Tag: self improvement

February in Review, March Goals

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Ever have one of those months where nothing goes as planned? That was definitely February for me. It can be really rough to go through the month knowing you’re not making the progress you hoped you would.

I did get a lot done though, just not the things that I had planned on. I made a lot of progress on my jewelry and a few new DIY projects. I had a wonderful last couple weeks and I’m really looking forward to seeing how March goes!

February Goals

  • Keep working at that morning routine – Up no later than 6:30 all days except Saturday (This will start once my back is feeling better…my neck hurts too much to work out for at least a few hours after waking up. Hopefully next week.)

This did not happen. But it was not for lack of trying. As I said at the beginning of last month and in my fitness update, my back was hurting. Then I got sick. Then my back (but a different part!) was hurting again. Then I got sick again, but worse. Yeah…the first 1/2 of February was not very nice to me. But now I’m doing better and I am getting up on time, so yay!!

  • Keep active 6 days a week – Until my back heals up, LISS. After that, it’s back to Kayla Itsines’ BBG for round 2!

Yeah…for the same reasons as above, it was pretty much LISS for most of the month. But I am now starting Week 2 of my second round of BBG and so happy for it! (Very, very sore…but happy!) I didn’t make it 6 days a week when I was sick, but I did push myself to be as active as possible.

  • Spend at least 30 minutes a day working on either the blog or my art.

Yes! I actually manage to do this almost entirely. I’m sure I missed a day or two, but for the most part I have actually done very well on this one!

Favorite Pictures from February

Sweet Potato Banana Bites
Chocolate Cookie Dough Protein Bites
“Thaw” Winter in Iowa
Monthly Photo Project – Ada Hayden
Wall Art – playing with my camera
A very sad rottweiler pup
One of my favorite jewelry pieces so far: fused glass, white with blue dichroic and black, wrapped in silver-coated wire
Another new piece: fused glass, white with red and black dichroic, wrapped in copper
My first time building something with tools in a very long time! I can’t wait to show you all this new project once it’s done!

March Goals

  1. Keep working towards establishing that morning routine! – I’ve done okay this last week, but I really need to make it through at least a whole month. I know I feel better when I get up early, get my workout in (with time to warm up and stretch) and get ready at an easy pace. I just need to stay focused on those positives and make sure I get to bed at a decent time!
  2. Add yoga into routine at least 3 days a week – During workouts and yoga is about the only time right now that my mind quiets down. I think this will help my productivity and overall mental state
  3. Add guided meditation to routine at least 3 days a week – This goes along with my second goal and I think will achieve the same ends. Plus it’s just a good practice anyways.

That’s it for this month! Do you set goals for yourself each month? How do you deal if the month doesn’t go as planned? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to start setting goals but aren’t sure how to go about it? Check out my Top 5 Planning Tips!

 

sunrise over lake

January in Review, February Goals

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, UncategorizedLeave a comment

January Goals

  1. Start establishing a morning routine – Ummm….50/50? I kept making progress with this and then my back injury acting up again plus getting sick, setting me back again
  2. Start at least one art project – Does my jewelry count? I did not start on mosaic like I had hoped to, but I got quite a few pieces of jewelry made! I’m also starting to feel a little more comfortable with my wire wrapping, though I still have a LONG way to go in that department!
  3. Active rest days – 50/50 success. During the time periods I was working out I did manage active rest days, but when I was sick and injured every day kinda became a rest day (outside of physical therapy exercises)
  4. Less TV time, especially while writing! – Again, 50/50 success. I did okay with this at the beginning of the month. Not so much the second half of the month.

January Favorites 

You guys have to be getting sick of seeing the same photos over an over…can you tell I was a little focused on my jewelry this month?! I promise that I will be working on my photography in more areas in February, so it will not be the same jewelry again. Also, I am working on some new pieces, so it will be new jewelry too! 🙂

I really am excited to be able to share these with you though. I’ve been dreaming of being able to make new pieces for months and now I finally can! I would love to hear your thoughts on the jewelry I’ve shared so far. Are there any styles or pieces that you really like or dislike?

winter sunrise over Ada Hayden Park in Ames, Ia
Processed with VSCOcam with a6 preset
2016 Plum Paper Planner
Path through park
winter morning at Ada Hayden
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glass fusion jewelry
yellow and gold glass fusion jewelry
fused glass jewelry
glass fusion jewelry
yellow and blue glass fusion jewelry
glass fusion jewelry with red dichroic
glass fusion pendant
glass fusion pendant
glass fusion pendant
fused glass pendant
copper wire wrapped glass fusion pendant
brown and green fused glass jewelry
Wire wrapped fused glass pendant

February Goals

  1. Keep working at that morning routine – Up no later than 6:30 all days except Saturday (This will start once my back is feeling better…my neck hurts too much to work out for at least a few hours after waking up. Hopefully next week.)
  2. Keep active 6 days a week – Until my back heals up, LISS. After that, it’s back to Kayla Itsines’ BBG for round 2!
  3. Spend at least 30 minutes a day working on either the blog or my art.

How did your goals for the first month of 2016 go? Are you setting goals for February? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide Round 1 Complete!…Well, Kinda Complete

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, Uncategorized4 Comments

Ever since I started Kayla’s guide the first time I have been looking forward to this moment. Through all the setbacks, the injuries, everything…I’ve been looking forward to being able to say I had completed it once and showing off these fantastic progress pics. Only…that didn’t really take real life into account.

This first round through has been full of difficulties. 3 injuries, 2 sets of stitches, 2 months of physical therapy (which I’m still needing to continue at home sometimes, this week included), sickness, the holidays, etc. All of those things were things I didn’t plan on when I started the guides. But that’s life. And that is a lesson that I think I needed to really learn when I started this journey. It’s a journey. It’s a lifestyle.

Life isn’t always smooth sailing. While I knew that, I don’t think I fully appreciated how that would play into my workout program, especially this workout program.

Weeks 9-12 fell during and directly after the holidays. Now, I’m not making excuses. I could have pushed myself harder some of the time and been more on top of things. But between work being crazy due to the season, the “winter blues” hitting me a bit and just a general feeling of exhaustion, I did not do as well during the last four weeks of the guide. I skipped some workouts, did LISS directly after my resistance workouts other times and just in general didn’t do as well as I had hoped to.

For a while towards the end and right after, I was beating myself up pretty good over my lack of performance. But I’ve come to the realization that just because I had an off few weeks doesn’t mean I failed or anything like it.

I am still in the best shape of my life! I can (usually) do 10+ push-ups in a row before I need to go to my knees! I can do box jumps and tuck jumps and all sorts of other jumps that I couldn’t really do before!

So while I may have not done every resistance workout and these progress pics aren’t as impressive as I had originally hoped they would be, I’m counting this first round as done and as a success! I have made so much progress over these last 4 months and I can’t wait to see what the next round of BBG brings! (Hopefully less injuries than the first round!)

BBGRd1FrontBBGRd1SideBBGRd1Back

 

We did take measurements, but our methods weren’t practiced enough for me to be sure of the accuracy, though I think we are getting better at it! I am pretty positive that a few things changed though, especially one that can’t just be user error!

  • Waist: 37 in –> 31.5 in!

Things to Improve On During This Next Round

  • Go back to working out when I wake up instead of after work. I kinda fell out of that habit over the last month.
  • Keep LISS separate from resistance
  • Keep tracking diet for this whole round

I am currently having some issues with my back again, so I’m down to exercises from my physical therapy, LISS and yoga until it stops hurting so much. I can’t wait to start round 2 of BBG though!

How are your fitness goals coming? Did you have any difficulties over the holidays or due to the “winter blues” like I did? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave me a comment below!

Sara (1)

DIY Macro Photography Studio: An Easy Tool to Improve your Photos!

On By SaraIn Art and Crafting3 Comments

Are you working on your photography skills? I know that I am constantly trying to learn and improve on my skills in this area. I still have a long long way to go, but I do think I’ve been doing a bit better. One thing I realized I needed was a portable neutral background for photographing smaller objects. So I found this DIY Macro Studio and decided to make one of my own!

Supplies needed:

  • large plastic white tablecloth
  • pop-up laundry bag
  • staples and stapler
  • 1 sheet of white poster board
  • scissors
  • marker

This project was really inexpensive and I already had the pop-up laundry bag at home.

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I started out by roughly tracing the sides of the pop-up laundry bag on the tablecloth. Keep the tablecloth folded over once to increase strength. You need to trace the top and both sides, totaling in 3 separate pieces.

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I then cut out all three sides, leaving the ends intact.

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Cut out all three sides on the pop-up that you are replacing with the plastic tablecloth. The laundry bag in this picture is upside down.

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Then insert the poster board and staple it into place, trimming down what you don’t need on the sides. Then staple the tablecloth to the sides and top of the laundry bag. I forgot to photograph this part, sorry. I will admit that I had a bit of difficulty getting this part down. I ended up stapling in the middle first and then working out towards the sides.

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And it’s done! I still need to work on some better exterior lighting, but I’m really happy with how this turned out. Especially for such an inexpensive project!


I think that this will allow me to really improve my macro photography! I’ve mostly used it for photographing my jewelry so far, but I can’t wait to use it on some other projects as well!

What do you use for your photography? Have you built any backgrounds or props that you love? I would love to hear about your experiences, so please leave a comment below! I’m always looking for new projects!

Sara (1)

December In Review, January Goals

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, UncategorizedLeave a comment

So if you saw Tuesday’s post, you may be wondering why I’m posting again about goals. Well, while I talked about my goals for the year yesterday, I still want to make sure I’m keeping myself accountable for my monthly goals.

December Goals:

  1. Continue with BBG, 6 days a week – I did continue with BBG..I did not manage 6 days a week. I got sick partway through the month with a nasty cold, took a week off to recover and have been fighting my way back into a routine ever since. I am going to get back into it though, no matter what! Now that the holidays are over and my schedule should mostly be back to normal, this should be easier to accomplish.
  2. Try again to incorporate active rest days – About 50% successful. I did really enjoy the days where I managed this! But between the week I was sick and our Christmas celebrations, I missed adding yoga in to a few rest days.
  3. Finish 3 DIY projects – I only finished 2, but I’m really happy with how they turned out!
  4. Less TV time, especially while writing! – I did pretty good at this for the most part! I still wrote some while watching TV, but the majority were written at my desk while listening to instrumental music. This is definitely a habit I’m going to keep up!

December Fav Photos (Other than the DIY projects above, which are some of my favs too!)

January Goals

  1. Start establishing a morning routine – Wake up 30 minutes earlier. I know I’ve tried to get up earlier in past months, but I think I was trying to push to get up so much earlier too quickly. I’m instead going to try to wake up 30 minutes earlier each day this month, making sure to use the time productively.
  2. Start at least one art project – By this I’m not referring to the DIY projects I do, but instead one of the art pieces I’ve been wanting to start on.
  3. Active rest days – I’m going to keep working on this one. Hopefully with a much calmer month now that the holidays are past, I can finally manage to add this in to my routine!

That’s it! Are you planning on setting goals for this month, or are you working on your goals for 2016 instead? Or are you doing both, like I am? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Sara (1)

Fitness Update: 2 Months of Kayla Itsines’ BBG Complete!

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, Uncategorized3 Comments

Two months done! I’m not going to lie, this last month was rough, mostly schedule-wise. The holidays and my day job kinda threw everything off track. That being said, I’m really proud of myself for all that I did this last month! I did miss a few LISS workouts, and one resistance workout (kinda two, but that shoveling definitely should count as a full body workout!) but even with that being the case, my strength has shown improvements and I’ve been feeling much better overall!

The two workout sets (weeks 5 & 7 and weeks 6 & 8) are set side-by-side to show progress. The workout circuits are the same in each week, so I love seeing that I made it through a little farther in weeks 7 & 8! It wasn’t a huge amount of progress, but it is there!

Measurements

These progress pics were taken a little late and after not working out for a couple days, early in Week 9. I’m loving that I’m actually seeing progress now! (Although I’m pretty sure some of it is finding clothing that actually seems to work for progress pictures)

Hopefully I will see more visible progress in the next set of progress pics, but either way I know that I’m making improvements, so I’m just going to keep at it and trust the process!

Also, the reason that the side progress pic is a Week 1-Week 8 comparison instead of Week 4 like the others is that the Week 4 side pic was really weird and not accurate at all!

Wk1toWk8Wk4toWk8backWk4toWk8

I am redoing Week 9 next week, due to fighting a nasty cold all week this week. Even with that delay, I am loving this program and feeling better than ever!

How is your fitness journey going? Are you finishing the end of the year like you had hoped you would? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Sara (1)

November Recap, December Goals

On By SaraIn Self Improvement4 Comments

I’m honestly a little disappointed as I write this. This month did not go as planned goal-wise. Not even a little. But, some months are like that. As much as I would love to be able to always say to you that I hit all my goals and everything went smoothly, that would be beyond unrealistic. In reality, this month was rough.

November Goals Recap:

  1. Continue working out 6 days a week using Kayla Itsines’ guide. This actually did happen for the most part! I missed a couple days of LISS, but considering that my “real” job is very active and physically demanding, I’m not too upset about that.
  2. Incorporate the “active” into my active rest day. Do a stretching or yoga session to work on flexibility and decrease stiffness. I managed this once 😦 Not nearly as often as I wanted to. Part of this was some days that ended up being my rest day for the week were not planned to be rest days originally…part of it is me being lazy.
  3. Wake up on time to do my workout before work. This has been a pretty irregular thing for me so far, but I know that my day goes so much better when I do this! Nope, nope and more nope! This did not really happen at all. I still got up some days on time, but there were just as many days I did my workout after work. The only part I did a little better was that I mostly woke up late on LISS days, which are much easier to do when I get home from work than BBG days.
  4. Finish at least 3 DIY projects Well…I worked on this one, but didn’t actually finish. One project is finished, one is still ongoing and a couple got scrapped. I did get some work done on some glass fusion pendants too, but I don’t really count those as DIY…and they are waiting to be fused, so they aren’t done yet either.

As I said, I’m kinda disappointed with how my goals went this month. I could go into all sorts of excuses, but the truth is no matter what the reasons I didn’t stay on top of my goals this month. Hopefully December goes a little better in that respect!

I didn’t get much photography done this month either, but I did still manage to get some fun pictures! Here are some from this month:

December Goals:

  1. Continue with BBG, 6 days a week
  2. Try again to incorporate active rest days
  3. Finish 3 DIY projects
  4. Less TV time – especially while writing! I’ve been working to do this more anyways and have been doing better in the last couple weeks… but sometimes I try to multitask when just focusing on the task at hand and turning off the TV would be so much better!

That’s it for this month! How are your goals going? Any new ones for December?

My Journey to Happiness and What I’ve Learned Along the Way (Plus 50 Things that Make me Happy!)

On By SaraIn Self ImprovementLeave a comment

Happiness. That elusive feeling that we search for, strive for, wait for. According to the Merriam-Webster, happiness is defined as

: the state of being happy

: an experience that makes you happy

Full Definition of HAPPINESS

1 obsolete :  good fortune :  prosperity

2 a :  a state of well-being and contentment :  joy

   b :  a pleasurable or satisfying experience
3 :  felicity, aptness
For the purposes of this post, I am focusing on the regular definition, along with part 2 of the full definition.
Happiness is a topic that has been coming up a lot in my life lately, from many different sources. There was a replay of a podcast on TEDRadioHour focusing on happiness and a few from OnBeing that were very happiness-centric. Then of course there are the upcoming holidays, which definitely get me thinking about happiness and the quality of my life. A post that first really got me thinking about happiness both in life and in myself came from this Instagram post and is what really got the idea for this post going.
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This is a lesson I have really learned over the past few years. When I was in my younger 20s, a lot of my plans for life…well, they didn’t go exactly as planned. Not even close. It took a long time for me to pull myself out of the emotional hole that I had found myself in, had allowed myself to wallow in. Even longer for me to realize that not only could I be happy again someday, but I could be happy now.
I didn’t have to wait for a new plan or figure all of the pieces beforehand. I could figure out how this new life was going to look and take joy in the life that I had. Building this new life on the basis of joy, of contentment, has been one of the most difficult and rewarding things that I have ever done. And I’m not even close to done or ever really will be done. Building this life is a journey, one of discovery and exploration. I look back at that unhappy, confused and lost girl and don’t even recognize her. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that girl was ever me.
My life may not look anywhere close to what I expected it to at 28, but I am so much happier for that fact than I ever could have imagined. And so, with that, here are some things I have learned about happiness along the way:
  • Don’t wait for happiness to find you. You can find happiness in small things and those things do add up.
  • Along that same line of thought, don’t put your focus on someone else making you happy. That feeling is fleeting if it comes from external sources. I know we have heard it all before, but happiness, at least lasting happiness, comes from within.
  • Make small, manageable goals for yourself. Then go out an achieve them! The feeling from meeting those goals is awesome and can help a lot, especially if you have been having a hard time finding any happiness lately.
    • This is something I did frequently and still do on a regular basis. Large long terms goals are great, but when you are at a place in your life where you are struggling, they can feel more crushing than uplifting. For myself, I had to take myself out of those big goals that were overwhelming me and focus on small things I could do that day. There was a point where those goals were just as simple as shower and cook myself an actual meal.
  • Routines can help a lot! My daily routines center me, give me some normalcy and security, and help me to at least accomplish basic things each day. They also allow me to adapt better to sudden changes and be more spontaneous!
    • If you have a really hard time setting up daily routines, check out FlyLady! I know that some of her early baby steps can seem silly or unimportant, but they really do work! This site and community helped me to graduate college and to keep myself together when my life was falling apart. I don’t follow my routines as strictly as I did then, but the ones I learned there still form the backbone of my daily routines now. And whenever I feel like I need to reset my routines I go back through the baby steps!
  • Make time for yourself! I know, we all have heard this before, but it really holds true and can be so difficult to do. This can be taking the time to workout, read a book, or really anything.
    • Tip: Think of a few things you really enjoy and set aside time to do at least one of them on a regular basis. I’m not talking about the things we do almost out of habit that are enjoyable…I’m talking about the things that really brighten your day, make your week, etc. The things you love!

The list above is just a few things that I have learned over the past few years. While I know none of them are particularly new ideas, they are ones that I had a really hard time fully understanding or internalizing. Sometimes we can here those “life lessons” so many times but they don’t really click until much later. That was how these lessons were for me.

Now, to finish this post off, my 50 things (in no particular order) that make me happy. This is inspired by this post from Brey over at Ordinary Adventures. If you haven’t checked out her blog before, you should definitely head over there! She has so many awesome posts!

  1. Date nights with Boyfriend
  2. Getting greeted by our dogs when we get home
  3. Cooking a new recipe
  4. Spending time with my parents and extended familyDSCN0224_picmonkeyed
  5. Creating a new mosaicDSCN0051
  6. Making a new piece of decor for our houseDSCN0453
  7. Working with my dad on the house remodel (he does most of the work, but I like to pretend I’m a help :-P)
  8. Curling up with a favorite book
  9. Reading a new book
  10. When I’m writing a blog post and it’s just flowing wonderfully
  11. When I get a like or comment on one of my posts or pictures
  12. Working with my camera
  13. The smell of Lemon Garlic Chicken cooking (This smell just takes me back to my childhood)
  14. Watching our dogs play
  15. Seeing the house slowly coming together
  16. Watching a favorite TV show
  17. Watching Disney and Pixar movies
  18. Listening to jazz
  19. Horseback riding
  20. Hiking in the woodsDSCN0640_picmonkeyed
  21. Seeing a play liveIMG_2202
  22. Pretty much any time I’m hanging out with my momDSCN0420_picmonkeyed_picmonkeyed
  23. Cuddling with Boyfriend watching movies
  24. Making fused glass jewelryDSCN0480_picmonkeyed
  25. Going to bed with freshly washed sheets
  26. Listening to podcasts
  27. My workouts DSCN1222_picmonkeyed
  28. The BBG community on Instagram
  29. When I get a new hairstyle down
  30. Getting a haircut and style
  31. Doing hennaDSCN0281_picmonkeyed
  32. Watching my flowers growDSCN0931_picmonkeyed
  33. Growing my own vegetablesDSCN0590_picmonkeyed
  34. Cooking with vegetables and herbs from my garden
  35. My new craft space
  36. Watching the leaves turn in the fallDSCN1208_picmonkeyed
  37. Petting my dogs
  38. Cleaning my house
  39. New workout clothes
  40. Changing out decorations as the seasons changeDSCN0841_picmonkeyed
  41. Taking a walk with the dogs and BoyfriendIMG_2170
  42. Playing MarioKart
  43. Trying new foods
  44. Seeing friends I haven’t seen in a long time
  45. Making new friends (made even more exciting because I’m not great at this)
  46. Seeing my physical capabilities improve as I work on my fitness
  47. Wearing my favorite pieces of jewelry
  48. Dressing up for a date night with Boyfriend
  49. Traveling
  50. Yoga practice

What lessons or truths have you learned about happiness so far in your life? What things make you happy?

October Recap, November Goals

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, What I'm Learning1 Comment

October Goals Recap:

  1. Work out 6 days a week, even if I can’t restart BBG yet. -Complete! I am so happy I managed this one. This is still an ongoing goal, but this is a great start. Plus I didn’t even hurt myself! 
  2. Continue working on my photography, but with more focus. I would really like to build up my skills and create some stock-style photos for my blog. – I did pretty well with this one, but not great. I was hoping to work on this on a daily basis and didn’t quite manage that. I do think that I have been making progress with my photography skills!

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In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t take this picture. Boyfriend was nice enough to take some cooking “stock style” photos for me.

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The following photos were not taken by me, but are some of my favorites for this month. Boyfriend is wonderful and helped me get some photos that could be used for profile/general ones of me for the blog and other social media sites. I’m not a big fan of having my photograph taken, but I really like how these turned out!

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He played around with the camera settings for this one. I think it came out pretty neat and unexpected!

November Goals:

  1. Continue working out 6 days a week using Kayla Itsines’ guide.
  2. Incorporate the “active” into my active rest day. Do a stretching or yoga session to work on flexibility and decrease stiffness.
  3. Wake up on time to do my workout before work. This has been a pretty irregular thing for me so far, but I know that my day goes so much better when I do this!
  4. Finish at least 3 DIY projects

That’s it for this month’s recap and November’s goals! I’m excited to see what November brings!

How did your goals for October go? Any new goals for November?

101 Things in 1001 Days

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, What I'm Learning1 Comment

Do you like making lists? I love making lists. Lists of chores, errands, goals, plans, projects….pretty much anything I can make a list of. But this list was even more fun than all of those others!

I had seen this project a few times on different bloggers sites, but mostly thought “Oh that’s neat. Good for them.” and moved on. But the project stuck in the back of my head, not really gaining ground, but still there. When I was wandering around on the internet last week I stumbled across another blogger’s list and instead of the previous “Oh that’s neat” I thought “That sounds really fun! I should do this. Just think of all the things I could get done!” After that decision, I checked out the website for this project, Day Zero and started working on my list.

Now, I don’t know if I will get everything done on the list. I would love to think so, and I’m certainly going to try, but realistically at least a few things won’t get done. I tried to make the items challenging and/or something I had been putting off doing without choosing items that were completely unreasonable.

With all that being said, enjoy!

101 Things in 1,001 Days

Start Date: October 6, 2015

End Date: July 3, 2018

  1. Get $2000 in Emergency Savings
  2. Take a day trip to a state park I’ve never been to
  3. Complete Kayla Itsines BBG1
  4. Complete Kayla Itsines BBG2
  5. Take a trip to another state (for at least 3 days)
  6. Attend a BBG Meet-up
  7. Start my business
  8. Blog 5 days a week for a month
  9. Take a weekend trip with Mom
  10. Meditate daily for a month
  11. Complete a 365-day photo project
  12. Take a cooking class
  13. Take a metal-working class
  14. Upgrade my camera
  15. Take a photography class
  16. Run a 5K
  17. Attend a blogging conference or workshop
  18. Go to a jazz festival
  19. Make a piece of wood furniture
  20. Complete a pull-up
  21. Do 30 consecutive full push ups
  22. Learn to can vegetables
  23. See a ballet
  24. See an opera
  25. Write a recipe ebook
  26. Have a picnic
  27. Learn to sew
  28. Finish 5 crochet projects
  29. Go to an art museum
  30. Attend the local crochet & knitting group
  31. Learn Japanese to a conversational level
  32. Take a pottery class
  33. Go zip-lining
  34. Bake a birthday cake
  35. Get dressed up for a special dinner
  36. Go to the Omaha Zoo
  37. Get a massage
  38. Take a ballroom dancing class
  39. Go rock climbing
  40. Take a yoga class
  41. Create a gallery wall
  42. Read a book of poetry
  43. Wear a two-piece swimsuit
  44. Go to a drive-in movie
  45. Bake a pie from scratch
  46. Make a new friend
  47. Find and buy the perfect LBD
  48. Find and buy the perfect shoes to go with the LBD
  49. Complete a coloring book
  50. Learn basic HTML
  51. Wear a skirt or dress every day for a week
  52. Have fresh flowers in the house every week for a month
  53. Have a date night once a month for six months
  54. Learn how to make sushi
  55. Do something special for my 30th birthday
  56. Build a snowman
  57. Wear nothing black for one week
  58. Meet an online friend in person
  59. Save $10 for each task completed
  60. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
  61. “Re-learn” how to ride a bike
  62. See 2 stage productions
  63. Visit Hindu Temple and Cultural Center
  64. Pick 10 books by unknown (to me) authors and read them
  65. Go to a personal clothing stylist
  66. Do a handstand
  67. Send in a card to PostSecret
  68. Do henna on someone else
  69. Refinish deck
  70. Build pergola
  71. Take parents out for a nice dinner
  72. Do yoga outside in a public place
  73. Go ice skating
  74. Go to a local town festival
  75. Plant and maintain a raised garden for one summer
  76. Plant a fall garden
  77. Visit two friends from college
  78. Make a meal entirely from the garden
  79. Learn to play the guitar
  80. Take another bellydance class
  81. Do an outdoor photo-a-month project: Ada Hayden
  82. Go to a poetry reading/event
  83. Write a letter to my college mentor
  84. Go on the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad
  85. Go minigolfing
  86. Make a healthy pizza from scratch
  87. Go canoeing or kayaking
  88. Find a daytime job
  89. Go to an arts festival
  90. Go to a crafts fair
  91. Attend a holiday service with my parents
  92. Attend a religious service of a religion I’m unfamiliar with
  93. Run a charity race
  94. Donate any clothes I don’t use anymore
  95. Go to a big fireworks show
  96. Declutter and organize basement
  97. Go to hot balloon festival
  98. Take a floral arrangement workshop
  99. Read 100 new-to-me books
  100. Make treats for everyone at work for no reason
  101. Go to 2 cultural festivals

Have you seen this project, maybe even made a list of your own? How did it go? Do you like the idea of a multi-year goals project like this one?