Making bad decisions... for good!

Not long after that last post about how a discussion of Girl Scout cookies led me to attempt to donate blood (which was a fail due to recent travels to Belize), I went home to Albany to find out that my precious little sister in law was, in fact, SELLING Girl Scout cookies.

Have you seen her face? I couldn't say no. In fact, I said YES a lot. All different kinds.

Oh well. The Girl Scouts are a good cause, right?

Making good decisions

This is nothing extraordinary, but I was a little proud of my own thought process because it pertains to me being in a particularly good mind set right now, and is directly related to #43 on my list:

A few of the girls in the office were just talking about how they wondered if it was Girlscout cookie season again, because who doesn't love Girlscout cookies? They mentioned that they found out it was that time of year last year because they ran into a table of Girlscouts selling their devilishly tasty goods on their walk back to work after donating blood.

While one of the girls decided to look up Girlscout headquarters online to see if she could hunt down some cookies, I hit the world wide web in search of blood donation centers and made an appointment for myself to donate tonight.

Proud of myself for deciding to donate. Proud of myself for getting another item on my list started. SHOCKED with myself that I didn't tear out of the building looking for Girlscout cookies.

Hooray for a somewhat healthy mindset!

Motivation by Peer Pressure

I have spurts of motivation. Always have. I get an idea in my head and if I feel like doing it right at that moment, I am 100% committed to getting it done. But I have to be in the moment, or else my motivation evaporates.

This takes many different forms. I hate cleaning, but the moment I get the idea in my head telling me it is a good idea to "put all the laundry away and redo the configuration of my dressers so that everything is better organized", you better just let me do it. Yes, it will take a long time and yes, I will make a mess of my bedroom in the process (worse than it had been before as a result of my not putting my clothes away), but if I am motivated to do it, get outta my way! Never stop me when I am on a roll. Otherwise, I will quickly lose the drive to do it and then either stop the process half way through and leave it that way for ages, or just sit on the couch (not listening to my "shoulds") and live out of my clean laundry basket for two weeks.

I have never been a dieter by any stretch of the imagination. I share gleeful stories with my college roommates about how delicious the Quadruple Stacker from Burger King is, and don't regret it for a second. (I mean, come on! Four layers of beef, four layers of cheese, and four layers of bacon? And great girl friends who share this passion for the fine cuisine at BK? Sign. me. up.) But every so often I get a kick of "Ugh, I really need to eat better or diet or something" and will make a conscious effort to make good decisions for a while. It might only last for a week, but I will get up, have breakfast, get subway or a salad for lunch, and urge my husband not to order Chinese food for dinner. But it won't be long before I have a night where I just want to stay in and order pizza, and once you've had some pepperoni slices and garlic knots, there is really no point in keeping up with the food tracking. Done.

Lately, I have been hearing from a lot of people who are making goals and sticking to them. For instance, my Dad started a diet for New Year's and has already lost 10 pounds! That's amazing!!! I can't believe he is able to stick to a diet (only because I never can), but I am unbelievably proud of him and I am rooting him on every step of the way. I went out the other night with a friend who is making a solid effort to cut down on drinking. Good for him! It's not like we are in the habit of getting plastered on a Wednesday night, but why take in the extra calories and possibly make yourself miserable in the morning just for the sake of being "social"? Like we're not social already! Another friend and fellow blogger is doing a month-long cleanse, which she has not only been sticking to, but really embracing. She also just dove into the world of cooking with tofu (which is on my list too!), and seems to be having fun with the whole challenge. Heck, it is even fun for ME just READING about it!

I have decided that I am going to try to use other people's determination and success to force motivation upon myself and get things done. If everyone surrounding me can stick to their goals and reap the benefits of the glowing success from reaching their goals, why can't I?

So this is my plan. I can motivate myself for a little while. but not long term. If I pay more attention to other people's success, maybe I can do it to! Or, if I can't look at it in a positive way, maybe I can GUILT myself into keeping up with my peers! HA!

Happy New Year!

Have you made a New Year’s resolution? I didn’t – but I like to think (as I am sure many other non-resolutioners do) that I am justified. First of all, I am still trying to plow through my list of 101 Things to do in 1,001 Days which is kind of like a giant list of resolutions. If I pick something from my list to make my New Year’s Resolution, that’s almost like cheating because I have clearly already set that goal for myself. If I pick something completely new, am I gypping myself of a chance to knock off something from my list, or will I be disappointed in myself when it gets to be February and I join the masses of people who have already failed at their goal? I know I am biased, but I think I have very good points here.

Instead of making one solid New Year’s Resolution that is asking me to make a major change in my life, I have decided to simply listen to my “shoulds”.

Over the past few days, I have been thinking a lot about this and I really think that this small little change has the potential to not really change my day too much, but could change my life. For example, as I was getting ready for work this morning, I looked in the bathroom mirror and noticed that I had dry skin on my face. My immediate thought was that ‘I should do a better job of moisturizing so my skin doesn’t keep getting dry’. A second later, a sighed and went to turn to leave the bathroom and go on getting ready for my day. Wait a second. I have a whole shelf full of moisturizers specifically for the face in my bathroom six inches from where I was standing. Clinque. Olay. Lots of them. And it takes, what… 10 seconds to put on lotion? Why not just DO it? So I did.

I actually had exactly the same thought about my feet, but I will spare you a story about lotioning my feet… you’re welcome.

Just thinking about how many times a day I have a thought that starts with “I SHOULD…” makes me realize how much I don’t do until it becomes a huge task!

I hate sitting down and going through the loads of mail that pile up on our kitchen counters for weeks at a time, causing a complete mess. I should just go through it and trash all the junk mail every night when I get home from work. It would take under a minute AND prevent an avalanche of papers from forming in the kitchen. Why don’t I just DO it? I should go to bed when I start to feel tired at night, instead of staying up because another episode of The Golden Girls is going to be coming on in a few minutes. I have seen every episode of that show and can quote most of it! I own the box sets! Why do I stay up late to watch shows I have seen 200 times and know how it will end within the first 30 seconds of the episode? Go to bed if you’re tired! I should write down groceries that we need to shop for as we run out of them. We already have a magnetic list pad right on the fridge that stays unused until it is time to grocery shop, at which point I write down everything I can think of off the top of my head. If I had a running list made, I wouldn’t have to wait until the next time I try to cook something to realize I didn’t know we were out of butter and now I can’t complete my recipe, or that we already had three unopened bottles of ranch dressing so I shouldn’t have bought any more. I should put my jewelry away when I take it off at night instead of leaving it around the living room, kitchen, bathroom, etc. That way I won’t complain when I can’t find my missing earring or when I have to spend 20 minutes looking for the necklace I wanted to wear and then untangling it from the other jewelry debris that’s been scattered about. Why do I waste time like this? I should stay away from the Ghirardelli peppermint bark that has been laid out on the table in my office. Ok, let’s be honest. I am going to leave this “should” alone because peppermint bark is delicious.

So instead of making the typical New Year’s Resolution - “I want to lose 30 pounds, I want to finally ask my boss for a raise, I’m going to be nice to everyone” – I am resolving to listen more to my “shoulds”. It’s a goal that won’t take time out of my day, may actually SAVE me time in the long run, and that I can’t be let down by, because there is no way to measure it. Maybe with all the extra time I have from taking care of my “shoulds” immediately, I can check off a few more things on my 101 List!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Two-Faced

I'm a two-faced fundraiser.

I have one foot out the door at The Joyce, where I am only going to be employed for another 13 days. But that foot is stuck in the cement that is my Auction (aka second most exhausting benefit event of the year), and I can't seem to escape. It's fine. I've been doing this for years. It means late night, working weekends, not sleeping, and needing someone to remind me when to eat. It's a process that involves minor mental breakdowns, but always ends up being a great event that I actually enjoy in the end.

But there is something different this time.

That one foot that is out the door at The Joyce is already finding its way to my new job. I've started going to their donor events and being notified about meetings and such. It's actually great to get a feel for the place and meet the staff and Board and such. Just last night I attended an event that was lovely and made me relax. And it was super Irish - a room full of about 25 people and there were two other Maureens there. And they serve Jameson. Love it. But the problem was, I had to go from that evening event BACK to work on the Auction.

I'm exhausted. There aren't enough hours in the day as it is. And I am trying to do two jobs at once. Oh, and train the new person who will be taking over my job in 8 hours spread over 2 days. And write a guide for her to do my job.... all in my spare time.

And so ends my venting session. Back to work.

PS - This is a preview of what I've been working on!