The Hustle

Getting up regularly at 5 a.m. has been a goal of mine for more than six months, when it became clear to me that if I ever wanted a productive morning I had to get up hours before the baby did.

Before baby, my days usually started at 6 a.m. when I would get a 30-60 min workout in, shower, prepare my lunch and make it to work by 9 a.m. (ok ok, more like 9:15).

I have one. Just one little baby on the verge of becoming a toddler. In theory, getting him ready for the day shouldn’t take too long. In reality, I swear it takes me another hour and a half to get out of the house in the morning.

And then after leaving the house there’s showing up to my job and performing well there, squeezing in some freelance work on my lunch break, coming home, preparing dinner (mad props to my husband for doing this most of the time), getting baby bathed and ready for bed, then maybe folding some laundry and getting to bed at a decent time so I have the energy to wake up the next day and do it all again. The kid is not even a year old. We aren’t even to the point where we are shuffling him to extracurricular activities or helping with homework. HOW DO PEOPLE DO THIS?

I had no idea how adding a baby to the mix would eat away at my time. Like seriously, where does it go? Granted, a good hour or two in the evening is spent interacting with said baby and even staring at him. Yes, I just stare at him in the bathtub. It’s truly great entertainment. Much better than all that television I used to consume before he came along. Speaking of television, I am so behind. Like I just finished the new Gilmore Girls and the next season of This Is Us starts this week, and I’m only two episodes in to the first season.

I read one book in 2016. Ok, wait, that isn’t true. I read like five books about babies, and one book for me. It was a dang good book, too. If you haven’t read The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, go get your hands on it now. Unless you’re like me and you’ve returned your last three library books after renewing them twice and still hardly cracked a page.

I’m not exactly complaining. I have a great life. I’m happy. My hustle is nothing like the single mom working three jobs to make ends meet hustle.

I’m saying all this because I’ve been thinking a lot about goals. I’m a big fan of new year goal setting, but I have a way of being too ambitious with my goals and never really following through. So I’m trying to shoot for things that are measurable and attainable…..and well even the smallest goals are going to require a lot of hustle.

Writing
– Make $300 a month freelancing
– Break into Ravishly and The Establishment

Fitness
– Run a marathon
– Go to yoga twice a month

Personal
– Monthly date nights with the hubs
– Save for a vacay to the pacific northwest
– Buy a house
– Monthly friend hangout times
– Read four books for fun

I could add a few more but that would just be me getting carried away. Is it sad that I think what might be the hardest part of this list is reading for fun and hanging out with friends? Ugh, adulting sucks sometimes.

What are your goals for 2017? I know you have them because I’m way late to the goal setting party.