much and doing so much! Ugh. I love that boy to death.

O – Outback Steakhouse. Oh, how I love this place. The service is usually fantastic and I have yet to find a place that makes a better baked potato. YUM!

P – Publix subs. If you live near a Publix and have never gotten a Publix sub, SHAME ON YOU. These are the best subs ever. I get one so frequently that most of the deli workers know my order by heart and I don’t have to say a word. I may have them… too often.

Q – Quirks. I love learning about other people’s quirks. Here’s one of mine: I always, always have to wear a tank top under my shirts. There’s something about having that extra material that makes me feel more comfortable. Maybe it’s a sensory thing?

R – Reading. My favorite pastime and the best way for me to relax and unwind after a long day. I can’t imagine a world without reading!

S – Strength training. I love the feeling I get from strength training: strong and capable.

T – Trivia. My family tends to hate playing trivia games because I’m so good at them. My brain stores a lot of useless crap, apparently!

U – USA. I have so much love for the country I live in. And I always choke up when I hear our national anthem and remember what it stands for. #SCHMOOP

V – Vacations. What’s not to love about vacations? Time off work, time to relax, time to do something out of the ordinary. My next vacation is going to be a long weekend in Orlando in May and I cannot wait!

W – Writing. My first love, my biggest passion, my therapy… nothing makes me happier than writing and allowing my thoughts to roam free outside my head.

X – X-word puzzles. OK… X is a hard one but I do love a good crossword puzzle. Fun fact: on our May cruise last year, my mom and I bought matching crossword puzzle books and then would race against one another to complete a puzzle. Related: we are dorks.

Y – Youtube. I don’t use it much, but I love it for the tutorials.

Z – Zip-lining. My first zip-lining experience was the best time of my life and I can’t express how amazing zip-lining is. It’s scary but exhilarating,  frightening yet freeing. I cannot wait to do it again and again!

What is one of your quirks? What’s the scariest thing you’ve done while on vacation?

I mentioned before that I participated in The Holiday Council 2012 with Molly Maher of Stratejoy. This is my second year of participating. Last year, I didn’t fully dive into the worksheets and challenges and I wanted to really focus on completing this course this year. After all, I paid money so I can’t let it go to waste. The Holiday Council, for those who are unaware, is 3 weeks of dreaming and scheming for the new year. Between brainstorming worksheets, the special Facebook group where community is formed and dreams are revealed, and the weekly one-hour training calls, you review the good and bad of the year and begin to unravel and discover what you want out of the following year. For someone who geeks out over goal-setting and planning worksheets, it fills me with so much joy and passion.

One of the major pieces of The Holiday Council is creating a theme for the year. I’ve done this in years past, where I develop one word I want my year to embody (2011’s was risk while 2012’s word was health). This year, though, I wanted to find a theme to wrap my year around. Something that isn’t vague but focused, something that embodies all the different priorities I have for the year.

After much deliberation, going back and forth on different themes (“Embrace the Moment!” “Believe in Myself!”), it was as I was writing down my top priorities for the year and seeing a common thread.

do the work

I desperately want this upcoming year to be one of change. Change in my physical health, in my social life, in the way I attack writing projects, in my finances, in my dependence level on my mom. How do we change? One of the mantras that has always stuck with me is something Dolvett, a trainer on The Biggest Loser, constantly chants to his team: Hard work. Dedication. That is how we change. By putting in the work and being dedicated to the cause.

I know I am not broken, nor do I need to be fixed. I know my self-worth comes directly from me – not from being skinny or having lots of friends or snagging that super cool writing project. I want to achieve those things and I want to chase after them because they are important to me – but I know the Stephany of the present is good enough. She is vibrant and lovely and beautiful. She deserves the best out of life.

Do The Work means focusing on losing weight and being healthier. It means exercising regularly and to stop letting laziness fuel my tomorrow. It means stepping out of my comfort zone to ask girls I could see myself being friends with on girl dates and forming relationships. It means being more social, and opening myself up more to new opportunities. It means getting serious about freelancing and writing a novel. It means putting myself on a strict budget and sticking to it, as I figure out a way to afford a car and pay off my medical bill from that crazy ER visit two years ago. It means a year of less sugar, less shopping, less travel.

Another part of The Holiday Council is these interviews Molly has with ridiculously awesome individuals. One interview was with Ash Ambirge of The Middle Finger Project who said that one of the things she does to evaluate her year is to think, “What makes me feel like an asshole for not accomplishing this year?” I thought that was just so great because seriously: there are goals we set for ourselves and when we don’t complete them, we do feel like assholes! (I love how honest she is!) I can freely admit I feel like an asshole because I’m ending the year heavier than when I began it. I feel like an asshole for being stupid about the way I spend my money. I feel like an asshole because I’m 25 and just now realizing how much I depend on my mom for so much. I feel like an asshole for believing in the lies that my writing just isn’t good enough for publication.

I don’t want to feel like an asshole about these things in 2013. (And wheeeee, this is the most curse-filled post I’ve ever written!) I want to focus on the above for this upcoming year as I embark on a year of change. A year of doing the work that needs to be done to change.

One of the fun challenges Molly wanted us to do is to create a vision board. I’ve actually never created one but I’ve always wanted to. I sat down with a stack of magazines (since I don’t subscribe to any magazines, I had to make do with my mom’s Good Housekeeping and her one copy of Women’s Running Magazine that she received at a race, ha!) and starting tearing out pages that spoke to me. Celebrities that I adore, pretty flowers, words that inspire me, foods I want to incorporate more in my diet, people exercising. And a wrinkly little dog because he’s too cute!

Not too shabby for my first time, especially since I’m not the most creative person ever. Also, I feel like I should mention having Zooey Deschanel front and center. I actually didn’t realize that was her until later… I just loved the picture so much since it exudes happiness and health and light.

Do you have a theme – or a word – for 2013?