For many people, the events of the past 10 months have understandably brought certain financial questions to the fore, chief among them being: Is my emergency saving fund in good shape? Am I carrying too much bad debt? Does my budget realistically reflect my current reality? Is my financial portfolio adequately diversified? Do I have enough of a safety net by way of insurance?
— Read on www.jamaicaobserver.com/style/are-you-ready_212630
Last week, I decided to challenge myself to start waking up earlier from today. I am eventually aiming to be up by 6 a.m., but will be easing into it. The aim this morning was to be up and out of bed by 7 a.m.
Bedtime routine
Beginning with the end in mind, i.e. the desired wake up time, I had to get into bed earlier. The habit has been to work late, then realise I have to do things to prepare for bed e.g. wash the dishes, pack away things etc. Sunday I decided I wasn’t doing any work. After dinner at about 6 p.m., I washed the dishes. Puttered around a bit (that’s language to mean “I don’t remember what I did!”). Then I settled on the couch to watch “When Calls The Heart” on Netflix. I was disciplined and only watched 3 episodes, shutting down my device at 10:24 p.m.
Normally, once I get into bed, I’d read my social media accounts. Sometimes 1.5 hours would pass! That is now a no-no. What to replace that with? Making a journal entry. So that’s what I did.
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Had dinner at a hotel tonight with some friends visiting. As I normally do, my eyes headed to the dessert part of the menu first. Was there really anything to entice me? Nah….fortunately 👍.
Grouper to start, then carrot soup and main course was lamb with a chick pea and tomato salad. After that, any thoughts I had about ice cream went through the window.
So I was pleased that I resisted the dessert. The petit fours came and I still was not moved to have one. Filled up on unsweetened ginger and orange tea.
Small victory tonight. Long shall they continue with the result adding up to allowing me to wear a dress like this and not feel self conscious.
….and I was selfish.
This came up in conversation this past week so it reminded me that I had promised to put my thoughts to paper. What am I talking about? The decision not to have kids. It was very clear to me early on in life that this was not something I would want, for two reasons. I was selfish and I didn’t want to gamble.
For the selfish part, once you have children, your life is (mostly) no longer your own. Any decision would have to include them and in all likelihood, the decision would not have been 100% what I wanted. (Same reason there is no husband.) I only wanted to have to consider one person during the chase for happiness.
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