Jenna Volden has a degree in business and has spent the last 10 plus years working for others. She believes it is time to start her own photography and writing business. She enjoys running, coffee and helping others achieve their goals. Gluten-free foods are a lifestyle, not a choice, for her due to celiac disease. She is currently based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington – DNF
I rarely do not finish (DNF) a book. But I just could not keep reading this book. There are a few reasons. First, it was a bit dry, even by business book standard. I usually enjoy reading about business, but I struggled to get into this. I also thought some of it was a bit classist. I tend to think of everyone as equal, despite their job titles. The advice made it seem like I should treat a CEO differently than I expect them to treat me or others. The last straw was a line about talking to a male client; you can chat sports but not with women. I just can’t do misogynistic advice like this. Plenty of women love and can talk more about sports. Some men have no clue and couldn’t care less about sports.
At this point, I put the book down. I’m not sure if I will pick it up again. It doesn’t seem like the right book for me. I may flip through and skim to see if anything is interesting or pertinent to me.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd by Allan Dib – 4 Stars
This book wasn’t groundbreaking and didn’t really offer anything new to me. The author presents his thoughts well, and he offers an actual free PDF. Many books require you to enter an email address and add you to their list to get the PDF they mention in their book.
I think this book would be great for anyone starting out in their business and not sure where to start. It would also be useful for others that aren’t familiar with marketing concepts. I’ve read several business and marketing books, and they all say the same thing.
I borrowed this book from Amazon Prime Reads, and it is still available if you are interested.
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson – 5 Stars
One minute you are walking through your city, and the next, you wake up in a room where a young woman places a cool cloth on your head and gives you an aspirin. As you start to come to, she explains you’re in The Garden. A beautiful indoor space filled with other young women, all tattooed with a butterfly on their back. And the only way out is death.
I really enjoyed this book! I wasn’t sure I would after reading a few one-star reviews on Goodreads. I liked how the story was told. It starts from when the FBI has rescued the young women. We have an unreliable narrator detailing what happened in The Garden, interspersed with bits about her life before being kidnapped. There was a twist at the end that I was not expecting. I always enjoy a twist I don’t see coming because, more often than not, I call the twist well before it happens.
I would recommend this book. This book is also the first in a series. It does well as a standalone, though. I am going to see if I can find the rest of the series through my library. I borrowed this from Amazon Prime Reads. It is currently only available for free under Kindle Unlimited.
I only finished two books in January. I’ve got three other books I’ve been reading so February may be a big month for completed books!
For 2020, I had two planners, a vertical life planner, and the Daily Petites. I used the life planner for my everyday life and the Petites to content plan for my photography business. About halfway through the year, I became an and realized how much work it takes to make these videos and have a slightly different approach for this year.
And I somehow ended up with six planners. Yes, six. Oh, and a desktop calendar.
This video will go through how I’ve decided to use them. This video doesn’t include the Budget Book because I don’t think of that as a planner. It’s a tool to track a budget. If you are curious about the budget book, you can check out my youtube video on it.
So what all do I have? I will go in size order from smallest to largest. I have a pocket planner because I thought it was cute, and I can toss it in my purse to jot things down and check appointments when I’m out. Then I realized I am never out anymore. So I’ll keep it in my bag but not sure how much use it will actually get. On the monthly view, I will put appointments. For the monthly goals, I haven’t decided what I’ll put there. Important dates, to-do, and the lined pages are pretty self-explanatory. Then in the week, I’ll again put appointments, and that’s probably it.
Anyone else have the pocket planner? How are you planning to use it?
Then I have the quarterly daily, and monthly Petites. I’m not using the daily as a content planner this year. I’m using it as a to-do list. I do have some content info in it, mostly on the monthly page. But between a photography business, several ambassadorships, and the EC affiliate, I have many things I need to keep track of. I started testing this in December, and it was so helpful. So I decided to keep it that way.
The monthly is my goal planner. I’m still working out how I’m going to use it. I have it set up for the first quarter, and I’ll review and make changes as I get more into it. I decided to use this one for goals because of the note pages in the back. I listed out my main goals on the first page. Then I divided the rest of the notes into each goal. I think I ended with seven pages for each one. Then on each goal page, I tried to think SMART and break the goal down. I wrote out daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks for each goal. For my budget goal, I made spending track pages for some categories (races, books, EC LOL).
Once I broke down each goal, I made notes on the month about what I want to do. I’m not done with the monthly calendar yet. As you can see, I’ve got the weekly continuing education video and book. I think I will mark each day with a green x if I didn’t spend that day and the amount if I did. It’s a work in progress.
As an affiliate, I received a monthly planner. I was going to try and make it work for me instead of my usual vertical life planner. I set up January about three different times (yay for white-out) before realizing it wasn’t going to work. I had thought about giving it away or selling it, but I had really trashed January, so repurposing seemed best.
Any ideas of how I can use this monthly?? I know a lot of people use it for budgeting but I have the A5 budget book. I’m at a loss and don’t want it to go completely to waste.
So, I said I didn’t like the monthly as my life planner, so I bought the hourly during the Black Friday sale. I have been a vertical person for years, but the hourly just called to me this year. I like the idea of lines to help my terrible writing be a bit better.
So my 12 boxes are the themes and promos for my photography business and runs on espresso. The calendar is paydays, work holidays, appointments. You know, the big overview stuff. In the dashboard, I repeated the significant dates and the monthly themes. Then I wrote the four books I want to read for the month. Not sure what I’ll do with the blank page or dot grid section yet.
In the weekly sections, I wrote my planned workout at the top and put my mileage goal in the notes section. I added tasks for the week and my planned continuing education videos. Then I added some stickers. I’ll add more tasks/chores as they come up.
Lastly, I have the monthly binder for my fitness planning and journaling. I started it back in October to practice and see if it would replace my Believe training journal. So far, I like it, and I’m getting to know how I want to use it.
I stole my 12 boxes idea from someone on Instagram. I will track all of my monthly measurements. On the monthly page, I put little tabs to track my weekly and monthly miles. I’ll add in my training plan once I have it figured out. I’m still trying to figure out the details. On the dashboard, I’ve got my events, goals, and weight plus trackers for them. Then in the lined note section, I’ll write down how my training went each day and how I feel. And on the last page of the month, I’ll do a little monthly recap.
Oh, I almost forgot my content planner! I have the desk pad for that. It’s big enough I can fit it all in! I make sure the monthly theme is on the top. I write in the photo for each day, blog posts, podcasts, and emails. I also include those education videos I want to watch. And on the side, I’ve got my big to-dos and spots for ambassadorship and affiliate planning. I also color-coded the different things so I can glance at and know what I meant. January is always my test, so it’ll get better as I go.
Wow, that is a lot. I’m not sure if I will keep up with this for 2022. It seems like a lot, and some of it is repetitive. But then again, I know writing things down helps me remember, so if I write it down several times, it will undoubtedly help!
What planner or planners are you using for 2021? And how are you planning to use them? I need ideas! LOL
And lastly, as an EC affiliate, I’d really appreciate it if you used my link for all your EC needs. It helps me keep content going and lets EC know that you like my content and want to see more! If you do buy something, come back here and let me know what you got! I really do want to know because I need more planner friends.
So we’ve talked about SMART goals in episode 3, and we reset our goals in episode 17. But are you really challenging yourself with your goals? Do all goals need to be challenging?
If you google challenging, the dictionary will tell you that it is testing one’s ability. But how do you know if you are actually testing your ability or just skating along? For example, every year, I set a goal to read 52 books a year. Most years, I read somewhere between 50 and 60. Is it challenging me? Some years yes. 2020 I started off flying through books until mid-March. Then it was pandemic, and my schedule changed, AND I started It. I felt like I wasn’t going to make it, but I worked to catch up when I reviewed my goals and ended at 59.
But this isn’t a podcast about books and reading. This is a running podcast, damnit! Hold on; I’m getting there.
My point is, are you challenging yourself with your running?
For me, I haven’t always challenged myself. I don’t always push myself. I tend to fall into a routine and do way too easy of easy runs. My long runs are slow. I’ve also skipped a lot of speed work in my life. I like speed work, but I don’t do it enough.
My running progression has gone something like this: 2004ish run off and on for years. No plan, no races. It’s just a thing I do when I want to work out. 2012 I decided to get serious and did my first 5k! I picked out a plan and followed it pretty closely. This started my love of racing. I signed up for a lot of races and finally decided to tackle a half marathon. Again, I picked a beginner plan and followed it as closely as I could. I did this for a few years and would choose more advanced programs, but I often struggle with consistency.
For a little bit, I had a coach, and she helped me get more consistent. I found it easy to follow her plans and discuss with her when I needed to make adjustments. Then it was 2020. And I had all these ideas in my head. Well, we know those all went out of the window.
But it also got me thinking and re-evaluating my running.
We’ll get into that after an ad break because I do have a point.
And I’m back!
So what have I been rambling on about challenges and my running history?
2020 has taught me that as fun as racing is, sometimes you need to do something different. Sometimes racing and following a basic plan isn’t fulfilling. Sometimes you need to shake it up.
I started a few years ago by doing a trail race. I realized how much I love trails and being out in the wilderness. It’s also much harder than road running and challenges your body differently. I highly recommend trying trail running if you are looking to up your running game.
Then I did Every Damn Trail, and that was a mental and physical challenge. I had to plan my routes and then actually run (or hike) them. It was fun and made me think. I also challenged myself to finish as soon as possible, so I forced myself to drive out to trails on days where I’d rather stay home.
A few other ideas are run as many miles as you can in X days. Or run 100 miles in a month. There is almost no end to how you can challenge yourself.
Or if you want to kill yourself, do a vert challenge and see how high you can climb in 25 days. I did 8800 feet. I missed my goal, but it was a great experiment, and I learned a lot.
And since it looks like 2021 will be similar to 2020 and limited in-person races, why not challenge yourself to do something different?
This year I am virtually running across Mexico with a running friend. Team tacos and trails need to run approximately 78 miles a month to make it by December 31st.
I’m also going to attempt the Yeti 24 hour challenge. 5 miles every 4 hours for 24 hours. I’m still working out how to train for this. Lots of back to back runs, I suppose. See? More mental challenges, along with the physical! I am becoming a well-rounded person.
I’ve also been working on continuing the every damn trail idea with a couple of other parks. I’m not doing it as fast as I can this time, but I hope to finish two different parks in 2021. Or at least one and a half parks. I really like trying to complete all the trails at various parks. Eventually, I will have done every trail in the Phoenix area!
I know this was short, but I really want you to think about your goals and how you can challenge yourself this year. So take some time to figure out how you will become a better runner. And by better, I don’t necessarily mean faster. If you are strictly a road runner, try hitting the trails. If you really want to get faster, add in speed work. And actually do it. If you want to get more miles, challenge yourself to do 75 miles a month, then 100, then 120, and so on.
Tell me, how will you challenge yourself this year? You can message me on Instagram at runs_on_espresso, leave a comment on the show notes at runsonespresso.com, or a voice message at anchor.fm/runsonespresso. I look forward to hearing how everyone is going to shake it up and become better this year!
Now, coffee corner.
Until next week, may your runs be as strong as your coffee.
2020 did not turn out how any of us had planned for it. Many of us updated and changed our fitness goals over the year, but now that we are entering a new year, it’s time to reset our goals.
I’ve got some big goals for 2021, but I’m not depending on races to get me going.
I don’t think races will be back in 2021 any more than they were in 2020. I’m planning my goals around challenging myself differently, much as I did in 2020. I think the different challenges I did in 2020 were great for my mindset, and I want to continue challenging myself in other ways this year.
This year I am doing a team run across Mexico (go team Taco and Trails!). It’s a total of 1850, so we are each responsible for 925. In 2021 I only ran 740 miles (my goal was 800), so I need to step it up. I figured out I need 78 miles a month and about 20 per week. It’s totally doable.
It just means I need to be consistent.
Then I agreed to do the Yeti 24 hour challenge. So I will be doing 5x4x24 in March. I still haven’t quite figured out how I am going to train for this. It will involve many back to back runs (Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning). I also think I need to do a good mix of early morning and late evening.
I will finally get my ultra!
Granted, it will be spread out over 24 hours, but I hear it still totally counts. I’ve already started planning the logistics in my head. I will be doing it simultaneously as a friend so that we can commiserate by text. LOL
I’ve got some big running goals, so hopefully, that will help with my other goal(s). I still need to lose the weight I meant to lose in 2020. So lose weight and body fat are on for 2021. I also want to get back to consistently doing strength work and yoga.
I guess that makes my word for 2021 consistency. I need it.
How do you stay consistent? What are your goals for this year?
We still may not be traveling much, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative and enjoy your city (or state)!
Here are five ways you can explore local:
Get outside and explore a local park. There are probably parks you haven’t explored or completely explored. Take time to head to a local city, county, or state park and check out all they have to offer. If there are trails, you can challenge yourself to walk, hike, run, or ride all the trails. Depending on the size of the park, this challenge could take a couple of months!
Maybe you aren’t into hiking or riding. You can still enjoy the local parks by having a picnic! Pack up some fancy picnic foods and enjoy a beautiful day at the park. You can get a baguette, expensive meats and cheeses, your favorite fruit, and grab a fancy dessert. Make it an indulgent affair to enjoy the foods and fresh air.
You can put together a taste test of local foods and beverages. Find foods and drinks made by local companies and put together a tester sheet for everyone in your family. Everyone can taste and rate the foods and beverages and discuss their favorites! A bonus is you get to support local companies!
Find a fancy Air BnB and make a weekend getaway of it. You can do it as a staycation and stay in town, or if you want to get away, find one in another city in your state. Pretend you’re a tourist and visit places you usually wouldn’t and find restaurants you haven’t tried yet. Since you’re at an Air BnB, you can take groceries for two meals and eat out the third.
If you really want to socially distance and get outside, try camping! Most campsites are already distanced from others, so you set up camp and enjoy! There’s nothing quite like enjoying an evening by the fire and watching the stars come out.
What other creative ways can you come up with to explore local?
Hey! How’s it going? 2021 has been quite the year already! I feel like it’s only about two weeks in, and I’ve accomplished quite a bit! I wish I had gotten more done, but time and energy will always be in limited supply.
Since I’ll have a blog post up tomorrow covering my goals for 2021, I’ll do a quick rundown here before I get into how my training has gone. For 2021, I’m doing a virtual team run across Mexico, so we each need to run a little over 900 miles. I set my goal for 1,000. I’m determined to hit 1,000 finally.
Consistency is my word of the year because to hit 1,000; I need to be consistent. I also want to do strength training and yoga more consistently. Not a few months, and then skip it for a few weeks and then try again.
Now, my A goal is to complete the Yeti Challenge in March. Yup, 5 miles every 4 hours for 24 hours. I’ve started researching and planning already. I’m not 100% sure how I’m going to train for this yet. I’m thinking of building long runs up, and lots of back to back type runs. Like Friday after work, Saturday morning long run, and Sunday morning run. If you have any tips or ways to train, please let me know! Leave me a voice message on anchor.fm/runsonespresso or send an email to jenna@runsonespresso. I would greatly appreciate it!
Now you know what I’m training for, we can talk about how the past few weeks have gone.
I was attempting to get 10,000 feet of vert from December 1st to 25th. I ended at about 8800. It was a struggle. I learned I’m not a massive fan of vert just for vert.
I finished the Festivus 100 miles on 12/27 and then immediately went into Across the Globe. I set a goal of 50 miles in the ten days, and I ended at 39.07 miles in nine runs and seven days. I tried, but siht happens. Would I have loved to hit those 50 miles (or even just 40)? Yup, of course. But I’m not beating myself up for not reaching the goal. I tried. I put in the effort, but it just wasn’t in the cards for that time.
Let’s take a quick sponsor break.
Welcome back!
So we are, at the time of this recording, nine days into January. I’ve run 45 miles and lifted weights three times. I haven’t done yoga, BUT I have been stretching daily, which is kind of similar. I know yoga gives me more than just stretching, but I haven’t been feeling setting up a video and getting into it.
I’ve been doing Bodyweight Beast from Jessie’s Fitness. You look at the day’s workout and think, oh, this won’t be bad. It’s bad. Trust me. It’s freaking HARD. It definitely pushes me. I wanted a change from the previous program I was doing. I did it like three times in a row and wanted to switch it up. Not having to drag out weights, bench, and bands is nice.
I’m doing strength work on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. It works well with my schedule and running.
So funny story… last week, before I restarted strength training, I decided to try and bust out a few assisted pull-ups after my run. To test how much strength I lost in the past month or so, I hadn’t done much. I get out the pull-up bar and put it in the door frame.
I set up my wooden plyo box so I can step up and reach the bar. I get set up and start doing pull-ups. I look to my left and see the pull-up bar is beginning to come away from the door frame.
BOOM.
I fell flat on my ass. It was more of a shock, and I do an inventory to check myself. Ass is a little sore on the right side, as is the right wrist since I caught myself with it. I get up and look at the pull-up bar and realize the little metal clip that held it to the door frame had straightened entirely out. I guess after a few years, it was tired of supporting my weight.
I pull out the metal clip and take my band off of the pull-up bar so I can put them in the garbage. I grab the wooden plyo box and put it away. Then I start to realize it feels like my left ankle is wet. I look down and…
I’m bleeding.
Apparently, my left shin/ankle area was taken out by the wooden plyo box when I came down. I cleaned it up and was able to stop the bleeding and put Neosporin on it. I still have quite the bruise there! The scab is healing because it’s been so itchy the last few days.
When it happened, I had a moment of shock, but later that day, I realized how funny it was. If I had been recording, it probably would make one of those bad gym mistakes video compilations.
Other than the all, not much going on with training. I want to run between 20 and 30 miles a week. Mondays will be my rest day. I go into the office that day, and it’s hard to fit a run in before work, and I never have the energy to go after. Tuesday and Thursday, I plan to do short, easy runs in the morning. Wednesday is speed work. I need to figure out what I’m going to do for that. I think I want to swap between intervals and tempo runs. I like both. I prefer intervals, but I know tempo is good for you.
Friday, I’d like to start doing the indoor bike again. I’ve been slacking. I can do that in the morning and then do a short, easy run after work. Saturdays are for long runs. I haven’t been going out to the trails the last few weeks. I’ve been lazy, so I’d like to get back to trails. I want to build my long runs up. On the day I’m recording (9th), I did 12. So I have a book club every other Saturday, so I’ll do 10ish miles, and then the week after, I’ll do 14, then ten, then 16, and so on. And Sunday will be like 6-8 miles, preferably on trails.
How has your training been going so far in 2021? Are you training for anything specific or only fitness? I’d love to hear about it! Find me on Instagram at runs_on_espresso or Twitter at runsonespresso, and tell me all about your plans for 2021!
And now, coffee corner. We finally started and finished season two of Mindhunter on Netflix. I. Am. Pissed. They spent the entire season teasing and building up to season three, and there is not going to be a season three. Thanks, David Fincher. Sorry, you got bored, but the rest of us were enjoying the show and want more! I really hope someone else decides season 3 needs to be done and can do it as well as it has been. I don’t want it if it is shitty.
We also watched the Aaron Hernandez documentary on Netflix. I already knew what the “big reveal” was. I still thought it was well done. I would recommend it.
Finally, we have started Glow season two. So far, I really like it. It’s fun and cheesy and just what I need sometimes. SPOILER ALERT Although one of the last episodes we watched was when Zoyas leg gets broken, and it brought back memories. It was very much what it was like to break your leg.
And soon, hockey will be back! We aren’t going in person this season. I’m not even sure how long having fans will last. We will watch from the comfort of our couch.
Until next time, may your runs be as strong as your coffee.
I’m always looking for new bars to add to my afternoon snack rotation. Of course, they need to be gluten-free. And there is a lot of BAD gluten-free bars on the market. So I jumped at the chance to try a new to me bar, Grab the Gold, as a blogger for the Online Nourished Fest.
These bars are great! Seriously.
I was a little skeptical because, as I said, I have had a lot of bad bars but Grab the Gold has made it into my afternoon snack rotation. (Hang around to the end, and I’ll have a code for you to try them!)
The bars are round and heavy, kind of like a hockey puck, with 193 calories and 11 grams of protein each. They are the perfect size for a snack. They also work well as a pre-run bar when I have to get out early in the morning.
My first thought when I opened the package was you can really smell the peanut butter! The actual PB flavor is perfect. It’s not overwhelming. The little bits of cranberries give you the jelly flavor. They balance each other out well. There is also a chocolate peanut butter bar, which is great when you want a hit of chocolate but don’t want to shovel an entire Reese’s bar in your mouth.
My only issue with the bars is a texture issue. And it’s totally me. I am a texture person, and there are little chunks in the bar. I think it’s the oatmeal. I haven’t quite figured out what it is. It doesn’t bother me enough not to eat the bars, though.
They also sent me an immune boost shot. I was a little hesitant to try because I saw it has stevia in it. My tastebuds are very sensitive to stevia in some products. Luckily for me, this product did not have the bad stevia taste! It is a berry flavor and quite tasty! I don’t know if it actually boosts my immunity, but it does have elderberry, vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc, so it can’t be bad.
If you are interested in trying Grab the Gold for yourself, head over to their website and use the code NEWYOU10 to save 10% through January 10, 2021!
Some interesting info on Grab the Gold
They are woman-owned
They’ve been around for 30 years
The bars are made in a dedicated gluten-free facility
They give over 40,000 meals annually through Feeding America
The bars are gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan
They have no high fructose corn syrup and no preservatives
Well, December got away from me, and I didn’t get any podcasts recorded! I’m sure you can relate. But now it’s a new year, and season 2 of the podcast. I took some time last month to plan ahead, so hopefully, it won’t happen again! I’ve got a plan to keep on top of everything. But we all know what happens to the best-laid plans…
So, January is all about goals here at Runs on Espresso. I am a big believer in setting goals. I don’t even care if I ever actually complete the objective. The act of creating, planning, and attempting is a huge accomplishment! Trust me, I’ve set and reset goals a million times and don’t always complete them, but I still feel more accomplished than if I had done nothing. Like for Merry Vertmas, I set my goal for 10,000 feet elevation. Did I reach it? Nope. I was about 2200 feet short. But am I mad? Nope. I challenged myself and pushed my comfort zone. I discovered I don’t need to chase big elevations to be happy. Elevation isn’t my thing. Thanks, asthma.
January is a great time to reset your goals and priorities.
So, if you have your goals from 2020 written down, pull out that paper and take a look. Which goals are still relevant? Which ones have you decided aren’t the right fit anymore? Read through them or if you didn’t write them down, think about what your goals were. Ask yourself which goals can stay, which can be retooled, and which ones you can kick to the curb.
If you haven’t written down your goals, I encourage you to do so. Writing them down can help you remember them. Or you can post them somewhere to look at daily or weekly to make sure you’re on track. Or you can decide after a month you don’t like that goal and cross it off! Plus, it’s handy to be able to look back at the end of the year and see how much you really did get done or how much change truly happened.
Remember, it’s ok to let go of a goal or a dream. You may come back to it later when you have less on your plate.
Let’s take a quick break for a sponsor break.
Welcome back!
Once you’ve looked over your goals and decided which ones are keepers? Good, now decided if you need to rework those. Maybe you still want to run a marathon but haven’t worked out in weeks. That’s ok. Keep that goal but adjust your timeframe. Maybe make it a fall race instead of spring.
Still trying to lose those pounds? I know this struggle all too well. I know what to do, but at times I let those things go. I stop tracking food when I get busy. I forget to weigh myself. I’m still going to keep my lose weight goal, but I need to add smaller goals like weigh in weekly. Or log your food, dumbass.
I have been looking over my goals for 2020. I did some of them, forgot about some, and others I attempted and failed. One of them that I forgot about was starting a podcast. And I actually did it. On a whim.
If you look at your goals and realize they are kinda vague, get more specific. Go listen to episode 3, Let’s Get SMART, and figure out how to drill down your goals to be more specific and measurable. Also, make a timeline. When do you want to finish your goal, or if it’s more long term, set some dates to have smaller goals done by.
Because start a podcast is vague. What kind of podcast? When do you want to start? How many episodes will you have ready before you start? How often will you post a new one? Will you have guests? Figure out the details. Usually, you will find you need to make smaller steps to get to the big goal.
Ok, so you’ve now reviewed your goals, decided which ones you want to keep and which to chuck. You’ve written down your new goals and gotten the specifics. Now what?
Set up reminders.
Write down the dates you want to finish each step. Add them to your calendar. And be sure to set a time each quarter to review your goals and make adjustments as needed.
If you have a goal to reduce clutter, be sure to set aside 15 minutes each day to clear clutter. Trying to get your budget going? Spend 15 minutes in the evening doing the work. Want to learn something new? Make sure to schedule educational time each week. Maybe you watch a video every Saturday and practice whatever was in the video on Sunday.
So, you’ve scheduled out the steps and important dates to achieve your goal. How else can you remain accountable?
Tell someone.
Tell Facebook. Tell your BFF. Tell your dog. Ok, maybe not the dog because they may not be very good at checking in on you. Unless your goal was to walk more, in which case a dog is a good companion for that goal.
Your friends and family can help you reach your goals by checking in or gently reminding you. Or if you need it, yelling or berating you. I disagree with this, but I hear it helps some people. To each their own, right?
So let’s say we are months down the road. You’ve sat down and pulled your list out to do a mid-year check-in. You look over your list and realize you are right on track! Maybe you even finished a few goals! Woohoo! Go you! Doesn’t it feel great to cross something off the list?
How will you celebrate such an amazing accomplishment?
I say you sit and think about everything it took you to get to the finish line. All the hard work you put in. The setbacks and resets. The time spent thinking, do I really want to do this? Will I really be better off? And then pat yourself on the back for getting to the end.
If you journal, you can write about the journey there. Write what you learned. Write how amazing it feels. Hell, even if you didn’t quite make your goal, write what you learned and how it feels. You may be surprised that you don’t feel bad that you didn’t make it. Maybe you realized you can do hard things, and now it’s time to move on.
Maybe you want to post to your blog or Facebook. Go for it. Let the world know how hard you worked and what it’s done for you.
You never know who is watching and who you are inspiring. They may not tell you, but I bet someone out there has decided to stick with their goals and keep pushing because you did.
So, get out there and reset those goals. Conquer them. Kick them to the curb. Whatever you need to do and come back and tell me all about it. Leave me a message on anchor.fm/runsonespresso, email me at jenna@runsonespresso, or find me on Instagram at runs_on_espresso. I want to know what big, or little, goals you plan to smash this year!
Now for some coffee corner. This has been a weird last few weeks. It seems like a blur, and I cannot recall what all I did or watched.
I started reading Best Business Practices for Photographers. Not really an exciting read, but it’s important to me. I am going to try to actually do the PopSugar reading challenge this year. I started it last year but did not finish. And the year before that. Hah. This year, I will try to get through the challenge using physical books I own, then Kindle books I own, and lastly, library books. Basically, can I get through without spending money? I think so. A lot of the prompts are based on your to-be-read (TBR) pile. So my main focus will be my physical books. One prompt is the longest book on your TBR list. That book happens to be… Best Business Practices for Photographers at over 800 pages. (On Kindle, I have one that is longer, but my goal is to use as many physical books first. If you’re wondering, it is The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany, and I believe it is the equivalent of 1200 plus pages).
So I started Best Business Practices for Photographers when I finished my last book because I knew it would take a while to get through, and to reach my goal of 52 books a year, I need to finish one book a week.
I also started Happy Runner for book club. I will do a podcast about it once I finish it.
Until next week, may your runs be as strong as your coffee.
I’m testing new names for my Book Corner series. Book Corner is dull and has no connection to coffee. Cafe Noir is black coffee, and noir is a novel genre, so it seemed to fit. I’ll let it brew and see if I like it or come up with something better.
December was a bit slow for reading. I had already hit my goal for the year, so I only tried to finish my book club book and a book someone lent me.
Atomic Habits by James Clear 4 stars This was my book club book. Atomic Habits is all about building habits and breaking the ones you no longer want to do. You know, the bad ones. It was an effortless read. Many of the points were things I already knew or built on my knowledge.
I would recommend it to everyone. Even if you know a lot of the info, it’s a great refresher. I think most people could finish this book in a week. There are six sections, and each section can be read in a day.
I didn’t give it five stars because I don’t think there’s enough there. I think the author could have gone more in-depth with some sections. I wanted more from some of the areas.
The End of October by Lawrence Wright 3 stars The End of October was very fitting for 2020. The premise is a global pandemic. It follows a CDC scientist and his family during the outbreak. A lot of it mirrored covid19. It was a little weird.
The book started with a bang and really pulled me in. The middle, though? I could have done without about half of it. Some chapters were weird vignettes that were about the pandemic but didn’t add to the plot. They were like side stories and didn’t really add to the novel.
The ending seemed to wrap up a tad too quickly. It was like there was a page limit, and the author suddenly realized he needed to wrap it up. A few things leave you going ok, but how did we get from A to B?
I looked at the author’s list of works, and it appears he has written a lot of non-fiction, and this was his debut novel. I can tell he researched pandemics and diseases very well. He has potential as a fiction writer but needs a little work and maybe some help from an editor. There were a few chapters from the main character’s children. They kept referring to their parents by their name. I can see where that might happen in more non-fiction, but it felt odd and didn’t fit for the characters in a fiction novel.
Tequila Mockingbird by Tim Federle 4 stars Tequila Mockingbird is a fun little drink recipe book. The author pairs drinks with classic novels (ok, some not so classics). He writes a bit of the book and includes a fun reference to the book in the recipe.
I didn’t give it five stars because I was a bit disappointed in the drink recipes. I was hoping for fun cocktails, and these were mostly basic drinks.
Overall, it was fun, and someday I hope to pair some of the drinks with books. Once I get my shit together. haha
We have reached the end of 2020. I’m almost ready to put this year behind me. What about you?
Before we do that, I want to share the most popular posts from J Volden Photography in 2020. Did you read them all or did you miss a couple of these? If not, here you go!
