Thoughts on Turning 30

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Tomorrow is my 30th birthday! I can't believe the day has finally arrived. In some ways I feel 30 and am ready for this change and some ways I still feel too young and also a bit nervous. Turning 30 this year has come with a lot of reflection time. Ever since January of this year I have been thinking about what turning 30 means to me and if I am ready. I realized that turning 30 is the beginning of a new chapter of life for me. I am leaving my twenties behind and moving on to being 30 when I am happy in a job I love, surrounded by positive people in my life, and opening up to new possibilities and opportunities.

My twenties were for figuring out what I wanted to do in a career and who I was. I started out in one career and realized it was not the right fit for me and then made the decision to change careers. Now I am in a career I enjoy and feel like there are so many opportunities there for career growth and development. I was placed there on a contract earlier this year while working for a temp agency. Now I am so grateful that I chose the assignment and went into office administration and am in my current position of Data entry administrator.

At my sister's bridal shower in June 2018

I have been working on focusing on my goals more and more. Lately I have been thinking of making progress towards my personal goals and focusing on self care. I have made more of an effort to spend time doing things that make me feel fulfilled and a sense of accomplishment like knitting and blogging. I have been looking inward for the answers to what makes me happy and feel fulfilled, and I have been able to feel content most of the time. That might also come with getting older as you learn about yourself you can create a life you love because you know what works for you. I think I understand myself and that I need time to refresh by setting aside time to write goals and my focus when things get busy or stressful. I am more confident than I have ever been that I can take on challenges that come my way.

At my sister's wedding September 2018

My twenties were amazing, I met my boyfriend of now 5 + years, moved to Toronto to live with him, changed careers, my sister got married, I was her Maid of Honor, and I kept blogging throughout my twenties sharing my life and interests with you all. I cannot wait to see what the thirties have in store for me!

Tomorrow on my birthday, I will be going into the office for a regular day of work, then I will be going for dinner with my boyfriend to an Italian restaurant in the evening to celebrate.  On the weekend I will be spending time with family going to dinner.

I am excited for this new chapter to begin and feel like the best is yet to come.

Here's to 30!

Have a wonderful day

Pros and Cons of Joining Online Challenges

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This month is a busy month and not so much because I have a lot of plans, but because I have set two challenges for myself to accomplish in the month of November. They are both new challenges to me and test me in different ways.

Spray painted inspiration at Brick Works in Toronto

The National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge to post a new blog entry everyday in November has been fun but also has been challenging at times to think of content. I am thinking more outside the box and about posts that I have not written and are not always knitting related.
The second challenge I joined this month is the vegan Challenge 22+  which challenges me to eat a purely vegan diet for 22 days. I think they made it 22 days so it is a length of time people can commit to.
Both of these challenges have similarities: they are around a month long, they are all or nothing challenges, if you mess up a day then you feel like you failed the challenge, and there is a community developed out of both of these challenges and people encourage one another. The community aspect is important because if I have moments of feeling like eating cheese, and I think...about all the people in the challenge... and my mentor who hopes we succeed. If I want to skip a post during NaBloPoMo, I think I will let myself down and maybe even the community of bloggers who do post everyday and maybe read my posts. These things keep me on track and most challenges are created to better our lives and then have added bonuses of meeting amazing people doing the same challenge, feeling proud of accomplishing the challenge, and seeing how far you can do and seeing improvement in the long run.


I want to discuss some pros and cons of taking on challenges so we can discuss this in depth and acknowledge that they are not always easy.

Pros:

Challenges keep us working towards our goals: I like joining these challenges because it keeps me focused on meeting goals and thinking about what I want to accomplish. It also helps me hold myself accountable. If we make a goal and join online and also let people know on a blog or on the group page of a challenge that we are committed to making it happen, then we can hold ourselves more accountable and so can others.

Photo source

Community: having a community to turn to who are working on the same challenge as you is very powerful. It also gives us positive emotions and feelings towards the challenge because it builds such a community and you can meet new people and chat with like-minded people. Having support from people who also are participating in the same challenge as you offers a lot of support and more so sometimes than we receive from our loved ones if they do not understand our journey the same way.

Photo source

Creativity: This one definitely relates more to the blog challenge I am doing and need to write a blog post every day for 30 days. It forces me to be more creative in thinking of blog post ideas and thinking outside of the box in order to come up with so much blog post content. Other challenges cause you to have to be creative as well, come up with more recipes ideas and be creative to develop the new meal plan, coming up with a new exercise routine, or if you are creating art, to create new pieces each day.

Cons:

Challenges can add pressure: They hold you accountable to produce a result daily or weekly and sometimes we feel like we do not have anything to give. This can cause us some stress if we feel like we cannot produce the result or make time to do it and can make us feel like we are failing.

Want to give up: sometimes we might have thoughts about giving up on a challenge if it is too rigid. I had a thought last Saturday about not posting on my blog because it got busy but glad I did anyways. Also the vegan challenge can feel rigid at times and I notice I have cravings for cheese more than anything, but I can reward myself at the end with some pizza.

Photo source

Life gets busy: sometimes these challenges take extra time out of our already busy days. Planning posts, planning meals, or whatever challenge you have set requires more time and effort. This can be a big problem if you have responsibilities and cannot make extra time for your goals during the evenings or in the morning.

I think that even after reviewing the pros and cons of doing challenges, the pros still outweigh the cons for me and I still prefer to do them. They give me a feeling of accomplishment when I finish them and knowing I will feel accomplished helps me to persevere. I also love working towards a goal that I can accomplish in 22-30 days and feel proud of what I have done.

What challenges have you done in the past? Did you like the outcome and was it worth the effort? Let me know in the comments below! If you would like to find a fun new challenge to join visit Pinterest here to see all the things you can challenge yourself to doing this Winter.

Thank you for visiting my blog and if you would like to follow my blog to keep updated on when I post, please follow me through Bloglovin', Google Followers, or you can subscribe by email at the top right of my blog. Tomorrow I will be sharing some of my current knitting projects and what I am reading!

Have a great day!