Life Reset Challenge Day Two

I'll admit I am a little behind on my contributions to the Life Reset Challenge although I vowed (to myself) not to be. I have been writing in my notebook somewhat regularly but translating those words onto this document, and into this post, has been a challenge for me. The last few assignments have forced me to look and analyze myself on several sectors of my life. I am not sure about you but it is not often that I have conversations with myself about the good, bad, and ugly of it ALL. The second stumbling block I have been facing is deciding what I can say in this forum. It's not easy sharing your self-reflections with friends let alone the world (or whoever actually reads my little blog). This is the second time I have started this post and although I am determined to post this before my head touches my pillow tonight, as I type these words I have no idea what I am actually going to say.

Let's start with some facts, day two, three and fours challenges although different tasks are all strung together to help you achieve the goal of creating your personal statement. Step one (day two) consisted of conducting a Life Assessment on seven different categories of your life:

• Lifestyle (satisfaction with where you live and how you spend leisure time),
• Work (satisfied with where you are working and how you earn a living)
• Education (satisfaction with your educational attainment to date)
• Finances (current state of your budget/money management, salary, net worth, debt to income ratio
• Health (current state of your mental, physical, and spiritual health, mind body and soul)
• Family (quality of your relationships with family members)
• Relationships (quality of your relationships with your friends and romantic partners).

With each category participants are asked to simply write what they loved about this area of their life and what they hated.

Some things that became apparent to me were that areas in my life such as work, education, and health had the longest lists for things that I loved. My health is an area in my life I have been fortunate enough to not have had much issues with (although I could do a better job of taking care of myself in general). The next highest were education and employment. These are two areas in my life that I know I have put the most energy into mapping out and setting goals for. Yes, I have room to grow in both areas of my life but I am satisfied overall with my accomplishments in this stage of my life. I would say my most pressing concern in these two areas is that I feel as if I am stagnant and with that comes the strong desire to create some more goals to achieve in education and in my line of work.

So what needs work? Lifestyle. Finances. Family. Relationships. These are all categories in my life that I have not set goals for or devoted enough time to. Not long ago I wouldn't have put lifestyle or relationships in that category(negative outweighing the positive) but over time things have changed. My leisure time is all but absent most of the year due to work commitments which is a totally different experience from my past. When I first began my current job I vowed never to let me suck all the life out of me (as it has done others) but looking at myself now I know I haven't been successful at that. Currently I blog in my free time and attend natural hair events however outside of that its dismal. I firmly believe in working hard and playing harder and the summer used to be the time of year where I LIVED and EXPERIENCED LIFE. This isn't the case now. This ties into the relationship piece of this assessment as well. Over the past few weeks I have bumped into, exchanged numbers with, and reacquainted myself with a few friends from my past. All that at some point in time has held a significant role and knew me somewhat well. These experiences caused me to wonder why I no longer spoke with these people. What did that say about me? What does that say about the way I cultivate my relationships/friendships? The value that I give them? Lastly, on friendship I have spoken about Tee and Rachel before on my blog and our longstanding friendship. Although we all still care for each other deeply as life moves on our time that we are able to spend together becomes less and less. I do miss having a core group of friends that can mirror the bond I share with Tee and Rachel. Words can’t express how it feels from being a part of Charlie’s Angels to Solo Angel.

Finances. I am an independent young woman and I love that about myself. Yes, I have had some help along the way to achieve that and  I have met a few bumps along the way but I am financially stable. Stability however in my opinion although good is not enough when I think of the goals of wanting to buy a house, buy a car, and travel the world (traveling is definitely a passion of mine, ranking just above shopping). The house vs. car debate is one that I have in my mind daily (especially as I ride the train). My car symbolized a lot of things for me , my independence, my freedom, and my success. I have had it for years and without it my world feels confined and restricted. However the money that I would use to purchase a car is the same money that I need to put a down payment on a house. What is more important to me? It all depends on what day you ask me.

Lastly, family. There is no doubt we all love each other and would do anything for one another in a heartbeat. However as a group there are some things that we haven't figured out how to deal with yet and have decided that avoidance would work best. However, I know (and fear the moment when ) the other shoe will drop.

That’s it for now (three and four will be posted in a few hours). Nelly.