If you want to be creative in your company, your career, your life, all it takes is one easy step…the extra one...

...When you encounter a familiar plan, you just ask one question: “What ELSE could we do? - Dale Dauten

I really like this quote. I like it so much because I think it's a great way to paraphrase a topic I've been thinking about a lot recently- the topic of Change. I think what really got me thinking about it was Obama's campaign. "Vote for Change" he says. "Things need to change around here." "Together, we can change the world." We've all heard quotes like these before from all kinds of people and organizations, so obviously, Obama, his team and believers in him are not the only ones that want to change things in the world. We all do, really. But here's what I've been thinking about: Why do we have to change everything? Why do people want to change the world? I mean, I'm a human being, a part of this world. What did I say or do to make you want to change me?? While people want to change everything, here's my suggestion: Why not improve it instead? You can't make the decision or grow the desire to change something unless you think it's seriously wrong in the first place. If you didn't see something wrong, or you thought something was just fine and wonderful the way it already was, you wouldn't want to change it, right? That goes for how you see people, too. We don't want to change ourselves unless we first see something wrong that needs to be fixed or replaced.

I don't think people take enough time to really see how awesome life is and how awesome our world is. If they did, they wouldn't want to change everything. Of course, there is a lot of shit going on in our world that could and should be changed, but I truly think that we need to focus more on improvement than we do change. Because if we did, we would be more appreciative of life and all that's in it today than we would be appreciative of what could be.

To put this into practice, I've decided to be more conscious about my thoughts on how I want to live my life in the future and about my goals and how I make them. And I'm using this blog entry as a way to hold myself accountable.. to get it out in public and down on "paper." Usually, I put about 30 minutes aside each month to just jot down what I want to change about my life and how I'm going to do that. In the past, my notes have said things like, "Stop procrastinating," or "Become the best outside hitter in our conference," "Work at a top design studio by January" and so on. I know a lot of people would think, "ok, Sarah, there's nothing wrong with those goals so what's your point?" It's this: My goals have always been created after thinking hard about what I didn't like about my life or myself and jotting down my plans to change that. And that's not what I want to do anymore and it's something I think we all do too much of. Especially those who want to "change the world." I wanted to be the best outside hitter in our conference because I didn't like the player I was at the time I made that goal. I wasn't focused on how far I'd come and how much better I'd gotten, I just wanted to change. Same goes for getting that job. I still want to work at a high-profile design firm but I now realize that I have some improvements to make in my skill set before I do. Most importantly though, I now realize it's FINE to have lots of room for improvement.

Here's what else I want to do with my life (hopefully before '09 is over):
-Be an adventurer. Just go to different places on a whim, unafraid of what could be there or what could happen.
-Make exercising a part of my everyday life
-Become an early riser
-Complete an Olympic distance triathlon
-Complete an Xterra
-Be completely independent, financially. Get my credit card paid off, take over payments for health and car insurance, be able to pay full rent and all business expenses.
-Love my job. Everyday and every minute.
-Do all of these things because I want to improve my life, not because I want to change it. In other words, be totally satisfied, happy with and appreciative of the life I'm blessed with and only see what else I can do to improve it rather than categorize things into either good or bad, then swapping out the supposedly bad for some new goal I want to accomplish.

Hopefully that all makes sense. If not, just read the quote that I picked for this post one more time because it really does sum up what I've been thinking about, probably without even meaning to. Bottom line is, I truly think our world needs to focus on what ELSE we can do. Not just what we can CHANGE. Yes, change and improvement go hand in hand a lot of the time, and a lot of the time that's okay... as long as we take the time to stop and think about and appreciate all the great in our lives.

I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time. -Oprah Winfrey

Man, it's been a while. And man, I've been blessed!

I've been feeling guilty for some reason for not writing in this blog much lately, but I keep telling myself it's ok because I've been soaking it all in. And I definitely have been.

Ryan did a pretty dang good job of writing about our engagement here so all I want to add is that it was definitely the perfect proposal. We both knew it would happen but I definitely had no idea it was going to when it did! It was incredible. Could not have been any better. Before we started to ride back, Ryan explained to me why he asked the way he did. He said that he wanted it to be outside somewhere, where just the two of us were working out together and just doing something fun and going somewhere beautiful and new. And I totally understood. We both know that the rest of our lives together will be filled with times like this- being active together, pulling eachother along, and just being so happy. It really was perfect!!

Since our engagement, Ryan and I have kept busy. If you haven't already, check out his blog post about Maui and Xterra Worlds. I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of him for doing that race. He did awesome... I wanted to cry for him just looking at the course before he started haha. But he did it and tackled it like a champ! yay-yeah. I won't get TOO heartfelt on here but I will say that after that, there really is nothing that he can't do.

The past few months have been a little stressful for me only because I have put a lot of pressure on myself to get so much done in a short amount of time. That's why I chose the quote I did for the title of today's post. I've had to remind myself a lot lately (and Ryan definitely has, too) that I can't have everything and do everything at the same time, let alone have everything at once or do everything at once either. Maybe Oprah can, but I sure as hell can't!

Some people have told me that I shouldn't work so hard and that I need to take breaks and that I can't just shut out the world for a whole day just to work. I can't say I agree with that right now. I feel so selfish, helpless and single-minded for saying that and I can't stand it. But I also can't stand not having a full-time job doing something I love to do. Yes, I am an independent designer and that is my part-time job right now, and yes, it could be full-time, but that's not what I want. What I truly want requires a lot of hard work right now. It's not something that will be there forever and I want to make sure I do everything I possibly can to get it when the time comes! I feel like everyone who has told me not to work so hard and to not lock myself in my office room for hours on end are those who have already put in the work to accomplish their goals. They all have something already that they can depend on because they've worked hard to earn it. I haven't earned it yet! That's the only difference between us. They have, and now it's my turn. This might all sound harsh and I'm sorry if it does, but I just want people to understand why I'm doing what I am. I don't want to be selfish, but at the same time, I don't want to feel worthless and anything like average.. like I do at times now. And that's not a cry for pity, by the way. It's just my motivation to work harder than ever until I get that job.

Anyway, life is busy but great, as usual. And I just wanted to take the time to write about it since I haven't in so long!

Oh and I've created another blog for Huddy Design to that this one isn't all over the place. This one will be about all my random ramblings on life while the other is all about design. So check that one out if you're interested in seeing what's new for Huddy Design. :)

Halloween!!

this year I'm The Second Amendment (the right to "bear" arms).

more pictures to come later after tonight's celebration, I'm sure.