NaBloPoMo: Day 15 "Halfway"

Halfway through the month, and I find myself feeling concern. I like blogging, and I always have. But when this month ends, how am I going to keep myself on a regular blogging diet? How strict will I be with myself when there's no tidy finish line, and no distinct goal? Or maybe in the near future, will I find a specific goal to reach for with my blog?

In a way, I've already decided on a goal for the bloggy future, but it may or may not be on this particular site. As you now know, if you've been following my posts, I have big plans to get into the hostel business. I have TWO years at least, before I'll have a hostel of my own, though, and in those two years, I plan to do several things to prepare myself for the upcoming life changes:

1. Take some online business management courses. Coursera.com has several appropriate (and free!) courses I plan on taking to prop up my admittedly weak understanding of business and finance.

2. Create a separate blog/tumblr about hostels. Part design ideas, part "what makes a good hostel," part hostel review, part travel blog - I haven't narrowed down the focus yet, but it'll be informative and fun (if you're into hostels, that is). And pretty. Lots of photos. I like blogs with lots of big photos (says the girl who has no photo to insert into this post today... /hypocrite).
Are you into hostels? What kinds of things would you like to see and/or read about regarding them?

3. Buy a website for my company, and sit on it. I already think I know the name of my company, so why not go ahead and purchase the web domain rights and park on it?

4. Keep dreaming. I have a couple of very big ideas lurking around in my brain for my hostels. A new way of doing things. A great way of doing things. Now I just have to decide which dreams I really want, and which I'm going to doggedly pursue until I can make them reality. Call me crazy, or just a product of my very lucky circumstances, but I believe I can make things happen, if I really want them to happen. And if I really, really work for them. Heck, that's why I'm here in Korea teaching, when I'd rather be somewhere else.

And that's all for tonight folks.

Carpe November!

P.S. Abs, CHECK. (I hate planks. HATE. Hate.)
Squats, CHECK.
Minimalism, CHEEEECCCKKK!!! This was so timing appropriate! As you might recall from an earlier post, I'm organizing all my photos from my mini laptop and uploading them to an online cloud. However, I realized I didn't want to only have them in one place, so I suggested to Adam that we purchase an external hard drive to store backups of photos. Today's minimalism challenge was to really weigh the pros and cons before actually buying something you wanted. Adam and I chatted back and forth during our work days today, and decided that the pros (faster computer, backup, doesn't take much space, affordable) outweighed the cons (one more item accumulated, potentially bad financial timing). Before buying online, though, we inquired with a local group of expats here in Gwangju who specialize in tech stuff and repairs. We try to go to them first with tech issues, because they have annual fund-raising events where they repair donated electronics and then auction them off on Facebook, giving all the proceeds to certain orphanages or other good causes in the city. They had a drive available, we bought it, and we'll receive it in 2 days. BOOM.

NaBloPoMo: Day 13 "Goals: Part 4"

Whew. Well, these brushes with illness are almost disappointing in their brevity. I feel like I was all worked up to being sick, and then suddenly... everything's ok, actually. :)

Sooo.... Yay! Here's to health, and doing all those things you're supposed to do (drink fluids, sleep lots, etc) and actually having them pay off?

Time to get back into the swing of things now, so I'm continuing my series on goals today. We'll call this the 5-year-goal. You know how people ask, "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" Well, I've had a pretty clear vision of that since coming to Korea 21 months ago. 

The plan:

Step1 - work in Korea for 3-4 years, saving oodles of cash as we go along, and having plenty of adventures.(*we recently added a very exciting adventure prospect to our agenda, more on that later)

Step2 - tote the cash back to the USA, and having done our research by then, plant ourselves in the most hostel-hungry city in the States. 

Step3 - make bank.

Step4 - use money from hostel #1 to open 2-3 more hostels in our favorite countries all over the world.

Step5 - spend our working lives doing what we do best, and love : traveling, hosteling, writing, being together.

And la voila, the rest of my life! Ok, so there were more than 5 years in that plan... :) 

I remember reading that it can be bad to share ideas before you're in a place to act on them because then your brain thinks that it's already done. I think that's doing a disservice to my brain, to assume it's that stupid. (Not really, but it's too late for me to when it comes to telling others my dreams. I've had this dream since a fateful shower in Korea back in 2010. But more on that next time.) 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Carpe November!

P.S. Abs, CHECK. With Adam's help.

Squats, CHECK.

Minimalism, CHECK. (Opt out of store email offers. Done!)

NaBloPoMo: Day 7 "Goals: Part 1"

I'VE MADE A DECISION. And felt the need to shout about it:

This will be the first of a chain of posts, all about goals.

Daily goals,

Monthly goals,

5-year plan goals,

Life goals,

Bucket list goals.

I have ALL OF THE ABOVE GOALS, to some degree or another.

My daily goals, I keep track of with an app called "Lift", which I have found extremely effective and useful in staying on track.

These are 5 of my daily goals, and so far I'm doing pretty well. I'm on day 250~ish of flossing every day, and I'm becoming regular with the other tasks as well.

The thing about goals is that one has to have the motivation, habits, and routine to reach a desired goal, and every person has different strategies and techniques for setting and keeping those motivations, habits and routines.

I think the most important thing is finding a strategy that fits. For me, "Lift" is motivating (because I love checklists), habit-forming (because it informs me of streaks, and reminds me to check off all my tasks) and it has become part of my daily routine. So for my simple, daily goals I've really gotten my money's worth out of lift! (Which...was no money. It's a free app...)

It's not gonna be a fit for everyone, though. Adam, for example, as neat as he thought the app was, didn't find it personally motivating or habit-forming (read: he used it for about 3 days and hasn't touched it since) - but that's because he's got completely different wiring from me, mentally.

I read a fascinating and helpful book recently about changing personal habits, and if you're trying to reach a goal by changing some behaviors or making new habits, I'd definitely recommend checking out "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg from your local library, or purchasing it. I found it well worth the audiobook price.

Tomorrow, more gooooooaaals - Carpe November!

P.s. Finished Ender's game 2 days ago... A little ahead of schedule. But boy is that little book hard to put down!

Abs, CHECK.

Squats, CHECK.

Minimalism, CHECK. We were supposed to clean out/declutter our dressers, but since we don't OWN dressers here, we decided to declutter our desks. Finished product!:

Feeling better, physically and mentally ^^

Thankvember 11/29

Because I'm doing everything backward yesterday & today, here are photos of Sarah & Jamen's sweet girls! (see yesterday's post if you don't get the backwards reference)

Charis (left) and Alathea :

Sarah says they like to be touching one another - probably because they've spent their whole lives up to this point in veeerrry close quarters, and are comfortable all up in each other's space. Note the overlapping legs and arms (gah! precious!).

Charis is older by about 14 minutes, but almost a whole pound smaller than Alathea (they are both under 6 lbs). Their names are the Greek words for grace and truth. Everyone in the family is doing great. :)

Ok, now on to the rest of the post.

Please watch the following video:

So kids, the moral of the story is, don't underestimate the power of dreams. Sometimes you can just attribute them to the hawaiian pizza from the night before, and sometimes - if you're lucky - they're ...MAGICAL.  :D

p.s. As much as I enjoyed sharing my epic, life-changing dream with you, I also really like hearing about people's dreams. I know they won't be as amazing as my R. B. dream, but I'm sure some of them hold entertainment value.

p.p.s. I also want to clarify that I do not find Russell Brand attractive in the least. He was adorable in Arthur, but not attractive. That was not the point of the dream. ...Just making sure you got that.