What to do when goals start to happen

Well it has finally started to happen, my graduation is approaching after 4 long arduous years of study I am getting my degree in management! When people say "this is going to be my year" it is because of a lot of events that are going to happen, well this is definitely going to be my year, graduation, getting a job and saving for my overseas experience. How can you not say that things are not happening?!

Since then it has got me thinking, about how do people react when they know that they are achieving their goals? It can be such an overwhelming experience, especially if the goal has taken you a long period of time and you have wanted it so badly. Once I graduate I plan to celebrate with friends my achievement by having a get together and relishing that I had finally done it! nothing beats being with your friends and having a merry old time.

It still feels surreal that I finally have reached this point in my life, I can still remember my days at high school wishing to get out and start exploring the world, now I am reflecting on how I got to where I am and if I would change anything about it. Some people can fall into a lull about how things have gone in their life, has it not turned out they way you wanted? or do you feel like you are missing out on things because you were doing something else?

Well what I can tell you is "STOP RIGHT NOW!" life is unpredictable, one minute you are doing one thing and the next you are going in a completely different direction! Can you tell me definitely that you have always done exactly what you intended to do? We can all say yes to a degree, even if we had achieved it, there would have been twists and turns in getting there. So I want to pass on a piece of knowledge that I have gained through experience and observation, do plan goals, don't make them to super detailed! you need to have room to make adjustments; such as time, place and importance. My degree has always been the forefront in my goal setting, however I made adjustments when I learn't that I couldn't achieve my goal in the time I had allotted. By doing this I did not stress too much, on not initially fulfilling my goal, because I knew I would do it, just the terms had to be altered.  

Now what I want you to do is practice accepting change within your goals, create a simple goal, an example would be saving for an item that you want. Allow room for flexibility and start working on it and be open minded when a hurdle comes up, once you have completed the goal reflect back on how you handle it and see if you stressed out or accepted the variable. By doing this you build a resilience to the changes that can affect our goals and direction, having a strong resilience in goal setting will actually help you reach your goals and still feel satisfied by the time you get there.

"When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps" - Confucius

Food for thought really,
Peace Out,

Z

Across the ditch a.k.a Australia

My Sydney Shopping Trip

So over the past week and a half I have been inhabiting Australia, I have been mostly in Sydney and for four days in Melbourne. Australia for me is like a second home that you visit on a yearly basis. My uncle and first cousins live there so I don't need to worry about accommodation while I am over there.

This time round I stayed with a friend for free in Wollongong which is south of Sydney about 1 1/2 give or take depending on what direction you are coming from.  

One of the beaches in Wollongong

Wollongong reminds me a little bit of Whangamata in New Zealand, a small town where people are friendly and the city just plods along. I was really impressed with the free bus service they had, it saved me a lot of money and it got me where I needed to go! I also watched my friend play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament,it didn't take me too long to figure out the rules and seemed like a lot of fun, even when i did get smacked in the face with the Frisbee. If you are looking to get into a sport that is not to overwhelming I would recommend ultimate Frisbee, so check it out!

On a side note, Wollongong is a coastal town so there is plenty of beaches to surf and swim at. A bit of a sleepy town but I definitely got my r and r in.

Pancake Parlour in Melbourne, one word, AMAZING!

Now Melbourne, that is another story, the city is huge! It took us 90 minutes to get our hotel from the airport!! However there was so much to see, I went to the Melbourne National Museum and the Victoria National Gallery to see the Monet exhibition, Impressionism has always been my favourite type of art and the fact it was all based around Monet was pure heaven for me! I did go into the city for a night on the town, it was great, we ended up staying at one bar that played current and old school music; definitely had a few sing a longs to some old hits. Visually I did find that Melbourne was lacking something, maybe it was the mix of old and new buildings didn't seem to fit in my eyes, though the old buildings I saw there were very beautiful. Sadly to say I did not get a chance to hit the shops and see what kind of places Melbourne had to offer as my friend I went with did not like to shop, boo! annoying boys...

My carry on luggage for my trip back home!

With this holiday I did manage to travel quite a lot within Australia, I used the Sydney Railway to get around and found that they were spot on every time. I would recommend using the trains as you can get day, weekly and fortnightly passes, plus the trains go to most places; I took a train from South Sydney to North Sydney to see my Uncle and that in the end was 3 1/2 hours! For my domestic flight from Sydney to Melbourne and back I used Tiger Airways, overall, not impressed; both my flights were delayed and there service was appalling. To be honest though I guess that this was Murphy's law really about only just wanting to get the cheapest flight and mentally having to end up paying for it!

Other than that, I had a pretty fun holiday! Hanging with friends and family, getting a little bit of shopping in and overall just relaxing. Perfect! I hope this little review might interest you in visiting Australia or even just giving yourself a bit of a holiday, we all need it you know.

Some purchases before I even left Auckland, oh dear...

Peace Out

Z

The next chapter!!

Photo from Pinterest

Well the weekend flew by in a crazy wonderful mess, I stayed up till the morning watching the day start on the new chapter of my life. Yes it is a bit cliché in the way it sounds, but I believe there needs to be some symbolism in ones life, because how are you going to recognise growth if you don't make momentous occasions?!

This post was going to be about preparing for a party such as a birthday, this was more in the material sense of what you can do to make things work and look fabulous to your ideal. However I am now feel that with my party that has been, I want to share with you about certain occasion where preparing mentally is just as important as physically.

There are always going to be moments in your life that you build up to, mine is my graduation due in August and the fact that I have turned 25! I planned my birthday 2 months in advance, a bit excessive for some people, but for me it is a natural thing I like to do. When I say plan, I looked at venues, decoration, what I was going to wear and who would possibly come. What I can pass on to you is keep your expectations realistic, I have come across many people who at their party are freaking out that something is not right, like did they provide enough food or will many people come? It made me realise when I was planning my birthday that those concerns are not relevant, at the end of the day you are having a party for you! if no one comes to your birthday then you truly know some of your friends are not really there for you.

Now you say "what do you mean those things are not relevant"?!, yes, having a good amount of food and people show up to your party are factors in making an unforgettable night. If you are consistent in your planning, then you should not have to be concerned about those two factors; when I mean consistent I mean you have to notify people in advance, say 1 month and then send a reminder a week out just before the event. Therefore no one can claim that they did not know about your upcoming events, in today's society, being so busy a couple of reminders do not go a stray and are not on the border of harassment.

After all that it is important to reflect on ones standing when birthday's come round, I sat back and thought about what I had achieved in my 25 years; well I finished high school, went travelling around the world and meet amazing new people who I am privileged to call friends. Now I am writing in new goals that I want to obtain, having a time line is helpful but you have to be aware that there will be hurdles along the way, for me one of my new goals is to move to England and do my overseas experience (OE). I have set the date for my May 2014 but you never know I may end up going earlier due to prices being cheaper or I may end up going later because I am short a bit in funds. Also another goal is that I want to meet more people, preferably out on New Zealand and work toward improving my blogging, plus getting out there more in the workforce. These goals do not really have a specific date, but they are goals that are achievable and satisfying at the end of the day.

I hope after reading this that you are a bit inspired to set some new goals for yourself, why not grab a blank journal and write out what you have achieved and what you plan to do next? Make it pretty and stamp it with your own signature style, it will be a great reference point when you feel like you are losing direction in what you are doing in life. I will post up mine once I have finished!

Please let me know how you get on, I would love to hear from you!!

Peace Out

Z