Never settle for less

 Hello Blogger world and everyone!! 

I hope you're doing well :)

It's been a while... 

I am listening to some relaxing meditation music as we are speaking here and I thought it would be a good time to let some thoughts out on my blogger. 

I have realized for the first time in a long time to never settle for less. 

Like...

- Dating someone just so that I'm not lonely 

- Dating the wrong person or dating the right person at the wrong time 

- Holding onto something or someone that doesn't resonate anymore 

- Lowering my prices in my business just to 'make a sale' or to serve everyone... 

- Saying yes to every single opportunity/call/meet up that comes my way 

and probably a lot more lol. I just cancelled two calls that I had scheduled for later today (I just woke up from a nap) that I literally scheduled in the same week. 

I don't usually do that unless it's like WOW OMG call, but I felt rushed to do it and hurried because they were both things I thought I was not doing so well at (help to get sales in my business, and help with dating/meeting the right person). 

But I realize that it's okay to be patient for the good things. I noticed I was only in a rush because I recently moved back in with my parents and they have been saying their thoughts and opinions out loud to me to 'go get a job' and the 'I don't know what the heck you're doing, you left your 6 grand a month job, etc.' - it hurts to hear that from the parents you look up to, who are literally doing the same thing, but I digress. 

And I was like, you know what...? My timeline is no one else's timeline. I do not have to push myself or pressure myself to do something that I don't want to do! 

Also btw, a ton of people got laid off from the company I left, which really sucks :( (there's so many good people I met there) so... I think I'm doing just fine ;) 

I quit my job in October 2021 to pursue my dreams full time. And I hadn't really been doing that, but I have been figuring things out as I go. 

It's been 10 months since then. I allowed myself to grieve for 6 months, and then the last 3 months have been about implementing the systems, strategies and now, energetics for what I want to call in and for what I've learned <3 I am excited to see what magic unfolds for myself and my life and business and career. 

I'm also taking a break from investing in new courses/advisors, etc (at least financially). I have a team of free advisors/coaches right now. Not the most ideal because their capacity is limited, but I am very grateful for having them in my life. Thank you MJ and Anne-Marie, I appreciate you both! 

I would also like to get into teaching English online. I have an application ready to go and I need to complete the interview part. 

My other goal was also to work in makeup... and I had always wanted to work at Sephora <3 I am being picky with the location right now, so once I feel called to apply, I will. 

I also would love to write columns and articles. At my last job, I wrote every single day for social media supporting people online, and also for the online community forums. 

I still write for my business today which is awesome, but it would also be nice to write for a niche column. Not sure what kind of niche, I'm pretty grateful and proud of myself for studying various topics throughout the years, so I'd love to write about them hehe 

I realized I had grown up thinking that I needed to settle with my first everything. 

First job, career, boyfriend, home, etc. 

but after having three years of solitude/time to focus on myself and trying new things, and then moving back into my parents house, I realized this is not what I want. 

My ancestors did not sacrifice themselves/go through what they did for me to live a settled down/mediocre life. I would be doing a disservice to them if I sat here and settled down. 

I know I'm the black sheep of my family. I'm VERY ambitious and mission and vision oriented and I see a lot of the bigger picture but I had been made to be a detailed oriented person (which I also love but I prefer to be the big picture person hahaha I also love that I can do this with my coaching business). And I am also a polymath. I need to do multiple things. 

Perhaps I'm remembering who I really am. 

These last few days I had been pondering why I feel like my highschool self/university self has blended together. Along with the wisdom of my post-secondary and post-corporate working self. 

And I realized it's because I am remembering who I am. 

I am in the present and I am acknowledging it and letting myself do what's best for me. 

I have also been having so many conversations with people. To the point where I need to say no to a lot of things and I have a hard time saying no tbh 

I just love seeing people happy but I also love seeing myself happy, so I will say no when I need to! 

I love saying yes to things that fill me up and fill my heart with joy and are a FUCK YES HECK YES kinda deal <3 I love it!! 

I really needed to journal this... it's so nice to just type my thoughts out instead of always writing them down in my notebook to myself/vlogging about it haha 

Sometimes you just need those moments with your fingers and the keys and the screen.

I am also learning to relax more. 

I need to relax more...

I was brought up in an environment where hustling/working until you're exhausted was the norm. 

And I realized that doesn't always bring about the most potent results or desired outcome. 

In the last three years I have been studying ways to allow more femineity in my life. 

To focus on attracting, rather than chasing the things I want in life. 

This also includes the way I do sales/marketing. I have a lot of people wanting to help me telling me to do sales/marketing in a masculine way but I'm not having it... 

and that is okay. 

What is important to me is to conserve my energy and also make the sale. 

Conserve my energy and also have a good time doing the things I love, with the people I love. 

Conserve my energy and also make an impact and nourish my soulmate aligned clients. <3 

Conserve my energy and also have a great time and impact my loved ones, friends and family <3 

I have a long ways to go. So much to learn, a lifetime to keep going. 

But for now, I will focus on relaxing and attracting the things, experiences and people I want to let in <3 

I hope to write in here more often. I don't like to keep things to myself, I love telling people what I'm up to. 

It's very therapeutic... 

Also I don't work with my psychologist anymore lol so I need to let my thoughts out!! outside of my social media channels lol 

I have an appointment booked with my psychologist for later this month. I can't wait to see her! 

I can feel my shoulders releasing. They were tense earlier lol. 

I would love a massage haha 

Thank you for reading and for listening. I'm heading off to watch a recording for a course I invested in last year. See you next time! 😜

XO Kare 

 

Withdrawals

I'm having a bit of social withdrawals. This is why routines are necessary!

I've been trying to keep up with reading more, writing more, posting more, making meals more, and waking up earlier more... oh and going to the gym more too. It's working, but as soon as I don't do one of them, I fall into a slump!

Last week I went out for poutine week to Pig & Duke with my friend, J, and also celebrated my friend's birthday at Fusion Sushi and at Sole Karaoke with A. Then A and I went to T&T the next day to get some groceries and snacks. :)

This past weekend I mostly relaxed. I hung out with another J friend on Friday and went to The Coup for dinner, as well as Philosafy to catch up! I decided to chill during the Easter weekend because I'm going to have a big weekend that'll probably tire me out since I will be volunteering on Friday. It was nice to get some errands done and to go on a little stroll.

I've been doing well in terms of writing in my bullet journal.

I bought the wrong jacket, again

This week has been pretty eventful both at work and personally.

I went back to a M-F rotation at work and so I've been pretty tired in the evenings but managed to get some reading done, reflecting, and also make some food. Been watching a lot of Ai Nori since the 2nd season came out on Netflix.

So earlier this week I bought the jacket I thought was correct, online. I got it and then realized it stil wasn't the right one, but decided to keep it! I went to Dynamite on Saturday to return the old one, and found the correct one was still at the shop, but they didn't have my size, so I didn't get it. I wore my new jacket today outside and it was still pretty cute! Yay, fashion!

So at work I've got a couple projects to help with, so I'm looking forward to working on these :) Yay!

Friday - Took a nap as I was pretty tired. Woke up later in the evening and went and did some karaoke with old and new friends and the boif.

Saturday - Waaaay too sleepy but had lots of things to do. I went for brunch at Espresso Cafe with a friend, then went to Nanao Kimono and bought a few sakura and yuzu goodies! It was such a cute store and I'm happy that I got to experience it with my friend. I'm looking forward to going back there to get some dishware sometime. Afterwards, I went to Chnook Mall and returned my jacket. I also got a contour stick from Sephora and then some stuff fom The Ordinary at the Bay. I also tried some clothes on, but they didn't look great on me so I didn't get them. There was a pair of lounge pants from pink that felt really nice, and looked a tad loose, so I didn't get it, but it was also expensive too... I went to Ardene to see if they had something similiar, but they didn't, so I guess I would be paying for quality and comfort. I'm going to look online to see if they have the pants available.

Today we watched a ton of Ainori and then had banh mi for lunch. It's 5pm now so Im going to work on my blog, do some reading and help out the boif. I want to go out some more since it's the weekend, but I'm not sure where to...

I bought the wrong jacket

Last weekend I went to Grape Escape with some of my girl friends. We had a great time! After, I didn't feel so well and was out sick for a few days. So thankful that I am better now. I couldn't really look at food for a few days, now I'm back to my normal self!

Thursday - I did some cleaning in my bathroom, some laundry and tried to figure out the InstantPot that we just got (didn't really figure it out, but found out it'll be very useful!), did some side hustling, posted on IG, wrote in my journal and we also went for a walk in Inglewood. It was really nice to get outside after staying inside for so long, and I wanted to get my energy back.

Today we went to the Avenida Food Hall & Market. There were a ton of different food places there and a few stalls that sold other goods. We tried samples from the thai place, the pretzel place, the hot sauce place, the ethiopian place, and the mercantile place. Had some tuna poke and Korean fried chicken tacos, along with some chips with honey and butter drizzled on them, with a side of yuzu aioli. A bit too much, we couldn't finish the chips haha, it was more of a dessert. We also took home some lemon smashed tea from Teamo and some Skor and Earl Grey Lavender cannolis from Holy Cannoli.

Afterwards, we came home for a bit and then I went to Chinook mall to shop for a card. I took a peak at Sephora, Bonlook, and Thefaceshop as well, and Shoppers, but didn't get anything from there. I did get a jacket from Dynamite. I wanted to get this pleather jacket I had tried on previously, so I went there, and thought what I was trying on, was the jacket that I wanted... but something was off about it, but I got it anyway. Then as I was telling my friend about it, I realized I had purchased the wrong one.

I'm going to go return it sometime when I get the chance, but in the meantime I'll order the actual one that I wanted, online. Ok, just looked at the jacket that I got... on the model online, and it actually doesn't look too bad. Hmm. What do... do I keep it and still get the other one? lol I guess I'll try it on again with a different shirt and see how it looks.

Improvements!

It's been a hot minute. The week after I wrote my last post here was a super productive one. I wanted to stop feeling so sluggish and tired, and too exhausted to not be able to make food, etc. So I got up early and dedicated at least 10 minutes during each of my breaks (morning before working, during my lunch, and then a little bit of the evening) to meal prep. Washing and chopping veggies, putting them into the fridge for later, etc. were left for the mornings/afternoons, and then putting things together and making the hot items were for the evening. Distributing the tasks throughout the day really motivated me to get up earlier and helped with eating healthier!

I felt really good as a result as well.

Then last week (the week after lol) was super sluggish. I had meal prepped a bit before, but I left a bit of meal prep to the evenings, which wasn't too bad since I still mapped out my meals in my bujo, which helps A LOT, because it makes me accountable when I write it down. I felt a bit weird not prepping much, but we went to the gym lots last week, so it balances it out!

With that, I've also been getting back into reading and I did some meditation as well. Time to combine all of these together which really is my way of giving myself self-care.

Friday - I didn't have any plans with friends this weekend (last weekend I went or brunch at Espresso Cafe) so it was very chill and I got myself some meals from Pathways Burgers & MoMos. I got a veggie momo poutine and a chicken momos appetizer. I looooved the chicken momos, the poutine fries and gravy and cheese was good, but the veggie momos were baked which didn't go too well with the poutine, I thought... so I think I'll try the boiled veggie momos next time. The chicken momos also came with some hot peppers and some momo sauce, which was sooo delicious all put together. We watched some shows on Netflix to chill for the rest of the evening.

Saturday - The day was packed full of things. We went to IKEA and got food from the restaurant. We both got the tomato and feta soup, which was amazing. The bae also got a shrmp open face sandwich, as well as a daim cake. I got some veggie medallions as well, they were pretty good! We just decided to go a la carte with our food so that we can try different things. Originally we wanted to get some veggie hotdogs, but the lines were always so full. Shopped around for a bit for some props and for some household items, and then we went to Superstore and I got grocceries while bae went to look for another prop. Then we went to Chinook mall, and I went shopping for some stuff while bae also went to look for props. Afterwards, we went to the famjam's for dinner, played with Tofu, and then I went to Wal-Mart to grab some stuff as well :)

Today I went for a walk, did some interactions on the 'gram, took some photos for the 'gram, cleaned, prepped some ingredients, did laundry and also had Wow Chicken for dinner. Sooo good. I wanted to get my cleaning done to get rid of some clutter today, so I decided to order-in instead of making some food. I'm glad I did, because it was so delicious!!

I'm going to go work on my blog now and then do a bit of reading/relaxing before bed. I've cut back on the amount of YouTube I watch now, since I'm usually working or doing chores, or reading, so it's been nice because I don't really feel fomo anymore. I'm mostly using YouTube for things I'm curious about learning, that would help me in my day-to-day goals.

Oh and I've also been eating oatmeal almost everyday, with fruits (strawberries and bananas). It's so freaking good!

2019!!

Whoa, it's been a while (that's my line like all the time).

In January we went on our trip to Europe. We went to Scotland (Edinbugh, Castle Douglas, Gretna Green, Kirkcudbright), Portugal (Sintra, Palmela, Lisbon) and also England (London). A lot of places to see in just two ish weeks! We checked out all sorts of attractions like the Edinburgh Castle, London Dungeon, Shakespeares Globe, Madame Tussauds, the Lisbon Story Centre, National Palace of Pena and Quinta De Regeilara. Sooo many places and a lot of steps to add onto my fitbit. :)

It was a fun trip and I'm finding it a bit challenging to get back into the swing of things at home, but I think I'm up to speed now. The jet lag helped for the first few days, as I got up really early and went to bed really early. Now it's back to the old bad habits of staying up late and waking up later. Must stop.

I wrote this entire post out the other day but it never saved :( It must have been because I left the window open for a few hours, so I probably wasn't logged in anymore. To sum it up, I've been working on content for my channels and am working towards making it a routine. I've got a long way to go, but I'm glad I'm getting things going!

This weekend was packed!

Thursday - I went to Dagu Rice Noodle with some friends to catch up. We had a good chat about games, streaming, our goals, YouTube, and about upcomng esport events! It was a really interesting conversation, and it looks like we might have formed a new group for Thursday hangouts!

Friday - We went to the famjam's for dinner, played with Tofu and then I cleaned the house, watched some YouTube, and finished up my other post. I was pretty motivated to clean because I had made plans with a friend to come over the next day to do a work together. I also cleaned my makeup brushes!

Saturday - My friend was pretty exhausted, so they didn't come over to work together, but we went to sing karaoke and have dinner with another friend. I had pink eye last week, so I couldn't make it to my friend's birthday party, so this was my way of making it up to her. We sang for just over an hour, which is much shorter than we're used to, but we were able to sing quite a bit of songs! Afterwards, I made a little cheese, cracker, and guac platter for myself after researching food delivery places. I really wanted some honey lemon tea for my throat because it was getting a bit stuffy, but it was already a bit too late to order from places, and I didn't feel like spending over $10. I did some reading before going to bed, and that really helped me feel relaxed.

Today I went for the brunch buffet at Espresso Cafe with my friend, and we ate quite a bit of food. I woke up early to make a reservation just in case, and I definitely realized it was a good idea after we got there, it was so busy! I remember going there for brunch around the time it first started doing that, and it was not busy at all, they're definitely picking up! We caught up a lot because we hadn't seen each other in a few months, and then we went to the mall. My friend had an appointment to go to, and so we walked around trying to find the Chi Keratin Mist for my hair while she waited to go to her appointment. I'm hoping this mist will help make my hair stronger, it's been a bit damaged lately after using weird shampoos on it last month, and I was looking for a hair product that would work on not just damp hair, but dry hair as well inbetween washes. My friend went to her appointment and then I went home and did some tidying, some reading, and got my stuff ready.

Throughout the weekend, I managed to get out of bed early/at a reasonable time, so my body is slowly working it's way to being morning adaptive again!

Holidays!

I didn't have a chance to blog last weekend, so much was going on! There were a few holiday parties which were pretty exciting (CEO's mansion, meeting up with my coworkers, going karaoke and holding our own party).

Also ate a lot of chocolate this week.

Dec 24 - Had Shawarma for our Christmas Eve dinner. It was really good!! Also played some Smash Bros Ultimate as we were able to get a deal from Best Buy ($30 off online or a gift card in-store) - Also spent the evening trying to choose a Christmas movie to watch fully haha

Dec 25 - Spent Christmas morning opening our gifts for each other, and finishing up the Christmas Chronicles movie. Had a bagel sandwich for lunch and then had Christmas dinner with my family. It was good, lots of fried chicken/shrimp with sugar cane, soup and a lot more stuff!

Dec 26 - Spent most of the day at home doing some work and hanging out. Went to Cross Iron for an hour and then went home.

Dec 27 - I volunteered for a fundraiser. Had my favourite fried rice for dinner from Noodle World. So good, and a jackfruit shake!

Dec 28 - I went to try this new noodle place in town with my friend. It was so delicious and they even had free second servings of noodles available! Definitely want to go there again. It was a bit pricey, but the bonus noodles and the size of the bowl really is worth it! After meeting with my friend, I went to the mall to go do some errands and looked through a of stores and makeup wipes! Haha.

Dec 29 - Went to Cross Iron again to grab a microfibre towel that was on sale for $10 and got a spray bottle. Checked out some deals and also got some sugar cane juice... it was nice to be reunited with a drink I would have like everyday when I was little and visiting my cousins! Did some more work later as well and video editing.

Today we went to Best Buy and McDonald's and then cleaned the house and did some chores. I'm just waiting for my pizza to finish reheating for dinner and then I'm going to do some editing and some journaling. Will also watch a few youtube videos too!

Not sure what we're doing for NYE... hmm!