I’m currently sitting at my local Starbucks at 3:04pm determined to get this Friday 5 post up today, Friday. One of my goals for the month of March is to get out of the house to work at a cafe or something at least once a week. Winning! I also wasn’t sure what my “5” should be for todays Friday 5, so I sat and sipped my latte and started thinking about life lately, and I’ve been working my booty off on several things to get the metaphorical ball rolling down hill towards achieving some major goals in the hopefully not too distant future, so let’s talk about that. Here are 5 things I’m currently doing to truly go after my goals instead of just talking about going after them instead.

1. Embracing Who I Really Am

I recently re-read the book The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, and this time around it was a game changer. When it comes to personality quizzes, I am one of those people that will sometimes try to answer based on who i want to be instead of what the most truthful answer actually is. After getting completely fed up with how frequently I let myself down when it comes to getting things done and achieving goals, I decided it was time to re-visit this subject and actually be honest about who I am. It turns out that I am an Obliger, aka the type of person that needs external accountability to achieve any goal or task. Once I really thought about it, this made perfect sense.

I’m good at making sure my home is clean, there are always groceries, and I often will get destracted from other work in order to do housewife tasks that I notice should get done. Why? Because I know it will please my hardworking husband to come home to these things being done. I am also very diligent about showing up to the gym whenever I have a Bodypump or pilates class to go to. Why? I feel some weird obligation to the instructors.

Days that I don’t have a class and can go to the gym on my own time are the days I will literally spend hours arguing with myself over if I should actually go or if I can talk myself out of it. I have no one else to keep me accountable, therefore I don’t do what I’m supposed to do. For two months I have had “Diva and the Divine finances” on my to do list. Did I do anything about it? No. Instead, I got them done only when my husband said he needed them becuase he scheduled an appointment with our tax guy. Once someone else needed me to do it, it got done in 2 days.

As frustrating as this trait is to me, I’m starting to embrace it rather than change it, and the results are already starting to show. Finally accepting who I am at my core instead of trying to change my core has helped me use my tendency to my advantage instead of having it be a negative thing. I mean, I’m all about self-acceptance, and I guess this is a part of it I’ve never thought about before. This will be life-changing. Stay tuned for more as I navigate my way through this.

2. Investing In Myself

I waiver back and forth about what is worth spending money on and what isn’t, and I recently decided that it was time to invest (like seriously invest) in myself.

First, and this just happened yesterday, I decided to invest in prescription skincare by way of Curology. One of the biggest goals/wishes I have is to have clear skin. If you’ve ever seen me with no makeup on, you have likely seen the ridiculous acne I have for being 32 years old. I didn’t realize this was too much to ask of my no longer teenage face, so I finally decided to enlist the help of professionals. Curology is one of those online dermatologists that will create special skincare for you without you having to go to a dermatologist. #notsponsored Yesterday I signed up for a free trial and moving forward it will be $29.95 a month if I opt to get their cleanser, moisturizer, and their special prescription treatment ($19.95 a month for just the treatment). I won’t lie, being an influencer, I typically reach out to a company like this (like I did with Dermacare, which did work very well for me) and see if I can work with them to not have to spend the money myself. I ultimately decided that the $30 a month is a completely reasonable amount of money to be spending on my skin, especially if it rids my face of the acne that has been my biggest insecurity lately. I’m 32…I should not feel betrayed by my skin like this anymore.

The second investment I made was in 12 sessions with a personal trainer. It wasn’t cheap, but after just 2 sessions with him I can tell that amazing things are going to happen and I can’t wait to see how adding personal training to my workout routine helps my body get stronger, leaner, and helps propel me closer to my goals.

3. Reading Excellent Self-Help Books

I am a self-help book junkie, and this month I’ve been reading some amazing ones. I already mentioned The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, which I highly suggest you pick up and read because it could really help you gain a better understanding of yourself and others. A few others that I’m reading are Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis (which should surprise no one) and High Performance Habits by Brendan Burchard, which is amazing so far, and I’m only 20% of the way in.

What are some books that have helped you get fired up?

4. Giving Up The Scale

This will eventually be its own blog post, but it’s worth mentioning here too. I am giving up the scale for the season on Lent. This means no weigh ins at all. Today was supposed to be weigh in day, and I actually really wanted to step on the scale because I woke up feeling nice and lean, but I resisted. The whole point is to gain freedom from the scale and embrace all of the other indicators that tell me I’m making progress toward my weight loss goal.

• How my clothes fit
• If I’m staying in my Points budget
• My energy level
• How many steps I’m getting
• My workouts
• Body measurements
• Sugar cravings

All of these are better things for me to focus on than the number that pops up on the scale. This is very freeing and I think (and hope) that it will have a very positive impact on my weight loss as a whole. Stay tuned.

5. Enlisting The Help Of Friends

Being an Obliger (see #1), I knew I needed to find friends that would be willing to help me out and keep me accountable. I told my fitness instructor friend and my personal trainer that I need the accountability, so they will notice if I’m slacking. I also had a sweet friend come forward and be willing to be my food tracker accountability. Every night I am supposed to send her a screenshot of my Points tracker showing her my Points count, and if I don’t send it willingly, her job is to harass me for it. She’s not even on any weight loss journey herself, but she’s doing this just so I have the accountability I need to get it done. This means that I will need to track everything daily and it also means someone will see if I go off the rails. Could I lie on my tracker? Sure, but while I’m excellent at lying to myself, I don’t see myself lying to her. No one benefits from me being dishonest on my tracker. Having to send it off to someone just means that I need to get it done, which will ultimately keep me on track. I am so thankful for friends that are willing to keep me honest and be the accountability that I so desperately need.

I will keep you all updated as I figure out exactly what is working and what isn’t as I dive in, head first into the deep end of working toward my goals during this Lenten season. I’m confident that these 5 things will help me tremendously in heading in the right direction, and I can’t wait to see what is waiting for me on the other side.