Recognizing Strengths (and Faults...)
I love to plan, In fact, it's almost an addiction. I create work so I can work to make more work and sometimes even avoid real work. I plan ideas for my wedding, my senior recital, my school year, how to re-do my closet, what I should eat a week in advance, how to design my home, everything!!! This comes from my parents of course. My mother is the epitome of a planner, everything must fit exactly together how she wants all of the time. My dad is a long term thinker too, "Ends justify the means" even when we overlook the means because we have goals to accomplish. If you're not there yet, work harder.
I want to take this a couple steps further, work smarter and let things go. Inevitably, things screw up, life gets in the way, and reality is a pain in the butt. I try to take life's roller coasters gracefully but I'm not perfect. So I battle it by planning out every living moment of my day so I can at least convince myself "Well, I did the best I could" when sh*t hits the fan.
Let's start with my calendar. My iCloud looks a bit like a battlefield between the 10 calendars (none of which are shared) and the thousands of events I put in. I even find myself scheduling time for sleep when things get super busy. Organizing my events is pretty straightforward: General, School, Work, Career, Meals, Fitness, etc... Considering I use my time at lunch to work on videos and catch up on work my calendar gets pretty overloaded fast. That's where my lists come in.
Currently I use Reminders for my various to-do lists. The actual "to-do" list is always jam packed with every little thing to remember throughout the day, and I also have a Music, homework, Wedding, Groceries, Purchases, Products, and a separate chores list I am constantly updating. When considering what to purchase on each paycheck, that's when I refer to my financial chart. An excel spreadsheet detailing every single penny coming in or out of my accounts, where it came from (or what it went to) and which account it was from. This is an every day thing too.
Then there are longer term goals, like my ever growing stack of sketches and notes for my senior recital and my wedding binder already filled with ideas. Don't forget all of the updates I plan on doing to my house when I finally move in with my fiancé next year.
Recently I just downloaded an app on my iPad so I can photograph all of my clothing and have a digital database of my wardrobe. This is something I have been waiting for for AGES! I always thought it would be fantastic to be able to plan out every outfit I wear with some high tech program that matches colors for me and keeps track of how often I wear my clothes. Only issue is, setting it up takes forever! Photographing every individual piece of clothing and jewelry has been taking hours, but I just can't wait to try it out when everything is in there!
As I said before, even though I am somewhat of a maniac, I do try and let things go. The most valuable lesson I have learned is that the unexpected is what brings the "magic". I claim to hate surprises (actually no I really do) but it's moments where things take a different turn that I actually get to test myself. My true strength is tested when things go wrong or something unplanned occurs and I have to just roll with it. I wouldn't trade those moments for the world.
So what was this blog post about?
I don't really know. Maybe just if you're a maniac, be honest with yourself about it.
Don't take yourself too seriously.
