… (because New Year’s Resolutions are too often broken and this is a lifestyle change) this is just an additional reflection on my “Quarter-life Crisis” post a few days ago.
It’s not that 2008 was a total wash – I did start my second job, graduate school, become more “professional” at work, continued my healthy lifestyle, tried new things, became closer with my family and enjoyed some really fun times with old & new friends. But I want to make sure that I continue moving my “post-college” life forward and toward my goals.
So I have come up with a few small goals for 2009 to hopefully cure my Quarter-Life Crisis or at least keep it at bay…
Re-discover my inner nerd – Over the holiday break, I rediscovered my love for reading and acquiring new knowledge. So every month I want to read a new book in each one of the following categories (not including required books for class) – 1) history/ biography, 2) advertising/ management, 3) self-help – like for being better at my job or thinking more innovatively, etc.
Be less of a hermit – the holiday season makes it easy to be a social with parties, visitors, time off of work and the underlying cheer of the season. However, I am not as social as I used to be - mostly because I enjoy getting a good night’s sleep, my sweatpants are REALLY comfortable, I am trying to save money and I don’t have a place of my own. But my friends are really fun and I want to go out while I still have my youth and vitality. I also apologize to anyone that I have flaked on over the past year. My pet peeve is people who don’t follow through and I found myself being that person occasionally. So again, I’m sorry and it won’t happen again!
Re-discover my individuality – In my management class on Saturday, we went around the room and introduced ourselves and had to say something we did for fun. While that may seem like an easy question, I struggled to think of something I currently participated in and was not too cliché (like hanging out with my friends or working out). I USED to dance, I USED to do pro bono marketing, I USED to write novels & short stories regularly, but I don’t do those things any more. So my goal is to work on what makes me unique an rediscover my passions – like reading about history or scrapbooking or watching the Blackhawks with my dad.
Make a daring leap – I am a constant worrier and tend to over-analyze risky situations. Risky situations in my book include anything that involves a large amount of time, money or uncertainty… so a lot of situations. But I am going to take a leap this year and do something unplanned.
TALK – While I think I’ve improved staying in touch with friends in general, I seem to rely on many non-personal forms of communication like facebook, g-chat, text messages and an occasional birthday note. But I want to do a better job of really communicating via email or (gasp) by setting aside time to make a phone call. I am a champion multi-tasker, which is why I rely heavily on the “quick & easy” forms of communication, but I want to make it more of a habit to invest in a few more minutes to make a phone call because good friends are rare and I want to stay vested in the ones I have.
Try not to have a worse day than you – sometimes I tend to exaggerate my sorrows and get frustrated over the small things. (Okay maybe more than sometimes). But I am going to try to keep my mind on the big picture and focus on the positives each day. J But maybe I’ll let you have a better day than me every now and then because I’m sure some crisis will come along at some point.
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