Yay for introverts!

One of my friends posted this video on Facebook today (link is below), and it naturally got me thinking about my self-proclaimed status as an introvert.  I felt so empowered listening to this woman talk about introverts, their qualities, and how our society shouldn't be discouraging these traits but should instead embrace the people who possess them because they are, in fact, quite valuable.  

I guess watching this got me all excited because I could 100% relate to what she was saying.  I found myself nodding along and in my head thinking, "Yes, yes, YES!!"  It was like she knew me and my personality without ever meeting me.  I find that very refreshing.  I also find it refreshing to hear someone talking about being an introvert as a positive thing.  As in not negative.  As in not something that needs to be changed.  I can't count how many times in my life I have been told I'm too quiet, too withdrawn, too much of a reader, not social enough, and so on and so forth.  And the thing is, I'm never these things all the time.  Sometimes I am loud and obnoxious.  Sometimes I crave a night out with friends and interesting strangers.  But the majority of the time I happen to be perfectly content with my solitude, and that is not a bad thing. 

Whether you are an extrovert or an introvert, I think you should watch the video and give the speaker's words some thought.  I could go on and on about the great points that were made in the video, but since I've posted the link below you can go ahead and check them out for yourself.  

And let me just say again how happy I was to watch this.  I feel completely inspired to embrace my introversion and not feel ashamed by its qualities.  They do not diminish me in any way, in fact they should be seen as strengths and not weaknesses.  So from now on, that's exactly how I plan to treat them.  

Here's the link to the video:  http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html

Getting organized

If you know me at all, then what I say (okay, type) next is going to be a most obvious statement.  

I love getting organized. 

The whole process, while sometimes draining and oftentimes frustrating, ultimately leaves me feeling like a rock star.  Sit me down in front of a messy closet with some empty storage tubs by my side and before long I'll be feeling like a million bucks.  And my closet will be looking much better, too. 

I use the closet analogy because that's exactly the next project Dean and I are tackling.  We have a fairly large storage closet down in our den that is in desperate need of some TLC.  So we are mudding the seams on the walls, painting said walls a nice bright color, installing some laminate flooring (because the cold cement just isn't doing it for me), and putting up some nice, wide shelves for storage.  I. Can't. Wait.  But hold onto your pants ladies and gents because the fun doesn't stop there!  To add even more excitement and an added level of challenge to the project, we are also going to simultaneously reorganize and restructure yet another storage closet that is located under our stairs. 

What?  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Two closets in one fell swoop.  We think we are super heroes, and hopefully when it's all said and done we will be feeling like super organized super heroes.

I have this thing about closets in that I love them, and am sometimes intimidated by them.  An empty closet is my playground because if it's empty, you can fill it with.....stuff.  Of course, this has led us to the situation we currently are in, meaning that both closets look like a tornado has swept through.  There is no rhyme or reason to the way items are stored, and aside from a few very specific decoration bins, everything else is loose and just plain in the way.

I am very excited to tackle these projects, and even more excited to see the finished products.  I can already feel the peace of mind that will wash over me when I open the door to either closet and see cleanliness and order instead of chaos and free for all.  

It really doesn't take much to make me happy.  And since I'm trying more and more to focus on the little, everyday things that bring me happiness, I figure a couple of well organized closets is a great place to start.    

Another new year, but not much new

Welcome to 2013!  Yes, I realize I'm four days late on that sentiment, but since we're still in the first week of the new year I figure it still counts. 

I am on vacation until Monday and have definitely started to grow a bit sad by my impending return to work.  Here's an extremely obvious statement: it's very, very hard to willingly go back to work after two weeks off and I can already tell my stomach muscles will be tightened to the extreme when my alarm goes off Monday morning.  Vacations are great in the beginning, but after a few days one definitely falls into a "I'm never going back to work ever again" mindset, which really makes the end of vacation and the inevitable return to work even harder to deal with. 

Not to be a total downer with this post, but I was taking down my Christmas decorations a couple days ago, and the whole process left me feeling incredibly melancholy.  It was depressing having to take apart the Christmas tree (yes, it's fake, and no, I do not approve), take down my Christmas countdown calendar, my Santa Clauses, the garland, not to mention all the lights that were strung around our windows.  The more items I boxed up, the more depressed I became.  My house looks so bare now, and I figure that if the holidays are now officially over it may as well be summertime again, right?

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year, mainly because I am continuing to focus on the same items that I've posted about on this site time and time again.  Writing is still at the top of the list, as well as happiness in general.  I've been very focused lately on little ways to improve my personal happiness, and I'm trying to hone in on the small, everyday things I either do or don't do that play a part on my mental attitude.  I don't mean to suggest that I'm an unhappy person, but there are always improvements that can be made and I want to continue to focus on how to make that happen.  One gift that I received which I am particularly excited to start writing in is a Gratitude Journal.  Each day gives you a different writing exercise to complete which focuses on the things in your life you are grateful for, or the things that make you happy about your life.  I love this idea oh so very much and think it will really help to adjust my perception on things when I'm feeling particularly negative.  I'm a firm believer in perception altering any given situation, and having a daily reminder to focus on the good things and people in my life will be refreshing. 

On that note, here's a few wonderful things I was fortunate to enjoy over my two week hiatus.  Dog walks with my husband and my mom, a most enjoyable Christmas evening with the Plucker family up at the ranch, visiting with my cousin who just returned home from Afghanistan, a New Year's Eve dance party in the living room with my husband and our two very good friends, catching up on some reading, and visiting my sister and a couple other close friends in Seattle this weekend.  And these were just a few of my favorite things. 

      

Becoming a morning person

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somewhere along the road I became a morning person.  That doesn't mean that I enjoy getting up early all the time or don't complain about being tired when I am up, it just means that I can and often do, function quite effectively in the early hours of the day. 

I used to be able to sleep in.  Some days until the early afternoon.  These days I consider 7 a.m. to be sleeping in, and anything after that is just icing on the cake.  Truth be told, I don't mind getting up early and getting day started, even if my version of "starting" includes nothing more than sipping coffee on the couch and watching Parenthood on Netflix.  I love looking at the clock and realizing I still have 30 minutes before I need to get in the shower.  It's almost like being awake on borrowed time.  Technically my day has started, but it hasn't REALLY started yet. 

During my softball days in college we would have practices at 6 a.m. in the winter.  Mostly filled with conditioning drills, I dreaded these practices more than just about anything, and hearing the alarm go off so early each morning made my stomach clench and my nerves tighten instantly.  So scarred was I by these early morning practices that I made Dean get rid of his alarm clock soon after.....the sound brought back too many awful memories.  But I will say this.  Once practice was over and my body and lungs were more or less recovered, it felt good to walk out of the gym knowing that the worst and probably hardest part of the day was behind me.  It was a relief to know that the hours of my day after classes let out were mine.  I feel the same way today, since 95% of the time I will do my exercising in the morning before work.  I'm no longer running sprints and jogging up and down bleachers, but each workout does have a minor degree of intensity which makes me gasp for breath on occasion.  And while there are moments each day when I contemplate skipping the workout and getting a few more minutes of sleep, I know that the feeling of relief, the feeling of knowing that I've crossed a major item off my to-do list by 6:30 a.m., that feeling is worth getting up early for. 

Between the exercise and the idea of being able to relax a little bit before jumping headfirst into the start of another day, I've come to appreciate mornings as a time when I can do just about whatever I want.  Yes, some days the idea of crawling out of bed when it's still pitch black outside sounds like the hardest thing in the world to do (and it truly can be), but once I'm up, I usually don't regret it.  Once I've managed to swing one leg out of the covers and onto the floor the rest just falls into place.

I'm officially embracing my status as a morning person.  I never thought I would be able to call myself one, but I think I have officially crossed over.  Is this another sign of growing up?  Or just one more way I've managed to learn more about myself and what works best for my lifestyle?  Either way, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.     

Grocery happiness

I made an off the cuff remark after Thanksgiving dinner as my family and I were scoping out all the Black Friday ads.  Naturally, Walmart had an insert in the paper, which led me to comment on how many trips I had made to that particular store in preparation for Thanksgiving.  This inevitably led to a casual conversation about how busy Walmart always is, how shopping there can be totally stressful, how I wished I didn't have to shop there.....the usual Walmart tirade.  

Then, a liberating thought.  If I don't want to shop there, I don't HAVE to shop there. 

Isn't it kind of strange how you can commit yourself to one line of thinking, then have it suddenly dawn on you that it doesn't have to be that way?

Like just about everyone else in the world, I don't want to spend a small fortune at the grocery store.  Case in point, I would do my grocery shopping (and just about every other kind of shopping), at Walmart because, well, that just seemed like the thing to do if you wanted to save money.  But the experience of going to that store every week, sometimes several times a week, was seldom an enjoyable one.  The aisles are always crammed with people, which would always make me feel rushed, and there is just so much STUFF in the store itself that it could be incredibly overwhelming trying to figure out where to find or even just to start looking for a certain item.  Plus, I was never a huge fan of buying my produce at Walmart so I would always end up making an extra trip, usually to Safeway, to take care of that portion of the list.  On the rare occasion that I did break down from exhaustion and buy produce from the mega chain it always seemed just okay to me.  Not great, but okay.  And I know produce can be tricky and is seldom perfect anywhere you buy it, but for the sake of my argument I'm adding it to the list. 

So anyway, I have the liberating thought that went something like this.  If I don't like shopping at Walmart, and if the experience is never entirely satisfactory, why don't I just shop somewhere else?  I live in a small town but Walmart is still, thankfully, not the only grocery shopping option available.  So in an offhand way I made an observation as to whether or not I could go the entire month of December without shopping a Walmart.  I don't think anyone was really listening to me by this point, but I absolutely remember speaking the words out loud, and making a firm decision that I would in fact, not shop at the mega chain for at least the month of December. 

I'm 13 days in, well, more like 20 if you count that last week in November, and I have to say that I'm loving my life without Walmart.  I no longer dread going to the grocery store because it is no longer a stress inducing roller coaster ride.  I'm paying more attention to how much things cost, where as before I was always going on the assumption that whatever I was buying was cheaper because I was buying it at Walmart.  Silly reasoning, I know, but again, once you're in that mindset it can be hard to break out of it.  I'm also making myself pay better attention to the food I have on hand, and looking for dishes that can be made from what I already have available, rather than buying a whole bunch of new items each week.  In a sense, not shopping at Walmart has actually made me a better, more aware shopper.  I'm also exploring new ways to get fresh food, which is why Dean and I are looking into signing up for Bountiful Baskets. 

I didn't expect my break from Walmart to have such an immediate and noticable impact, but I can honestly say that I'm happier without visiting that store once a week.  I still need to crunch the numbers to see if I'm actually saving any money, but even if I'm spending a bit more by not going to that store, I feel like it's worth it.  In my book a person's peace of mind is definitely worth a few extra dollars, and I'm definitely enjoying having mine back as I peruse the grocery store aisles.  This might be one experiment that ends up being a permanent fixture in my life.

*I don't mean to offend anyone who likes shopping at Walmart.  This post is based simply on my experiences and observations, and I realize it won't apply to everyone out there.  Feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

Shut. It. Down.

I'm not sure when I first pin pointed it, but I know that for awhile now I have become very aware of my failing ability to wait.  To only focus on one thing at a time.  To not need to be mindlessly distracted by something at any given moment of the day.

I think it first dawned on me at the grocery store.  I stood there in line behind a couple other people, silently dreading the minutes ahead where I would have nothing to do but.....wait.  So to pass the time I pulled out my phone and checked my email.  Nothing too exciting, so I logged onto Facebook.  Even less thrilling, so I played a word in Words with Friends.  This killed all of about three minutes, so I put my phone away and went back to scanning magazine headlines. With still one person ahead of me in line, I pulled the phone back out and went back to checking email. 

I do this a lot now.  During commercials when I'm watching TV, waiting for something to come out of the oven while I'm cooking dinner, sometimes even sitting at a red light.  And that last one is truly awful because I hate when drivers are paying attention to their phones and not paying attention to traffic lights.  Sadly, at times I am a hypocrite. 

But where does it come from?  This constant need to be distracted?  Is it all part of the new technology smart phone craze, both of which definitely make distraction more readily available, or is there more to it than that?  Personally, I think being able to have instant access to just about everything through our phones is changing the way our minds operate.  We are very much an instant gratification society, and since having to wait for anything is seen as a huge inconvenience these days, I think a lot of us (myself included) simply don't know how to wait anymore.  Even for something as miniscule as checking out at the grocery store. 

Does anyone else out there have a constant need to be distracted?  Is being able to focus completely one one task at a time becoming a thing of the past?  Please, enlighten (or distract....) me with your input.    

Finding time

There was a middle week between Thanksgiving and the first of December where I felt somewhat suspended between two moments in time.  I wasn't yet ready to plunge headfirst into the Christmas season, and yet I wanted to be ready for it when the time came, so I saw this week of "nothingness" as a time to prepare.  To get ready.  To get all my ducks in a row so I could kick ass and take names when the real craziness of the holidays finally descended.

One week later and I feel like my week of nothing wasn't nearly enough time.  Looking at the calendar that continues to fill up with appointments and things to do, I wonder who we can talk to about inserting a few more hours into each day so that every task is able to be completed.  Not that I'm throwing in the towel and admitting defeat, I just wonder exactly how much of this month I'll actually remember, and how much will turn into a complete blur.

I have pondered before about the subject of time, mainly about how there never seems to be enough to go around.  Although I've also discovered that sometimes even when we do have the time to work on something, to cross an item off the to-do list, we choose to skip it over for one reason or another.  Call it lack of motivation or even basic laziness (there is a difference between the two, right?)

Which is why I am choosing  to find time of waiting for it to appear.  I'm mentally adjusting my schedule, my routine, to find the time to make things happen, especially one particular item that always seems to be on the to-do list but seldom manages to get done.  The writing portion of my schedule now has officially been penciled in, at least for a few days out of the week.  Tuesday and Thursday mornings, along with Saturday and/or Sunday (they're sort of wildcards), I will sit myself down in front of the computer and write words.  Hopefully good ones.  Hopefully ones that make sense.  I decided I'm done with waiting for time to present itself, and by taking this route I feel it's only a matter of time before the regularly scheduled writing time becomes more of a habit rather than an item to check off the list first thing in the morning. 

It's true that up until now my writing habits have been rather flaky, and most of the time I do more talking and thinking about writing than I do in the physical act.  But I feel like I was trying to make myself run a marathon without  partaking in any sort of training.  I told myself I could jump right into something without establishing good habits first, not to mention building up my stamina.  So here I am.  It's now 6:30 in the morning and I've been in front of this screen for about 35 minutes, and it feels so great to have spent my morning getting started on this new schedule, on establishing this new routine.  It feels great to have found the time to make this happen, like I'm one blog post closer to moving forward on the rest of my writing projects that have been hanging in limbo for months.

Sometimes in order to do something we don't just need time itself, but the right time.  I believe this could be true.....don't they say timing is everything?