One of our 2018 resolutions was to break down our larger yearly goals into small month to month goals that seemed more doable and far less daunting. It is really nice to set a goal to…say, pay off ALL your credit card debt in one year. But, that can be an incredibly intimidating goal to achieve if you’re not paying attention to the smaller details of it all. After a few big conversations about where we wanted to be at the end of 2018, we both walked away feeling a little downtrodden, and we realized it was because we were being impatient and wanting results without work. So that is exactly why we are now facing the future in smaller month-to-month chunks. Starting now:
February and March Goals
COURTNEY
GET A PASSPORT – I haven’t had a passport since my senior year of high school. Which is silly! Josh travels globally for work and I would like to join him in some of those ventures! He’s supposed to go to Scotland this year and I am dying to go with him, I don’t know why I have put off getting one for so long. I guess I just felt like I could never really travel internationally. But now I have amazing travel opportunities at my fingertips!
PROCURE A LIBRARY CARD – I have been wanting to get a local library card for over a year, and yet – it always gets pushed to the back-burner. Books can be expensive, but a library card is a small fee, and we should support local libraries! They have been updating and staying with the times. Did you know in LA you can request a book online and they will ship it to your local library for pickup? You can also stream the entire Criterion Collection if you have an LA County library card!
READ BEFORE BED (to follow along with the above goal)– I have at least 3 books piled up next to my bed that are in different stages of being finished. By the time Josh and I climb into bed, I’m tired and feel lazy and we always wind up watching reruns of ‘The Office’ for the bajillionth time! But I want to move away from having technology on while we are trying to get good sleep. And I miss falling asleep to a beautiful story.
COMPLETE A YOGA WITH ADRIENNE 30 DAY CHALLENGE – I tend to start these challenges, make it to day 2 and kind of just move on and get bored. Or feel unmotivated to continue, based on my own issues. Adrienne’s challenges are beautiful and hard and make you think and I really want to finish one! She offers free classes on YouTube, I highly recommend checking her out.
CREATE A DIY COMPOST – One of our lofty goals this year is to create less trash. Which takes a lot of work, and we realize that we throw away a lot of veggie butts and banana peels and coffee grounds, and things that are completely re-usable for our beautiful earth. We got an amazing new roommate and she mentioned independently that she would also like to start one, so I think it was a sign! I’ve already been researching what we need to get started, check back with us soon!!
JOSHUA
ZERO CREDIT CARD SPENDING – Josh has been working to reduce his credit card debt for two years. We’ve gotten into a habit of putting larger purchases on credit cards and then failing to pay them off at the end of the month. But, the interest is killing us. Now this month Josh’s goal is to get back on track in paying off his debt, and step one is no more spending money he doesn’t have. COUNTDOWN TO ZERO DEBT STARTS NOW!
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY – Josh does a lot of photojournalism, street photography and headshots, but portraits are a more intimate glimpse into who a person is. With his recent turnover from Canon to Fujifilm gear he is starting a new chapter, and what better way to to start fresh than by exploring a new style of photography? Below you can see his favorite shot from his first session with an old friend of mine Kate!
START THE STAR WARS BOOK HE GOT FOR CHRISTMAS – Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, and one thing he has never done is read any of the books. Reading is something we both want to be doing more of, and starting is- well, the first step! Thanks to his buddy Dave he was able to pick out the best book to start with – Heir to the Empire, the first book of a trilogy that explores the time after Return of the Jedi. I got it for him for Christmas so now it’s time to start! Maybe on his trip to El Salvador next week?
Finish editing India Photos – Josh has selected over 200 photos that he took in India and has been working in his spare time to edit them to a printable quality so that he can post them on his website and put some up for sale, maybe next month’s goals will include opening an Etsy shop?
COUPLE GOALS
DATE NIGHT – Living together creates a lot of time with one another. But one thing we have really been striving towards is planning an actual date for ourselves, something special, just for us. Whether it be going out to dinner or on a hike, or even sitting together at a coffee shop. We want to spend time together outside the house, where we have no responsibilities or stress. At least once a month. It’s really important to maintain a healthy relationship to spend time outside your usual routine with one another. As usual, we always try to include our furry cohort in everything, so we will do as many dog friendly dates as possible.
We both hope that by whittling down our goals into more attainable chunks that we will be able to update you on all of these things soon. The goals blog will be a new monthly post, so continue to check back in with us to see our progress and feel free to share your monthly goals below!
Until then, time to watch some Office reruns…KIDDING!!
Eventually I had to remind Josh that there ARE good parts of Disney other than Star Wars, like ALL THE REST OF IT, so we grabbed some kabobs and churros and ventured out to do as much as we possibly could before reaching utter physical exhaustion. We managed to hit all of our high points at the park, the only thing we missed was space mountain sadly, as we tried to hit it at the end of our long day and our (one year older) feet were literally about to fall off our bodies. You always have to have a reason to go back…
The Everything Between 