Goals, revisited

Earlier this year, I wrote about the goals I wanted to achieve over the coming months. At the end of my Stratejoy season, I wrote about goals again (I also wrote about Girl Talk and what my eyes look like, but whatever).

In the last 2 months, I have effectively done absolutely nothing to better my life in any way. I've been temping, sure, and going to Jay-Z and Foo Fighters concerts and playing kickball, but I'm living completely without strategic direction. You know, managing my life without really leading it.

In an act of extremely fortuitous timing, Ashley (also a graduate of Stratejoy blogging!) decided that as a way of bumping up her growing coaching business, she would offer 100 free 60-minute coaching calls. My life was in dire need of some centering so you know I jumped on that shit (she still has some spots left, so if you too want some super helpful no-judgment practical advice and help in sorting out all your ish, I highly suggest you go sign up for your spot, too).

So I had a lovely Google+ hangout with Ashley where I told her everything that's going on and how I was generally overwhelmed by the enormity of what I wanted to do with my life, because when you look towards the finish line of all your goals as opposed to the next step along the way, that's a surefire way of scaring yourself into doing absolutely nothing.

Ashley helped me look at my goals and figure out some more manageable baby steps to help me get there, so that I could stop leading a completely static life where I'm intimidated by the sheer amount of work ahead of me and start making the teeniest tiniest bits of progress.

Do you know what I mean? Saying to yourself, "I want to publish a book of personal essays" is way more intimidating than saying, "Maybe tomorrow I'll just jot down some notes about what essays I want to write."

This wasn't even one of the things Ashley and I discussed, but it's on my list anyway.


Also, SIDEBAR: Probably most people who read this blog also already read Nicole's blog and have thus seen this video, but if you haven't, I highly suggest you watch the below video immediately. Nicole gave a 5 minute talk about the 3 lessons she's learned from long-distance running, and even if you're not a runner (RAISES HAND) these will totally still apply to you in working towards any goal, at all, ever. So, watch this.



Moving on.

I wanted to share the action items that Ashley and I set out during our chat, because putting them out there for the world worked for me before and hopefully it will work again. Here goes!

1) Set up one date within the next 2 weeks. This is probably not actually going to happen, for reasons you guys can all read about when my next post goes up on Wednesday. I will allow for the possibility that either a) every guy from the internet stops being weird or b) I actually get asked out in person, but let's not get our hopes up for those.

2) Be more thoughtful about what I eat/drink in social situations. Do I ALWAYS need another beer? The answer might sometimes be "yes," but I have a feeling that if I thought about it a little more, it could also sometimes be "no."

3) Exercise 4 days a week. I don't have a job, guys. There's no excuse for not doing this (says the person who did not go to the gym today. Whoops).

4) Be more proactive in job hunting. Despite the fact that I'm totally burnt out on job hunting, I don't have the luxury of just NOT doing it anymore. So instead of taking the easy way out and blindly sending off resumes, I need to make more of an effort to try and find connections within the companies I want to work for.

5) Do not leave the house wearing something that doesn't make me feel great. I love yoga pants and pajamas. In fact, I probably spend more time in sweatpants-type clothes than my 3 roommates combined. Because I'm a slob, I guess. But I feel way more confident when I look nice, and so I'm going to make more of an effort to do that. I already succeeded at this today!

I'm fixing my life, you guys. IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

**This is my new series called Stratejoy Monday. To learn more about all this goodness, see the first 5 months of my Stratejoy journey here.