Turning the big 3-0

In approximately 95 days - okay in exactly 95 days - I will leave the word of my 20s and begin what I feel like is the inevitable adult phase of my life.  I feel like no matter what your circumstances are if your age still has a 2 in front of it you can claim to not be an adult yet - married with kids in your 20s?  You can still claim to be a kiddo.  When you hit the 3 I think its time, no matter if your mom still does your laundry or not, you become an official adult.

Post Half Marathon on my 29th Birthday

Okay my point here is I am turning 30 in just over three months and it has caused me to take stock of my life a bit and ask my self the big question "Am I happy with where I am at?"  as well as "Am I make the best use of my life?"  I am a firm believer that at 30 I am not even quite to the 1/3 mark of my life because I am obviously going to live long into my 100s.  But I still want to to make the best of all of it.

While my life has not turned out the way I planned and that is 99% for the best, I can still answer that first question with a resounding YES.  I have a wonderful life and while there are still things I want to do, overall I am pretty darn content.  I think the second question about making the best of my time where I can see a few cracks I want to work on.  This is the process right?  We look at ourselves and make goals in the future to be the best us we can be?

Well I think that is a common process all the time but even more during milestone events in life.  30 is my milestone event so here we go...

I broke up my lovely life into a few categories that I wanted to take a deeper look at and then after looking at each category I choose the areas I want to work on and hopefully enter my 30s with at least a start at a different outlook/situation.

At this point if you think I am a nutjob who loves lists, highlighters and sticky notes...well you are right :)

Physical Health
Mental Health
Romance
Career
Family
Friends
Community
Faith

Here's what I am thinking about each of those areas:

Physical Health: Way to start with the doozy - Long story short this is the area in my life which I struggle a lot with.  I am a strong able bodied woman who has a nice figure and the ability to do many things like running races.  However I have gained quite a bit of weight in the last two years and I am just not super comfortable with my size.  This will definitely be one of my 30 goals.

Kenai Sprint Tri

Mental Health: I have struggled on and off with mild depression and anxiety depending on the phase in life or the time of the year (January is often tough), but for the most part I am a fairly positive person.  I definitely will have some goals around this as I believe it is always a good idea to keep tabs on your mental health and keep your anxiety on the low side.

Romance: Check, Check and Check.  I have a fantastic husband and a wonderful marriage.  I think I hit the jackpot 3 years ago and I love every second of our life together.

My fantastic husband and me in Mexico

Career: I have a very interesting job working with both federal regulation and rural Alaskan villages.  Overall my job situation is pretty great, good pay, decent benefits and summers off.  I have however been pretty pressed lately and have had some anxiety as a result of my work life and I think that connects back up to mental health and an area I need to work on.

Family: This is another easy one for me, I have good relationships with my family and love spending time with them.  Moving on...

@ the Zoo with my parents, gramma and my husband

Hanging with my nephew at a size I would like to go back to being!

Friends: I have some wonderful friends here in Anchorage as well as some keepers that I have kept in touch with from travels and living around the world.  However the part that I feel like I am missing is the really close lady friends.  I have friends I see in groups but not many friends I see one on one.  This means while I feel like I have deep friendships with some of those "group" friends I don't really have people that I call just to chat or when I'm having a tough day.  I find making friends as an adult is really tough, everyone has kids and families and I feel like its hard to ask someone to do something when you know all they are juggling in their life.

Community: I think it is really important to be a part of your community.  I have had mixed success in this area.  I am currently on my way to a lunch and learn on candidates for our upcoming mayoral election and I really like the idea of being involved in local politics.  I am not involved in my community council but really want to be.  They meet during my book club time so I need to change that!  Change the book club not the community council :)  I also really struggle with getting involved with volunteering which I think is very important.  I have struggled to commit to some organizations that I like which want a 2 day a week commitment and I'm a bit gun shy about committing my time at that level.

Faith: Eish where to start...long story short I was raised Lutheran, had a really terrible experience with a church, found an open and accepting Church I loved in South Africa, was baptized and now have very liberal beliefs about different religions.  Anyways my liberal beliefs do not fit well into most Churches but I still would love to find a way to engage and share in that part of my spirituality.  Not sure if I want to open that box of worms yet... 

Goals: Okay so now you know my life story including all fears and personal issues, now its time for goals! I started out with about a million but realized that was silly and unproductive so I narrowed it down to a top 3 and then figured a couple small ones that are more like steps themselves.

The Big Three Goals for My 30

1. Improve Overall Physical Health
2. Increase Positivity and Confidence
3. Increase Connections to Fun People and Groups

Obviously those are pretty big and vague so here some specifics (remember to make your goals SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound).

Improve Overall Physical Health
Specifics:

1. Lose weight
2. Gain Strength
3. Create good eating habits

Biking 30+miles around Anchorage

Steps:

1. Make an exercise plan - document in training journal & with stars on calendar
2. Write down food in training journal & document with stars on calendar
3. Eat foods that are whole and healthy -
1. Prep on the weekend so its easy to make these choices.

A yummy bowl of healthy foods high in good fats and protein!

An old star chart - yes behaviorism works on adults :)

A well prepped fridge is key to my success!

Increase Positivity and Confidence
Specifics:

1. Improve my positive self talk
2. Decrease work stress

Steps:

1. Journal daily 
1. write down food issues, anxieties and things I am thankful for
2. Start out the day with positive affirmations such as:
1. All I have to do is be me
2. I like/accept myself exactly as I am at this moment
3. You are...(strong, smart, awesome, etc.)
3. Mediate - Start out with a few times a week and aim to increase to daily.  Use podcasts
4.  Set aside specific work time for the tasks as well as dedicated time to manage.  
1. Focus on leaving work at work - only bring it home if you HAVE to!
2. Remember that its just a job and you have a daily opportunity to make a difference :)

Increase Connections to Fun People and Groups
Specifics:

1.  Make a friend!
2. Find a Community group or Volunteer opportunity
3. Try out the Unitarian Church

Steps:

1. To not be too creepy I wont name names but I have a friend in mind I will ask to hang out soon - I feel like I'm asking someone on a date...
2. Decide which volunteer group to attend - someone just handed me a League of Women voters flyer so who knows what I will choose!
1. Current options that interest me are : United Way Emerging Leaders, League of Women Voters, Kiwanis, Lions club, Teaching ESL, Mentoring at risk youth or joining my neighborhood community council.
3. The last one is simple, pick a day and walk two blocks to the Unitarian Church - harder task is seeing if my husband will come with!

I was invited to a women's poker group this winter and even though I was a bit intimidated I did it and I love it!

Okay this post turned into much much more than I was thinking it would but there you go.  There is my life and my goals.  I am going to post weekly on the progress so keep in touch!
 

I love this photo, I'm on the right and I look like death, but I was the fittest I have ever been and was finishing my first half marathon!