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January 6, 2018

2018 Goals

January 6, 2018

The beginning of a new year is a natural reset so I thought it would be a good time to establish goals for 2018. It’s always easy to feel a sense of re-commitment to goals early in the New Year. The test will be to hold on to that feeling for the entire year!

Goal: Establish a Fitness Routine

Outside of walking everywhere because I don’t own a car, I honestly don’t make time for exercise as I should. I know once I get over the hump of establishing a habit of regular exercise I will love having that apart of my routine.

How to Make it Happen: 1) Establish Accountability Buddies 2) Establish a weekly exercise Goal and once I exceed it, increase it. 3) Choose a Yoga Studio and Become a Regular 4) Do Exercise Routines from YouTube at Home 5) Experiment with Exercise in Mornings Before Work.

Goal: Study a Language

As a lover of travel, I really want to be able to communicate better in another language (or more than one!). I’d like to dedicate more time to learning a language this year.

How to Make it Happen: 1) Start with a App like DuoLingo 2) After I Meet Some Savings Goals in 1st Half of 2018, Sign up for Language Class (Spanish 101 or Continue French) in 2nd Half of 2018.

Goal: Carve Out Time for My Interests Outside of Work

It’s become easier to just scroll through my IG feed or watch a Netflix show in my downtime rather than prioritize my hobbies and interests outside of my job which isn’t ideal for work/life balance.

How to Make It Happen: This year, I’d like to 1) Schedule time for my hobbies like I do any other appointment I don’t want to miss – Like blogging, making products, photography, etc. 2) Go to creative meet-ups like Walk with Locals, Cocktails and Craft, and Lemonbowl Collective classes 3) Take a look at my neglected craft-focused Pinterest boards and actually make some of the things I’ve bookmarked – Pick one thing each month.

Goal: Focus Attention on Friendships and Building Community

It’s easy to get tunnel vision and busy with your own life and not nurture your friendships and community. But friendships are important and I’d like to be more consistent with making more time for my friendships and connecting with more like minded folks in my city (and in other places).

How to Make it Happen: 1) Pick a Friend or Family Member to Call each Week (and try to rely less on texting as a way to keep in touch) 2) Invite people to visit/entertain 3) Pick a cause to volunteer for and invite new and long-standing friends to participate with me. 3) Look into planning more trips with friends and visiting friends more often in other cities.

Goal: Get Serious About Managing My Money

In order to meet my long term life goals, I need to buckle down and dedicate time and energy into managing my money in a smarter way. When I get to retirement, I want to make sure I’m in the best financial position I can be which is why I’m already looking into things like equity release on my home – click here to learn more about equity release if you’re serious about making sure you can provide for yourself and your family in retirement.

How to Make it Happen: 1) Meet with a Money Professional (Goal or Advisor) by June 2018 – work with this person to set some goals for things like investing for retirement and saving for a house down payment 2) Check my credit on a regular basis, address any errors by June 2018 3) Pick one financial task I’ve been dreading and set a Sunday each month to tackle – (i.e. call my credit card companies to try to lower my rates, work on my taxes, schedule automatic transfers for specific goals, evaluate which monthly payments I can eliminate, etc.) 4) Incrementally increase my extra payments on my remaining student loans. The best place for me to start could be to potentially compare electricity plans for my home so I have a better chance of being able to save more on my utility bills. And the money that I do save can go towards my extra payments on my student loans, (this will also make me look more energy efficient). 5) Establish a side hustle/secondary source of income to fast track my savings and student loan repayment goals.
You can use this student loan calculator so you can keep on top of your repayments. I refuse to be tempted by the scams that disguise themselves as relief solutions; I have a friend who fell for one once but luckily she was able to find a good student loan lawyer to help her.

Here’s to making 2018 the most positive, productive ever!

· Labels: Lifestyle

June 16, 2017

Healthy Lifestyle + Wellness Instagrammers to Follow

June 16, 2017

Like many of us, I spend a decent amount of time on social media these days and sort of treat Instagram as my own personal curated magazine at times. I am still looking at ways that I can improve the number of followers that I have. One option is to use an instagram growth service but I’m undecided at the minute. Although, I know hashtags are a great way for increasing the number of instagram followers you get or the amount of likes you get on your photos, so I suppose that’s a place to start. Read on for a curated list of Instagrammers to follow in the healthy food, healthy lifestyle, wellness, and yoga space. I ran out of space to offer my favorite cannabis/herb enthusiasts in this wellness blogpost. To make it up to you guys I’ve decided to show you where my friend bought her new galaxy bong. Please forgive me!

Read More »

· Labels: Lifestyle, Wellness Tagged: Healthy Food, Instagram, Wellness Influencers

June 4, 2017

Links of the Week: June 4, 2017

June 4, 2017

As a voracious reader on and off of the Internet, I love reading the link roundups of others…it’s why I continue to do my own. There’s usually something new to learn from the articles and posts someone else curates. I’ve had some of these articles and posts bookmarked for a few weeks, but they are still goodies in my opinion.

  • Missy Elliott.
  • A wonderful museum you should visit if you are in Philly.
  • I say this every season, but maybe this should be the summer I do a capsule wardrobe.
  • Awesome home tour.
  • You cannot stop me from caring President Trump.
  • I’m kinda uninspired by all of my (cheapie) earrings lately…I wanna make these.
  • On self-forgiveness.
  • If you too are making an effort to be more mindful of the ingredients in your beauty products, check out this post on clean fragrance options
  • Are you an Old Millennial or a Young Millennial (FYI I’m an Old Millennial and frankly an “old soul” in general).
  • Lovely week of outfits roundup.

Here’s to a positive and productive week!

Image: Unsplash

· Labels: Lifestyle, Links of the Week Tagged: good reads, linklove, recent reads

April 16, 2017

Links of the Week: April 16, 2017

April 16, 2017

Happy Easter for those who celebrate! Here’s some reading material to bookmark for later.

  • 3 ways to clean your home with essential oils.
  • A pennant I’d like to add to my living room wall.
  • A DIY conditioner I’ll try soon.
  • 10 benefits of drinking matcha (my go-to morning drink).
  • I look young and this is why.
  • How to write emails people will respond to.
  • I know this is gaining popularity in wellness circles…but should I be taking collagen?
  • Recipe to try: Pesto Asparagus Noodles.
  • 4 Things You Can Do to Get Politically Involved (Without Running for Office).

Image: Unsplash

· Labels: Lifestyle, Links of the Week Tagged: linklove, links

April 15, 2017

5 Podcasts to Listen to Now – Part III

April 15, 2017

I tune into several podcasts on a weekly basis during my commutes, down time, while cooking, and traveling. They have become a staple method of entertainment to keep up with pop cultural touch tones, to hear in-depth interviews, and learn about subjects that interest me. While I stay faithful to the podcasts on my previous round-ups (here and here), here are a few podcasts I’ve added to the list since then.

Read More »

· Labels: Lifestyle

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My name is Shen Dove, I'm a Philadelphia native currently living in DC. I decided to turn my life-long love of style and fashion into a blog. I love books, films, traveling, cupcakes and pretty things. Thanks for stopping by!

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