Tag Archives: change

Day 3005 – Looking Into The Past – or – Man This Blog Was Bad Five Years Ago

Posted on by
Reply

One thing I don’t think I expected to ever do was reread my blog. There is a LOT to read. As I’m trying to build up my Pinterest account, I’m rereading….every….single…..post. I started on day 644, so you can do the math. There are a few posts that have been removed due to divorces, and I missed a few days near the beginning. Some days are just a photo, sometimes I did a week or two of “walking down memory lanes.” But it’s still a mountain of posts to review.

I realized something as I read through the first year…..I published some bad stuff back then. It wasn’t until I really started putting myself our there honestly that my posts had more impact and were something I could be proud of. This was the first post I thought about maybe pinning.

So if you’re a new blogger or working on a project and it just feels like it will never be any good, take heart, sometimes take a while to marinate and become what it was meant to be. And a blog, especially, is a thing that grows, changes, and becomes something else entirely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
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

Day 2970 – What Happened When Bret Brought Home Loose Cannon (The Last Beer I Drank)

Posted on by
Reply

Disclaimer, don’t follow my example as a hard and fast rule for sobriety. I believe everyone has a different journey to take, with different strengths and weaknesses. Just because I can handle something, doesn’t mean you can. Just because you can handle something, doesn’t mean I can. It’s not because I’m stronger and someone else is weaker, we are just different. I know myself, and I know what I can handle.

I’m very quickly approaching my third anniversary of sobriety. I can’t believe it has been almost three years since I drank. In a lot of ways, it feels like I’ve been sober forever. In other ways, especially since I’m working through my memoir, it feels so recent. My very last alcoholic beverage was Loose Cannon. The alcohol content is 7.5% and the last night I drank 5 of them, in like 3 hours. Oy. Last night, Bret had a friend over and he picked up a six pack of Loose Cannon. I sat there, looking at this six pack of beer, remembering it as my last beer, and was just overcome with thankfulness. I could look at this substance that has brought joy to others, others who can control their drinking, others who enjoy responsibly, and not feel resentment or shame or regret. What brings me even more joy is that I have grown so much that Bret can enjoy alcohol. He definitely drinks less than he did before my sobriety, but I don’t want him to have to give something up that he doesn’t struggle with. Another thing I think when I see Loose Cannon, is, “you sir (of course this beer is male), have no power over me.”

Ha ha, and I also thought, “wow, you photograph really well!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
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

Day 2917 – I’m Cutting Back On Social Media

Posted on by
Reply

I’m the queen of change, dreaming big, having huge goals, and not getting things completely done. Read this blog for a while, and you know I change how I do my to do list, track my tasks, etc., often…..quite often.

I’m currently reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. Here’s a funny fact about this – I’ve checked this book out of the library 3-5 times….and am only now making real headway. It’s due tomorrow, and I have about 120 pages left. With my normal habits and routine, I don’t think I could have finished it. But just from what I’ve read so far, I’ve made some major life and work habit changes. The biggest one just started yesterday (ha ha, so we’ll see how it goes!), and because of this change, I’ve logged more reading time.

My normal habit was to wake up, check my email, check Facebook notifications, check Facebook On This Day, check my work emails and notifications, and check games I’m playing….all before getting out of bed. So whatever I read on any of those place had the power to change my day, before it’s even begun. Throughout the day, check, check, check. Refresh and scroll. Oy vey! About the middle of the day yesterday, I was reading through Deep Work…it’s a bit of a priority this week, because I really want to finish it before it’s due….and I thought about my social media….and just a number of habits. I’ve started to keep a list of things that bring me joy, and things that bring me down. There are a lot of things on social media that have the power to trigger me (whether it’s nudity, or something talking about drinking, or just someone being negative), and I have taken some steps to try and protect myself from it, but I still slip. So in making this list, one big thing in the Trigger column was Facebook. So I’m like, dude, I need to change this. Here’s where my, hopefully, major mindshift came in.

Check social media twice a day.

I’m happy to report, I actually did pretty well yesterday….and this morning! I decided that it would best serve me if I made a list of the tasks I needed to do, drafted the text I needed to write, before I logged on. Friends, it worked! I think because I made the list, my brain was like, “ok – we’re turning off that desire….or at least, we understand what’s going on here.” I found myself wanting to check Facebook probably half a dozen times….in an hour. Pitiful. But my brain didn’t force the situation. it said, “ok, we’re trying this new thing now. We know why we’re doing this. I’ll still have some residual desires to check Facebook, but, ok ok ok (said in my brain’s best Stitch voice), we’ll try.”)

But I didn’t check again until my PM check in. I had my list ready to go, and I did what I needed to do, and got out…..almost. I had a post that was getting some interaction, so I needed to hop back on later that day. I only checked ONE more time in the evening….mostly out of curiosity. But there was so little immediate value. I just thought, welp, ok, I’ll check in the morning!

It’s 9:30, and I haven’t checked yet. On any other day, I would have checked 3x by now.

We’ll see how this goes….but I’m curious about you! Have you taken a social media fast? Have you tried to cut back on social media? How did it go? Let me know in the comments below.

And here’s a picture of Clearwater Beach….because if there’s anything that’s the antithesis of social media, it’s this beautiful beach. Ahhhhh, can I go back to Florida yet?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
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

Day 2867 – Happy Pack Rat Day From A Former Pack Rat!

Posted on by
Reply

I still can’t believe I went from this:

To this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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)
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

Day 2761 – You Will Never Change…Unless You Actually Do

Posted on by
Reply

The past week or two has been filled with much reminiscing.

We made a video about how I was NOT a minimalist when I first met Bret, which caused me to look at many old photos of my old room.

I have decided that I am more of a month to month goal setter, thus I have been figuring out what I did well and what I failed completely with my January goals (spoiler – no soda drinking was a win! Writing every day was a utter failure.).

I purchased a great book that has me thinking about things.

I regularly look at my “On This Day” on Facebook. On January 31, 2009, I filled out one of those silly “25 random things you didn’t know about me” things. Here’s 20. “I own nearly 500 movies and tv shows on dvd. Most of them were purchased for under 10 bucks.” I read this number and immediately emailed Bret, telling him the 2009 number and the 2017 number (44). I ended by saying “Who says you can’t change?”

Have you ever thought, there’s NO way I can change? Or there’s NO way they will ever change? It’s so easy to put someone in a category and keep them there. She never does the dishes, he never puts his laundry in the hamper, she’s always negative, he’ll never get a better job, I’ll always be poor, I’ll never get out of debt, I’ll never travel, I’ll never get in shape.

Even though I can take a look at my current life and think, wow, I have changed, I forget just how far I’ve come. I urge you to keep a record, somehow, somewhere, of your life. Your fears, your achievements, your joys, your lows. Have it saved somewhere you can regularly look back. I’ve had the luxury of oversharing on Facebook, so much so that I have a very detailed list of my life.

So if you’re stuck thinking you’ll never change or your spouse will never change, take heart.

I went from well over $50,000 in debt, to $0 debt with money saved.
I went from hoarder with tons of stuff, to minimalist with a lot less.
I went from getting migraines 3-4 times a week because of my diet, to maybe 1-2 a month.
I went from being an alcoholic for nine years who was arrested, to a sober person for over two years and counting.
I went from someone who dreamed about writing a book, to someone who did.

These three shelves don’t even show all of my old DVDs…wow.

x_fridge

x_furniture

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
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