a cup full of coffee and a heart full of dreams

I've thought a lot about what I'd like my 2015 to involve. the life I would like to create. and there's a phrase that emerged from my thoughts which may just become my daily morning mantra: a cup full of coffee and a heart full of dreams.

is there a difference between a goal and a dream? do semantics really matter here? the point is, I'm setting intentions. it seems the thing to do at this point in the year's inaugural blog post is to share a few of these goals/dreams/intentions. but I'm going to guess you've read [or simply marked as read] more than a handful of goal lists this past week.

more than the actual tasks to be checked off, I want to focus on the approach to 2015. I want to be daring and take risks. go places that I've never been, but also find excitement and contentment in the usual. I want to live each day with a sense of wonder, embody the spirit of exploration, and attempt things that I might just fail at.

with that in mind, this year's motto has evolved into a single word...

five years ago, this word crawled into my brain and refused to leave. I started thinking that you could live life as an adventure no matter where you were... though all the traveling and expat experiences these past few years have certainly made it easier. this word has meant a lot of different things to me. I'm constantly finding new ways to apply it to my life. moving abroad has been an adventure, writing my book has been an adventure. walking through an unexplored part of my neighborhood, shooting a self-portrait in Starbucks this morning, and even taking myself to the doctor last week... all adventures.

you would think by now I'd be sick of the word. but no, not yet. and maybe not ever.

2014 was a blur of trials and travels - no wonder my motto for the year was "challenge accepted." I think my most impressive accomplishment, however, was being ok with NOT completing all of my goals. this year I again have a list of things that I fully intend to achieve. but I think focusing on my attitude towards the year rather than individual goals will have me feeling more fulfilled come December.

[and if you're really that curious... a few things I have planned are creating and coding a blog redesign, completing a 52 weeks self-portrait project, finishing the editing/revising of my book manuscript, and a whole mess of travels.]

linking up with Nicole

october goals

this whole Hong Kong/visa business really derailed my goals for last month. but for me, one of the lessons of goal-setting is not just to get things done, but to be more forgiving to myself when I don't.

I couldn't have anticipated having to go to Hong Kong. and it's not the first time I have underestimated the amount of time it takes to accomplish something in regards to my book manuscript. so... live and learn. this month we will have friends/family visiting for 2 weeks, so I'm going to be hesitant to overreach with my goals again.

goal updates:

update my manuscript with the edits I made this summer only 1/3 complete.
new goal: complete this by Christmas
do pushups every day that didn't happen.
new goal: workout [run, hike, or lift] 3 times per week
get back on the envelope budget  aside from the expenses from my HK trip, we managed this.
transfer music + photos to my new laptop partially. I think I have all the photos I want.
new goal: complete music transfer so I have tunes to write to
blog at least 3 times per week this one I managed to do! I'm hoping to get a little ahead and schedule some posts for while our visitors are here.
new goal: keep up the 3 posts per week routine.

what are your goals for this month?

linking up with Melyssa for weekly wishes.

hello, september

consider this your obligatory oh-my-god-it's-september statement.

I'm sitting in my office - aka the Starbucks across the street. they remodeled it while I was gone this summer. it looks lovely, but now I need to figure out which tables give me the best writing mojo all over again. they sadly did not remodel their music selection, so instead I'm listening to the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. [which, to be honest, is probably better than anything they would play anyway.]

in some ways it feel like this summer was a dream... all the bacon, time spent with family and friends,  Lake Michigan sunsets. slipping back into hot + humid life in Taiwan for the third year in a row has been both easy and difficult. I could extrapolate that statement into a ten page essay, but let's just leave it for now and move on. Taiwan has made a few improvements [other than the Starbucks] while I was gone. Ive noticed that more items in the local stores have English labeling. the selection of ciders has practically doubled. and best of all, we discovered real barbecue sauce and sriracha hot sauce at the import store this week.

with all the indulging we did in the states, we've been trying to stay healthy since we got back. we've been eating pescatarian at home [just veggies + fish] and Husband has been teaching me how to lift weights. I'm hoping to find a short race to run in the next few months, and trying to work yoga into our schedule too.

the end of august means things are about to get a lot busier. today is the first day of school, and tomorrow I'm teaching my first blog class. I have a lot of emailing to catch up on, a million post ideas to flesh out and photograph, and there's that whole book thing too. we're trying to assemble a routine that will allow us to be healthy + productive, but still leave time for fun.

sounds like it's time to set some goals to stay on track.

this month I want to:

- update my manuscript with the edits I made this summer
- do pushups every day
- get back on the envelope budget
- transfer music + photos to my new laptop
- blog at least 3 times per week

it's time to hit the reset button, wipe the slate clean, and get to work. bring it, september.

linking up with Melyssa for weekly wishes.

the cup of coffee that fueled the writing of today's post was sponsored by couchteacher.com, a marketplace for one-on-one language lessons via webcam. stop by and check it out!

july goals: out of the office

just popping in quick to wrap up the month before I start my blogging vacation for July. this month I only have one goal: to relax and enjoy spending time with friends + family.

last month I accomplished all my goals:
+ get packed and get back to the states +
+ participate in Rachel's instagram photo challenge +
+ print a paper copy of my book manuscript to edit +
+ run a 5k race with my Mom +
+ come up with a blog plan for summer +

I'll be traveling all over the country these next few weeks, and you can still keep up with me on twitter and instagram. I hope you all have an amazing July, I'll be back in August with plenty to share! xo

the cup of coffee that fueled the writing of today’s post was sponsored by Kristen. she drinks her coffee with soy milk + stevia, and blogs about life and learning to enjoy every day over at ok, enjoy. go say hello!

linking up with Melyssa for weekly wishes.

life is good: may reflections + june goals

is anyone else outrageously surprised that it's June already? my May was pretty jam-packed and it just flew right by... but it was full of some amazing moments. today I'm joining Belinda's new life is good linkup in an effort to share not just goals and things checked off a list, but the everyday goodness that can sometimes be overlooked. in that spirit, here are some of my favorite feel-good moments of May:

+ being a kid at Tokyo Disneyland +
+ wine and macarons on the train +
+ interviewing myself +
+ my first Taiwanese baseball experience +
+ visiting a kitten cafe +

I'm flying back to the US in 2 days [have I mentioned that lately?] and beginning my travels to every corner of the country. it's going to be a crazy messy busy wild and beautiful summer. I can't wait.

my goals for last month were to enjoy time traveling and with visitors, soak up as much Taiwan as I can get before I leave, and to just let go and do what I can. I think I definitely got the first two down, though I've been a little panicky about being ready to leave.

this month I want to:
+ get packed and get back to the states +
+ participate in Rachel's instagram photo challenge +
+ print a paper copy of my book manuscript to edit +
+ run a 10k race [or drop down to the 5k depending how my foot feels] +
+ come up with a blog plan for summer +

of course, these goals are all contingent upon not burying my productivity under a pile of bacon and kitten snuggles once I arrive back in Michigan. is anyone else excited for the start of summer? what are your plans and goals this month?

may goals

April was kindof a big month. I taught a week of blogging classes, hiked through a gorge, turned 29, and hit 500 bloglovin followers. with all of that, I didn't quite complete last month's goals. [I was, perhaps, a bit over-ambitious.] the book made it up over 50,000 words but definitely not to 75,000. I started my 10k training plan, but the past week I've been replacing a few runs with long hikes and sightseeing days. I finished one washi tape wall project but not quite the second. and though I tweaked the blog design, I'm already itchy to change colors.

but I still accomplished a lot that was not related to these goals [that in truth was more important] so I feel like April was jam-packed and productive. even if it wasn't quite what I had pictured. my unread blog post count is insane and I'm so behind on commenting on other blogs... and it's going to stay that way until the end of this week when my friend leaves. I'm mostly just dropping by to schedule this post because my brain gets all kinds of disorderly if I don't write something every now and then.

I'm almost hesitant to set any goals for May. my friend has been here for the past week and we've been traveling and touring like crazy... and there's not much of a breather between more travels and more visitors before I fly back to the states in a month.

um... a month? holy cow.

so my goals this moth are hopefully a little more realistic:
+ enjoy the time with visiting friends and family +
+ soak up as much Taiwan as possible before leaving +
+ let go of trying to do everything, and just do what I can +

I hope your April was as awesome as mine, and that your May will be full of adventures!

linking up with Melyssa for weekly wishes

april goals: rock it out

it's April 1st, which means in 29 days I turn 29.  there's a lot of "shouldn't I have a house and babies and such by this point?" floating around in my head. accompanied by "I don't feel nearly old enough for that" and some indignant "my life is awesome as it is." I have a feeling you'll be hearing a lot more about this later.

the start of a new month also means setting some new goals.

side note: we went to Taipei this weekend for some falafel and a walk through our favorite park. someone might have had a glass of wine at lunch and then decided the thing to do on a beautiful sunday afternoon was to take jumping photos.

as for last month's goals, I was pretty successful!

as you can see from my, er, impressive leg musculature... I've been running and doing yoga. our budget has also resulted in eating at home more which means healthier meals. with all of that, I've been feeling really strong and just good.

I hit 45,000 words on my manuscript last week. 46,241 to be exact. which means I more than doubled my word count this month. if that isn't worth another jumping photo, I don't know what is...

for this month, my goals are a little similar:

+ keep writing +

I have a friend arriving on April 27th, which gives me nearly 4 weeks to cram in as much writing as possible. I'm going to aim for hitting 75,000. it makes me a little dizzy to type that number, but since I just wrote 25,000 words last month I don't think 30,000 is our of the realm of possibility.

+ start a training plan +

like I said before, I've been running. but this month I want to sign up for a few races so I have a goal in mind. I've just been getting back into things, but creating a solid training plan will help me be more consistent and stay on track.

+ get the apartment together +

spring [and anticipating visitors] also has made me antsy to do some cleaning and re-arranging in our apartment. I've got a few decorating and organizing projects in the works, and as long as I can get enough light to shoot the photos you should see one project tomorrow.

+ tweak the blog design +

I've been itching to do this for a while, but lately my internet service has been a piece. [which also has put me behind on comments and blog reading] I'm not making any huge changes, but things may look a little different around here soon.

what are your plans for April?

linking up with Melyssa

march goals: get back on track

from a blogging standpoint, this year has been really productive for me. [my pageviews have increased by 40% since 2014 started... hi-five to myself!] I actually accomplished all of my January goals... and then didn't even set any for February. vacation was wonderful but it really threw me off my book-writing and workout mojo, and I let myself be wrapped up in keeping things up here.

I am sad to say that I went almost an entire month without working on my book. at all. I thought about it plenty. but when it came to the doing I always had something else that seemed to be more important easier to do and therefore was done instead.

does this sort of thing happen to you? you take a break from something. you keep telling yourself you need to start again. but it seems the longer you go without doing it, the more impossible it seems starting again will be. so you just put it off longer and longer because it feels like it will be more and more painful when you pick it back up.

finally - you start. and it sucks for the first five minutes or so. but then you stop and think "why on EARTH was I procrastinating this? it feels so good to do _____ again!"

yes? well, that was me with book writing. I picked it up again last week and ever since I have been bursting with ideas and energy. I'm cooking dinner, brushing my teeth, or running errands and words and phrases just start coming to me and I have to run to find pen and paper so I can write them down. I've been rethinking everything, but in a good way. I'm overflowing with good creative juice and I'm just pouring it all into this story. you guys, this is what I want writing my book to feel like.

and I think that the not-so-secret secret is: I just need keep writing.

we don't have any major plans for March, but towards the end of April things are going to get busy. people will be visiting, we will be traveling. and then in June we fly back to the states for summer and will be spending a solid seven weeks criss-crossing the country to see people... making time to write is going to get really difficult. so for March, I need to get as much in as I can.

it's really quite ironic. when I was looking ahead to what I wanted to do this year, I wrote under January "ENJOY vacation, but don't break new habits" referring to regular book writing sessions. well, oops. but there's time to get back on track. and it gets even more hilarious when I look at my notes for March: "write your face off, write your face off, write your face off." [seriously, I wrote it three times.]

so I flopped on February. in March, I will get back on track.

+ book writing +

I want to dedicate 4 or more writing sessions to working on the book each week. right now I'm around 20,000 words into my first draft. 21,233 to be exact. if I could be at 50,000 by the end of March, that would be amazing. I'm hoping for at least 35-40k. hopefully that isn't too crazy.

+ blogging +

tough I'm going to spend more time on the book, I want keep up with 3 posts per week, and make sure sponsors are getting enough love. [ps - have you checked out the ladies on my sidebar lately? you'll be hearing more from them soon!] I still have plenty of adventure from Bali to share, and hoping to show you a little more of Taiwan too.

+ balancing with exercise +

since my other two goals involve a lot of time sitting at my computer, I'd like to be sure I get off my butt and sweat a few times a week. there's a weekly yoga class that started up at the school which I plan to go to. I also want to start training for a race this summer [which I should sign up for.] and of course I want to spend some time with my buddy Jillian.

so here's hoping this month can get back on track. what are you hoping to accomplish in March?

linking up with Melyssa

january goals + my new job

last week, I started a new job: writer and blogger.

I hear you asking yourself, wait, wasn’t she doing that before? yes I was [and I have been taking it seriously!] but now I've decided to make it officially official. now I have a work schedule - one that I’m forcing myself to keep to. even though last week was a holiday week, I wrote. even though on Friday morning I woke up feeling like I had gotten a collective 15 minutes of sleep and all I wanted to do was stay in bed, I wrote. even though I missed a Passionfruit chat and the season 4 Downton Abbey debut today, I wrote. I have a schedule and I’ve been sticking to it.

my January is all about and getting things done. and we're leaving for Bali in 2 weeks! which means there's a lot to accomplish before I go. to help keep me on track, I'm setting a few goals for the month:

1. book-specific writing sessions 3-4 times a week: I feel like I'm just starting, but already I want to get ahead. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try book writing while on vacation. I don't want to lose the habit, but I don't want to drag my laptop with me. [or waste precious beach time.]

2. wrap up sponsor business: this is my first month of hosting sponsorships and I'm still learning, but I want my sponsors to feel taken care of. my first full-post sponsor feature will run this week! I'm both nervous and terribly excited to share these lovely ladies with you. and my new sponsors will be starting right when I'm flying out- I want to be sure to welcome them and set things up before I go.

3. schedule at least 3 posts for when I’ll be gone: yes, I'm going on vacation, but I don't want to disappear completely! there are a few things I've been meaning to share that may never be posted if they don't get in before all the travel this year. I have a lot of half-written ideas brewing... I just need to round them out and get them scheduled.

4. remember to take care of myself: the last thing I want to do is be sick for vacation. with everything else going on I want to be sure I'm eating right, getting exercise, and sleeping well. Husband and I have been carrying on the weekend tradition of running the mountain + sushi lunches, and I'm making a date with Jillian Michaels a few times a week.

5. get packed for our trip ahead of time: have we discussed how I'm a terrible packer? I'm hoping to be packed [as much as I can] in advance so that I can relax and actually sleep the night before our flight. I've already started a list, and I'm thinking of throwing together a post because that would mean I have to do it in advance. right?

that's a lot for the next two weeks, but I'm hoping I can stay on track... you all might have to remind me from time to time! what are your goals for this month?

[linking up with Melyssa for weekly wishes]

end of the year goals: 2013

as the end of the year approaches, I get more and more contemplative. or as I told Husband the other day: retrospective + introspective. you can expect several posts relating to these themes in the coming weeks, as I look back on 2013 and head into the new year.

I've achieved a LOT this year, but of course I never find time to cross everything off my list. with only two weeks left and Husband's birthday/ Christmas celebrations coming up, I know I won't have unlimited time to devote... so I'm doing some prioritizing on what I can reasonably do that will help me kick off 2014 right. it's all about wrapping things up and laying the groundwork for next year.

with that in mind, here are my goals to accomplish by the end of the year:

1. print and fill out this workbook on unravelling the year ahead. I went through 2013 without a plan, and it turned out to be exactly what I needed at the time. it gave me the freedom to grow and to dream... but now it's time to make those dreams real. this intention-setting notebook seems like the perfect place to start.

2. set up my sponsorship page and open up ad sales for the blog. this whole sponsorship thing is a little scary. I want to do it right, but if I wait until I feel it's "perfect" I'll never start. I know I would tweak and nit-pick until the end of time... so I'm going to launch by the end of the year, ready or not.

3. create a writing schedule, and stick to it. the past few weeks I have not been a very good writer. to be honest, I'm struggling with just how personal this book should get, and trying to decide if I can actually write about my own life or if I need to fictionalize and just use real life for inspiration. and instead of writing and worrying about editing/overhauling later when I figure it out... I just stopped writing.

4. finish my journal, and purchase a new one for 2014. I didn't start journaling until our trip to Thailand in late January. but I've only got 25 pages left in my journal, and I get OCD about keeping these things neat and tidy. so I'm going to fill it up and start fresh with the new year.

5. complete my 52 weeks photo project. I haven't decided if I'll do another next year, whether with instax again or digital. I've contemplated doing another self-portrait theme. or maybe 52 weeks of dragons? I guess deciding what [if any] project to tackle next year should be part of this goal as well.

I also think I'm going to make my weekly wishes posts every other week, or maybe twice a month. I love the support of the linkup, but I think fewer posts with more big-picture goals will be a better formula for me. [speaking of - I accomplished all of my goals from my last wishes post. though the transferring of the phone happened just today.]

what are you looking to accomplish by the end of 2013?