BAD HABITS/GOOD INTENTIONS | JULY

I decided to start holding myself accountable for habits that I want to make and habits that I want to break. I've already started working on these in the month of June, but the whole month of July will be dedicated to making more progress to reaching these goals! 

BAD HABITS

Abandoning journals

           I was that kid who had all her notebooks neatly labeled, only one subject in each. My pencils and pens, packed neatly in their pouches, all my papers safely filed away in my Trapper Keeper (why was I such a nerd, oh god). Unfortunately, I am not the same as an adult. There are countless notebooks and journals from my countless trips to Marshalls and CVS just lying around my bedroom, filling up my closets and shelves. I really need to finish one.

 Eating late/ Not eating/ Diet overall

      Breakfast isn’t the most important meal of my day. I can say, I don’t think it ever was. Late lunch, however, has become one of the only meals I do eat. I often take my breaks from work around 5:30pm, the time my body is now programmed to eat like an elephant because it knows that the next real meal it’s going to get is probably 5:30pm the next day. Not good.

Social Media

      Obviously, I’m not one of those people who get up on my soapbox and condemn social media for being this big, bad millennial narcissism machine. What I will say about it though, is that no matter who it is you follow, you may find yourself comparing your life to someone else in a small way and whether you realize it or not, it starts to get at you. I will keep checking regularly until Beyonce has her babies though, and then I’ll cut it down.

 Watching Netflix over reading books

      Remember how I was talking about those journals I keep everywhere? Well the stack of books I’ve collected over the years is twice as big. I’ve always been a media enthusiast. Movies and tv shows have been a big part of my life since I was a kid. I just really miss the feeling of being able to lose myself in a book for hours. Personally it just feels better than having my eyes glued to Dexter for the second go-‘round.

Isolating myself

      Anyone who’s had two jobs knows how important your free time is to you. And naps, oh my god, naps. I’ve been working two jobs for the past 8 months and I’ve really been slacking on how much time I’ve spent with the people I care about. I’m an overall introverted person in the first place, but it’d get to the point where I wasn’t even opening snapchats from my friends, let alone responding to them.

GOOD INTENTIONS

   

 Documenting the moment

       I just took a trip back to my university after I’m taking some time off and I realized that I don’t have as many photos of the place as I’d like. I brought my DSLR and got some really good shots. The only problem is whenever somebody sees that glaring lens, they always pose, always clam up and do that unnatural smile that I hate. I bought an Instax Mini so I could get a more candid, natural moment.

    Wearing what I want

      I've come to accept the fact that I’m not Rihanna. I can go out in a bralette and a leather mini skirt and expect people not to look at me like I’ve lost my mind. I can, however wear the American Apparel skirt I bought three months ago and feel comfortable because it’s something that I really like and fits my style, even though the people around me are wearing jeans and t-shirts. I mean, I paid $40 bucks for it anyways.

    Revisiting past hobbies

       I forgot how much I loved to walk. Especially with my grandparents, who are quite literally the dopest old people ever. If it ever stops pouring rain over this city, I want to get back to the Metroparks and walk and take some photos. Maybe cook breakfast on the grill and spend a whole day there.

   Have more genuine conversations

      As a barista and a sales associate, I’ve gotten used to being very efficient with my conversations. It’s easy to forget that your regulars are real people with real lives and kids and jobs and things going on. I visited my job on my off day today and sat down with a guy that comes in a lot and we talked for about an hour. It felt good.

     Writing more ‘thank you's’

      The little things matter. They really do. And no matter how little something may seem to me, I want to start writing more thank you cards, so that people know how much it really does mean to me.