January 2019 Report

Remember my 2018 review? I said this year was supposed to be smooth sailing? Well I moved to Chicago at the beginning of January. I realized I wanted the big city life, and damn it I’m not going to wait. Life is short. What about New Hampshire? I was going to move there as a form of political activism. But truthfully, politics aren’t a priority for me right now.

My move to Chicago was smooth. I can fit everything I own into my tiny two-door car, including my twin size mattress. My new apartment in Chicago is 300sq ft. It’s tiny, just right for me. It’s only $915 for rent and I’m in the heart of Chicago. I’m in love! Parking is ~$200 a month though. I’d love to get rid of my car one day, but right now I need a reliable mode of transportation for work.

My first week in Chicago, I drove 4 hours for work, and then I had car trouble, and had to drive 4 hours back. The next day I drove 4 hours, wrote some business and netted $160 for the week, then drove 4 hours back. I started to have some serious doubts about this job. Last week was significantly better, but I still have my doubts. It’s disappointing that the puppy love stage ended so quickly. I thought this might be my last job. I could see myself in sales, but I’m just so bad at it. I can and will get better, but it all takes time. It sucks to suck. Three solid months is my cut off time for giving this a fair try. If this job isn’t a fit for me, I’ll know at that point. But I don’t want to quit prematurely.

This job is hard is new and unique ways. It’s hard being self driven, and making my own schedule. It’s hard balancing the ego; being confident but also not taking the rejections personally. It’s hard being on the phone so much. It sucks to suck at sales. The edge that sales people have over their customers is knowing their objections ahead of time. I’m not there yet. Each objection is new to me. Without that edge, I’m not getting much traction. I need to practice, maybe without customers.

I have revolutionized my morning routine! Now that I have to create structure for myself, I’ve streamlined my mornings. On my bathroom mirror, I wrote out exactly what steps to do and in what order. Wake up -> meditate -> vitamins -> brush my teeth -> shower -> tea or hot cocoa -> breakfast -> read. Boom. Now I’ve got the important things out of the way, and I’m ready to start work at 8am. My goal is to keep going to bed earlier, waking up earlier, and adding more to my morning routine. If meditation or reading were things I had to think about, then I probably wouldn’t do them. The routine minimizes the amount of thinking I have to do in the morning, which is the best time to not think.

I made a set of predictions for 2019. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wnOko3UTeKcn0poVU9JbWbWty-zd8yXbxGjSTkaY1hs/edit?usp=sharing