Saturday, July 5, 2014

23 by 24

Today is my 23rd birthday! Today I look back over what I accomplished and what goals I want to set for myself for the next year. Though I didn't complete all last 22 goals by my birthday, I still feel great with what I accomplished:

1. Read through the entire bible - Still working on it; it didn't exactly help that I pushed this one to the side until the 30 days leading up to my birthday.
2. Watch the sunset at the beach - Check! In fact, multiple times check!
3. Graduate with both degrees - Heck freakin' yeah! I now have not 1 but 2 bachelor degrees.
My 22 by 23 list at the start of my planner
4. Take a big step in my relationship with J - Check! Though we were living together before, we moved into a new apartment and, a few months later, adopted a dog.
5. Do something to make myself proud
6. Jog/ run 3 miles without stopping - Sadly, no. I did do 3 5ks this last year but I still don't feel I quite met this goal.
7. Develop and follow a weekly workout plan - EEeeek! Definitely no where close. I have tried but there's always one reason or another I stop 1-2weeks in.
8. Read 5 books just for fun - 3 out of 5 isn't too bad! I read S, The Magician's Nephew, and Wicked. In all fairness though, I did read a lot more than that in taking 18 credits fall semester and 19 credits in the spring.
9. Journal regularly - Instead of forcing myself to write a page every night, I decided that I'm satisfied with keeping my past planners. Looking back at my previous planners, I get a picture at what was important to me, how I was feeling (stressed, bored, relaxed, etc), and what I was striving for. I did upgrade to a larger moleskin planner this year with more room for doodling, keeping notes, and journaling as I feel the need.
10. Learn to take a quick (less than 5 minutes) shower - Check! Ha, but J can vouch that I don't do this very often. I just wanted to figure out how to do it in times that I'm in a hurry.
11. Learn Yoga - Checkish. I certainly learned how but actually doing it on a regular basis as I had hoped hasn't quite happened yet.
12. Finish all the crafty things I have started - So close! I finally got jars for my sand from my travels and sewn up a few things but I continue to have a wine cork board partially finished, cross stitch patterns drawn up but not started, and crocheted scarves half done. Lets say its a work in progress now that its the summer.
13. Improve hygiene overall (brush teeth, wash face, etc.) - Check! Its embarrassing that at 22 I needed to put this on a list but I struggled with keeping to a daily hygiene routine (though I did use my water pik religiously).
14. Purge the apartment - Check, though when it came time to move, I didn't have much of a choice. It felt good to finally get rid of a few things from my past and make room for the future.
15. Go star gazing - Surprisingly no. Plans are in the making though for this to happen in the next few weeks.
16. Have coffee with my mom - Check! You see, my family moved just before my birthday last year and on our road trip to their new home, every morning my mom and I would have coffee together to update our blogs. It is one of my favorite parts of the trip and I wanted to be sure to have coffee with her when I visited for Christmas.
17. Spend an entire day on myself - Check! At the time, I thought I would be busy everyday, all the time. Now I just have to laugh because I have had almost too much time to myself with school being out. It's a good reminder, though, to make time for myself with life starts to pick up again.
18. Unplug for 48 hours - Check! For our anniversary, J and I stayed the weekend at the beach and just relaxed. The only electronics we used were our phones for occasional navigating and our kindles for reading. It was so wonderful!
19. Volunteer & donate more - Check! J and I spent the day with Habitat for Humanity back in November and I donated blood 3 times (as often as I could, since there's a limit to how often you can donate).
20. Ride my bike to school 25% of the time - Check!
21. Get closer to my goal weight - Eeehhh.. lets just say no but I do feel better about the weight that I am so that's something, right? 
22. Speak positively about self and others - Check! Though I do occasionally fall into gossip or a self-loathing funk, I feel much better about how I talk about myself and others.

Total complete: 15 out of 22

Now for this years 23 goals I want to accomplish by the time I turn 24:
1. Unplug & turnoff for 24hours once a month
2. Pick my own berries & make them into jam
3. Go camping 5 times - Went for my birthday so really 4x
4. Make a new friend - New school, so many new people; might as well befriend on for them :)
5. Lose (at least) 50lbs through a healthy diet and weekly exercise - No more excuses! This is the year to make it happen. I'll be developing this goal more over the next few weeks to find a way to make this goal happen.
6. Create something once a week
7. Get on Dean's list every quarter
8. Get into grad school or get a job utilizing my degrees - I want to go to grad school but I know that life can sometimes take unexpected turns so I want to leave room for those surprises.
9. Go on a long walk or jog with Worf (my pup) once a week - We take him out at least twice everyday but it would be good for his anxiety and my health to get out of the house and just go for a long walk.
10. Start a new holiday tradition & cook a full meal
11. Finish reading through the entire bible
12. Find a home church to attend - I have really struggled with church (and the people in the church) for a while now but J & I agree it would be good to find somewhere to call home.
13. Travel somewhere I have never been - Whether by car, plane, or train (or maybe even boat), I want to travel somewhere I have never been before.
14. Say something positive everyday - Find something positive in everyday rather than dwelling on the negative that can too often take control.
15.
16. Photo a day - Follow me on Instagram to see how I'm doing!
17. Transfer all pictures and music onto an external harddrive
18.
19. Finish an entire puzzle book - I believe this is a bad habit I picked up from my grandmother but I will buy a new puzzle book, do maybe 25%, then buy a new one. No longer! I will finish an entire book before moving on to the next.
20. Write a letter to myself to read when I turn 30
21. Get Tattoos touched up and/or redone - I got both my tattoos a few months after turning 18 and both have minor mistakes that I hope to get touched up this year. I also wouldn't mind getting an all new tattoo but we'll see how that goes
22. Be seen on tv - I know this one is a bit silly but in August, J and I are going to see WWE RAW live and with our great seats that we snagged, we plan on being as excited as can be. Now to see if the cameras catch our smiles.
23. Read 10 books for pleasure - This really shouldn't be a problem since I own over 200 books, either hardcopy or on my kindle (majority of them were free), that I would love to read. I'm thinking of starting with the LOTR series.
Obviously, there are two that are still blank but they will soon be filled in. I'm debating over what I want those last two to be because I want to be realistic with my goals while still stretching myself. Some ideas I'm bouncing around are giving blood x times (I'm going to give blood anyway but do I want that as one of my 23) and/or writing x number of snail mail letters or postcards. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks for reading! As always, you can follow me on Pinterest to see my inspiration, Twitter to see whats new, and Instagram to catch my photo-a-day. Join me again soon but until then live long and prosper!


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