Minneapolis (and other) Adventures

I really enjoy traveling and exploring new cities. Over the last year, we realized that we didn't have to spend huge amounts of money or even go that far to have some fun adventures!

First Avenue and 7th Street Entry

In the last year, we (or I) have visited the following cities:

Bentonville, Arkansas
Denver, Colorado
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (I went on this trip with a friend.)
Des Moines, Iowa
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Only one of those (Philly) involved air travel. The rest were all within driving distance - Denver was the longest drive at 9ish hours. Both Bentonville and Des Moines were the shortest, at about 3 hours each.

Minnehaha Falls

Anyway, when we went to Des Moines in April, we realized that Minneapolis was only a few more hours north and also a pretty easy drive. So, when we decided that we'd like to go on a little mini-vacation to celebrate our anniversary, we selected Minneapolis.

And it was great! It was a larger city than I expected, with a really active downtown (even on the weekend, which wasn't the case in Des Moines at all). Because it was 95 degrees one of the days of our visit, we really enjoyed having the Skywalk (11 miles of buildings connect to one another) as a way to still explore yet still have a reprieve from the heat.

I think my absolute favorite was the Minneapolis Institute of Art. They have a really wonderful collection. We are spoiled with the Nelson Atkins, and the Minneapolis collection was just as good, if not better in some areas (a much larger Impressionist collection, for example). If you find yourself in Minneapolis, do yourself a favor and visit this place.

Just a random collage of photos from our trip.

We also enjoyed the Mill City Museum, Minnehaha Falls, and the University of Minnesota. And despite our original protests, we even broke down and visited the Mall of America as a way to get out and explore while having lots of access to air conditioning.  We didn't buy anything, which I find humorous, but we did enjoy the people watching and marveling at the sheer size of the place.

And the food was great too! My favorites were the Lemon Ricotta Hotcakes at Hell's Kitchen (not affiliated with the television show) and the tacos at Barrio. Both are downtown restaurants.

Overall, it was a great visit and I'd love to go back sometime! But in the meantime, there are other places to explore.

In just a few months, we're heading to the Big Apple, and I am so excited!

Mission (Statement) Not-So-Impossible

There's no guarantee that I won't change my mind again - but I think I've written my person mission statement.

In my previous post, I said that I wanted to take this process seriously - and I wasn't lying. I've been working on the mission statement, which is only a few sentences, for over a week. 

I reviewed my core values, looked at my strengths and weaknesses, and read approximately a million examples of other personal mission statements online.

After I had a draft, I played around with the wording for a little while - and I finally think I've got the finished product.

So, here it is:

It is my mission to live a life of integrity, empathy, intention, and gratitude with a joyful and adventurous spirit.
 
To be accountable for my actions, admit my mistakes, and never stop learning and growing as an individual. To use my talents of empathy and understanding to assist others in defining and achieving their owl goals. 

To persevere when setbacks occur, to see the positive in challenging and difficult situations, and accept the lessons and the adventure that struggles can provide.

To nurture my body with healthy food and frequent exercise, to read good books, to travel, and to laugh often. 

To love and to be loved.

What is your mission? What statement can you use to guide your decisions? 

Mission (Statement) Impossible?

On the surface, it doesn't seem like it would be difficult to write a personal mission statement.

It's really freaking difficult.

Perhaps I'm making it more difficult than it needs to be, which would not unusual, as I do have a tendency to make decision making excessively more complicated than necessary.

But there's a lot of consider. At least, there's a lot of consider if you're taking it seriously. And if I'm going to write a personal mission statement, I might as well take it seriously and write one that truly reflects how I strive to live my life.

Sooo... it's not done yet.

But I'm working.

Braggity Brag Brag

This list (you know, the list of goals that this whole blog revolves around) was written at a time in which I didn't feel very good about myself. For that reason, one of the goals that I added to the overall list was making a list of things that I like about myself.

The end of the established time line for achieving all these goals is fast approaching, and I still haven't completed this task (until today, obviously). Why? There isn't a good reason - it should be an easy to task to complete, and doesn't take up a large amount of time. 

Better late than never, right?

Despite feeling confident, and knowing that I'm in a good place in my life at the moment, it was still difficult to make this list. Here are some things that I like about myself:

- I have pretty hair.
- I have nice eyes. 
- I am empathetic. 
- I am intelligent.
- I am kind and respectful.
- I am a caring and thoughtful wife.
- I am a caring and thoughtful daughter. 
- I am well informed about current events.
- I am open to opinions other than my own.
- I am willing to change my thoughts and opinions.
- I am able to be spontaneous. 
- I am (fairly) well-traveled and open to new experiences.
- I can run.
- I make wellness a priority in my life.
- I am a bookworm. 
- I am an introvert.
- I can have an intelligent conversation about soccer.
- I have successfully lost 67 lbs.
- I am a good instructor.
- I am willing to admit when I've made a mistake.
- I am candid (which is sometimes funny).

For the purposes of this blog, this list is extensive enough. Of course, I do plan to house this list elsewhere, and add things as they come to mind. 

I think that this is a good practice for anyone. If you're familiar with the premise behind StrengthsFinder, it suggests that we should focus on growing and developing our strengths. Usually, the message is that since we're already strong in those areas, it would make more sense to focus on improving our weakness in order to be more well-rounded individuals. StrengthsFinder rejects that line of thinking and instead argues that we should keep working on bettering our strengths.

My weaknesses are my weakness for a reason. There are some things that I'm just never going to be able to do well, and that's okay. So why focus on those things? Instead, we should focus on the things that we can do well in, and become even more skilled in those areas.

Of course, there are some things that can be changed and improved. For example, if I don't like my hair, I am able to change it quite easily.  I can't, however, make myself a better artist - I don't have the natural ability needed to draw or paint. It would be silly to invest in this weakness of mine, because it will always be a weakness despite my best efforts.

Instead of fretting over those weakness, I can work on cultivating my strengths and increasing my potential for growth in those areas. And isn't that a much better way to approach life?

Exploring Personal Core Values

One of the items on my grand to-do list revolves around exploring my own personal core values.

Why? Because I have never given dedicated, intentional thought to identifying my core values. Of course I've given thought to what I value and what I consider to be important in life, but I had yet to actually articulate those thoughts into a specific list of core values.

I didn't want to just come up with a list of values in a few minutes. Using that strategy would have functioned more like brainstorming session than real and intentional contemplation. Instead, while I did begin with a brainstorming session of sorts, I asked myself a few questions:

1) What qualities/characteristics do I admire in others?

2) What qualities/characteristics do I present when I'm being my best and most authentic self? (This shouldn't reflect the characteristics that I'd like the possess, but instead be a real, honest assessment of myself as an individual.)

3) What qualities/characteristics do I find frustratingly lacking in other people? (I didn't consider this because I think that all people should have these same core values. But if I get frustrated when someone doesn't have that trait, it's likely because it's something that I value highly.) 
 
After considering these questions, I had a fairly long list of values (about fifteen). Using online resources (thanks, Google), I browsed lists of core values to see if anything else caught my eye. No new values were added to the list, but some were changed to synonyms that I found more preferable to the words used in my original draft.

Once I was satisfied with the verbiage, it was time to narrow down the list of values to those that I truly considered to be core values. I examined each value individually, considering the both definition of the word and whether or not I would consider that particular value to be part of my best and most authentic self. There are some values (for example, ambition) that I admire in other people but don't quite describe me personally. Those were eliminated from the list.

In the end, here is the list of core values that I've identified:

Integrity
Accountability
Openness
Perseverance
Gratitude
Mindfulness
Adaptability
Learning
Wellness

And, according to the Barrett Values Center, here are some things my that my core values say about me as a person.

Your values show:

• You believe in looking for new opportunities to develop and grow, and give support and guidance to others in this regard.
• You make a conscious effort to hear others' contributions and demonstrate transparency through your actions and words.
• You seek harmony and balance in all aspects of your life.
• You take ownership of your actions and like others to do the same.
• Demonstrating determination and resolution to follow through ensure that you are able to fulfill your aims.
• You enjoy having the chance to improve your skills and experience in the work place and gain meaning from developing your abilities in this regard.
• You enjoy working with others and like to cooperate and share experiences.

The type of values you selected indicates that your individual capabilities and the connections you build with others are both important to you.

I found this exercise to be valuable because it caused me to examine my authentic self. It does take intentional thinking to be honest with yourself about your values, and more so about what things aren't included in your core values. For example, I didn't want to admit that I'm not all that ambitious. But when I'm honest with myself, it's the truth. I enjoy my work and take pride in my accomplishments, and there are times in which I display ambition, but it is not at the core of my best and most authentic self.

What values do you display when you are at your best and most authentic self?

Insanity

My last post (which was in February...oops) talked about how I'd recently completed my first 10k.

Well, a crazy thing happened over the weekend.

I ran a half marathon. You read that correctly, I ran my first half marathon! It still doesn't seem like it's possible. There are no words to describe my feelings upon completing this race.

In October, when I begin the Ease into 5k program, running for 90 seconds was a challenge. And here I am, 8 months later, running 13.1 miles and feeling great the entire race. Seriously - it was FUN! And that shocked me, especially because the last two weeks of training hadn't gone super well.

But since it was fun, and because I'm a crazy person, I'm going to begin training for a full marathon. That's right - a freakin marathon!

Now, I'm only committing to beginning the training at this point. It's a lot more difficult to train for a marathon, not just because of the increased distance (which is obviously harder) but also because of the increased time commitment and the extent to which it cuts into your personal life.

But, what better time than now? I'm in the best shape of my life, my running base is already built up, and we don't yet have kids. There will never be a better time in my life to give this a shot.

So, with hard work and a little luck, I hope to say that I'm a marathon in just 20 weeks from now.

I'll keep you posted! Maybe - I'm not very good at blogging.

Running Adventures

In October, I was daunted by the idea of even running for 60 seconds. It was difficult. And just a few months later, I ran my first 10k.

That's right, on January 24th, one day after my 29th birthday, I ran my first 10k. My time was 01:13 - way faster than I thought I'd run, because I hadn't trained for that distance AT ALL.

I decided the day before the race (my 29th birthday) to register. My husband was running, and so I'd be there anyway - why not also run? I hadn't run any more than 3 miles at that point, but I thought I'd give it a shot and see how it went. My plan was to walk if needed, and just finish the race.

So, imagine my surprise (and elation) when I was able to run the entire distance! I didn't take any walking breaks. I was so pumped, so that I decided that same day to begin training for a half marathon.

And so, imagine my disappointment when I injured myself during my first run after completing the 10k, which was just 2 days after the race.

That's right, while I don't regret running the 10k, the lack of training caused me to develop an overuse injury - Achilles tendinitis. It was painful, and I limped for several days. In the 3ish weeks since the race, I have only ran a handful of times.

But - not to worry! My plans of running a half have not been derailed. Instead of training for half marathon on April 23rd, as originally planned, I am now training for a half that is on May 14th. That means that I don't technically begin my training until Monday, which gives me more time to prepare.

Back in October, I could have never imagined that running would take me on this journey, teaching me so many valuable lessons in just a few months. I've learned about hard work, preparation, and persistence.

In short, running is awesome and has done a lot more than just increase my physical fitness.