Excited to try a cross-post here at atlimbo.net with a guest post from my roommate and bestie Kat. She’s writing more than ever at katmeagher.com these days, so be sure to check out her fiction & personal essays online once you’ve enjoyed her confessional update here. ~Tina
How is it already February? I feel like it was just yesterday I was celebrating Christmas with my Bestie, and now more than a month has past. Like most of us, I’ve had ups and downs when completing my Goals for 2018. I really don’t want to call them resolutions because no one ever really sticks to those. Goals, goals sounds more attainable. Goals have a connotation that it’s something you are working on rather than a cut and dry/cold turkey, wham bam, done resolution. Goals are something that can be done fast or slow as long as they are in the back of your mind when you are doing things that may or may not actively affect what you want to do.
So as a refresher, my goals were get my finances in order, get my health/weight/exercise in order, and cut out things that don’t make me happy. I’ve had some success, some lackluster progress, and some stalling on all fronts.
The one thing I was successful in was cutting out things that don’t make me happy. That was one of the more heady ideas of the three, with the other two having, in theory, much more concrete ways to track progress. However, the main thing that I wanted to cut out was RTS games (Real Time Strategy) that caused me more stress than pleasure. I can happily say I managed to cut them out within the first week of the year. Hooray, I met a goal!
As for my finances, let’s just say I ended the month with $2 in my bank account, but hey I had money left in my back account, so that’s sort of a win! I knew January was going to be tough. I just started my debt relief program so I knew there’d be some adjustment. February, in theory, looks like it will be easier than January, finance wise, but I also need to dig deep and save as much as I can because I started doing my taxes and looks like I will be owing a lot of money. So I’ve gotten active on Upwork again, which most the jobs I get are for $5-$15 each, its more than I had before. I’ve already cut back everything possible to save money. I’ve researched more TV streaming services than I care to admit. (which will probably be another blog post with my findings)
Lastly, I wanted to lose weight/work out more. Well, let’s just say I’ll be working towards this goal this month. I did schedule a meetup with friends to go for a walk on the beach with our dogs, which I hope to do more of in the future. I actually hit my step goal and my dog had a great time, so it was a win-win. I did, however, do research on potential workouts that I can do with a mostly healed bummed knee and a back that hates me in inconvenient moments. I feel like I’ve been eating relatively healthy, since I had no money to eat out in January and had to stick to a rather strict budget and menu plan. So, I guess, I have in fact been working towards this goal, just not as much as I would have liked.
With a month gone by in 2018, I’ve decided to add some goals to my list. I already intended to work on writing with the intent to finish something, I just didn’t vocalize it in my 2018 goals post. I’m really great at starting something, but horrible at actually following it through to the end. So I joined with my Bestie to vow to finish a novel/screenplay/whatever this year. While it may not be finished to the point where we are ready to publish it, it will be complete and we can start the hardcore editing process.
Next, this is a relatively newer development (as in last night), I decided to work on my blog more. Right now, it’s mostly random posts with a bunch of my fiction on it. I intend to add more things I enjoy to it as well. So you may in the near future see some fashion posts, money saving posts, and some cooking videos pop up. My Bestie has decided this is definitely something I (we) should do and is on board to help. And my GoPro is charged and ready to go.
I’m excited for most of my goals. Working out, not particularly excited about, but losing weight I am. How has your first month of 2018 gone? Have you made goals? Have you reached any?
tmstanton writes 