Tag: goals


Jan
2013

Under Pressure

categories: 2013, Life

I’m a very different person than I was at 20 and even 30. I love how we constantly evolve and change through the years. I’ve been “tightly wound” for most of my life. I don’t know if it was due to pressure going through school to do my best or being an only child and pretty selfish, but I have kept things in their respective boxes – and only in their respective boxes – for years. The last few years I have started to let go of a little of that anal retentiveness and tried to learn to let go. Daniel has been monumental in those exercises. He is most definitely the ying to my yang and meeting him is one of those pivotal moments where positive change started to happen. He is an easy going, laid back, all around funny guy while I am a detail oriented, neurotic, crazy-at-home, all around funny gal. It always makes me laugh to see people’s faces when I tell them what a monster I am at home. Or was. I want things picked up, clean (mostly), back in their original places (do NOT move my toothpaste), and wherever you found them. Daniel has a nickname for me – “CSI Sherri” – because I can walk into a room in our house and immediately tell if something is amiss or different. I used to go bonkers if something was not the way I left it or in the same place or if there were things of his sitting on the table or a coat not hung up. In the year+ that we’ve been together I have learned, the hard way, that those things aren’t worth fighting about and aren’t important in the grand scheme of things and life. My stress level, just from learning this behavior change, has dramatically reduced. Couple that with working out and I’m *almost* as relaxed as a normal person. (Actually, are normal people relaxed? I don’t know that I know any. Lol) All that to say this: coming from a self-diagnosed neurotic, OCD love bunny – Don’t sweat the small stuff. In the end, worrying does no good, doesn’t change anything, and can affect your health. It comes down to picking your battles and lemme tell ya, toothpaste ain’t worth fighting over. 🙂

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.


Jan
2013

Climbing Everest – How Far I’ve Come (2012) and What Lies Ahead (2013)

categories: 2013, goals

“Canon in D” just came on my Pandora radio station. I absolutely love this song and not just because it makes me think of weddings. I love the song for the melody, the crescendos, and the lulls. It is, quite possibly, the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. I can listen to it over and over, getting lost in thoughts of love and hope. It was fitting that it came on as I was starting this post. I’ve been pretty reflective the past few months and that culminated in a great discussion with my fiance about our futures – together as a couple and for each of us personally. I spent the better part of today in complete silence, not doing much of anything besides staring into space thinking about the past year and my future. I have never been one to list personal highlights of the previous year or goals for the new one, but it feels like the right time to start. Not to toot my own horn, but a few of the things that brought me great joy last year were:

  • Starting Birmingham Dance Walk
  • Joining together with friends to start a very tasty and intellectual Supper Club
  • Supporting, donating to, and volunteering with more charities and non-profits than I ever have before – most of them local to Birmingham
  • Building a remarkable relationship with Daniel Walters
  • Getting my first freelance writing assignment (Artwalk article for Magic City Post)
  • Starting some fitness regimen again, first with G57 Training and Fitness and now with Iron Tribe Fitness
  • Joining See Jane Write – possibly the most exceptional group of women I have ever met.
  • Hearing First Lady Michelle Obama speak in person
  • Completing 2 5Ks – the Color Run and the Race for the Cure
  • Fundraising with free hugs for the Crisis Center of Birmingham at Naked Art – truly one of the best nights of my life
  • Rescuing a pup and finding her a home
  • Developing some of the most meaningful and empowering female friendships I have ever had. We are doing GREAT things in 2013!
  • Learning more about myself this year than any previous year. And it helped me realize my biggest passion along with focusing on the direction I want to take with it.

My friend Jen West recently wrote about a new iOS app called Everest – where you can live your dreams by setting personal goals and then breaking them down into smaller steps to help you achieve them. I downloaded the app today and spent most of the morning thinking about what dreams I have for the years ahead. Here are the dreams I came up with and posted in the app, along with the rough time frame that I set for them. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I have never been one to set goals, but this seems like a great (and fitting) year to start. Here we go (in no particular order):

  1. Volunteer with children. I’ve thought about this a lot the past year, off and on, and I really want to pursue this dream. Children light up my life and I would like to give some of that back if possible. I thought about McWane Science Center, but am leaning more toward Big Brothers & Big Sisters or something akin to that locally. By When: 3 months
  2. Create 365 blog posts. Yup, I’m going to do my BEST to blog every day for a year about something. Fingers crossed on this one! By When: 1 year
  3. Ride a bike again. I know the saying, but I’m telling you – I’m scared to death to get my big ‘ole butt on that tiny seat. My knees aren’t good and I can see me falling right over. But I have to start somewhere..even if it’s going to Cahaba Cycle and baby wheeling it around the show room floor for a few. I would like to get a bike and ride around Birmingham. By When: 6 months
  4. Meditate. I did this for a Chopra Center challenge earlier this year for the first time and loved it. I would like to make it a part of my daily life. When: Ongoing
  5. Work out at least 3 times per week. Enough said! When: Ongoing
  6. Read 1 book per month. By When: 1 year
  7. Run a 5k. I HATE running. Let’s rephrase that..I can’t run. Not for more than about 200 meters currently. I get too winded to keep going without passing out. And I hate it. So, I walked the 5ks that I did this past year. I would like to run one and I know I can do it. It just takes practice. Running practice. Lots of running practice. Ick. Blech. Whatever. By When: 9 months
  8. Lose 100 lbs. I originally had 50 on there, but I changed it to 100. Fifty is more realistic, but let’s go for gold and see what happens. #GetAfterIt By When: 1 year
  9. Get 100 people to participate in Birmingham Dance Walk. We can make this happen, but I will need your help. 🙂 By When: 1 year
  10. Give back to Birmingham; figure out the who, how, and why. I recently talked about starting a non-profit to help the sponsors of Birmingham Dance Walk make tax-deductible contributions while also sharing with other non-profits in the area that need help. I still like that idea and want to do that, but I’ve thought about my original intention some more and realized that a) I am most passionate about Birmingham and all she has to offer and b) I love doing things for other people. So I plan on figuring out exactly how to put those two together and what that means for me…how I can give back to Birmingham, exactly who I can help, and definitively state why I want to help. HOW, WHO, and WHY will be my 3 words for 2013. This will also help with today’s 31 Days to a Better Blog challenge item: Create the blog you want to read. By When: 1 year

There you have it. My 10 goals for 2013. Here goes nothing!

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.


Nov
2012

Announcement: Big goal! Can you help?

categories: goal, non-profit, writing

Today’s writing prompt for #bloglikecrazy is “Why I blog.” I have been on GREEN for so long that often times I just ‘do’ and don’t think about ‘why.’ Lately though the BF, books, and my lovely Janes have caused me to stop more than once and ask myself ‘Why do I feel that way?’ ‘Why am I doing this?’ ‘Why does that make me happy or sad?’ The last one has weighed on my mind a lot lately, but in a good way. I feel as though I may be the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. You know how you hate to say something officially out loud for fear that it’s all in your head and it will go to pot justlikethat? But, I am slowly evolving my mindset into that we make our choices and our behaviors. We choose to react certain ways to certain people or situations and BF has been helping me see how I can positively change my reactions to situations with time and effort. To be completely honest, I fly off the handle and overreact A LOT. And actually, that might be an understatement. I tend to get heated and let very little things bother me in a very big way. I don’t know the root cause of that behavior (yet), but I am learning to recognize it and, when I think about it ahead of time, choose to react differently. I may talk to him about it or just simply let it go if it’s not even worth the breath. I am starting to “choose my battles”, as it were, but more importantly, I’m choosing what is worth hashing out and what just doesn’t matter in our life together. And – surprisingly – a lot of the stuff I let get to me simply doesn’t matter. That’s not to say that I don’t discuss or stand up for what I believe in, but so does he. We’re equally stubborn in our convictions, but that’s what I love about us. He has helped me realize my behaviors, think about them ahead of time (when I remember), and choose to live a happier life. It helps that he is the exact opposite of me in that he’s very easy-going and doesn’t sweat the small stuff while I am tightly wound and sweat everything. Still it works for us and that, in turn, has helped me learn and grow a lot in the last year. I don’t know if he’ll ever know how grateful I am to him for his patience, understanding, and gentle guidance when I get “girl crazy.” We both have our faults and we are doing a great job in learning the other’s, working with and accepting them, and helping each other where we can.

All that to say this, I blog because sometimes (most of the time), I write better than I speak. I hate confrontation and I also hate getting too sappy in person. I prefer to put it on digital paper. I express myself clearer and more eloquently in writing than I ever have face to face. I enjoy getting things off my chest on this blog, as well as share the latest and greatest in my world with you all. I’m still struggling a bit, internally, with what I want to do next goal-wise. I have ideas, I just need to cull them a bit and get them down. You saw my 4 short term goals for the rest of this year in yesterday’s post. In keeping with that, I worked out yesterday at Iron Tribe, am planning on going today after work, and will do a WOD (Workout of the Day) at home this weekend. I’m also going to count my volunteer shift working as the guest bartender at the Kitschmas opening tomorrow night at Naked Art as 1 of my 2 volunteer goals as I am donating all my tips to the Crisis Center of Birmingham and will likely be volunteering with them in the near future. Please come by Naked Art tomorrow night between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to say Hi, introduce yourself, let me pour you a free drink, get a FREE HUG with your drink, and start your holiday shopping at one of THE best stores to buy beautiful, unique, LOCAL art! Also, I started on my book yesterday so am doing well there. And I’m working on my next piece for Magic City Post which will, hopefully, be a story on the German Christmas Market coming up. I’ll be sure to let you know when I get it done and it’s published. As far as goals for the new year, I’m still working on those as well. But one that I KNOW in my heart that I want to accomplish is to set up a non-profit here in Alabama. I want the sponsors, prizes, and other vendors of Birmingham Dance Walk to be giving toward something besides just the wonderful people of Birmingham. I want them to be able to write their generous donations off and I also want to raise money with this non-profit to donate to other charities in our area that need help. I haven’t started the research on this, but I have a good idea of what I want and am going to start looking in to the paperwork soon. I want to give back and I think this would be a great way to start. If you have any ideas or advice on how to get this puppy started, I am all ears and would appreciate the help! You can reach me at sherri at yougotrossed dot com. I think it takes quite a bit of $$ to file non-profit paperwork here, so I’m still mulling that over too. I may start a KickStarter or Indiegogo to raise funds if needed. There are so many places in Birmingham that could use additional help…would you consider helping me help them? I would love your thoughts!

As always,

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.


Nov
2012

I’m baaaaaa-aaaaaaaack

categories: goals

I know you were just waiting around for this moment, right? You’ve been up at night, not eating, not even able to work, wondering when I would make my return to blogging, right? I missed you too!

While I am not happy about missing a few days of #bloglikecrazy, I am very happy that I was away on a mini vacation with my wonderful boyfriend and some of my friends from Northern Virginia. My former boss (and one of my best friends and mentors) goes to Texas once a year with her family to visit a mutual friend of ours and catch a UT football game (former boss’ hubby is a huge Texas fan). They’ve done this the past few years and while I’ve always wanted to join them, something has always come up that prevented me from going. Not this year! Earlier in the year I made a firm decision that I was going (God willing). I was able to keep that promise to myself and met up with the boss lady and her family in Austin for a few days. I was able to see them for the second time this year and they were able to finally meet my beau. It was a glorious time full of Elmo, football, marching band, authentic food, boots, art, friends, and love. Elmo was a surprise that Daniel snuck into his luggage before we left. Imagine my surprise when I went to get in bed the first night at the hotel and found a bright red puppet in there! We decided to take him everywhere we went and tweet pictures of him along the way. You can find the pics on Twitter by searching for #elmovisitsaustin. He had a big time!

I’ve missed quite a few blogging days, but will be glad to extend my month for those days. I have enjoyed reading all the other ladies blog like crazy this month. I’ve learned more about my friends and what they’re passionate about in these past few weeks than I ever knew before. And I am happy (though not surprised) to find out we have so much in common – on and offline.

Today’s writing prompt was to set 4 simple goals for yourself for the rest of the year. Boyfriend and I have already started on this for ourselves and as a couple for the new year. But the #bloglikecrazy goals were geared more toward the remainder of this year, which I love. So, here are mine:

  1. Work out AT LEAST 3 times per week (preferably more) and drop 1 pants size
  2. Read The New Psycho-Cybernetics
  3. Write 2 more articles for Magic City Post
  4. Volunteer at least twice before the year ends (preferably more)

Those are my goals for the rest of the year. Do you have goals for the rest of the year? What are they? Post them in the Comments section and let’s share our successes at the end of the year!

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.