Keep swimming!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
E for Effort.... Just kidding, an F
So clearly not managing the whole blog every day thing!! Things got actually insane the last week or so with getting into finals. This is just a note to say sorry for being a collosal slacker and I will give updates after my very last exam next week!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Trying Every Day to be Better
One of the reasons I started this blog was because I knew that some people (mainly my sisters-in-law :P), really enjoyed my Facebook statuses and I didn't want to disappoint them. My one sister-in-law, Julie, even told me that it was "now mandatory that you text me what would have been your statuses. I don't deserve to go without my daily chuckle for your bizzarity!" With that in mind, I plan to balance any seriousness with plenty of the natural silliness that I can rarely repress.
Today, tragically, I am sick, and can't guarantee any silliness. Sorry Julie! I probably wouldn't be posting at all, except that I didn't post anything yesterday, and I don't want to drop this habit before I've even made it. Speaking of habits...
For Christmas one year, my parents gave my brother in law a series of little books from the Simple Truths collection. He keeps one in the bathroom downstairs and switches it up once in a while. They're actually very good! If you've never read one, I definitely recommend it. Often I'll catch myself repeating a mantra or thinking of a concept that I read of from them, and I haven't even read them that often.
Anyways, they have titles like "The Power of Attitude", "Smile for No Good Reason", and "50 Ways to Say You're Awesome", and other cheesy sounding, but actually helpful books. One of the ones that was in the bathroom recently gave a quote from Jerry Seinfeld, where he responded to someone asking him how he got his material, and he said that he wrote every day. And he put up a calender somewhere that he could see easily, a nice big one, and when he wrote, he got to put up a big red X on the calender. After a while, he had a nice long chain. And the trick was to not break the chain. Because not everything a creative person writes is going to be gold, but with enough practice and enough material to sift through, you'll uncover the things that are worth something. (Incidentally, that idea is also how I do my thrift store shopping. I pack my cart until it's overflowing, and I have to go through a ton of stuff that I'd never actually wear, but then I come away with 5 or 6 amazing pieces.)
I loved this idea. It's a way of keeping you accountable for whatever habit you're trying to get into, whether it's working out, praying, or giving a compliment every day. I tried it out, writing little checklists, and crossing off dates. And it's great! Though naturally come the days where the chain is broken. Things don't work out the way we'd planned, we were tired, we lost our motivation. I'd often give up hope.
I read last night something from a man named Lorenzo Snow that said: "If a husband can live with his wife one day without quarrelling or without treating anyone unkindly or without grieving the Spirit of God... he is so far perfect. Then let him try to be the same the next day. But supposing he should fail in this his next day's attempt, that is no reason why he should not succeed in doing so the third day."
For the longest time growing up, I'd give up the first time or second time I'd fail to change my habits. I thought I had to be perfect, and the best at it, right away. I know I wasn't alone in this. In case you didn't guess, this is not true. :P We give up too easily on ourselves sometimes. But, like he said, there is no reason why we shouldn't succeed on the third day.
And now with that seriousness done away here are some thoughts!
1) Powered by Google does not mean Google. Other search engines should stop trying.
2) My sister's dog is a maniac. If you know her, no further explanation is required.
3) Tweet of the Day: @ActuallyNPH: I'm a big fan of, punctuation and "it's" correct usage; (if you're a grammar geek like I am, that was probably very painful for you.)
4) Awesome friends are hard to come by. Don't let them walk away without knowing that they're special!
5) Follow me on twitter! sallypeaches! Not because I say anything profound, but well because.
I'm still going through some growing pains with this blog, so thanks for reading the whole way through. So far this is a little weird for me! :P But I hope that it can develop into something awesome!
Please do comment! I'd love to hear anything you have to say! Unless it's critism without the constructive part. That you can keep.
Keep Trying, lovelies!
Today, tragically, I am sick, and can't guarantee any silliness. Sorry Julie! I probably wouldn't be posting at all, except that I didn't post anything yesterday, and I don't want to drop this habit before I've even made it. Speaking of habits...
For Christmas one year, my parents gave my brother in law a series of little books from the Simple Truths collection. He keeps one in the bathroom downstairs and switches it up once in a while. They're actually very good! If you've never read one, I definitely recommend it. Often I'll catch myself repeating a mantra or thinking of a concept that I read of from them, and I haven't even read them that often.
Anyways, they have titles like "The Power of Attitude", "Smile for No Good Reason", and "50 Ways to Say You're Awesome", and other cheesy sounding, but actually helpful books. One of the ones that was in the bathroom recently gave a quote from Jerry Seinfeld, where he responded to someone asking him how he got his material, and he said that he wrote every day. And he put up a calender somewhere that he could see easily, a nice big one, and when he wrote, he got to put up a big red X on the calender. After a while, he had a nice long chain. And the trick was to not break the chain. Because not everything a creative person writes is going to be gold, but with enough practice and enough material to sift through, you'll uncover the things that are worth something. (Incidentally, that idea is also how I do my thrift store shopping. I pack my cart until it's overflowing, and I have to go through a ton of stuff that I'd never actually wear, but then I come away with 5 or 6 amazing pieces.)
I loved this idea. It's a way of keeping you accountable for whatever habit you're trying to get into, whether it's working out, praying, or giving a compliment every day. I tried it out, writing little checklists, and crossing off dates. And it's great! Though naturally come the days where the chain is broken. Things don't work out the way we'd planned, we were tired, we lost our motivation. I'd often give up hope.
I read last night something from a man named Lorenzo Snow that said: "If a husband can live with his wife one day without quarrelling or without treating anyone unkindly or without grieving the Spirit of God... he is so far perfect. Then let him try to be the same the next day. But supposing he should fail in this his next day's attempt, that is no reason why he should not succeed in doing so the third day."
For the longest time growing up, I'd give up the first time or second time I'd fail to change my habits. I thought I had to be perfect, and the best at it, right away. I know I wasn't alone in this. In case you didn't guess, this is not true. :P We give up too easily on ourselves sometimes. But, like he said, there is no reason why we shouldn't succeed on the third day.
And now with that seriousness done away here are some thoughts!
1) Powered by Google does not mean Google. Other search engines should stop trying.
2) My sister's dog is a maniac. If you know her, no further explanation is required.
3) Tweet of the Day: @ActuallyNPH: I'm a big fan of, punctuation and "it's" correct usage; (if you're a grammar geek like I am, that was probably very painful for you.)
4) Awesome friends are hard to come by. Don't let them walk away without knowing that they're special!
5) Follow me on twitter! sallypeaches! Not because I say anything profound, but well because.
I'm still going through some growing pains with this blog, so thanks for reading the whole way through. So far this is a little weird for me! :P But I hope that it can develop into something awesome!
Please do comment! I'd love to hear anything you have to say! Unless it's critism without the constructive part. That you can keep.
Keep Trying, lovelies!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Intro
Hi. This is my blog. Thanks for checking it out! :P I've started this blog hand-in-hand with my impulse decision to take a Facebook Sabbatical. I'm not really sure where this is going to go, but I'm excited to try it!
Why take such a Sabbatical, you ask? Here is a tiny bit of background into that decision.
Lately I've been considering my life, its direction, and its purpose. I have to admit that I didn't particularily enjoy what I had before me. I wasn't finding myself particularily motivated, I started being late for everything, skipping classes, bailing on friends, finding every way to avoid chores like cleaning my room and throwing out expired food from the fridge. I honestly kept thinking: "I am WAY too young for a midlife crisis". I tried things like daily schedules and checklists to keep myself on track, but those didn't seem to be working. I didn't look forward to much. I was in (and am still pulling myself out of) what I like to call a rut. (Such a small, fun word. I'm fond of the irony.) I hate ruts. Bad decisions come out of ruts.
I was finally forced to take steps to come out of my rut, but I still wasn't quite feeling it. It took a book to inspire me to enjoy the trip. Last year (or the year before?) for Christmas my mom gave me The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I finally picked it up off my shelf last week. I haven't finished reading it, so I can't endorse it just yet, but I've found enough of it so applicable to my life to make me feel like I can do my own Happiness Project. Not because I'm particularily unhappy, but because I want to be happiER. And motivated.
My first step was to brainstorm. I sat on the top of my stairs with a notebook and wrote down everything that came to mind that I wanted to do differently or new actions that I thought would make me feel better about myself. That was a list of about 20 items and included things like "Put laundry away the same day", "Dress up for school once a week", "Read scriptures", "Make the bed", "Do something scary", and "Make someone feel special". Obviously 20 things is a bit much of a change all at once, but I took a few things off and plan to ease myself into it. I also made a list called "Things I want to grow in...", and came up with 6 things that I really want to build myself up in. They are: Confidence, Endurance (both physical and stength of will), Spirituality, Knowledge, Love, and Inspiration/Motivation. How I plan to do this? I have no idea just yet, but when I come up with something, I will let you know.
In Rubin's book, she talks about removing clutter from her life. She was speaking of physical clutter, and I was definitely itching to go through everything I own and chuck half of it because that did sound wonderful (I still might do it :P), but I also thought of mental clutter, too. Which leads me to my Facebook Sabbatical. This is not the first time I've considered leaving it behind for a while, but now was the first time I was willing to part with it. I'm a very social person, and I like seeing what everyone is up to. However, it's the source of such a huge distraction and is such a time hog, that I'm actually thrilled to be taking a break from it. I can still keep in touch with and check in with my friends and family. That's what phones and email were made for. :P First I deleted the app off my phone, just to phase into it. I had no idea how often I was checking it before I did this! And it's not as if there's a lot of nail-biting stuff on there that needs that much of my attention. So the idea is to be off it until January 1st. But we'll see! Maybe I'll feel so great about it that I'll stay off it even longer. Another plus is that it means I have to have more one-on-one interactions with people to share news and things!
And that is my overly long, in-depth explaination of why I'm on holiday from the distractions of Facebook, and how that started me on this blog. :P
My future posts may or may not relate to my own Happiness Project, or my life in general. Maybe I'll tell a funny happening of the day, review a book, or rant about something else! You never know what you're going to get! I plan to post something every day.
Thanks for reading! Happy Tuesday!
Why take such a Sabbatical, you ask? Here is a tiny bit of background into that decision.
Lately I've been considering my life, its direction, and its purpose. I have to admit that I didn't particularily enjoy what I had before me. I wasn't finding myself particularily motivated, I started being late for everything, skipping classes, bailing on friends, finding every way to avoid chores like cleaning my room and throwing out expired food from the fridge. I honestly kept thinking: "I am WAY too young for a midlife crisis". I tried things like daily schedules and checklists to keep myself on track, but those didn't seem to be working. I didn't look forward to much. I was in (and am still pulling myself out of) what I like to call a rut. (Such a small, fun word. I'm fond of the irony.) I hate ruts. Bad decisions come out of ruts.
I was finally forced to take steps to come out of my rut, but I still wasn't quite feeling it. It took a book to inspire me to enjoy the trip. Last year (or the year before?) for Christmas my mom gave me The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I finally picked it up off my shelf last week. I haven't finished reading it, so I can't endorse it just yet, but I've found enough of it so applicable to my life to make me feel like I can do my own Happiness Project. Not because I'm particularily unhappy, but because I want to be happiER. And motivated.
My first step was to brainstorm. I sat on the top of my stairs with a notebook and wrote down everything that came to mind that I wanted to do differently or new actions that I thought would make me feel better about myself. That was a list of about 20 items and included things like "Put laundry away the same day", "Dress up for school once a week", "Read scriptures", "Make the bed", "Do something scary", and "Make someone feel special". Obviously 20 things is a bit much of a change all at once, but I took a few things off and plan to ease myself into it. I also made a list called "Things I want to grow in...", and came up with 6 things that I really want to build myself up in. They are: Confidence, Endurance (both physical and stength of will), Spirituality, Knowledge, Love, and Inspiration/Motivation. How I plan to do this? I have no idea just yet, but when I come up with something, I will let you know.
In Rubin's book, she talks about removing clutter from her life. She was speaking of physical clutter, and I was definitely itching to go through everything I own and chuck half of it because that did sound wonderful (I still might do it :P), but I also thought of mental clutter, too. Which leads me to my Facebook Sabbatical. This is not the first time I've considered leaving it behind for a while, but now was the first time I was willing to part with it. I'm a very social person, and I like seeing what everyone is up to. However, it's the source of such a huge distraction and is such a time hog, that I'm actually thrilled to be taking a break from it. I can still keep in touch with and check in with my friends and family. That's what phones and email were made for. :P First I deleted the app off my phone, just to phase into it. I had no idea how often I was checking it before I did this! And it's not as if there's a lot of nail-biting stuff on there that needs that much of my attention. So the idea is to be off it until January 1st. But we'll see! Maybe I'll feel so great about it that I'll stay off it even longer. Another plus is that it means I have to have more one-on-one interactions with people to share news and things!
And that is my overly long, in-depth explaination of why I'm on holiday from the distractions of Facebook, and how that started me on this blog. :P
My future posts may or may not relate to my own Happiness Project, or my life in general. Maybe I'll tell a funny happening of the day, review a book, or rant about something else! You never know what you're going to get! I plan to post something every day.
Thanks for reading! Happy Tuesday!
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