February In Review: 2019

What was the most memorable part of this past month?

Visiting my best friend for the first time in ten years and meeting her beautiful baby daughter. Also living through the snowiest February Minnesota has ever had. Dessa going to urgent care twice in a week and seeing Shen Yun on Valentine’s Day with Nick.

What were the three biggest lessons you’ve learned in this past month?

1. When I hit a roadblock, it is tough for me to move past it. This struggle doesn’t sound very helpful, but now that I recognize that I struggle with this I can work on it in the future.
2. When something is important to me, I do everything I can to it work. Most people would equate that statement with a relationship or friendship, but in February it was actually about my finances and staying on budget.
3. I will be a nomad for life. For my entire adult life I have been trying to find a place to set down roots but now that I own my first home and have, so to speak, set down roots I realize that maybe roots aren’t for me.

How are you different between this past month and the month before it?

This month I feel more responsible than last month. A big goal for 2019 was to be financially put together and, in February we did pretty well. We weren’t perfect, we were tight for a minute, but we made it work. It gives me a lot of hope that the rest of the year will only get better and better.

Besides being more responsible with my spending, I also feel less healthy. For a while now I’ve suspected that something was off with me. I’ve been feeling increasingly tired, more irritable and just overall, not well. Although I have an idea of what is going on, I need to see a doctor soon to see if I’m right or if something else is happening.

What or who are you especially grateful for this past month?

I’m great for my best friend for sticking by me for 18 years. Even when we didn’t talk much or when we lived far apart or hadn’t seen each other in a long time. I’m so grateful that she has always made the effort to stay connected to me even when I didn’t.

Name three things you can improve on next month. What are some concrete actions you can take to work towards these improvements?

1. I need to work on my discipline. I recently read a quote that said: “you will never always be motivated, so you must learn to be disciplined.” I’ve always beat myself up for not being motivated but, maybe I need to be more disciplined with myself and hold myself accountable.
2. I want to work on not avoiding things when I hit a roadblock. I know for most of my life I’ve had this problem and, I also know that when I finally stop avoiding it, I realize that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
3. I want to spend more uninterrupted time as a family. That means no screens or electronics while we spend time with each other. I think every Friday should be family game night.

From 1-10, how do you feel overall about this past month?

I am giving February a six. I did well-managing money, school, the house and just life in general but I didn’t do a lot of things I know I should have been doing like waking up early, exercising more often, and getting out of the house more.