What’s Your Passion?

Hey people – hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Brandon and I are keeping it pretty low-key this weekend and just chillin’ at the apartment. I am headed to LA to visit my sister next weekend (and most likely partake in some St. Patrick’s Day celebrations!) so I am saving my energy. And dolla bills.

We did try out a P90x2 workout today (which I was not a fan of – too many pull-ups and push-ups for my liking. Blech!) and busted out some new protein powder for a post-workout smoothie.

I ordered a bag of Sunwarrior from one of Gina’s OpenSky deals awhile back, and the company mistakenly sent natural flavored powder instead of vanilla. They graciously sent the right flavor – in ADDITION to the pack they had already sent, free of charge! Unfortunately, we haven’t been big fans of the natural flavor as it is a little chalky-tasting. We’ve been powering through the bag anyway (well, I have been) and it’s almostttt gone. Protein powder is too expensive to go to waste! But we were excited to get the vanilla going today. Brandon still likes whey protein better than rice-based but it’s fun to switch things up.

Another great customer service story for ya – I bought Skullcandy earbuds at the Columbus airport back when I was flying to Ohio for work, and they just stopped working about two months after my initial purchase. Skullcandy has a lifetime warranty on their products and all I had to do was fill out a claim, pay to ship my broken pair back, and use a coupon to order a new pair completely free of charge. I received my replacement pair in the mail today! The original pair was around $30, so not the cheapest pair of earbuds on the market, but I believe the extra couple dollars is more than worth it for such great service and a well-made product.

I wanted to share a couple thoughts I had while reading Get Rich Slowly this week. Little known fact: reading personal finance blogs was actually my first foray into blog-land. During my last semester of school last year, I started freaking out about how to pay off student loans and how much car I could afford. My answer to everything is Google, and I quickly found that there were lots of real-life people blogging online about personal finance and their own experiences. I still read lots of them, but Get Rich Slowly is one of my favorites because it is SO comprehensive and follows a “do what works for you” philosophy.

The main blogger over there, J.D., posted this week about time management and how identifying your passions is key to making the most of your limited hours of free time. In the post, he describes how he used be a “dilettante” (which yes, I had to Google. Means: A person who claims an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge). Now, he has focused in on just five passions that he truly loves and this allows him to prioritize his time and to do well at what he loves and not just be “okay” at a bunch of random hobbies.

I love the idea of identifying what really makes you “tick” and prioritizing those activities. I’ve also always wished I had something unique that I was really talented or passionate about – I think everyone has those friends that have been amazing dancers/musicians/equestrians/whatever all their life and that passion really anchors their identity. I’ve always been a little bit jealous of people that have a “thing”.

Once I started thinking about it, I think I’ve got four pretty well figured out – I really love quality time with friends, pursuing fitness & health, writing (for the blog & work) and cooking. Beyond that, there are sooo many things I still want to try and learn! Skiing, photography, gardening, interior decorating, yoga, entrepreneurism, travel, improving my personal style… there are so many things that I see others doing well that inspire me that I honestly can’t pick a fifth. So for now, my fifth passion is going to have to be trying new things and doing that dilettante thing. Right now, having new experiences is definitely doing what I love <3

The post includes some other great tips to fit more living into your life: say yes to new opportunities, say no to things that drag you down, multi-task in smart ways (e.g. listen to a podcast on a new interest while you work out), and use your network to open up your access to opportunities.

Do you think you can narrow your interests down to five passions? What are they?

Some eats from the day –

Roasted brussels sprouts (just learned it was brussels not brussel!) + sweet potato (red potato for B)

+ goat cheese + baked chicken + salad greens = pretty damn good dinner salad!

Okay this was from yesterday. A coworker brought Girl Scout cookies to the office this week. Shortbread + coffee = best experiment of the week. SO GOOD!

I have purposely been avoiding baking supplies at the grocery store after the homemade Snickers and cupcakes that took over my life/ruined my skin in February but I’ve had baking on the mind ALL WEEK. I scrounged around the kitchen and found the only thing I had ingredients for were… butterscotch almond oatmeal cookies. Follow this recipe but instead of leaving the butterscotch as chips, melt over low heat and add to the liquids when mixing up the cookie dough. I also used hand-pounded almonds for the nuts.

This is my first attempt at cookies including almonds and they were a big, fat WIN!

See how the butterscotch formed a sort of molten, gooey cookie filling?

I’ve had four already. And counting.

Some links to share –

Equipment-Free Workouts via PBFingers (thanks Julie!) – you know I always love travel-friendly and gym-free workouts. Here’s a bunch!

So You Think You Can Be a Morning Person? I saw this semi-old article on Facebook or Twitter and clicked right to it because I have been failing MISERABLY at my New Year’s resolution to be an early riser. I took this quiz and not all hope is lost:

I’m going to set a goal of getting up at 6am consistently next week and getting to bed by 10, since right now consistency and sleeping in on the weekends are my biggest issues (helloooo 11:00 wake-up time today). From there, I can inch up my waking time by 20 minute increments.

What’s on your agenda for Sunday? I am in need of a pretty epic Target trip in the near future, so I think I’m getting that checked off the to-do list tomorrow. Hoping to get 5 miles in too, but I woke up with a gnarly cramp in my right calf. Off to do my third foam rolling attempt of the day…