More than Margin Notes

Definitely blaming this one on the holidays. I'm back on the meditation train though.

I didn't work on any of my goals yesterday. The day really was so hectic that I didn't even have time to make a list for the day. Sometimes life gets in the way.

Friends don't change their coffee date with an unemployed friend to a lunch date.

I took a break from stretching today, and my lower back feels better. Have I been doing it all wrong?

I only managed to meditate today. I've realized that silent meditation gives me anxiety or at least increases my anxious thoughts. It's been like that ever since my lousy experience at the Goenka meditation retreat. The solution I've come up with so far is to increase the number of guided meditations and try to slowly improve my silent meditation practice.

Made my first recipe today! Healthy blueberry muffins from scratch. More later.

Making the bed cannot be underrestimated. I don't think I'd ever made my bed two consecutive days in a row until this week, and I've decided it needs to become part of my daily goals. Seeing a decently made bed makes me feel organized, productive, and tidy. Also, it really ties the room together.

Today is my first day of freedom after what was easily my most challenging semester as a teacher. I won't go into the nitty-gritty details of the last 16 weeks, but I will share what I promised myself in the moment I decided to leave: I will never work in a toxic educational environment that doesn't value teachers, deprofessionalizes the position, and fails to support educators again. I think those three promises really sum up where I'm coming from. Today is the first day of my month off. It would be easy to veg out for the next four weeks before my M.S. program starts and just watch TV and read. Would I feel relaxed? Maybe. However, I wouldn't be exercising my productivity muscle, and it would feel like a slump. Therefore I've set some goals to help me stay focused during this month off. So here they are: Start listening to a podcast Stretch four times per week for 15 minutes each time Meditate every day for 10 minutes (silent or guided) Resear...

After reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , I followed his advice and wrote my mission statement. It was an introspective, discerning process that has helped me focus as I tried to finish up a very tough teaching semester. So here it is! I strive for economic security, and I will achieve this goal by seeking full-time employment, paying off debt, and saving for the future through an IRA and other investment plans. I value adventure and variety through travel, new experiences, and acquired skills. Therefore, I will work to be able to afford one international trip per year and attaining one new skill per year. In 2019, I hope to learn about investing and become a more skilled investor. In my work, I would like to analyze and solve problems, create short- and long-term plans, design programs, and be a source of information for others. I would like to mostly work independently with some teamwork and group activities. I would like to feel effectiv...

So I've done it. I've started a blog after years of back-and-forth on what my blog would be about and why it should even exist. Finally, my reason has arrived. I'm leaving my eight-year career as a teacher adn venturing into the murky waters of grad school and career building. I've kept journals for more than 10 years, and they've always been a repository for half-fleshed out ideas and musings. I want these scribblings to be more than margin notes (hence the name) and come alive in the real world. More Than Margin Notes is meant to help me practice accountability for my personal and career goals as I transition from teacher to student, professional to newbie. This blog is partly inspired by a talk I attended recently about the abundance mindset and non-zero days. Ideally, the term non-zero days means that every day I will do something (no matter how small) towards achieving my goals. Writing a blog post about how I'm doing in my plans and goals is part of t...