Thursday, June 6, 2013

Starting Over...Reinvention



Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

~ Maria Robinson


Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about starting over. Planning for an upcoming wedding, and trying to work out my future, has my mind locked in on long-term goals. Where do I want to be working 5 years from now? Where do I want to be living? If we want to travel, we are going to need flexible schedules and money and time, or at least a job where I can go from place to place. All of these thoughts have just been circling and circling in my head (especially late at night, when I'm trying to fall asleep!). My late night revelations have me considering a few things: Starting over my blog, starting over my career, starting over with school, and starting over with working out.

I miss blogging. I really do. I often find myself composing posts in my head while driving around for work, it's just that by the time I am able to sit down at my computer and type, I've either forgotten what I was going to say or fall asleep. I miss keeping up on what everyone else is doing! I miss the support- both giving and receiving. My friend advised me to start scheduling blogging time into my life- to make it an actual appointment in my phone so I stay on top of it. I'm going to try this and see how it goes. (I've been doing the same thing with my workouts and it's been working, soI'm fairly confident I can do this!) Sometimes, as I'm sure we all can attest to, it is difficult to keep on top of social life happenings when work is so demanding.
Speaking of work, I love my job. It's hectic and chaotic and time-consuming, but oh, so worth it! When I'm out running programs with the girls and they are laughing and smiling and telling me how much fun they're having; or when I see them randomnly out and about and they run upto give me a hug, it just makes me feel like I'm on top of the world! The only down side to my job is that it is non-profit and we don't always have it in the budget to get raises. This is such a year (and I know a lot of people are in similar place, especially in today's economy). I love my job,but the pay is not a livable wage. For the most part, I end up living paycheck to paycheck every month, with only a few dollars I can tuck away into savings. It's hard to think about leaving my job, but knowing that I have a wedding to plan ($$$$$), which means that we have to find our own place to live (and pay rent and utlities, etc), makes me realize that I have to do something to bring in more money.

My only concern is that, while I do have a Bachelor's degree, it is in music and theatre, and without a teaching certificate that degree won't get me very far. I started researching areas of work that I am interested in learning more about and could see myself doing as a career. The one that interested me the most - Communications and Social Media Management. So, I've been researching a few online graduate programs to apply to and hopefully, will get accepted to one where I can start in the fall. It's going to be interesting trying to balance course work and a full time job and wedding planning, but if I'm determined enough, I know I can do it.

All of this retrospection has been euphoric. I'm very excited to go back to school and possibly expand my marketability and steer my life in a more solid and confirmed direction. To keep with my theme of bettering myself, I contacted my friend, Coach Kurt from Becomming an Ironman, and hired him to be my personal trainer. We had a 3 hour meeting where we discussed what I wanted to do (tone and strengthen and continue with fat burning), as well as completed some assessments to see where I am physically with upper body strength (FAIL) and cardio (WIN). Kurt came up with a very do-able workout routine for me to follow for the next 6 weeks. In the mornings, I do my Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD, and in the afternoons I do strength training at the gym (chest press, shoulder press, bicep curl, tricep extension, and row machine). We are starting off slow so I can build up muscle and not hurt myself. Plus, I gave him a time-frame of about a year and a half where I would like to get to the point where I solely have to maintain from there on out. It's been going very well- I haven't missed a workout yet! I'm pretty proud of myself. For example, yesterday I was incredibly tired after work but knew I had to do my strength training. I made myself go to the gym and felt SO much better for it. It's only been a week and a half, but I'm well on my way to making this a routine- afterall, don't they say it takes 21 days to make something a habit?


2 comments:

StaceyL said...

Your mind is in the right place and thats the hardest part! Keep up the great work! You got this girl!!!

Suz and Allan said...

Glad things are going great for you and I'm sure things with work and going back to school will be fine!