Comfortable Not Complacent

Hello September!

I hope you all had an incredible summer. My 2019 summer was fantastic! I paused to focus on time with family and friends. In addition to my family coming to visit me here for July 4th (also the week of my parent’s 43rd wedding anniversary), I was able to travel quite a bit. Vegas, Miami, the Outer Banks, and Antigua were a few places I was able to unwind, connect, and have a little fun. I don’t know if before I’ve truly taken so much time to live in the moment. I practice gratitude daily, but this summer I had the deepest moments of gratitude. So thankful for my family and the ability to actually see them multiple times, to laugh, just hang out and talk. I was able to travel with an array of amenities at my fingertips.  I always pray every flight and more than ever before I was truly grateful for the opportunity to experience where the flight was going to take me. I’ve been working incredibly hard for almost 20 years and the last 5 have been a GRIND.  It was nice to enjoy the fruits of my labor. For once I didn’t have a twinge of guilt about it, just simple acceptance and gratefulness of where my life is in this moment.  

In the past, whenever I enjoy anything, there is this unsetting feeling in the back of my mind to not be comfortable.  Not indulge or enjoy too much as I need to be focused on the next thing.  Can you image how stressful it is even in your “break” to be focused on the grind? I appreciate I took a moment to be comfortable.

Now that I’ve had a full break to play, its time to shift gears and refocus. I’ve had time to enjoy the comfort of my hard work but if I want more seasons like this, I need to avoid complacency.  All I’m really saying is it's time to get back to the grind.  So here are a few things I have to establish this fall to get it all going:

Sleep Schedule

How I spend my time everyday is very important to me. I feel great when I know I’ve maximized the day.  To that end, the first thing I’m going to do is tighten up my sleep schedule.  I’ve had success in the past establishing an early wake up call.  So my wake up call is 6am with a bedtime of 10pm.  While I do not like being on a schedule, I’ve learned over the years I perform better when I have a bit more structure to my day. I like to wake up, work out, and crush a to do list before work. 

Calendaring

While I don’t have any vacations planned for the remainder of the year, I do have a few social events in the works such as Homecoming and the holidays.  I also have major milestones dates professionally.  I don’t want these events creeping up on me. Once I have everything mapped out, I can see where I will be able to power through on certain work or if I have a week that’s already full, I can avoid over committing my time.  Over committing and piling too much on my plate, especially in the fall is a habit I am looking to break this season. Even recently I’ve struggled with this. For example, I registered for a fall semester class slated to start in early August and I didn’t really have a plan for school work while I was in Antigua and then returning back to important tasks at work. I had to withdraw from the class, wasting money. So I’m looking to avoid that with being a bit more organized and realistic with my time.  Plus, who knows, maybe I can map out time to do more podcasts. 

Financial Lockdown

Ya’ll I need a budget.  This time of year, I can get so carried away!  I want to update all of my technology.  I want to refresh my fall wardrobe.  I want to attend all the sporting events. Because I’m busier than ever in fall, I pay for a lot of connivence.  It can be an expensive time for me and then I have no holiday game plan or budget and so that becomes a pricy season. So this week before all the things come flying at me, I’m going to set a budget for the remainder of September, October, November, and December.  I probably should make a January budget too since my birthday is then I typically go all out then too. 

Eyes on 2020: Goal Setting

There are a lot of areas in my life, I now have the energy to push toward a higher mark. I do want to be able to celebrate more accomplishments at the end of this year.  I also want to game plan for major milestones I want to knock down next year.  Wins early in 2020 will come from work put in now.  I can’t wait until next year to get going.

A merriam-webster definition of comfortable is : affording or enjoying contentment and security.  A googled definition of complacent is: showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements.  

We work hard, we should enjoy ourselves from time to time. Here’s to a future of living comfortably, but not settling in complacency.  I wish you a productive and prosperous fall season!