Twenty-five

My goal for twenty-five is to embrace my insecurities and to live the life I believe in without apology.

Those goals are broad and vague but the reality of that life would look something like showing off my big forehead with pride, accepting the dark spots on my face, chest, shoulders, and back, loving my slightly lopsided smile, going for longer stretches in between wearing braids, freestyle dancing in public without the help of alcohol, speaking loudly, not saying "sorry" unless I actually am, sticking to a budget and living below my means, tithing, diving into my relationship with Jesus and seeking God's kingdom first, eating an ethical, mostly unprocessed diet, practicing self-care diligently, not being evasive about my sexuality or the fact that I'm dating a woman I love.

It will mean not being afraid to tell people that I'm simultaneously reading a book called Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving as well as Mark, the second book in the New Testament of the Bible.

It will mean reading more and writing more and going for more runs along Chicago's Lake shore trail. It will mean consistently claiming my identity as a Jamaican woman even though I don't have the accent to support it.

It will mean Instagramming make-up-less selfies. That sort of thing, ya know.

Of course, that life won't be my reality entirely the next time July 5th comes around. But by then I'm hoping to have moved significantly closer to being a woman who accepts herself fully, takes care of herself, pursues her passions, and lives with honesty and integrity.

I am thinking of choosing 11 key areas/ activities to focus on to encourage becoming that woman. I often take on too much at once. I lack endurance and patience and am easily distracted and bored. These character traits make it hard to stick with anything as long as I need to in order to see significant growth/ improvement. So the plan is to focus on one  life change, goal, self-improvement activity etc. each month for the entire month for the next 11 months. According to some experts somewhere, performing an activity consistently for 30 days helps that activity to become a habit. I will still try to make little improvements in several areas simultaneously but the activity I assign to each month will be the one thing I will absolutely have to do every day for that month.

That means on the day I turn 26 I'll at least be able to say... I took 11 very helpful, beneficial things and made them a consistent part of my routine

That's something right? The following is a list of potential activities.

1. August- 8 hours of sleep
2. September- Whole foods, unprocessed diet 
3. October- 30 minutes exercise
4. November- 30 minutes quiet time 
5. December- 30 minutes end of the day journalling
6. January- 1 hour of leisure reading
7. Februrary- 30 minutes creative writing
8. March- Read a news article 
9. April- Yoga and meditation
10. May- Purposeful, daily, blogging, tweeting, and tumbling
11. June- Oil pulling 

That list is subject to change but I'm happy about the things I have down so far. 

I am also up to something right now. I won't say what until that something is over but it has to do with food, of course. I'll report on it in 7 days when I can claim success :).

Laters.