Day 2756 – Why You Must Read – or – How Reading Has Changed My Life – or – There Are No Excuses

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you know I talk about books. A lot. Many times in my life, when I am in a particularly down state, I’m probably not reading much or at all. There is something in reading that feeds my soul. Reading brings me to life. If you doubt this at all, ask me for a book recommendation, especially in “real life.” My eyes will sparkle, I will talk much with my hands, and I will scroll through my Goodreads shelves to find a book that is perfectly fitting for you and what you need. You can also gauge my internal state by how many books are stacked on my to be read shelf from the library (below is my current stash). As I’m reading and rereading children’s books, I am reminded of that newly awoken joy of reading as a child. So many sources say you should have play and joy in your life – books are a fantastic source for this. If you are discouraged, there is a book that can give you encouragement – even if it is only to know there is someone out there who understands you. If you need to imagine a better world, there is a myriad of worlds out there. I truly believe this world would be a much better place if there were more readers.

How has reading changed my life? Books help me to see the other side of things. To look at a situation from another person’s view and see their logic. They help me dream of a life that is totally different than my own. They allow me to simply dream. There was one book in particular that completely changed my life, The 4-Hour Workweek (* Affliate link) by Timothy Ferriss. I still remember reading the book on a previous bride’s couch while we were housesitting and just knowing it was a major shift. The biggest thing that I realized at the time was that even though I was working full-time in my photography business, investing more money into marketing and advertising, my bottom line was the same. I immediately decided to stop spending so much on advertising and marketing. But it also made me start to seriously consider if photography was still where I should be spending my time. It would be another few months before the decision was made to not take on any more clients and less than one year before I would photograph my last wedding. But it made me think about work and dreams in completely new ways. If there were so many people living amazing lives, making money, and enjoying their lives, what was stopping me? All of that, just from a book. I just picked up Timothy Ferriss’ newest book, Tools Of The Titans and I can’t wait to see how it changes my life!

There are so little valid excuses for us to not read, especially if you’ve living in the United States. The amount of libraries and what they offer now is staggering. You can access physical books, ebooks, physical audiobooks, digital audiobooks, play aways – which are audiobooks in a device already, all you need are a pair of headphones. There is a way to read for most types of readers. If you struggle with reading a physical book, I challenge you to an audiobook. In some ways, those can be better than reading the book yourself.

I hope that you take a step today towards more reading. I hope you find the joy and wonder I find in books.

Since I’m always looking, what’s your favorite book?

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Day 2743 – Repost From Three Years Ago – The Most Magical Moment At Disneyland

I reread this post while sitting in my car and just let the tears flow. I think we should all take more time to appreciate this beautiful moments in our day. 🙂

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Originally posted 1/13/14
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For this story, I need to start about 15 years ago.

When I was 16 and my brother was 14, our grandparents took us to Hawaii. We had amazing adventures and saw great things. It was a wonderful trip and I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to go. One of the highlights for me (don’t laugh!) was the pineapple whip at the Dole plantation. It is really just this frozen yogurt/pineapple thing….but the taste is amazing. I really cannot put it into words, but hopefully the fact that I still remember how amazing it was after 15 years is description enough.

This March, you may remember, my grand father passed away.

While I was in California, I went to Disneyland!!! It was an AMAZING day! I felt like a kid again and have a whole lot of pictures and stories about that! But this story is the most important and deserves its own post.

At some point during the day, my friend mentioned that she HAD to stop at this pineapple place for a pineapple whip. I gave her a “mouth open/shut up/are you freakin’ serious” look. I then explained about the experience in Hawaii and that it MIGHT just be the same thing!

In the evening, we finally got in line for this potentially SAME thing! While waiting in the 20 minute (or more) line, I told my friend about how my grandfather had passed away in the spring.

We got up to the counter, ordered and stepped out of line. I was a little nervous to try it, because it had been built up in my mind for 15 years.

I took a bite. It was the same.

I closed my eyes to really focus on the taste.

As soon as I did, I was transported back to Hawaii. I felt the spray of ocean air. I smelled the smells of the pineapple plantation. I felt the hot sun. I remembered my grandfather.

I opened my eyes, full of tears. My friend asked if I was crying (I want to insert here that I teared up a LOT during the day from sheer joy….so she wasn’t surprised or worried about that). I said that I was and to give me just a moment to explain why. I knew if I explained why at that moment, I would burst into loud sobs.

So we walked to the next ride and I enjoyed the whip. Remembering my trip to Hawaii, remembering my grandfather, and remembering that even a 31 year old can have a magical moment at the happiest place on earth.

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Day 2738 – How To Have Mental Clarity And Achieve Your Goals

Oh friends, it has been quite a week. We traveled thousands of miles by plane. I worked almost double what I normally work (in four days). I ran countless errands and generally just ran around. Thankfully, this is not my normal life. All of these things are very rare and most of the time, my life is pretty chill.

Yesterday, I finally got to catch up on things and it got me thinking about mental clarity. I realized while talking to Bret why I have somewhat decent mental clarity – I write things down and then they’re out of my head. The way I write them down varies depending on the task or thought, but I have a plan for pretty much everything I think about.

My #1 reason for having mental clarity is Asana. The ability to make lists, add due dates, add images, spreadsheets, etc AND that it’s free with no size limit, makes my little organized brain SO excited. I have three Asana accounts, one for each of my clients and one for myself. In my personal Asana, I have hundreds of reminders and tasks saved. I have a project for writing where I can put down random ideas for future books. I have a project for our finances that reminds me to pay bills and check different things. I have reminders to renew library books. I typically have 30-50 books out at a time, so it helps to have a system to make sure I don’t get late fees! I have business ideas. I have freelancing job sources. I have a travel bucket list of places we want to see. Have I told you how much I love Asana?

Another thing I do is have a printed, weekly to-do list. I tried to step away from physical print out a time or two, but it just works for me, so I’m keeping it. I did rejigger it to make more sense to my brain. Instead of just random tasks at the bottom and room to add more, I’ve broken it down to have the top projects I’m working on – my devotional including a few marketing tasks I want to do, my road trip book, our Journey With The G’s project, a list of “heads up things” and a spot to add tasks to Asana.

What about you? What ways do you achieve mental clarity?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
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Day 2737 – Ah, Three Years Ago, We Were On The Road

You may have noticed a lot of “this happened in the past” posts….there’s a reason. It has been extremely busy for us since we got back from California, and really, several weeks before we left. I’ve had little time to sit down and write meaningful blog posts (sorry). Things are almost to a slowing down point (yay!), so you can expect better posts soon. Thanks for being patient and still reading!

This photo was taken on our way out of California three years ago. Ah, man, I miss the road!

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
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Day 2734 – January Goals – or – My Thoughts On New Year’s Resolutions

I talk about goals and lists and planning a lot. I’m always thinking of ways to meet my goals and ways to create good habits or break bad ones. I love lists and spreadsheets and just getting better in general. Personally, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I think you can start fresh any day of the year. You can set yourself up for a major life change just by making small adjustments to your life.

I’ve realized that making monthly goals, or periodically updating your goals is a great way to get them accomplished. In November, my dentist very forcefully said, you gotta floss every day. I printed out check boxes for myself and for Bret on every single day until about June. I have flossed every single day since then. After such a successful change in my habits, I thought, oooo, I’ll make a big list of check boxes and get a lot of new habits implemented! Yea, that did NOT work. I still wanted to try this check box method, so I’m trying something for January – goals and would be nice goals. Only five of my goals are on the check box list and only 2 of them are definite goals.

So what are my goals for this month?
– Some kind of workout/activity every day
– Read 9 books
– Write every day

Would be nice goals
– 10,000 steps
– Consistent Journey With The G’s media schedule
– 100 YouTube subscribers
– 50 Facebook likes
– 50 Instagram followers
– Bring in some additional income
– Get 3 book reviews*
– Finish first draft of road trip book
– No soda/energy drinks
– Eat breakfast
– More networking

I’m only using check boxes for:
– Workouts
– Writing
– Breakfast
– No soda/energy drinks
– 10,000 steps

Another thing I’ve realized about meeting your goals is setting yourself up for success. So I’m writing first thing in the morning after my devotions. It is one of the important things in my day and I want to get it done before I get into other things. I’m sure I’ll write at other points in the day, but I want to ensure I get a devoted chunk of time before my brain is fried. The fitbit has worked for me in the past, but when the band gets worn down, I stop wearing it (after taping it of course). I’m not sure why I didn’t realize this before, but I can order replacements from Amazon*. I now have a drawer of 12 colorful bands ready for changing out. I’ve already had a night of walking around the apartment just to get my steps. I made sure to stock up on books for my reading goals. I have a personal goal of reading 100 books this year. Since I’ve got a children’s book brewing in my mind, I plan on reading a number of kid’s books….this will help me definitely hit my reading goals. I’m already at 5 books out of 100, though, two of those shouldn’t count – Moosey Moose and Crabby Crab, I’m looking at you! One of the ways I read a non-fiction book is with a piece of notebook paper to write down things that stick out to me. Writing them down with pen and paper really help to solidify what I read. I have stacks and stacks of papers from read books and partially read books laying around. Last night, I found all of them, sorted them and filed them in an expandable folder – to be typed, partially read, and get again from the library. I can’t tell you how much mental space it gave me. Mmmmm, love me some organization.

What are some of your goals for this month or the year? What are you doing to make sure you reach them?

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* Amazon Affiliate links

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel.