Tag Archives: change

Day 3309 – Once Stretched, You Can Never Go Back

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I’ve gone through a lot of changes in the past few years. There are so many things that have changed, shifted, stopped, started, and been completely remade in me, it’s sometimes hard to even put into words the transformations. Sometimes I try, but I tend to forget an aspect or event that happened.

I just finished reading The Maui Millionaires by David Finkel & Diane Kennedy. One line really stuck out and I’ve been thinking about how it applies to my life.

“And, of course, once stretched, you can never go back to the way you were before.”

After you’ve had a drastic change in your life, it can be hard to explain things to others. You’re now looking at the world in a completely different way. Since I’ve been sober, I see things I never saw before like how the media (TV, movies, etc) talks about and treats alcoholics and alcohol use. Since my mindset on money, income, saving, and investing has changed, I look at things quite differently. Previously, I would pay off a car loan as fast as possible, but now, I see that what I would save by paying it off early, I can exponentially invest in our business and have a much better return.

There are so many things in my life that I can never go back to. There are things I can never see from a certain angle anymore. I can’t look at food the same way after watching some of the documentaries I’ve seen. I can’t look at myself the same way after the changes I’ve made.

But here’s the great part, while sometimes it can be hard to be so different than I have been, I wouldn’t go back for anything.

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Day 3212 – Learning From Past Mistakes – or – Avengers Infinity War Thoughts (No Spoilers)

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This morning, I overslept about three hours. It brought back memories of when I would sleep in because I was sleeping off a hangover. I would emerge into my day feeling SO far behind, and I really was. Sometimes I think what my life would be like if I never struggled with alcoholism. Would I have been more successful in photography? Would I have written more books? Would I have gotten out of debt faster? Would I have been in debt at all?

I was thinking about this as I had my first cup of coffee, I thought about how this morning I wasn’t sleeping off a hangover. I didn’t “oversleep” normal people wake up times. To me, sleeping until 8 a.m. is WAY oversleeping. (I seriously love getting up at five) But I am so thankful that the reason for my sleeping in was not alcohol, but a movie.

Yesterday, I realized I HAD to see Avengers Infinity War that day. I watch a ton of theory videos on YouTube, so my feed is full of channels that could potentially spoil the movie for me. That and I read some tweets after the press screening and one in particular was along the lines of “go in as spoiler free as you can.” Having seen it, I definitely agree. It is quite an experience and you want to have that as fresh of a slate as you can get. It was epic in its scope and very gratifying. My review? Go see it. 🙂

Typically with a movie like this (Marvel or Star Wars, etc), I like to see it the first time in 2D to really process what I’m seeing. Then I’ll watch theory videos, maybe read some books, and go back to experience it in 3D. Unfortunately for my brain, the only tickets I could find…and I searched every showtime at seven theaters until I finally found good seats….were in 3D. While if I had fully thought things through, I would have expected this, but I walked out of the theater with a migraine. So. Much. Data. Brain. Full.

So, I let myself sleep in this morning.

I am still processing the movie and surely will for a while.

So what was the past mistake? It was seeing a big movie without Bret the first time. In mid December, I saw The Last Jedi by myself and Bret waited until after Christmas to watch it in California. What followed was me watching videos with headphones in and making comments like “I cannot wait to talk to you about this!!!” That was a tortuous few weeks.

I mentioned to Bret yesterday that I really wanted to go. We talked about just me going or Bret coming along if I found good tickets. When I finally found some, he agreed to go. Later, he told me the main reason was so that we could talk about it. Even if we waited to watch it together today or tomorrow, I would still be in that position of knowing what he did not. I have to say, I really enjoyed experiencing it with Bret.

So go see it, learn from your past mistakes, and please, please, please, don’t spoil it for anyone! 😀

(note, this is from Black Panther, lol, I was too excited to take pictures last night).

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Day 3183 – Reflections On 3.5 Years Of Sobriety

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In some ways, I feel like I’ve always been sober. I feel so far removed from my drinking days that they almost seem like they happened to someone else. I suppose in some respects, that’s true. I am so different from that person. I always heard “people don’t change” so I didn’t try to change myself or others. Looking back on my own struggles and changes, I realize people do and can change, but sometimes it can take a very, very, very long time. I was arrested in 2006 but I didn’t take God at His Word (to be sober-minded) until 2014. I joke that it took me eight years to quit cold turkey. But the truth is it was all God doing a work in me over many many years. It has helped me to be patient with change; to not rush it. Some things take a long time to marinate.

One change from not drinking is the ability to get up early. I still can’t believe we regularly get up at 5:00. But there is so much peace and productivity in the early morning hours. I would never voluntarily get up this early in my drinking days.

An awesome blogger I follow (No Wine I’m Fine) celebrates big anniversaries with epic trips. While I’m not taking a trip today, I do count my trip a few weekends ago as a celebration. I do think I’ll take another solo-cation for my four year sobriety anniversary.

One of my life verses is Ecclesiastes 5:20, “For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” I feel like this is a reflection of how I feel about my drinking days. I don’t much remember them (which has made writing my book especially interesting and hard), but God has kept my heart occupied with such joy that even looking back becomes easier.

Hello 3.5 years, here’s to 3.5 more!

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Day 3127 – Doing Things You Said You’d NEVER Do

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How many times have you thought to yourself…
“I would never do that”
“You’ll never catch me doing XYZ”
“Can you believe they 123?”
“I would NEVER stop ABC!”

I definitely have a long list of things I said I would never do, that would never be true of me, that I would never do again. Thankfully, my story doesn’t stop there. I am SO glad that I am doing things or not doing things I would have thought I would always do.

– After a break up with a long distance boyfriend, I said I would NEVER do a long distance relationship again. Thankfully, I did have a long distance relationship (ha ha, and at one point it was multiple countries long distance).

– After different experiences, I said I would never date a military guy. Thankfully, again, that was not the case.

– I thought I could never quit drinking. While I attempted many times to do so, I finally did do that thing I never thought I would/could do.

– I’ve never really liked the MLM marketing systems. I HATE being sold to and not helped (can you tell I’m watching a summit on sales that don’t suck this week?) I hate being sold a product that I don’t need. Last year, I had a need for a good way to change the smell of a room. Through talking to a friend, I was helped by using essential oils. For YEARS I thought those “oil people” were crazy. Like, really, it’s just oil, come on now, calm down. But I got myself set up with a diffuser, and started diffusing lemon, peppermint, and lavender. It smelled great, but it wasn’t until I came upon allergy season and something happened that I was changed. Dudes, as soon as I felt my allergies kicking in, and thought, wait, I wasn’t feeling that earlier, I refilled the diffuser, and I realized that it was actually helping me! Now, this is NOT a buy oils from me statement. I have no desire to do that. But you better believe I’m encouraging people to try it out, no particular brand (though I am a doterra girl), just a “hey, this worked for me and it might work for you.” I’ve also come to believe in the “even if it doesn’t make sense, but it works for you, go for it!” school of thought.

– I never thought I would stop wedding photography, and yet, it was one of the better decisions I’ve made. And a really awesome ride. We met so many great couples and made so many friends along the way. There are days I miss THAT part. Ha ha, and the wedding industry is really really cool. But hey, it meant I could jump out of a plane and not worry about leaving my couples without a wedding photographer (seriously, I didn’t jump out of a plane until a few months after my last wedding).

I never thought I would change in a myriad of ways. But I’ve learned that constant change is the best thing that can happen to you.

What have you sworn you would never do, but did?

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Day 3060 – My Life Has Changed A Lot In The Last 13 Years – or – 13 Years Ago, I Photographed My First Wedding

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I was scrolling through my On This Day on Facebook, and it reminded me that today was my wedding photography anniversary. It’s funny, just yesterday, Bret and I were talking about how much our lives have changed since we got married. We were chatting about his real estate investing business, and my virtual office management business, as well as what I’d just read in Tools Of The Titans. Basically, Tim Ferris was talking about real world MBAs, and how if you look at taking a pay cut to learn something, it’s like getting a real world MBA. In a lot of respects, you could look at the last few years for me, and say I did a 3 year alcohol rehab, I did a 5 year writing degree, etc. One thing I’m thankful for is that it’s ok to change your mind. It’s ok to have new dreams on a new day. And getting to know yourself is a life long process.

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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
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
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Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
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Check out our resources page.
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