Category Archives: Writing

2019 Vision Statement Scorecard

31 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Art, Fearless, Flying, Travel, Writing, Yoga

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My Instagram Top 9 photos of the year. I love that they represent the important areas of my life: family, friends, flying. learning and yoga.

This was an unexpectedly challenging year. I don’t feel like I was able to fully live up to the lofty vision I had crafted at the end of last year, but I’m okay with that. I had to spend more energy and time than I had planned managing some family and work issues. Life happens.

I do feel like I was able to accomplish more than I would have, had I not written a vision statement; so, I’ll continue doing them for self-inspiration and accountability.

I’m using the same color-code system to rate how well I was able to deliver on my vision for the year, where green = did it, yellow = did some of it and red = didn’t happen.

Family:

  • Goals
    • Did a family vacation together and unplugged our devices for at least one day (it was wonderful to do this during my New Zealand trip in 2018; need to disconnect from social media more often). The kids had some health issues and so we weren’t able to do a family vacation together where we could completely unplug. The three of us spent the holidays with my parents in Tampa, and Julia and I joined my family in March for my brother’s 50th birthday. She and I also did a weekend trip to Ukiah, but for the most part, this was a year we stayed local as a family.
    • Spent time with my parents I got to see my parents several times this year: for my brother’s birthday, for Thanksgiving, and then mom and I did our girl’s trip, and she also visited us in California.
  • Bonus:
    • I finally met the partner I’d hoped for and we are building a life together I went on three dates this year. Three! Maybe 2020 will be better?
    • Enjoyed a Vegas Girls’ trip with my mom, during a month when it was warm enough to sit out by the pool!We did our trip to Santa Fe, and it was in late September so it wasn’t super warm, but it was fun!

Friends:

  • Goals:
    • Had a fun trip to Sedona with my girlfriends This was super fun. Love my #girlsquad
  • Bonus
    • Hosted a dinner party for my friends Did this at the beginning of the year and would love to do more in 2020.

Work:

  • Goal:
    • I started a Women@GBM group and helped support women in our org I didn’t get a chance to do the Women@ group before I left Facebook, but I did get a Managers@ group started, as well as mentor several women at work.

Community:

  • Goals:
    • Started teaching yoga and mindfulness classes with Veterans Yoga project I had to postpone the VYP training into 2020; this will be on my 2020 Vision Statement.
    • Continued supporting veterans transitioning to tech by participating in Facebook’s Vets group and speaking with groups like Breakline Still one of my favorite things to do and I’m glad I was able to help veterans transitioning into tech jobs.

Me:

  • Goals:
    • Fitness:
      • Earned my 200-hr yoga teaching certification so I can teach yoga to veterans. Completed in June and have taught 2 community classes, as well as private lessons.
      • Can do a press-up handstand. Nope.
      • Competed in a pole dancing competition. Took classes but didn’t compete…yet.
    • Music: Since buying myself a digital piano for Christmas in Dec 2018, I completed an online piano course and can play at least 4 of the following songs. :
    • Flying: I fly every 3 weeks or so and enjoy taking friends up for flights. Did a couple of cross-country camping flights and enjoyed sleeping under the stars. I was flying frequently during the first 6 months of the year but then a combination of weather and personal stuff kept me grounded for the second half of 2019.
  • Bonus:
    • Writing:
      • I sold the screenplay/teleplay I wrote in 2017 and wrote another one.
      • I blogged monthly
    • Travel: I visited two new places this year (thinking about Sedona, South Africa, Copenhagen, Prague, Berlin, Costa Rica). I actually went to five: Toronto, Edinburgh, Scotland, Sedona, Portland and Kauai. I traveled a lot: Singapore, London, NYC, Washington, DC, Boonville, Yosemite, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Big Sur.
    • Painting: I set up my art studio space in San Jose and completed 20 paintings, enough to sign up for Open Studios. I have posted my paintings to my art website, encaustech.com, and have sold a few. I’ve begun talking with Facebook about doing an encaustic installation on one of the walls at work. I’m thrilled to have a studio in San Jose and I visit a couple of times a month. I would love to spend more time paining, but unfortunately, this has taken a backseat to other activities. Also, the studio is hot in the summer, which doesn’t pair well with encaustics, so I’m starting to learn Cold Wax painting for the summer months.

2019 Vision Q1 Check-in

17 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Art, Flying, Travel, Writing, Yoga

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I thought I’d try something new this year and not wait an entire 365 days to report on my vision statement progress.

I’m at my art studio, waiting for the wax to heat up to a molten state so I can start painting; seems like a good time to write a little. I miss writing. I had a call today with my writing partner about some tweaks to our screenplay and I felt that pull to sit in front of a laptop and empty my brain into another story. I love writing. I need to do more.

So, how are things going so far? What happened in January – March?

Family:

  • Goals
    • Did a family vacation together and unplugged our devices for at least one day (it was wonderful to do this during my New Zealand trip in 2018; need to disconnect from social media more often). Not yet. Planned for this summer.
    • Spent time with my parents. Julia and I got to see them and my brothers for my brother Patrick’s 50th birthday.
  • Bonus:
    • I finally met the partner I’d hoped for and we are building a life together. Not yet. Still hopeful. 🙂
    • Enjoyed a Vegas Girls’ trip with my mom, during a month when it was warm enough to sit out by the pool! Planned for Q3.

Friends:

  • Goals:
    • Had a fun trip to Sedona with my girlfriends. Such a fun trip, although I was coming down with a bad cold. Did some awesome hiking.
    • RhQAqPCbREqkCxr6PKBikw
  • Bonus
    • Hosted a dinner party for my friends. Super fun, hope to do another one later this year. I’m grateful to have such amazing, supportive friends in my life.

Work:

  • Goal:
    • I started a Women@GBM group and helped support women in our org. Not yet.

Community:

  • Goals:
    • Started teaching yoga and mindfulness classes with Veterans Yoga project. Not yet, will finish my training in June.
    • Continued supporting veterans transitioning to tech by participating in Facebook’s Vets group and speaking with groups like Breakline. Not yet.

Me:

  • Goals:
    • Fitness:
      • Earned my 200-hr yoga teaching certification so I can teach yoga to veterans. In progress! I’ve really been enjoying this training. Lots of studying!
      • fullsizeoutput_3f9c
      • Can do a press-up handstand. Hahaha, not even close…
      • Competed in a pole dancing competition. Not yet, but in progress.
    • Music: Since buying myself a digital piano for Christmas in Dec 2018, I completed an online piano course and can play at least 4 of the following songs. : In progress. Embarrassing accountability videos are below. I’m almost done with the Entertainer, halfway through La Valse d’Amelie (although it’s really rough), at the beginning of Glitter in the Air, and deciding whether or not to continue on Between the Lines. I love the song but it is freaking difficult. NOTE: Not sure why the video images are upside down, but it’s normal once it starts playing.

 

    • Flying: I fly every 3 weeks or so and enjoy taking friends up for flights. Did a couple of cross-country camping flights and enjoyed sleeping under the stars. I’ve taken a couple of friends flying on Bay Tours. Next up is my mountain flying checkout so I can go camping in the foothills. I’m also looking at getting my aerobatics check out, as straight and level is getting boring fast. 🙂
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Bonus:

  • Writing:
    • I sold the screenplay/teleplay I wrote in 2017 and wrote another one.Still trying to sell it.
    • I blogged monthly well, maybe quarterly?
  • Travel: I visited two new places this year (thinking about Sedona, South Africa, Copenhagen, Prague, Berlin, Costa Rica). Edinburgh is next!
  • Painting: I set up my art studio space in San Jose and completed 20 paintings, enough to sign up for Open Studios. I have posted my paintings to my art website, encaustech.com, and have sold a few. I’ve begun talking with Facebook about doing an encaustic installation on one of the walls at work. 

I rented a super cool art studio space in San Jose!

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Move-in Day

I have been focusing on yoga teacher training, so I haven’t been as productive in the studio as I would like; however, with the sun setting later every day, I’m hoping to paint more. Here’s a painting that’s almost done, and one that is just beginning:

 

Scorecard from 2017 Vision Statement

03 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Art, Music, Parenting, Travel, Writing, Yoga

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“Coastline”  watercolor on paper, 2012

I was able to get Quip to cooperate and found my 2017 Vision Statement. I had written it as an essay but found it easier to evaluate in spreadsheet form, so here’s how it went. I used color-coding to indicate whether or not I felt I met the goal, kinda met it, or missed:

Goals from 2017 Vision Statement Notes
Family
We took a fun family vacation together to Europe and a couple of long weekend trips to Carmel and Hawaii. Spent spring break in Oahu and did a summer trip to London and Venice. Didn’t make it to Carmel, though.
During the weeks they’re with me, I am able to leave the office in time to pick them up from school and we cook dinner together a couple of times a week. Getting handy with the InstaPot!
We welcomed a dog into our family. Got a cat – close enough!
I finally met the partner I’d hoped for and we are building a life together. He’s appreciative of all the thoughtful things I do for him, and he delights in and encourages my personal growth. Lots of dates but no serious prospects yet.
Friends
I’ve been able to finish furnishing and decorating my house and have hosted parties for my friends. Finally finished the built-in bookshelves and decorated the walls.
We did a get-away together and celebrated our friendship. Mexico fell through because of weather, but we “got away” to the east bay!
We went to several concerts together this summer RetroFutura concert, Green Day and Paula Cole
My friends helped me ring in my milestone birthday this year and I am grateful to have them in my life. Had an awesome birthday party thrown by my parents and my kids, with family and so many dear friends in attendance. #grateful
Community
I continued my involvement in veteran support groups. Advisor for VetsinTech, spoke at NPower graduation
Helped host a VetsinTech hackathon at Facebook.
I volunteered at both of my kids’ schools. Helped with the 8th grade graduation celebration.
Me
Painting: I set up my art studio and completed 20 paintings, enough to sign up for Open Studios in 2018. I  have posted my paintings to my art website, encautech.com, and have sold a few. I’ve begun talking with Facebook about doing an encaustic installation on one of the walls at work. Got my supplies in the garage but it’s a mess. Attended several workshops this year, but haven’t organized my own studio and made it functional yet.
Web Dev: I completed a web development course and was able to use what I learned to redesign encaustech.com, which I am now using to both exhibit and sell my artwork. This completely dropped. I was able to get back the url for encaustech.com and that’s now active again.
Writing: Speaking of blogs, I am regularly posting on rendipi.com and stretching my writing muscles. Wouldn’t consider posting 5x a year “regular.” 🙂
Writing: I finally completed the first draft of my first novel. Wrote a screenplay instead of a novel.
Music: I continued my guitar lessons and sang at an open mic night. Practiced guitar for a while but it fell off. No open mic nights yet, other than some karaoke.
Fitness: I got serious about yoga and am practicing at least 3X a week. In 2018, I will get my 200-hour teaching certificate and will start volunteering to teach yoga at the VA. Practicing yoga fairly regularly but need to carve out more time for it.
Travel: I enjoyed a solo vacation and visited some places I’ve never been to (Montreal, Vancouver, Prague, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Costa Rica are candidates) Visited Amsterdam and Barcelona. Loved both.

Tomorrow I’ll share my 2018 Vision Statement. There are lots of similarities – things I really wanted to get to this year but didn’t have time or other priorities occurred. And there are some new things! I’ll try to trim the list to something more manageable. Looking back, there was a lot here, and I didn’t even include my work goals.

Onward and upward!

Happy New Year, 2018

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in Art, Fearless, Flying, Inspiration, love, Parenting, Writing

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fearless

As we often do at the end of a year, yesterday I reflected on my vision statement from 2017 and how much I was able to accomplish and what didn’t get done.

While I was able to achieve more things than I believe I would have if I hadn’t written a vision statement, it occurred to me that despite a shit-ton of therapy introspection over the past few years, I am still letting fear guide too much of my life.

I am still afraid of…

making bad decisions.
looking stupid.
hurting someone.
falling in love again.
hurting myself physically.
failing the people I love.
and probably several other things I haven’t listed. Blockchain technology, for example.

So, while I did write another vision statement for 2018 (which I will have to post separately because Quip is being uncooperative at the moment – shocker), I want to also commit to a guiding word for the year.

Over the past few years, I’ve used Explore, Stretch, Mindful, Forgive and Create. But for some unexplained reason, this year I feel I need to up-level the bad-assery of my inspirational word-of-the-year. Maybe it’s because I turned 50 a few months ago and so my mortality is more top-of-mind. Perhaps it’s because I find that the older I get, the fewer fucks I give about a LOT of stuff. Like my potty mouth, for example. During my years in the navy, my creativity in the fine usage of colorful metaphors approached artisanal mastery but has since degenerated to the point now where I can barely manage to drop an f-bomb when I need my teenage son to take.the.fucking.garbage.out.NOW.

But I digress.

For me, 2018 is about being FEARLESS.

  • It’s about stepping up for challenges at work that scare me, because I know I will figure shit out, somehow, and I’ll be supported by the best team I’ve ever had the honor of working with.
  • It’s about engaging more with friends, instead of using my INFJ-ness as an excuse to not comment on a post, or go to a party or take a stand on an issue.
  • It’s about encouraging myself to be vulnerable and open, hopeful that I will meet someone I can trust and find a partner whom I adore and who feels the same about me. Or maybe I won’t, and I’m okay with that. #dontsettle
  • It’s about getting back behind the stick of an airplane (a stick, not a goddamn yoke. Fuck that shit.) because I love flying and I miss having my head literally in the clouds.
  • It’s about continuing to loosen the grip on the two people I love the most, who are pulling slowly away from me (as they should) as they look toward that beacon of adulthood beckoning to them more brightly, while still supporting them and loving them every day. Even when they don’t take out the fucking trash.
  • It’s about sharing my writing, rather than worrying about what people will think, or how they’ll judge me. Ditto for my encaustic painting work.
  • It’s about getting stronger physically. After years of recovering from a fat childhood, I’m no longer afraid to own this. Sorry, Mom and Dad, this might be the year I take up pole dancing.

So there it is. My first fearless act is to share this publicly and ask you, my friends and family, to remind me that in exactly one year I’m going to have to answer up to myself about whether or not I followed through on being fearless. Hopefully you will at least have received an airplane ride out of it with me somewhere along the way.

Happy New Year, everyone! Except you, Fear. You can fuck off.

 

 

 

Choose wisely in 2017

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by in Inspiration, Writing

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choosewisely
I’m reading a book called Presence, by Amy Cuddy – a gift from my manager (thanks, Giselle!). I was inspired by reading about Cuddy’s discussion of power. I used to think of power in the same way I thought about sales…in a negative way. I felt that power was only sought by those who wanted it in order to dominate or take advantage of others. Her book helped me realize that what I used to think of as power is social power, but there’s an inner version, called personal power, that is about self-confidence. Personal power is limitless, unlike social power, which is gained at the expense of others.

If you think of power as being binary, then not feeling powerful means you feel powerless. Cuddy discusses how the feeling of powerlessness causes people to physically withdraw. She cites several studies about subjects who physically collapse into themselves when they don’t feel like they have any power, vs. powerful people, who stand tall, with their chins lifted and chests puffed out.

amycuddy

I’ve had too many moments this past year of feeling powerless. I’ve felt socially withdrawn. I was often quieter than I should be at work and chalked it up to being new in my role. I know that powerlessness is not doing me any favors.

I’ve also had moments when I felt more powerful than I have ever felt before. I’m at a new company in a job that I absolutely love and that I’m great at. I love my team and they inspire me to be the best manager possible. My kids are healthy and happy. I bought a home all by myself thanks to years of working hard and saving money (and a fairy godmother of a real estate agent who found an awesome property off-market). I’m healthy. I am so fortunate and I fully appreciate that. Yet sometimes, I still let fear creep in. I don’t let it stay for long, and I am much better at recognizing it when it approaches. As much as I can, I choose to push past the fear.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about choices, especially the choices in how I live my life. Last month at work, I wrote a vision statement for 2017 to delineate what I want to accomplish over the next 12 months. It was helpful because it gave me a reality check about how much I can actually do in that time period, and I had to prioritize what was most important for me to accomplish in 2017. I’ve come to realize that I feel better and more productive, accomplished, etc. when I schedule my time and make a plan. And what better time to make a plan than on January 1st?

Many times last year, I’d think about getting up early and practicing yoga or going to the gym, but then I’d stay up too late, looking at social media or reading, and then when the alarm went off at 6am, it was too easy to hit snooze. This year, I’m going to get to bed by 10am so I have a little buffer for reading (but not online!) and I know (through months of sleep tracking) that I need 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep a night. So, if I can get to sleep by 10:30pm, I can get up at 5:30am and feel rested. My body naturally wakes early, often before my alarm goes off, so now I just need that impetus to get out of bed. I need to choose to get out of bed rather than going back to sleep. I will help myself make that choice by putting my alarm on the other side of my bedroom. 🙂

I feel motivated to get it right this year. I’m celebrating a milestone birthday and so I’m re-evaluating how I’m living my life.  I’m pretty happy overall, but I do feel like I could be doing more, especially more for others. Last year, I made too many excuses for myself, instead of realizing the power I have to make better choices. In 2017, I’m going to kick some vision statement ass.

Here’s what I’ll be writing on December 31, 2017:

Work
My team continued to have great impact. We ended the year with a new Help Center, where customers can go to easily get information about our products, find support and become more successful. Our new support experience has been recognized externally and the team has been invited to speak at industry conferences.
We deflected a record number of cases from 1:1 teams and are considered a strong partner to our sales and support teams. We’ve delivered many insights to our product and marketing partners, who also view us as a valuable feedback mechanism, and we’re included in more upstream conversations. The team is happy and feeling fulfilled.
I am leading leadership development training for women at our company and continue to coach co-workers.
I am considered a leader in our company and a valued contributor to my org’s leadership team.
I visited our remote teams once a quarter to help them feel supported and connected.

Family
My kids are now both teenagers! We took a fun family vacation together to Europe and a couple of long weekend trips to Carmel and Hawaii. During the weeks they’re with me, I am able to leave the office in time to pick them up from school and we cook dinner together a couple of times a week.
We welcomed a dog into our family.
I finally met the partner I’d hoped for and we are building a life together. He’s appreciative of all the thoughtful things I do for him, and he delights in and encourages my personal growth.

Friends
I’ve been able to finish furnishing and decorating my house and have hosted get-togethers for my friends.
We did a get-away together trip and celebrated our friendship. And of course, we went to several concerts together this summer. My friends helped me ring in my milestone birthday this year and I am grateful to have them in my life.

Community
I continued my involvement in veteran support groups and helped host a VetsinTech hackathon at my company.
I volunteered at my kids’ schools.

Me
I continued my hobbies in 2017 but stretched myself a little more this year.
Painting: I set up my art studio and completed 20 paintings, enough to sign up for Open Studios in 2018. I have posted my paintings to my art website, encaustech.com, and have sold a few. I’ve begun talking with my company about doing an encaustic installation on one of the walls at work.
Design: I completed a web development course and was able to use what I learned to redesign encaustech.com, which I am now using to both exhibit and sell my artwork.
Writing: Speaking of blogs, I am regularly posting on rendipi.com and stretching my writing muscles. I signed up for the 500words a day challenge and I finally completed the first draft of my first novel.
Music: I continued my guitar lessons and sang at an open mic night.
Fitness: I got serious about yoga and am practicing at least 3X a week. In 2018, I will get my 200-hour teaching certificate and will start volunteering to teach yoga at the VA (both are stretch goals for 2017).
Travel: I enjoyed a solo vacation and visited some places I’ve never been to (Montreal, Vancouver, Prague, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Costa Rica are candidates)
Half-year bonus goal: If I’m progressing well on my vision statement by the end of June, I will get current in a Cessna 172 so I can take my kids and friends flying.

8 things I noticed this morning before 8am

07 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by in Art, Mindfulness, Writing

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1. Upon waking, the amazing way the morning light in the corners of my bedroom casts itself in different shades of beige and gold and begs to be painted.

2. How quiet my house is in contrast to the school mornings when my kids are with me.

3. On my walk to get my morning coffee, how the sky and clouds look like they were painted in watercolors.

4. The sparse berries left on the trees by the train station signal that we are definitely in the middle of winter, even though the few berries that are left are bright pink.

5. I don’t notice the train noise anymore.

6. I wanted to pick up a penny I spotted in a crosswalk, but there was a big truck coming and  even though he had the stop sign, I didn’t think tempting fate for a penny was worth it.

7. I had a 3-minute internal debate while in line about what coffee I should order this morning. The Vanilla Spice sounds really good but I need to lose the five pounds I gained over the holidays (thanks, Mom!). I should probably get a tall nonfat latté but I feel like kicking off my year with a little something extra. What to get, what to get…

8. I am excited for 2013. I am looking forward to the adventures that await me this year. I know they will make me stronger, just as last year’s did.

I love that this morning I felt the urge to write and I have the time to do so.

I ended up ordering a grandé peppermint latté. And I am savoring it.

I’ve been writing…I promise

10 Wednesday Oct 2012

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Wow, I just realized that I haven’t posted for a month. Yikes.

I have been writing for a screenplay class I’m taking at Stanford. I was really motivated after the first class last week, and I’m finalizing which idea I’m going to move forward with.

I also spent a week in Hawaii on vacation, which was wonderful. I did some research for my book while I was there, but now I feel like it’s time to get to work…with “work” being: writing more, learning to code, exploring my ideas for my own business, and deciding what to do next year.

Making Something Ugly

09 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in 15 Habits, Fiction, Writing

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[This was originally a draft post from the 15 Habits of Great Writers series that I never posted. I’ve added to it in order to check off my “write 500 words every day” goal. (I needed a little assistance because I am limited on time and inspiration this morning…I’m taking the kids to Monterey Bay Aquarium) ]

Day 7: Start something that you know will be difficult and thus have been avoiding. Doesn’t matter if it’s ugly, as all art starts out ugly before the artist finds the beauty in it.

I’ve always liked to think about what the world would be like if gender roles were reversed. What if long ago, there had been some event that established a maternalistic society? How differently would society have evolved? Or would it be more interesting from a creative writing perspective to just take the current world and flip gender roles in order to highlight the inequalities? I thought about this idea again while watching the movie Magic Mike last week. It was an odd blend of male stripping/dancing and character drama (thank you, Steven Soderbergh). I can’t help but think that if this had been a movie about a woman stripping and dancing in order to make money so she can pursue her real dream of “respectable” artistic work…oh, wait, that was Flashdance.  Anyway, this (ugly) piece of creative writing comes from that idea of a world ruled by woman:

I am tired of living this boring life, he thought, as he lifted the dining room chair and deftly manuevered the vacuum cleaner, sucking up the leftover flakes of the croissants he had baked for Jacinda. He found some fulfillment in managing their home and in his daily trips to the local Manifestival arena (Just last week he defeated Artemisas in wrestling. Jacinda seemed proud and pleased that her husband had established himself as the one of the strongest men in their town) but he felt something was missing. Why should the women be allowed to work outside the home and travel for business and earn their own paychecks, but not men? He had always loved doing the crossword puzzles in the newspaper and enjoyed writing letters for correspondence…he had once written a short story in school that had earned him high marks and he had been elated until the teacher remarked that it’s too bad that men don’t work in the arts., he would likely have been a good writer. Best to stick to mens’ work, using his natural strength. History had shown that women were smarter and better able to manage complex projects and large groups of people. Leave the easier work, like domestic engineering, to the men. He set the vacuum cleaner down and thought of the essay he had submitted to their city newspaper’s non-fiction contest, using his initials so the editor might assume it was a woman writing. The deadline was last week and he constantly checked his mailbox for some sort of notification. His daydream was interrupted by the sharp shrill ring of their kitchen phone. 

The Sabbatical Plan

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Art, Mindfulness, Writing

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I decided to take a sabbatical. Now what? How best to use this gift of time?

I am kicking off the sabbatical with two important tasks this week. First, I started working with a career coach (on Monday morning no less! How’s that for wasting no time?) so I could have some professional guidance with thinking about what is important to me and how I will use that knowledge to help me find more satisfying work when I start my next job. Second, I am beginning to clean out the house today so I can feel more organized and get rid of clutter. I feel a driving need to get rid of useless stuff and I’m happy I finally have time to do it right.

But after this week? What next?

Being the planner that I am, I’ve felt the need to organize my goals for this break from work. I am trying to not schedule every day, but rather to have a menu of things to choose from so I can feel somewhat spontaneous.

I am organizing my activities of choice into 4 categories: Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual. I was inspired from reading James Altucher’s blog and books. He describes doing a “Daily Practice” of four things every day: Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual (he even created a website to help people track their daily practice). I liked the well-roundedness of that approach.

On a daily basis, I will:
Practice yoga (physical)
Keep a gratitude journal (emotional)
Write 500 words (mental)
Meditate for 20 minutes (spiritual)

Over the course of the next 4-6 months, I will also participate in the following:

Physical
Learn to surf
Dance
Get a 200 hour yoga teaching certificate?

Emotional
Volunteer at the kids’ school
Volunteer at the VA
Open my heart to the possibility of dating
Travel

Mental
Write: Work on a novel
Learn to Code
Build an App/Website
Paint

Spiritual
Read more about Buddhism

I am out of time for now…and only up to 324 words; crap! I will have to come back to this later and finish my thoughts.

 

Starting something I’m scared of

09 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in 15 Habits, Writing

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Day Three: Start something I’m scared of.

I’ve always wanted to write a book or screenplay based on my high school years in Hawaii, but I wasn’t sure what the driving story would be, or who the characters should be, and so on, so I always felt overwhelmed and afraid of taking the first step.

Today, I started.

Here’s the first page I wrote:

She exited the jetway and walked into the open air terminal. The thickness of the air enveloped her like a spiderweb. It was sweet and heavy and after a few syrupy breaths she realized that beads of sweat were forming on her forehead and upper lip so she removed her sweater and let the tropical air settle in to her skin. The length of their journey from the east coast had worn them all down to where their senses were dulled, but the overwhelming floral scent woke them up enough to lift their weary eyelids and admire their new environment. Flowers and greenery seemed to be everywhere, growing alongside the walkways and strung up in beautiful loops, offered for sale by small, dark-skinned women wearing loose, colorful dresses (she would later learn these are called muumuus, a Hawaiian word for “cut off” because the dresses were made without yokes so the missionaries wouldn’t be so hot in the tropical heat). Looking out beyond the airport, to one side was a wall of green, mossy mountains, and to the other side, nothing…just sky and clouds and…home. No, she had to remind herself, this is now our home. For the next three years, anyway. What lay across the miles of ocean used to be home but now it’s just a memory. There is no going back to the life I had in Virginia. She wondered what her friends were doing at that moment…their time was now 6 hours ahead of hers. Not only had she physically been removed from her friends but now they lived in different time zones. The sight of the exotic flowers in the terminal and the new smells emanating from food stalls were her wake up call that “this ain’t Kansas, Dorothy.” Hawaii may be a state of the United States of America, but it was the exotic, distant cousin to all the white-bread family members back on the mainland. She wondered if Alaska had the same, isolated feeling of being so geographically removed from the rest of the USA. As she would learn soon enough, many of the people of Hawaii felt as remote as the state itself, wary (and perhaps weary) of visitors. To them, she was essentially a three-year tourist.