These are a series of weekly updates and reflections on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what I’ve changed, and things I’m loving right now.
Week 4 started out strong. I was figuring out my workout strategy, ran my first 10k of the build on a hilly snow covered trail, was trying to tweak my meal prep to be more sustainable, was working in more stretch and mobility work. And then I got sick…
Friday night I started getting a little dizzy so so took it easy and by Saturday so had full on vertigo that came and went, disrupting my sleep and ability to focus, all weekend. The world was spinning, I was nauseous, and I didn’t even feel like I could cook or meal prep for the next week.
My watch actually clocked nearly 10 hours of sleep but it’s because I felt so sick if I moved so I just played in bed all morning. When it would subside, I’d get up and eat and try to stay hydrated but I really struggled to remember to drink so so was quite low compared to earlier in the week. I tried doing some stretching and pilates but 16 minutes was all could do. It’s ok, because it was a lower volume week anyway and once I feel better the muscles will be well rested for next week but it still sucks.
Tracking-wise, I kept most things the same but played around with where I put each box. I also tried color coding my habits to make it easier to see what I’m doing well on and where so need more consistency. I also added a “How did I do?” journaling spot in the white space but I don’t think I’ll do that again.
I’m not loving my training plan apps so I’ve decided to go all in with Training Peaks premium membership and one of their structured half marathon plans. My injury prevention half marathon plan has programmed triathlon and strength cross training, which means I only need to minimally add on an additional bike and swim workout to build the multi-sport base that I want while still focusing on a strong build to 13.1 miles running fitness.
I am loving the FitBod app and next week will plan to start back in with heavier weight lifting using their programming. I’m still deciding if I want an upper/lower split or a push/pull split. The scale is continuing to hover at the same weight so I’m hoping to ramp up my metabolism with lifting heavier so any split will be moving me in the right direction.
A series of weekly updates on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what’s changed, and what I’m loving right now.
For this I had set some goals to keep up the 2 week strength on-ramp I had started in week 2, continue meal prepping to make fueling easy, and had hoped to increase my run mileage and do two bike and two swim workouts. I had also wanted to keep increasing my average protein and stabilize my calories.
As with any best laid plans, things started to go awry by mid week. Though I had time set aside for two workouts a day, I found myself a little drained coming to Wednesday and talked myself into taking a rest day when I probably could have easily done at least on if not both workouts. I woke up Thursday just totally unmotivated and feeling really sluggish and a fair bit sore with the delayed onset soreness from Monday and Tuesday and extended the break to a second day. While I was a bit disappointed I also recognize that as I’m getting older, I need more recovery time than I remember needing before and if I don’t take it my body might make me.
On the weekend, I tried not to feel pressured to cram it all in, but I ended up still doing more volume anyway. I managed to get in almost all my workouts but ran out of time for a second swim and snowed again so I swapped out my last weight session for a back and shoulder workout shoveling wet and heavy snow for 45 minutes. It was a good jumpstart but I’m not loving my lifting plan so next week I think I’ll try mixing it up and looking for something different.
My meal prepping certainly made it easier to keep eating well even when the days were had and I was tired. It’s frustrating because I’ve put back on some of my initial weight loss despite the calorie deficit but Im not really going to focus on that. I’m actually concerned that I’m not eating enough, now that I’ve increased the volume but I’ve got an appointment for nutritional counseling at the end of the month to refine my plan so I’m just going to keep going as I am for now and focus on practicing fueling before/during/after the workouts and races.
My run training group also started up this week but the course was so icy and I was going to have to cut it short to get to an appointment that I decided to just skip it and will make up the long run with a Monday 10 k on my day off next week.
I changed my hydration strategy to using a slightly larger 24 oz clear shaker bottle that I aim to fill and drink at least 5 times. I set up the left columns on the right side of my planner to let me check it off 8 oz at a time, one row equaling 1 bottle fill. I’m also alternating plain water and an electrolyte mix, or if I’m working out, a carb mix. It helps remember which bottle number I’m on, tastes better, helps me focus and get more nutrients in, and ensures I’m not at risk of side effects of consuming too much water.
Finally, is it too petty to be regretting color choices? I really like this tracking adjustment but I wished I’d used the blue for the water not the sleep. That’s one change I will definitely make for next week. I also feel like the layout needs more color in general so maybe I’ll play around with that going forward.
A series of weekly updates on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what’s changed, and what I’m loving right now.
While my Week 1 was about getting ready to eat right and get the workouts in, this week has been about doing it and figuring out how to track it.
I’ve found I’m not using my 2025 Hobonichi Weeks planner in the same ways I was in the past as a time and to do list tracker or as a space for keeping track of the week in journaling or brain dumping. I tried that format in week 1 but felt I was cramming everything else a little tight and not making use of the list space. So this week I changed it up.
Photo of my week 2 planner which tracks the workouts I’ve done, meals I’ve eaten, key stats and habits.
I got rid of the to do list and replaced that with my workout plans, in pencil which get replaced with the actual workout in pen once I do it. In that section I also added a dedicated line daily for what I’m listening to, reading, and cleaning (if anything, as this was the first thing sacrificed to the 2-a-day workout grind), and what I was grateful for. It WAS helpful to have a dedicated spot to record the things I wanted to do more of. AND it was a good reminder, I looked at it at the right time to do something about it. But for the most part is was something I was filling in after the fact.
I moved my meal tracking to the left page and made it just a smidge wider. It worked really well as long as I kept my writing small and named things concisely. On the right I added a column for tracking macros, the daily high/low temp, my sleep, and my hydration. I was struggling to find a way to drink enough water and how to remember how much I’ve had. I was trying to color a leaf for each water bottle I drank but I kept having trouble with the math and would forget where I was mid-day.
I added the scale weight for accountability and to keep week over week progress in mind without fixating on it too much. I also went back after the week ended (for this week and last week) and tallied up the weekly average calories, protein, carbs, and fat and the relative % of the macros. I’ve got some goals to increase protein, and manage my calorie intake so I think this will help by knowing I’ve got a number to calculate at the end of the week.
It will also help, along with the other metrics like temperature and training load, to better assess the week. While putting in the effort is a daily challenge, no one day or workout is going to make or break my goals. Looking at weekly and monthly averages can pull back the time horizon to help reveal trends and show progress without letting me beat myself up over a bad day. This week, for example, showed I brought my protein up by an average of over 30 grams daily.
I kept my habit tracker largely the same, with a few small tweaks to better match my goals. I also improved my workout tracker, the pyramid of boxes, that helps me keep track of which types of workouts I’m doing and how much time and volume I’m achieving weekly. Like the macros, this will help me compare week to week and, as things inevitably don’t go to plan, it’ll help me make smart choices about how to switch my workouts around so that I’m still doing enough of each sport to progress in my goals.
This week I hit my goal of doing 14 workouts, through subbing a walk for a swim when the pool closed earlier than I’d anticipated. It showed me how I have to be on top of my bedtime, and strict in getting up with my alarms if I want to fit it all in but that I can fit it all in with meal prepping, packing my bags the night before, and staying flexible.
This week I’ve gotten hooked on the Tread Lightly podcast. I’ve read their blog posts before but really appreciate the science backed advice and the breakdowns of so many topics, especially as a female athlete. I’m working through their back catalog on my commute. If you want help navigating all the conflicting running advice out on the socials, give them a listen.
A series of weekly updates on my plans, how they are going, what’s working, what’s changed, and what I’m loving right now.
My year is starting on New Year’s week. It’s always a bit of a twilight week, where you can’t keep your days straight, your sleep schedule gets thrown off, you go into reflective mode, and you tend to make big plans with overly lofty aspirational goals. It’s a time where I renew my hopes and dreams, allow myself to imagine what if, and start making decisions about how I want to turn potential in to action. In week 1 my plans solidified into two focus areas: Meals and Training.
I knew that I had not eaten the most healthy over the holidays and I’d let my families preferences and needs fill my pantry with things I’d be better off avoiding. I also knew that if I wanted to make the fitness gains I wanted, I was going to have to overhaul my diet to increase my protein, get my carbs from better sources, and ensure I was covering all my micronutrients.
The easiest way for me to ensure I meet my meal goals while working and coming home to tired to cook much and getting up early to work out was to go back to meal prepping. There are lots of great plans on the web for all different types of meal preps but needing a dairy-free high protein plan leaves me with quite a few less choices.
Most high protein plans get you there by taking a clean diet and boosting the protein with the addition of cheese, whey, cottage cheese, high protein yogurts and milks. All things I can’t eat and while the equivalent dairy-free versions taste just fine, they are almost completely without the protein that was the reason for adding them in in the first place. While I can certainly do the math and seek my own alternatives, that defeated the point of making things easy by using a pre-calculated plan. So an easier option is to limit my search to Vegan meal preps plans.
I’ve eaten Vegan on and off for the last several years. For one thing, it makes it easier to be sure aid won’t get any dairy, especially when eating out. Vegan or lactose-free menu labels make it simple to order without interrogating the server about the ingredient list. I also find a plant-based diet increases my consumption of vegetables and minimizes hear burn and reflux symptoms when compared to eating a meat-centric diet. I understand and respect those who eat vegan or vegetarian out of concern for the animals and the environment but that’s not why I do it. I still eat eggs, seafood, white and red meat, just not in large quantities and not usually as my first choice
Going back to meal prep as my go-to method of getting food on the table, it takes a fair amount of planning and preparation up front but pays off as the week progresses. This week I tried out a meal plan from the Vegan Gym that had several similar bases and 3 different sauce profiles that you mixed and matched to keep things fresh every day. It worked out fairly good for me in that I stayed compliant with my meal goals every day, I didn’t eat out or order in at all myself (though I still had to do it for some family who were not eating vegan), I didn’t feel hungry or tempted and I felt filed for my workouts.
For training, I’m prioritizing running as I’ve signed up for a half marathon in 17 weeks but I also know I need to start rebuilding strength and mobility and get in the habit of fueling before, during and after workouts. I might not be doing much now but as I build my running endurance, I’m also going to be introducing cycling and swimming as cross-training and will be ending up tired and sore if I’m not fueling right.
I’d set a goal to at least do a 5K race on New Year’s and ended up doing two, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. since it’s been a while since I’ve raced, I wasn’t sure how slow I was or how the distance would feel when I wasn’t just running by myself. It was cold but I surprised myself by not only doing my best (still slow) pace in the first race but then beating it by several minutes in the second race.
This gave me confidence that I’d be able to start my half marathon training plan and also that I’d be able to try a 10k race in the near future.
Week 1 Training Summary
I fit in 2 other runs this week for a weekly mileage of 14.1 miles and 4 other strength, yoga, and mobility workouts. I set a goal to try out a bunch of different programs to see what I liked, what I needed, and what I would stick with. Still haven’t found the ONE but FitOn videos are a great resource that allow me to easily search for just what I need and I’ll probably make use of them more as my training program goes on.
Right now, I’m loving experimenting with different flavors and ingredients. I’m also leaning into learning and reading more. There is an endless resource of personal journey blogs and professional advice videos online. YouTube is full of “here is how I did it” accounts of Ironman preparation, half-marathon training, and workout advice. Take all of it with a grain of salt but the tips can help you visualize what it will be like for you and the inspiration can help motivate you through the tough times. To balance out the urge to buy all the things that can often go with triathlon I also started reading No Baggage by Clara Bentsen that explores the fear and joys of minimalist travel.
Well, maybe not all the very beginning because technically I tried triathlon as a kid, but since I’m back to seriously training for a half Ironman triathlon, I thought I could share a bit more about my adult history with the sport before I talk about what’s in store for the beginning of this year.
Living in Northern Virginia, I’ve been lucky enough to live in a community that priorities fitness and has lots of groups that put on local events. In 2012 I had been running for a few years with training programs through my local run store and had joined a local run group. I wasn’t fast by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t running consistently.
Some of the run group regulars were also triathletes and they started talking about the upcoming local sprint triathlon. This was a 750m outdoor pool swim, 14 mile bike, and 5K run. We lived right by the venue and I realized I’d actually seen the event happening the prior year. I had missed the signups but the runners connected me with the race directors who were more than happy to get me in to a drop slot and before you knew it I was in.
I started training but my fitness wasn’t bike fitness was really lacking and didn’t know much about how to train and recover. I was also a single mom of a young child so figuring out childcare, making time to train, and having the funds to purchase a bike and gear was tough. But I did it and on the day, with friends I had made long the way cheering me on. I finished my first sprint Tri in 1:54:49, an hour slower than the front of the pack but 30 min faster than the very back. I was hooked.
The same group put on an Olympic distance Triathlon several months later and soon I was signed up for that and training for the 1500m open lake swim, 25 mile bike, and 10k run. It was even harder than just the mileage increase as this course had more hills. I struggled through it and finished this in 3:57:53, again an hour slower and 30 min faster that the rest.
From there I was hooked and over the course of several years I competed in several more sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. Each time, I’d get a little bit faster in the swim, a little bit smoother at the transition, a little bit better at going from biking to running But O was still slow. From there I decided to focus on running, particularly half marathons, and just did the two other sports as cross training. Eventually I would try to tackle a marathon but end up injured and stoped racing all together.
Last year, I again started to run again. Slowly and painfully. from the beginning all over again. I also increased my hiking, averaging one a week, including a month of walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across Spain. I slowly worked through cramping feet and calves, painful heel blisters and shin splints, lots of weak muscles on my legs and my core, and chronic knee pain. B
y the end of 2024, my aerobic fitness wasn’t great but it was returning, my legs no longer felt like lead and I could run/walk several miles with only minimal cramping that would go away once I warmed up. I was ready to start some structured training so I set myself a go to finish a half marathons in 16 week.
From there, it was perhaps inevitable that I soon had a full year of triathlon training mapped out with the 10 month goal of finishing a half Ironman, a distance I’ve never attempted before. I’ve got plenty of time ahead of me but this is going to take commitment, perseverance, and a lot of grit day after day to get there from here. I can’t wait!
My biggest ones involve my fitness. Like going from not doing much activity to competing in endurance events that are longer and harder than any I’ve ever done before. Like re-building my capacity to run double digit mileage, bike a metric century, and swim miles in a wetsuit. Like finding my strength again to be adventure-ready and mentally ready to push harder and go longer even when it’s uncomfortable.
When setting big goals—the hairy, audacious kind that exceed your current capabilities and require you to train, grown, expand, and overcome some limitations to reach them—I like to look at them in the context of the big picture—in this case the calendar year. There are two reasons why.
The first is practical, I need to be sure I have the time. I need to ensure I have plenty of training time for events before I sign up to race them and I need to make sure it won’t conflict with anything else I’m committed to this year. Training while avoiding injury requires a long time and my goal race is in October so I will need to plan when to start training hard and when I can fit in vacations.
The second reason why I like to plan in the context of a full year is that it gives me perspective. Looking at it month-by-month or week-by-week helps me to begin visualizing the journey. It’s particularly helpful for endurance fitness training where I can plot out training phases and key race benchmarks and then schedule smaller milestones to hit along the way. I can then lay in mileage progressions and the bigger blocks of a training plan to be sure I’m not forcing myself to increase mileage too fast and allow for plenty of rest and recovery on the way. I also get to imagine a future where aim capable of doing these harder efforts and visualize my success in a way that helps motivate me when it’s in the teens and I don’t want to do my run.
My October goal race is a 70.3 Ironman Triathlon. That’s a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and. 13.1 mile run. I used to race sprint and Olympic distance triathlons but it’s been several years since I’ve competed and this is over double the longest distance I ever did. I’ve run half marathons before but that was before an injury and again has been years since I’ve regularly run longer than 3-6 miles. I’ve already started to rebuild my run capacity to peak in time for a favorite local half marathon in April but I know I’ll need a solid 6 months of triathlon specific training after that to be in good shape for a 70.3. Plotting that out on a numbered weekly calendar helps me verify it’s possible.
Weeks of 2025 are numbered down the left column of my Hobonichi Weeks Planner with my races and some training plans penciled in accordingly.
Now that I know when my 6-month triathlon training needs to begin, I realized I had 16 weeks before that in which to train for a half marathon. That coincided nicely with my local run groups training program so I liked them in my planner and started to schedule some pre-triathlon cross training builds in the bike and swim and some solid strength sessions to help me stay injury free.
Putting down my mileage for and times for this initial plan helped me to plan in a build that would get me a good base of fitness for later without increasing my overall mileage too fast. It also helped me prioritize which workouts are essential and which are less so which will help me for getting stressed when I get busy or the training load feels too much and I need to increase recovery.
Obviously this plan will continue to be tweaked and adapted as the year goes on but looking at it all at a glance gives me the confidence to lean into the hard work while knowing where those efforts are taking me. Do you plan anything a year at a time?
That’s right, I’m back with some big plans, new updated goals, and lots of tricks to get me to them that I’m looking forward to sharing with you. In some ways, this is just a continuation of what I started with this site. An evolution of where I’ve been going all along, if you will.
But in other ways—very key ways—this is a change of direction and I’m still trying to figure what that means for this site. What do I mean? I want to make some of my goals more transparent and public so I’ll post about them here. Those will largely be well-being and movement related. Other goals are just for me and you might see indicators of changes here but they won’t be things I explicitly share.
I’m not going to breakdown techniques in advance and tell you how to hypothetically use them. I’m just going to put some into play for myself and tell you how they went as I journal what’s happened. I might lay out a strategy in advance but I won’t feel beholden to see it through. After getting to know myself better these last few years, I’ve learned that I’m very spontaneous, flexible, and adaptable in my planning.
I plan because it supports one way I take in information. When there are lots of details to consider, I gather and organize them as a coping mechanism. I consider lots of interpretations and worry through possibilities and alternative. I imagine ideal and worst case outcomes and plot out a most likely course. And I do most of it in my head.
I plan because it supports one way I take in information. When there are lots of details to consider, I gather and organize them as a coping mechanism. I consider lots of interpretations and worry through possibilities and alternative. I imagine ideal and worst case outcomes and plot out a most likely course. And I do most of it in my head.
You see, to someone who doesn’t prefer to plan, who can’t stand the thought of locking themselves in on what’s for dinner tomorrow much less next week, this looks like torture taking options off the table. It is, but it’s not. Stock with me.
It’s the difference between feeling sick on Friday and knowing vaguely that I’ve got an important run on Saturday OR knowing I’ve got 5K race planned for Saturday but that it’s not a key race in my training plan so it’s ok to miss it if I’m not feeling well because it won’t derail my training. It’s also 1 pm start so I have time Saturday morning to reassess. I’m the first example, I’m unnecessarily stressed, feeling like I might have to run sick or miss out, my choices looking like all or nothing, not knowing that I’ve got plenty of time, choices, options.
By knowing what my big goals and milestones are, my non-negotiable commitments, I also know where my flex space is. What I can blow off, change, or swap out in the moment if I feel like it. My planning isn’t a contract to do all the things, it’s a framework to show me where my options are, to increase the flexibility that I have, and to help me continue to progress toward goals whatever way I feel like in the moment.
That’s why I’m as likely to change course as stick to the plan. It’s also why, despite not feeling like a hard core planner, I use so many of the same techniques to reach my goals. I do the planning so that I know what of the planning I can ignore. I might make a plan that shows when I’ll eat at what restaurants at a theme park, but only so that I know which ones are closed, which require reservations because they book up, which ones my loved ones MUST eat at. I may stick to that plan because it’s something that planning people have already looked at and agreed to. But I’m most likely to pivot in the moment, doing nothing that even resembles the plan, because I know I can and still be sure we get to those reservations and key experiences.
The new year is a natural reset point for me as it comes with the time and space to pull back. I embrace the opportunity to think about where I want to be at the end of next year and have leveraged a few of the resolutions and challenges to restart my motivation to make big changes. I’ve got some ambitions objectives for myself this year and I’m looking forward to sharing more of that with you here.
We’re into week 3 of the BWP Holiday Preparation Countdown. With Thanksgiving approaching, its time to clean out the pantry. A clean and organized food storage space not only ensures that you have all the right ingredients on hand for the big day, but it also makes it easier to find and get to everything when you need it. Here is a scalable strategy for cleaning out wherever you store your food, one shelf at a time.
If you want full access to the planning workbook that these tips are based off of, hop on over to my Ko-fi page. Sign up for my one of my monthly subscriptions and for less than the cost of a pizza you can get access to the weekly planning PDFs, detailed exercises, themed checklists, and so much more.
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Cleaning Considerations
Before you dive in there are a few things to consider.
Where do you keep your food?
If you have a large pantry, this might be easy. Also think if you have food items stored in closets, cupboards, spice racks, freezers, on counters, or even other rooms like a garage. If you keep emergency food supplies, its a good time to check on them as well.
How much time do you have?
If you have no time constraints then you can tackle this all at once as a large project. Otherwise, make things easier by breaking your decluttering into multiple smaller chunks. Do just one shelf or type of food at a time and get easy bits done when you have a few minutes and save other areas for when you have a dedicated hour. If you have 15 minutes, you have enough time to do the cereals, 30 minutes might be enough time to do the baking goods. With this method, you can avoid tackling more than you can handle and skip creating an overwhelming mess that just wastes time and creates stress.
What are your problem areas?
You probably already know which self is a problem. Its crammed with too many things. You cant easily reach the sugar when you need it. You can never find the right seasoning and end up buying duplicates. Whatever you pantry problems are during the rest of the year, they get amplified when trying to cook under pressure for guests. Take some time before you begin to both prioritize where you focus first and decide what needs to change as you go.
Now that you are prepared, you can start to go through the pantry and remove things that are expired or you won’t use and get rid of them to make room for your holiday menu items. Be sure to monitor your time available. Also balance what you most need decluttered (for the upcoming meals) with what would have the most impact (the messiest/problem areas).
Use this method on each of your food storage areas, breaking them into big or small chunks. After you finish one small chunk, move on to another if you have time and energy or come back later to do more. Repeat this method on each area,.
Strategize
Determine what area/item type you will be focusing on. Take out only what you can handle in the time available. Grab a notepad and a pen, a trash bag or bin, a duster and or rag, and pick somewhere like a table or a box to keep the items corralled as you are cleaning. Think about any “decorative” elements like shelf or drawer liners, labels, storage bins, can organizers that you might want to utilize. You don’t have to use any but they can save space and keep things tidy longer when used effectively.
Toss
Check expiration dates. Keep a note pad handy and immediately add it to your shopping list if it’s something you will need/use. Now’s also the time to be honest with your self. Ask if you will actually use it. It sat there long enough to get old so will you really use it if you replace it? Likewise, just because something isn’t expired and will keep doesn’t mean you will eat it. If you won’t, consider passing it to someone who will or donating it to a food bank if appropriate.
Wipe
While your shelf is clear, dust or white it down. Scrub off any residue, add or replace shelf liners. Look at your items. Do they need dusting or cleaning. Are there any drips that need to be wiped up?
Put Away
Now put pack the things you will be keeping. If you have something that doesn’t belong back on that shelf, but you haven’t cleaned that shelf so its not ready to put back in its new home, you might keep it in a temporary bin. Now is the time to deploy any organizers, make sure things are organized in the way you want them, and assess if you have any improvements to make either now or when you tackle a future shelf. Make a note so you remember for later.
Restock
Once you’ve finished with an area, like say the canned beans, take stock of what you still have on hand and what you’ll need for your upcoming menus. Also consider what you regularly use. Add items to your grocery list so you can restock.
Want to know how this fits into the bigger prep plan to get your whole house decluttered, decorated, and clean for the Holidays? Sign up for a Ko-fi subscription to get the full 8 week planning workbook with all the exercises, checklists, and week-by-week plan to getting stuff done and stressing less this holiday season.
How well do you know yourself? Like really know yourself?
Today I want to dive into core values, what they are, and how you can find yours. In future posts, I’ll show you how you can use this knowledge to help you plan better, especially for the holidays.
If you want full access to the planning workbook that these tips are based off of, hop on over to my Ko-fi page. Sign up for my one of my monthly subscriptions and for less than the cost of a pizza you can get access to the weekly planning PDFs, detailed exercises, themed checklists, and so much more.
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For a limited time only, subscribe to the newsletter or donate any amount to my Ko-fi page and I’ll also toss in the full first week—5 more content-filled pages—so that you can see for yourselves just how valuable this countdown will be.
WHAT ARE CORE VALUES?
Each of us has attitudes toward the world around us and general beliefs that drive our daily interactions. They guide our behaviors and are the reasons we give for many of our actions.
But did you know that many of these attitudes and beliefs may actually change over time? Life experiences and social norms have proven to have impacts not only on our behaviors but can even change one’s beliefs.
This is especially true for beliefs that implicitly inform your biases, the ways you quickly perceive and judge the world around you. Things like ones beliefs or attitudes toward gender roles, party politics, race and skin tone, sexuality, and body weight are just a few examples. Think back on the things you believed in when you were in high school. Has anything you used to believe in changed over time?
That said, there are also your underlying foundational beliefs, the things we call Core Values. These are deeper than attitudes and beliefs and are unlikely to change. Core values are the things that are central to who you are and who you want to be. And they can be described as both the desirable ways you want to behave (like being loving or honest) and desirable end states (like being financially secure or well-read).
Drilling down to your true core values can be a challenging task, as it requires honest introspection and at times, some uncomfortable naval-gazing. However, if you are willing to put in the effort to know yourself better, I trust you will find it ultimately rewarding.
DEFINING YOUR CORE VALUES
When you are clear about your core values, it is easier to make decisions. You will have a compass by which to decide if something is aligned with who you are and who you want to be, or not. With this clarity, you will be able to direct your attention to things that have meaning and purpose for you.
To start drilling down on your core values, you will first want to cast a wide net. Look at lists of core values, like the ones below, or generate your own. Either way you will want to make a list of any values that resonate with you.
To help, you can ask yourself some questions to help identify additional values:
Who are your role models?
What qualities do you admire about them?
Do they have certain behaviors that you’d like to emulate?
Which values feel most like you?
What do you do, or would you do, absent any external pressures or influences?
Or conversely, what doesn’t feel like you, or makes you feel wrong or ashamed?
When faced a dilemma, what would inspire you to act?
What would cause you to risk something big, like your car or home, to protect?
Can you think of a situation where you took a stand, even if it wasn’t popular?
While it may be easy for you to articulate some values right away, I also encourage you to take some time to sit with them. Mull them over, think about them in other scenarios. Do they still hold up if you change the circumstances? Consider asking friends and family for input. They may have noticed something about your that you haven’t admitted to yourself or can confirm what you already suspect.
Once you have your list, you are ready for the next step.
GROUPING SIMILAR VALUES
If you’ve written down everything that rings true to you, you probably have some words that overlap or are similar. You may start to see some themes or categories to you values. At this point, I want you to start grouping them together in any way that is logical for you.
For example, when I did this exercise, I had several values that I was able to group. I combined lifelong learning, knowledge seeking, curiousness, well-read and open-mindedness together because for me, they were all part of the same belief.
Try to group related values into buckets. This will help you clarify what your value and give you less total values to work with. Once you have a shorter list, I want you to prioritize them to your top 3-5 individual or groups of values. Keep only your strongest held values on the list.
One way to help you refine that is to try pitting them against one another. You could consider if you would give up one for another. Or, if you could live in a world where only one existed, which would it be. For example, if honest and financial security are vying for a place on your list, would you rather be honest but lack financial security or be financially secure at the cost of your honesty.
If you can answer questions like this and be true to how you really feel, you will know where you stand. See why this can be a challenge? At the end, you should have 3-5 values or value groups in order of importance to you.
MAKING YOUR VALUES ACTIONABLE
Now is the creative part. You need to take these from the conceptual to the actionable. For each value left on you list you will want to turn it into an action statement.
Choose a statement that best exemplifies how you want to demonstrate this value.
If you choose Freedom, how would that manifest for you? Do you mean you speak your mind without self-censorship, you seek opportunities to be your own boss, or you spend your time on things that bring you joy?
Or take Stability. Does that take the form of being consistent with your choices, pursuing a career with better benefits and stable hours, or choosing a well paying job and pursuing your creativity as hobbies.
Sometimes through this process, you may find that values you grouped together actually represent two related but fundamentally different value principals for you. And that’s ok. Revisit your groupings or, heck, go back to the full list if you need to. Drop values off and add them in. Do more than 5 or have only two, its up to you.
At the end of it you will have your own set of personal value statements, literally words to live by.
Let me give you a solid pat on the back for getting this far. The hard part is behind you. Join me on Instagram as @betterwithaplan to get help with core values, share ones you’ve come up with, or give me feedback on how this exercise worked for you. And please check back on the blog next week to dive deeper into how to apply these to your holiday planning, goal setting and decision making.
Welcome back to Week 2 of the BWP Holiday Preparation Countdown. This week we focus on getting ready for family gatherings.
In an ideal world, your house would always be freshly cleaned and clutter-free. Your guests would always give plenty of notice before visiting. And even when they pop by unexpectedly, you’d be ready to host.
But here in the real world, you need a plan for that last minute cleaning and you need it fast. In my countdown planning workbook I share this method for getting your home as guest-ready as possible in a short time.
If you want full access to the planning workbook that these tips are based off of, hop on over to my Ko-fi page. Sign up for my one of my monthly subscriptions and for less than the cost of a pizza you can get access to the weekly planning PDFs, detailed exercises, themed checklists, and so much more.
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Company’s Coming
First, don’t panic.
It’s ok if you’ve skipped regular cleaning, have extra clutter, and don’t know where to start. If your guests are on the way and you only have a little time, you can still do some speed cleaning to make things a little better.
Before I tell you how, there is one thing I want you to remember: your guests are your friends and family. People who love you and want to spend time with you, not judge your cleaning prowess. Give yourself some grace and accept that it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Now grab a laundry basket, a damp rag, a dry rag or towel, a trash bag and some room freshener spray and/or scented candles and lets get started.
Speed Clean Room-by-Room
With this method you are going to go room-by-room to very quickly give your house a once-over before your guests arrive.
This is not a deep clean but a rescue operation. Focus first on the rooms where your guests will be walking through, and spend the most time in the places where they will be most.
Are they coming for coffee? Start by the front door and do the most in the living room. Coming for drinks and dinner? Put your focus on the dining room and kitchen.
When you enter a room do these 5 steps:
Trash: Gather any obvious trash/recyclables and bag them. Empty any trash bins.
Smells: Spray room freshener or light scented candles. Turn on bathroom and ceiling fans to get air circulating, if the weather is nice, open some windows.
Surfaces: Take your rage and quickly wipe down any countertops, put things that belong in other rooms into the laundry basket. Don’t wast time putting them away in another room. Straighten and tidy the surfaces as you go.
Clear the floor: Start at the center and pick up anything that is on the floor. If you can put it away easily, do so. Otherwise, fold, pile, or arrange neatly and move on.
Put stuff away: if you’ve got items in your basket that belong in this room, drop them off before you move on. Gather your cleaning supplies and head to the next room.
Finishing Touches
After you’ve gone through each room quickly, finish putting away any leftover items in your basket. Blow out any candles. Turn off the fans and close the windows. Then go back to your bathrooms.
Do a quick clean: wipe down toilet, faucet, mirror and door handle.
Tidy up: put out fresh towels, close shower curtains, and put down toilet seats.
If you have time left here are a few other things you can do:
Vacuum the center of the floors
Wash, or put in dishwasher, any dishes that are not he counter
Walk the entry round to look for thing that are out of place
Keep using the 5 steps on other rooms
Pick up some flowers and make some quick arrangements
Don’t forget to put your basket and cleaning supplies away but if you are short on time, just toss the whole basket into the laundry area and deal with it later. ☺️
Now stop stressing about what your house looks like and enjoy visiting with your guests.
Did you like this method? Want to know how this fits into the plan to get your whole house decluttered, decorated, and clean for the Holidays? Sign up for a Ko-fi subscription to get the full 8 week planning workbook with all the exercises, checklists, and week-by-week plan to getting stuff done and stressing less this holiday season.
How do you get ready for guests in a hurry? Leave a comment below.
