Because goals are important.

It is May 1st kiddos. And you know what that means. It's 3 in 30 time. 

Because goals are important.
 

First a quick review of last month’s progress:

Now, last month I chose to wash my face every night {a 3 step process, 1: Eye makeup remover, 2: Cleanser and 3:Toner} I also chose to stay on a budget {$75 dollars a week can be spent on non-necessities} and the third one I chose to keep to myself. 

Goal #1 I was for sure the most successful on. I only didn’t wash my face 2 nights the whole month because I was soooo tired, and I washed my face the next morning to make up for it. This one I really think turned into a habit. Even on those nights when I didn’t want to do it, 2 things kept me going. The fact that I put it on my blog which turned it into a commitment and the fact that I have no idea what my face would look like with a clear complexion and I am curious to know. I have no memories of my face looking clear. (Only like 10 more days according to mother.)

Goal #2 the budget is a work in progress. I am not perfect with this one but I am doing tons better. I can now distinguish between wants and needs and my wants are being limited and I am being held accountable. I feel that in no time, I will tackle my overspending problem and maybe grow up just a little.

Goal #3 was for sure the worst because I didn’t publicize it. I now know that my goals are better accomplished when I hold myself accountable to someone {my readers, whomever you are} thanks for holding me accountable.

This month, having learned something from this experience, I will be choosing my goals very carefully. I have found that when it is something that can be done every day it is more likely to get done. Those goals are easier turned into habits. So, without further adieu the goals I have for the month of May:

 Goal #1 to implement a bed time.

I already know this one is going to be HARD for me. As I have previously mentioned I am a night owl. Actually as we speak as I type this up it is 2:51 AM and I have to get up at 7:30. I do this all too often. I get my sleep way out of whack and way inconsistent all too often. This leads to lots of groggy problems and naps at really bad times. So, I am going to make it a goal to be in bed, lights out at 11:00 PM on Sunday through Thursday. This will help me get up for work with a better nights sleep than I am currently getting and have a plethora of healthy results. This will be super difficult for me but I am up for the challenge. When we work hard to better ourselves we can best respect ourselves. That makes me happy. My weekends will allow for a later bedtime. I am thinking 1:00 AM.

Goal #2 is to read for at least an hour every day Monday through Friday. I totally have time to do this and the current pile of books I have that I want to read might actually get read after all. Weekends I am not going to force, but I more than likely still will read on the weekends because of my third goal.

Goal #3 is that I am going to minimize the television watching significantly. I have decided that I am only going to allow myself to watch television or movies on Sundays. {And knowing my typical Sunday routine, I bet that I will probably be taking naps over watching the tube.}

So there you have it ladies and gents. Starting today my 3 goals. Wish me luck, I am going to need it. But I feel ready for the challenges I have chosen and know that they will result in good things for me.
I will keep you all up to date on my progress.

What are your 3 in 30’s?

I fell off the wagon.

It is time to reveal to you my second goal for the month of April. And it is also time to confess that I have already failed at it. 

My second 3 in 30 was to stay on a budget.

 

I have this problem, see. 

I spend way too much money. 

I guess part of it stems from the fact that I can. I have no debt. I have no bills. I have no responsibilities like going to school, feeding kids, or budgeting for husband and therefore all my money gets blown.

My secret indulgences are DVD’s, Jewelry, and Shoes. I spend way too much money on those items.

See:

My ridiculous DVD collection.

 I have close to 40 pairs that I regularly wear.

I have dozens and dozens of necklaces and rings, watches, bracelets and earrings.They are my newest obsessions.

See, one of the problems that I have is that I have become comfortable in spending however much I want on whatever I want. (I recently spent $65 on a bracelet for crying out loud. I still cringe when I think about it, but then again it’s just SOOOOOO cute, how could I not?)

See my problem.

So, for the month of April I decided to stop spending so much. The past few months (OK you caught me, for the past year or so) my credit card bills for the month have been at least $1,000. Sometimes more {although I can't think of a month when it was less.} Now, here is the good news. I am not going into debt. I have enough cash that I can pay off my credit card in full each month.  So, it is not as though I am spending myself into a mountain of debt. {Like I said, this girl is 100% debt free} However, my savings account… well, that is a whole nother story.

I used to be a huge saver. I had thousands in my savings account at one point. But then I went back to school, traded in my full time job for a part time job, and slowly depleted my savings. Now that school is over {can I get an amen sista?} I can go back to a steadier working schedule and can start to save again right? Well, I should be able to but another confession leads me to say that I have not been able to save much over the past 4 months since graduation. I am typically spending that money on my stupid CC bill. Which is way too high by then end of the month.

So, for one of my 3 in 30’s I have decided to stop spending. I have put myself on an extremely tight budget. Are you ready: $75 dollars a week. Now this is a significant decrease, seeing as how I was typically blowing around $250 a week. $75 dollars can be blown in any way I see fit, but only $75. All I can say is It Is Hard. Week one I was brilliant. I only spend $4 more than my allotted amount, and I decided to roll that balance over to week 2.

I even have this inspired idea, {that I cannot take credit for, thanks to Carly} that I pay myself on FRIDAYS so that I get the majority of my $ for the weekend.

Week 1 was not met without challenges. I had to stop myself numerous times from splurging. I had to rethink what I was buying. I had to prioritize what was important. I felt great. I felt accomplished. I felt like I did a great thing at keeping my CC bill DOWN for the month of April.

Week 2 rolls around. My friends invite me to go to the What Women Want expo on Saturday, which sounds fabulous right? {I thought so too}

Well, I started out good. I had already spent some of my weekly money on this necklace:

(cute hu?) So I didn’t have my full $75 bucks for the week. Also, I still needed to go grocery shopping, so I knew I couldn’t spend more than about $20 bucks at this event. Sounds great. I get there and I start making mental notes about how much I am spending. $3 on nail polish. No problem. $5 on a necklace. Not bad. $3 on iPod accessories. So far so good. I am not going overboard and I am really having fun. Then, I saw these.

 At first I walked away from the booth. Because I was on a budget. Then, I happened to see the booth again on my way out. I stopped and looked. My creativity started flowing {I had been inspired by some other accessories I saw at the expo} I saw a woman clip one onto her high heals. 

 Adorable. 

 

I thought I could clip some onto some necklaces and make some homemade versions of these cute necklaces that are so in right now. 

 {Don't mind the awkward and poor quality photograph of my necklace.}

I also saw another woman clip on onto her headband. 

I just decided I could buy 2. That was right in my budget. I started thinking about the colors that I would get to put on some high heals. I thought about the colors that would look good on my headband with my red hair. Then I thought about the colors that would look good bunched up together on a necklace. As you can Clearly see, I didn't end up with just 2. I picked out 4. So the woman starts running my credit card. While she was running it I kept looking. She finished the transaction. I found 3 more that I liked. I made her run the card again.

**Fail**

By this point I am beyond my $20 budget that I had given myself for the day.

Then. I saw it.

The cutest pencil skirt that I have seen in ages. {I love pencil skirts} they show off my best ASSet. {wink wink} And since Mr. Right is still out there somewhere, I figured I’d better give him just a glimpse of that ASSet he could be marrying at some point right? {ha. Ha. HA.}
I was completely and totally sold. I tried it on. I was even more sold. It even had the cutest duck feathers hanging off my bum. The cost $36.

I couldn’t resist.

I failed on my 2 week of budgeting.

But just LOOK at it. Could you die?

Are you so impressed with my one-handed-taking-a-picture-of-my-bum talent? {it is harder than it looks}

And sorry it is so wrinkle-y. I wore it yesterday and sat down a lot. And was too lazy to iron it for this picture.

Confession: the skirt is not the only story I could tell about splurging on Saturday. I did the same justification for some other somewhat expensive items. Bottom line: I think I spent a week and a half’s worth budget in 1 day. Bummer.

Don't worry, I am going to figure in what I spent on Friday into the next few weeks so that it will all come out even in the end.Even more of a strict budget coming right up. Meanwhile, I am getting back on the wagon and I am going to start saving. Because a 26 year old single woman with a good job and no bills should have more to show for her life than a zero balance in her savings account.

Here is to failing at life’s goals and NOT giving up on them.

What are your secret indulgences slash failed goals? Are you ready to get back on the wagon with me?

Time To Go Public

3 in 30. April 2011. Goal #1

I do a lot of blog stocking. And blog hopping. Blogs have become my newest cyber black hole. It used to be Facebook, but thanks to a goal I made about 2 months ago, to stay away from FB for 2 weeks, my FB activities have significantly declined. Now I spend a lot more time reading blogs. This is an activity I feel better about because I gain more from blogs than Facebook. I am given lots of good ideas by others. I am taught by others and I am inspired by others.  

I was blog hopping few weeks ago and I found this blog that has a segment that I really enjoy and have decided to do. She calls it 3 in 30 and basically she focuses on 3 goals that she wants to implement over the next 30 days. (I have thrown up her button over there to the left… You can click on it to get more info.) We have all heard that it takes 21 days of doing something to make it a habit, or is it 28? Now I can't remember. But it doesn’t really matter because doing something for 30 days will be sufficient. The basic idea this woman came up with was to take it slow and steady. Choosing only 3 goals to focus on every 30 days and hopefully turning them into habits is the whole basis of this 3 in 30 thing. Pretty simple right? I think so too. And it fits in pretty perfectly with this new life’s perspective I have seem to taken on. See,

The past few months I have really been focusing on self improvement. One of the main reasons why I have been doing this comes from a lesson I was taught by the Doc on self esteem. I blogged about that a while back and it continues to be one of my favorite postings. Since learning about where self esteem comes from, and finally getting some for myself, I have become addicted. I am not sure if this contrast comes from having a lifetime with no self esteem and then finally having some but it feels so great to finally believe in myself, to finally know that I am worth someone amazing. Since learning that the more efforts I make in improving myself the more confidence I have, the stronger I feel, the more able to conquer life’s trials and heartaches, I have only wanted to continue on in that path in my own life. I am doing this for several other reasons, reasons I am not sure that I will share today, but the main one is that I can finally feel good about myself because I am trying. That is all that I can hope for in my life. That is all I believe this life’s journey is about. And man is it satisfying! I am so grateful that I have come to learn this lesson so early on in my life. Efforts to self improve are highly rewarding and satisfying.

One of the things that I would like to do with this blog, in an effort to find my voice, and in an effort to better myself and strengthen my self esteem, is to document efforts that I am making at self improvement. I have found that when I put a goal on this blog I am far more likely to keep it. I feel like I am far more accountable than I am when I just make goals that I keep between me and myself. I found that with the Facebook goal I made. I tried to stay off Facebook for 2 weeks straight. I would have cracked many times if I had not publicly committed to stay off of it. There is also another post in which I came clean to being shallow. Since I went public with that I have been making great efforts to keep my thoughts away from the physical appearance of people and really get to know them before deciding whether or not they were quality people with which to associate with. I have come to learn that I was only hurting myself by judging others by their appearances. I still resort back to my default reaction from time to time but I have come far. I see progress almost every day. And this pleases me.

So, now that we are already about a week into April, I figured it was high time that I went public with the 3 in 30 that I have chosen to tackle in April. When I first decided to do this 3 in 30 I started making a list of goals that I want to do over the next few months. I have come up with a huge list of goals. I actually got really excited to start implementing a ton of them, so much that I actually had a very difficult time narrowing it down to just 3. There are lots of different categories of goals too, social goals, goals for my health, goals to expand my mind, goals that have to do with my spiritual development, lots of different goals. But, since I don't want to get burnt out I forced myself to pick just 3 as my 3 in 30. I can and have been making some efforts towards some of the other goals, but my 3 in 30 are the main ones I am focusing on. 

I’ll have you know that I have been doing a swell job at my 3 goals for this month. I have succeeded in doing each of them daily. I am very pleased with my progress. I am only going to tell you about one of them today. The other 2 will be revealed in the near future.

Now, this first goal may seem a little petty, perhaps insignificant to many of you. Others of you may gasp in horror when you read my soon confession. But you will soon learn that it does have significance to me. 

Deep breath. (I still get really self conscious when I make public confessions like this.)

I never wash my face.

Or at least I didn’t until April 1, 2011.

I know I know, those of you religious face washers are probably disgusted with me right now. It's like confessing that I never brush my teeth. {Now THAT is disgusting.}

The truth is, I'm super duper annoyed when it comes to washing my face. I seriously hate when you are done and the sink is covered in water. Your shirt is covered in water. Your arms are soaking wet and the water keeps running down your arms. Your eyes are closed and you are trying to feel your way to the towel that is never big enough to clean up the water mess you just made. I get so annoyed by that process that I stopped doing it years ago.

It's always the shoe maker’s children who go without shoes right? Well my mom is an esthetician. Which basically means she has the most gorgeous skin, she uses the most expensive and highest quality products on the market (her current regimen retails at close to $500 and she would probably kill me for posting that) that are worth every penny, and she spends probably hours each week taking care of her skin. She is getting “older,” in the skin department but she could easily pass for 15 years younger than she is because she takes such amazing care of her skin. Her skin literally glows (and not only because she is such a great person… which is part of it… but literally that her incredibly healthy skin just glows.)  She has the most advanced products and techniques to take care of skin, and I don't utilize any of it. She typically gasps in horror when she hears me talk about how I never wash my face, how I never clean off my phone (which I think gives me bad zits when I press it against my face) how I pick at my zits that are not ready yet (a BIG no-no in the world of esthetics) and how even when I am in the shower I don't wash my face. She asks me over and over what products I am using, and if I need some toner or face wash or mask that is literally top of the line and never ceases to shudder and lecture when she hears that “nope, I don't need it.”

So, the consequences of this….

{How awkward are those close-ups of my… ahem… ‘blemishes’…. I know I know I know, very awkward, but we are being honest here today.}

Let me just start out by saying that I am embarrassed by posting this photograph. And that the current state of my face, showcased in this photograph is actually pretty good. It’s typically worse than this, and the camera cannot even show what the naked eye can see, which is again, even worse. What this photograph also doesn’t show you is the hundred more tiny zits that can only be seen in the correct lighting and a close-up mirror. And what this photograph also doesn’t show you is what is under the makeup. Thank Heavens for makeup. Yes I know, my mother is ashamed at the state of my skin.

I don't know why having a face full of zits has always been less annoying to me than washing my face has been, but it has. (Probably it’s also been a heavy combination of me being lazy, which is a common theme in certain aspects of my life.)

But truth be told, I am trying to be a better person. And taking pride in my physical appearance is one of those things that I feel would improve my overall person. This isn’t in a (nor is it intended to be in a) vein or prideful way, because I feel that one can take pride in his/her appearance without being prideful. It is more the fact that I do have inner and outer beauty that deserves to be showcased. So, that is goal number one. To wash my face every night. And you guys will never guess the excitement my mother showed when I told her that I wanted to start to wash my face. She took me into her bathroom and began to throw about 20 different products at me. Products that I know cost her a pretty penny. (She is so generous!) Products that I had no idea existed. Products that I had no idea how to use. I ended up only taking 4 with me. {And you might be interested to know that she had to slowly explain to me 4 times how to wash my face. What steps to use and what products to use and in what order.) I think I finally got it down. And I am very proud to say that I have washed my face every day since then.

ME: “How long until I start seeing results mom?”

MOM: “How old are you… 26 right?

ME: “Yep”

Mom: “That would make your  cell turnover rate at about 20 days, and you will need 2 cell turnover rates to start seeing results, so 40 days.” (She is a good esthetician. Smarty pants that one)

ME: {defeated sigh} “Alright then. 4o days.” (I want everything to happen overnight.)

So, here is to me and my new face washing regimen. And you know what? It is inspiring me to go the extra mile nightly too, with other things… Such as flossing and taking out my contacts, which I had the tendency to overlook all too frequently.

What are your 3 in 30’s?