Thursday, May 18, 2017

Why should you set goals?

People, why is this even a question? Goals are the best. They're how I've made it this far in life, which, granted, doesn't always feel that far, but still.

Pretty much every good thing that has ever happened to me has happened because of a goal. Publish a novel? That was a goal. Buy a tiny house? That was a goal. Find a real job that will let me move back to California? That was a goal. Get out of debt. Still working on that one. But I have a plan and it's totally going to happen. I can see it.

Other things I can see in my future: more books (I want to write at least two more this year); more travel (after I get out of debt); more friends (yes, I even set goals about this kind of stuff). I'm such a huge fan of goal-setting.

But sometimes I am guilty of writing down my goals and promptly forgetting about them. I'm being real here because I want you to know that it happens to everyone.

When I was younger, especially in high school, I would come up with these grand, overarching reform plans for my whole life. I'd write myself a program or a regimen for how to overhaul my life. I was a weird kid, I know. Essentially, I was learning how to set goals. I was learning how to envision my future and work toward it. But because I was still a kid, I would often try to change too much too fast and when it didn't all happen according to my timeline, I'd get discouraged and then I'd give up. And that was when I'd start planning my next reform program.

As a result of my inability to live up to my unrealistic expectations of myself, I constantly thought of myself as a failure. I thought I was unmotivated, that I lacked discipline, and that I'd never be able to achieve my dream life because I couldn't put in the effort it would take me to get there.

Obviously, this wasn't a helpful line of thinking, and as I've gotten older I've learned how to forgive myself and keep going, even when I'm not perfect. Turns out I didn't lack discipline, and I have a great work ethic. Part of this has probably come from growing up a little more, but I think the basic behaviors were there all along.

Anyway, I'm going to stop my goal-setting informercial now in order to actually report on my 2017 goals. It's not quite the middle of the year yet, but it's getting close and I figured now was as good a time as any for a check-in.

So, what were my goals? I'm not going to post them all here because some are a little too personal, even for my blog, but here are the ones I feel comfortable sharing:

1. Make more friends in my new ward.
2. Spend more time with my family.
3. Write an LDS novel.
4. Move into my tiny house.
5. Go on long walks more frequently.
6. Present at ACES.
7. Change positions at work.
8. Pay off my personal loan and possibly my car loan too.

And here's my mid-year progress report:

1. Yep!
2. Kind of unavoidable when you live with them.
3. I haven't even started this one yet. It might still happen. I did come up with a premise the other day. I just need to figure out when I could write. I used to write in the mornings before work but now that I'm working from home, I basically start work as soon as I wake up. I don't know. Maybe I'll start staying up later. I need to get into a better writing routine.
4. I'm halfway there. I have my stuff in the house, I just haven't moved the house to somewhere I can live in it. It'll happen though.
5. Despite all my instaspamming of pretty walking pics, I'll confess I have lots of room for improvement here. Maybe I should spend less time taking pictures and more time actually walking.
6. Done!
7. Also done! I recently switched from being an assessment editor to an assessment developer. I won't bore you trying to explain what that means but you should just know that I'm going to a lot more meetings now, I'm learning tons, and I'm really liking this new position.
8. I'm super close to paying off my personal loan. Like tantalizingly close. It's so much fun watching the numbers go down as I pay each little bit. Also, I've become a way better budgeter this year than I ever have been in the past. I finally feel like I know what I'm doing with my money and I LOVE it.

So I'm sorry if this post is boring or weird or sadly not filled with pictures of my tiny house. I feel like my blog has been a little neglected and hodge-podge of late, but it's mostly because I've been super busy working extra side gigs in order to pay off my debt early.

In other news, I decided not to have a formal open house for my tiny house, but if you are interested in seeing it, please feel free to message me on Facebook or however you would normally get a hold of me. I'd be happy to arrange a time for you to come see it in Pleasanton before I take it to wherever it is I'm going next.

And that's the other thing I've been meaning to post on here. I thought I had my life figured out, but I'm being super indecisive about where to live next. I've basically given myself till the end of the summer to make up my mind. In the meantime, I'll just be hanging out in the backyard (and sometimes in the big house). Hope you're all as excited for summer as I am. BEST SEASON EVER!!!!