Living our lives day in and day out can be a series of moments that are joyful, tearful, boring, exhilarating and downright funny. Personally, I choose happiness so I try to set up my environment for joy. So much of what happens to us is outside of our control. We can’t control how other people treat us or speak to us. We can control how we speak to others and treat them. We can’t control natural disasters or the weather but we can control our reaction these events. I certainly don’t melt when the weather refuses to comply with my requests for blue sky and sunshine! Do You?
I learned a word recently that I had never heard of before. A word that has helped me with this concept of a neutral response to a misspoken word or deed. The word is SHENPA and it has opened my eyes to how my reaction to others either fuels a fire or extinguishes it. The only fires I want in my life involve me sitting next to it warming my feet or toasting marshmallows for smores with friends and family.
Every year I write goals for myself to keep me on the path of health, wealth and happiness. This year, I decided to review them early in December as I knew I would need to kick myself into gear on a few of them. I share them here to keep myself accountable and to give you some ideas on how I view this journey, I call my life! Back in February I wrote out my goals for this year in the post, “can you see your life?”. Check it out and then come back and see how I did!
Improve gut issues as evidenced by decreased symptoms – IMPROVED AND IN PROCESS Get blood work and annual physical- SCHEDULED for March Maintain weight under 139 pounds – DONE Complete a Whole30 – DONE Complete the Health Care Proxy forms – PROCRASTINATING!
New Vanguard account $3000 – This will happen this month Contribute $2000 to existing non-retirement accounts – DONE Max IRA $7000 – DONE Max HSA $3400- DONE Increase car fund by $2000- DONE Maintain income at 2018 level- Looks like I will be short. Set up beneficiaries for all accounts- PROCRASTINATING $500 set aside for lightweight kayak -DONE
Travel south for 1 month to visit family and friends – DONE Kayak in 5 new places – DONE 2 Bike/kayak/hike weekends away from home – DONE Earn 15 CEU’s for my OT license- 7 earned 8 to go. I will be busy the next few weeks! Health Coach 6 people (1:1 or group) – NOT DONE. I worked with 1 person Read 20 books- DONE! Keep a Gratitude Journal- DONE Increase monthly visitor stats to blog by 10% over 2018 levels – NOT DONE Post an average of 5 blog posts per month – NOT DONE (once again I tracked the lag and not the lead measures)
Some of my goals will be completed whether or not I write them down and stare at them every day. Maxing out my IRA, and HSA are simply my top priorities once I pay my monthly bills. Some of my goals are written down to make sure I pursue something that I think I want to do like my health coaching goal. I pushed myself a little to at least attempt to address this goal and although I didn’t meet it I am glad for the attempt. Not meeting my income goal is disappointing however I know why it didn’t happen and I made the decisions that led to it not happening. I can live with that!
For 2020, I am not sure how I will address my goals. I have set aside some time for some Strategic Planning and I will see what comes out of this. My honey and I want to travel south again to visit family and friends and to escape some cold and ice of winter in the Finger Lakes. We also hope to travel west this year to visit a bunch of National Parks.
As I wrote in my last post, my primary Occupational Therapy gig has dried up and I haven’t quite figured out how I will respond to this change. Luckily my other per diem job has had more hours lately and that has helped tremendously. Making sure my income is solid for the coming year is on my mind a lot but not in a nail biting anxiety driven kind of way. I just need to make sure my income in 2020 is enough to cover all of my expenses, max out my retirement accounts and cover taking 2 months away from home. I have strategized more complicated things than this!
Staying on the path to my destinations leads to success! Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Living a meaningful life doesn’t happen by chance. You have to know what you want it to look like and develop strategies to make it happen. I figured out what I wanted my life to look like about 7 years ago. Annual goals are just one of the strategies I use to keep me on my path. This is what I wrote down seven years ago – and it still rings true.
MY DESTINATION
I want my home to be relaxing, simple, joyful and low maintenance
I want to earn my living doing work that I find meaningful and that brings others to a better place/space
I want to be debt free leaving my options for semi-retirement wide open
I want to share my life with a partner that enjoys the simple things in life that I have to offer
I want to spend my time doing things I enjoy with people I care about
I want to do my part to leave this earth a better place then I found it
I want to live below my means with a focus on people, relationships, the environment – not stuff
When you know what you want and why you want it – figuring out the how you are going to get it is fun. Challenging but fun! I have some strategic planning to do!
In the summer, it is easy to spend my time in a manner that is meaningful to me. I go to the lake and hang out with my sister (#7), I play Canasta with Mother Fran, I kayak, swim and relax in the sun. I spend time with Child #1, Number 9 and friends. I work a couple of shifts at the Nursing Home and do plenty of yard work.
This time of year is a time of transition for me. My yard work slows down and I have a lot more free time than usual. Medicare enacted new changes to the reimbursement of Nursing Homes and they took effect in October. It is like they threw a rock in the middle of the lake and the shock wave hit once but the ripples keep coming.
On Thanksgiving Day it easy to get caught up in the meal preparation, the company, the house cleaning, and the football game. It is hands down one of the best meals of the year and it is hard not to get pumped up for that. But Thanksgiving is really all about sharing and community; it is a great time to express some Tude (with a capital T). No -not attitude but gratiTude.
Thanksgiving is here and that means it is time to express some gratitude. One of my goals for this year was to keep a gratitude journal and write down at least three things every day that I am grateful for. I have done a good job writing in it every night before bed and the more I write in it, the easier it gets to think of three things.
I worked outdoors this morning in a steady but light rain. For four hours and fifteen minutes, I raked leaves, I piled leaves on tarps, I dragged leaves and I blew leaves all over the place. The temperature was 48 degrees and the sun was nowhere to be found. By the time I stopped, I was hungry, exhausted and rather wet!
Do you know what else I was? I was happy. Yup, happy. I am not the type of person to go to the gym. The thought of running scares me and taking an exercise class is not my idea of fun. Working hard in the fresh air until my muscles burn is my idea of exercise. Getting paid to do it is like icing on the cake. Would I have preferred some sunshine and a bit of warmer weather? Of course – but I can’t control the weather so why complain about it?
As a kid, my parents took us camping and to lots of State Parks. New York has a beautiful park system with hiking, swimming, camping, waterfalls and nature galore. I remember loving every minute of our time in the parks. This instilled in me a love of the outdoors that has only grown as I have gotten older. Since I moved back to New York five years ago, I have returned to many of these parks and still am in awe at the beautiful scenery.
When I was a kid, we didn’t eat dinner. Nope! We ate supper which typically consisted of meat, potato in some form and vegetables or a salad. We ate whole wheat bread frequently, pasta once per week and rice occasionally. Mother Fran was a bit of a health nut so milk was served as the beverage, fruit as the dessert. She cooked with lard, butter and oil. Most vegetables were straight from the garden and sometimes the freezer.
We rarely had chips, soda or other types of junk food. I’m pretty sure she had never heard of a Ring Ding, Twinkie or Fluff. We did enjoy the occasional brownie, ice cream and homemade cake. Mother Fran was ahead of her time when it came to cooking healthy meals for her family. Our diet had plenty of protein, healthy fats and some carbohydrates.
Do you ever find yourself happily going about your life, tending to what needs to get done, checking things off of your to do list and than BAM? BAM, something happens that rocks your world. Something pulls your kayak way off course and you find yourself drifting aimlessly or furiously fighting the waves but not getting anywhere.
A few weeks ago, my brother (Number 9) called me to process the fact that a good friend of his had a massive heart attack and was in the hospital. His friend is in his mid 50’s and I’m sure he was not expecting something so big to rock his world. Today I learned about a friend in his early 60’s who just underwent a partial amputation of his foot due to diabetic complications. Undergoing surgery like that will totally knock anyone off course.
I feel like I jumped off of a financial cliff last week. Like I threw a wad of money out of the car window. Yes, I am exaggerating in a major way but still a girl can’t help the way she feels. Child #7, Mother Fran and I took our annual trip to the Outlet Mall and I went a bit crazy. Usually, I end up with a small purchase, grab a bite to eat and call it a day. This trip was different. My adrenaline was pumping and my filters were off. We plan this trip for the first week of September to coincide with “Back to School Sales” but we don’t go until after the kids of have actually gone back to school. Brilliant, right?
