Starting a new chapter...and not just because it's the New Year!

My goal to blog weekly took a back seat - obviously since my last blog was nearly basically 2 months ago now. There are a few GOOD reasons for that. The last few months have flown by and a LOT has happened - and is still happening, so here's a little about that, but mostly I want to concentrate on what that's led to and where we're going in 2020.

Firstly, Umishs' death exacerbated the hard time my husband and I experienced in Jacksonville - especially in regards to our work situations. Right after Umish died I applied to a job at Florida State University, but already knew no matter the outcome, I'd be quitting my job after Thanksgiving. Our lease was coming up in December and while leaving Jacksonville would also leave both me and my husband without a real source of income, we needed to make a change. Fortunately I continued to progress through the interview stages for the job with FSU and I was offered the position the Tuesday after my last day of work in Jacksonville. It was bittersweet because before the offer, the uncertainty of a real 9-5 in the foreseeable future, no health insurance and no steady stream of income helped solidify something I was already looking into - starting my own entrepreneurial endeavor ASAP, hence my website and the creation of Invictus.

So in the last two months I've quit my job, been offered a new job, moved to my hometown and started working again. But I've also been setting up a foundation to truly launch Invictus. I'm really happy and excited about this new chapter for me both personally and professionally. This is not something I had the courage to do in the past. I had to experience more of life to have this confidence, and while it was hard and certainly not easy, it definitely is worth it and will be! So here it is in some semi-official capacity, my new logo!

Thank you Jessica May for the beautiful work on this for me! For those that don't know, the bird is a swallow tail kite. It's a migratory bird that spends its time in the swamps of north Florida during the the spring and summer months mostly, but lives year round in parts of South America (yes, it's a bucket list dream of mine to see these beautiful birds in it's different habitats across the world). I've read that swallow tail kites are a sign of good luck, hope, new beginnings and love. In September I got my first tattoo of one of the Audubon images of this magnificent bird. It's held a lot of meaning for me through the years and growing up, so I knew I wanted it to be a part of this endeavor.

Alright - I've got a lot I want to catch y'all up on, but still want to share my journey with launching Invictus. Like I said previously, I am recommitting to weekly blog posts that will cover topics from professional work with social media and digital marketing tips and tricks to more personal subjects like death and grieving, clean skin care and makeup, goal setting, gift giving 101, new recipes and, yes, even tips for moving (we've got a few of those up our sleeves with our moving rap sheet!).

Besides the quick recap of the last two months I wanted to hit on one of these topics briefly in this post because of its role during all these changes. It’s something that I've rarely been without since I was introduced to it in fifth grade: a planner. I'm ADD and combat that with being a little OCD. Keeping a planner helps center me and not only get me going at the start of each day, but keep me going through that 3 p.m. brain fog. It helps not only in the day to day task(s) and flow of work or home, but with bigger, long term projects.

The last number of years I used an Erin Condren LifePlanner, but it became to big and cumbersome, and I also wanted to be able to do more with it. I still highly recommend it for simplicity. In fact, as Chris and I plan our renuptials in the next few years, I want to get one of their Wedding Planner's. I also love their stickers! My 2019 LifePlanner was a huge help as we planned our transition from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. It's a work-horse planner that served me well.

For 2020 however, I've switched to the Passion Planner. I've heard about this planner for years, but thought it was too complex. After my shift in personal and professional priorities along with my love for goal setting, I knew this was the planner I needed to get me started with all the new endeavors and chapters that were coming with 2020. I'm even tempted to get the Daily Planner, but I want to make sure that I like the setup and lay out of the planner in general. I grew up journaling, so I think the Daily might make it's way into my life come April at least after I've gotten through my goals for the first three months of the year.

Wednesday I spent several hours setting goals and mapping out how to achieve the one I am concentrating on for January - much to do with Invictus! It was an amazing way to start the new year and I'm even more excited about what's to come because I have laid out step-by-step guide to accomplish those goals. I can see the end game and that's amazing. Maybe this isn't the time for you to do this - it's kind of cliche I'm doing this with the new year, but really this chapter has lined up with it perfectly.

With good planning comes goal setting and what I call “road mapping” - essentially you’re your own cartographer in life. Map your road! We’ll talk about goals and mapping for them coming up soon.

Do you set goals or resolutions? How do you stick with them? What do you utilize to make them a reality and achievable?

Thanks for sticking around on this journey with me! I'm excited for 2020!