Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

April

I have high hopes for April. By the end of this month, I will have one more assignment due (a one-question essay final) until graduation. It feels surreal. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. For my professors to tell me I didn’t learn enough to graduate with this degree. It happened before, so I’m on pins and needles, hoping it won’t happen a second time.

April marks a month of preparing for life after college, taking my health seriously (I mean it, this time!), and organizing my life from the inside out. It’s sure to be a busy month, but I can’t wait to dig into all it has in store for me!

For once, I managed to accomplish all the goals I set last month. I didn’t make them too hard, as I was dealing with shingles and trying to figure out why I ended up with them so my goals were to heal and cope with stress, as well as prepare to read my short story aloud. I did heal, even though there were days it felt like my blisters were never going to go away. And I have taken some steps to help with my stress levels: to-do lists, making school a priority, knowing when I need to relax, and taking long walks when I feel overwhelmed. So far, so good. As for my short story? Well, you all know how that went!

For April, though, I have some very specific goals to accomplish:

  • Complete the IronGirl 5K. I’m still not sure how I’m going to feel on race day, knowing I should be running the half-marathon. But every time I think of the race, it feels so good to know I just need to accomplish 3.1 miles, not 13.1. Ideally, I’d like to PR but my running hasn’t been up to par these last few weeks so I’m just hoping to run a good majority of it.
  • Keep school the priority. I have two exams, a slew of blogs and quizzes, a portfolio website, and a short story standing between me and graduation. I want to give my full focus and attention to school and finish strong and luckily, the workload isn’t too insane. As long as I keep on top of everything, it should be a smooth month, school-wise.
  • Clean up my resume and begin applying to jobs. I had to submit a resume for my capstone course and it was pretty rough, to say the least. Luckily, some awesome resume rock stars looked it over and gave me lots of pointers. Since then, I haven’t done much with it but I do want to spruce it up to make it more presentable. Also, happening this month: applying to jobs. I’m excited to see what’s out there, but not fooling myself that I’m going to find something quickly. I’m prepared to search for 3 months before I’ll let discouragement set in.
  • Start meal planning and limit trips to the grocery store. My mom and I are terrible at meal planning. We usually end up at the store 4-5 times a week because we only buy for a few days. In the past, we have tried to become better at planning our meals throughout the week but we always fall off the horse. We end up spending 3x as much in groceries because we’re poor planners. Plus, this gives us an opportunity to try out new recipes as we usually just resort to the same stuff every week. (Any good websites for meal planning?)
  • Take Dutch on longer walks. Since we live in an apartment, Dutch gets a short little walk a few times a day. But even at age 9, he’s an active little guy and I know how much he enjoys our longer walks – even if they do make him incredibly tired for the rest of the day. I want to get better at taking him on longer walks throughout the week, at least 1-2 miles, because I want him to stay active and it makes him so happy.

What are you most excited about in April?

Categories: Goals

Resolutions Check-In

At the beginning of this year, I came up with a list of ten resolutions to get me through the year. And I want to keep myself (and you guys!) updated on how well I’m progressing to completing them since resolutions have never been something I’m good at. 😉

Things I’m on track to completing:

1. Get to my goal weight of 115 – 120 lbs.

While I still have a ways to go on this goal and sometimes it seems unattainable. I am on track to complete this goal. To lose 40 pounds by the end of the year, I need to lose a little over 3 pounds a month. Right now, I’m at 8ish pounds so things are going according to plan. I just hope I can keep this weight loss up!

4. Read 60 books.

I’m slightly under this goal (by 1 book) which has to do with how much school has picked up. I’m very glad I marked down this goal from 100 to 60. This weekend, though, I bought a Kindle!!! I just recently jumped on the e-reader bandwagon and I’m just so excited to get it and start reading! And hopefully, it’ll help me pick up my reading to make this goal.

7. Pay off all my credit cards.

Back in February, I received a letter from my collection agency about my biggest credit card bill. When I was young and stupid, I applied for an Old Navy credit card, thinking I was only going to get about $500 (and only able to use it in-store). Nope. Instead, I was given a $2,500 VISA to use ANYWHERE. And I did. I used that card up well. And then I got in over my head and stopped paying. It’s probably been over a year since my last payment and my balance is now in the three thousands. My collection agency gave me three options to choose from: pay it all off now, pay in monthly installments, or pay what I can. I decided to go with option 2, where I pay once a month for 12 months and then I’m all caught up. My mom is also helping me out with my other two credit cards, equaling $800 in total. While I won’t be completely credit card debt-free at the end of the year, I will be 90% of the way there.

Things happening in the near future:

3. Graduate from college.

Fingers crossed. May 8th. Fingers. Crossed. (I’m having so much anxiety that something’s going to happen to cause me not to graduate this semester.)

8. Travel.

I’ve booked a cruise for the end of May and I’m hoping once school is behind me and I enter a new stage of life, I can start traveling more. I want to see more of the United States! I’ve never traveled outside my own time zone and I’m ready for vacations outside of Orlando. Also, blogger meet-ups. Need I say more?

10. Begin therapy.

My grandma has a close friend who is a retired therapist. She worked in the school system for over 30 years and still has her license, even working freelance for the Red Cross. I asked my grandma to ask her if she would agree to see me. She agreed, for free. As soon as we get it all sorted out, I will start therapy. It’s incredibly exciting, but I’m also very nervous about it. Mostly, though, I’m ready to tackle my anxiety issues and get control of myself.

Things at a standstill

5. Begin working a full-time job, utilizing my degree.

I’m starting my job search next month and I’m about 50% excited, 50% scared to death. I’m excited to see what jobs are out there and hopefully score a good job fairly quickly. But I’m scared that it’ll take me months and months.

6. Join a book club.

I was thisclose to completing this goal in January. And then I flaked. Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m using my anxiety as an excuse for why I don’t participate in life more and I don’t want to do that. (Although, I will admit that sometimes the books don’t interest me at all.) And I keep putting off attending because I seem to think I’ll be in an entirely different country when I graduate. I don’t know why I think this because odds are more likely I’ll still be in this city, but I need to stop putting things off because of how uncertain the future is.

Things I need to re-evaluate

2. Run a half-marathon.

I made this goal back at the end of December, when I was preparing to run the IronGirl Half-Marathon. I’ve since dropped down to the 5K and not sure I want to keep running in races. At least for now. It’s putting so much pressure on me, pressure I’m putting on myself. I think it’s important to reevaluate the goals you set and make new ones if it seems like the ones you set are just too high. I’m not sure what new goal I want to set, but any ideas would be welcomed!

9. Complete Project 365

I am so behind in Project 365. I started strong and then began to forget to take a picture. Life would get away from me and most days, there aren’t a lot of interesting photo ops. Between work and school and homework and watching TV…my life can be pretty boring. I’ve still been taking pictures when I remember to, but it’s definitely not Project 365. I’m not sure if I should keep taking a photo every day for this year, start P365 over, or what. What do you suggest, dear readers?

Categories: Goals

March

February’s goals didn’t quite pan out as I expected. My running goals changed dramatically. Although I was running 3 times a week, it came to the point where I was just trying to finish the miles, not running for any time goal. And now I’ve come to a dead stop. Since I’m not exercising until my shingles are completely gone, it’s all up in the air. I could be back in the game next weekend, or it could take a matter of weeks. It changes a lot.

My other goals included starting recipe cards and establishing a bedtime routine. Two big negatives. I’m really terrible at getting to bed at a decent hour and it means lots of snooze button hits and running around in the morning trying to get everything ready in a matter of minutes. This is a goal I desperately need to hit! As far as recipe cards go, I made one. One measly card.
Moving on! I have three new goals for March. Let’s hope I do better than in February.
  • Heal. Right now, I’m only focused on healing my shingles and getting better. I’m not in extreme pain, but it is uncomfortable. I just want to feel like myself again. I’ve never been one to take my good health for granted, but being sick does make you appreciate all those good times all the more.
  • Learn how to cope with stress. Obviously, what I’m doing isn’t working. As much as I thought I was good at dealing with all my stress, I guess I’m not. I need to learn how to de-stress, some of it involving eliminating caffeine, eating better, and exercising. While I am doing the latter on a fairly consistent basis, I do need to really kick it up a notch.
  • Work on my short story and have it ready to present. March 24th is the date I’ve been dreading. I have to present my short story to my creative writing class. I am in a class with some really good writers. I know I am a good writer, but these people intimidate me. I’ve done a little work with my story, but I really need to set aside 30 minutes to an hour a day to put in some serious work on it. I think my nerves will be a lot less intense if I know I have a great story that I’m excited to share.
What are your goals for March? Anything exciting happening for you next month?
Categories: Goals

February

Growing up, February was my least favorite month of the year. The thrill of a new year was over and I was faced with a long month of no school breaks at all. Spring Break seemed incredibly far away and Valentine’s Day is probably my least favorite holiday. (Halloween is a very close second.)

February really doesn’t have much to offer itself to me. I have a long month of homework, half-marathon training, and regular ole work ahead of me.

But I’m also happier than I’ve ever been. I’m not sure why, but I’m going with it! There’s such joy in unexplained happiness!

Onto my goals for February…

Establish a bedtime routine. I don’t have much of a bedtime routine. I’m usually watching TV while reading blogs until 10:30pm, realizing how late it is and how tired I am and hurriedly rush through my bedtime routine before collapsing into bed after 11pm. Since I wake up at 5am, I really need to get to bed by 9pm. I want to establish a better routine of shutting down my laptop, taking Dutch out, washing my face and brushing my teeth, as well as preparing my school bags and breakfast for the next day. I’m aiming to hit the sack at 9:30pm this month and hopefully inching my way up to the 9pm time slot by March.

Run 3 times a week, hitting my goal half-marathon pace at least once. Lately, I’ve been having some really, really good runs. I’m actually enjoying it, even if my time is slower than I like. I’m trying to take the focus off the numbers and onto just running and having fun. So far, it’s working. I’m shooting to run the marathon in 2:55, which puts me at a 13:21 pace. For me, that’s incredibly fast. (For others, incredibly slow. Ha!) Just once, I want to hit that pace to give me the confidence I need to be able to run this way on race day.

Begin to create recipe cards. Stefanie is the one who got my gears spinning on this one. My mom and I have the hardest time coming up with meal ideas and the problem stems from a) we are members of the National Society for Indecisiveness (well, maybe. We haven’t made up our minds yet.) and b) we don’t meal plan correctly. I’m hoping to be able to start a little collection of meal ideas so we can refer to them while meal planning, making the process so much easier.

That’s it. Just three goals, because I think it’s the perfect amount. They all seemingly have to do with health and fitness (sleep, running, and eating) because that’s all that seems to consume my thoughts nowadays. If I can complete all these goals, I am treating myself to an Otterbox cell phone cover. I’ve been coveting this for a while but it’s pricey so I want to work for it!

Do you have any goals for February? What are you hoping to accomplish this month?

Categories: Goals

January

I’m bringing back monthly goals in 2011. I am so big on making goals. I think they keep me sane and motivated to do something. I can easily get stuck in a stagnant pattern of everyday life but goals keep me striving for more.

Without further ado, in January, I want to…

  • Get back on track. I have gone crazy over these past few weeks with my eating. I’m not tracking, drinking enough water, or exercising as I should. I need to get back to Weight Watchers meetings and get back to taking my health seriously. I don’t want to end 2011 the same way I ended 2010, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and dedication to get there.
  • Drink at least 24oz of water a day. I suck at drinking water. Seriously. I hate the taste, no matter if it’s room temperature, ice cold, or flavored. It’s a necessary evil and I want to work on drinking more of it because I have to stop drinking so much soda! I’m starting small in January, just 24oz a day. I want to someday easily drink 70-80oz of water a day. Baby steps, though.
  • Be less connected. I am terribly connected to my laptop, Blackberry, and iPod Touch. I am constantly on one of those forms of technology all day. I want to live more in the moment and stop depending on my technology to keep me busy and occupied. Ideally, I’d like to completely disconnect once a day, but I want to start with shutting down all forms of technology by 9pm and media fasting on Saturdays. I can get too caught up in the online world that I forget to actually be here, in the moment.
  • Help out more. I’ve fallen into a pattern of letting housework slide and my mom take on the stress of maintaining a household. I want to help out more around the house and take a more active role in it. One day, I will have my own apartment to take care of, but I can’t forget that this is also my apartment and I need to take care of this one as well.
  • Get serious about my money. Admittedly, I let my finances slide a little during the holiday season. I used my credit card more than I should and was intent on spending, spending, spending. I need to buckle down, though, and start paying off my credit cards, saving, and spending more wisely. This starts with calling my collection agency to get my monster bill taken care of. It continues with sitting down, creating a budget, and sticking to it. I need to get serious about saving and paying off my credit cards.

I hope your January is off to a rocking start! Do you have any goals, big or small, for this month?