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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Last Day - Lessons I've Learned as an Expat

Mackinac Island, MI


And just like that, 31 days has come to an end.  I'm rather proud of myself that I managed to blog every single day.  It's an accomplishment that my family is getting rather tired of hearing about.  Doing this challenge taught me things that are separate and different than things I've learned being an expat.  These are things that I needed to experience and learn.  

I've learned that even though I'm working full time, I can still accomplish something.  It's been 19 years since I worked full time, and going into this season, I really believe that work--and nothing more--would be my life.  It takes a burden off myself to know that life is more than just work.  I'm fortunate to really enjoy my job and the people I work with, but I have other goals and desires outside of 40 hours that I hope to accomplish.  Now that I know I can do a few things in the evening, I'm looking forward to laying out some goals and a bit of a schedule.  For me, it's the only way I know I'll be focused enough to follow through.

I've learned that it's ok to get home and take a little time for me.  I don't need to be running around all evening picking everyones' stuff up.  In fact, having something to occupy my mind distracted me from the little nit-picky things in the house.  By the time I went to bed, amazingly enough, most the stuff was put away by its owner.  It's good to let my family be responsible for some orderliness and it's good for me to let go of dictating when and how things are always done.  That's a tough one for me.  I like my way. 

It was a really good feeling to set a goal and work towards it.  Yes, I'm a goal setter, so this challenge worked very well with my personality.  Some days I was exhausted and really didn't have a clue what to write about.  So thoughts came out disconnected and jumbled.  But I did it anyway.  Too often it's easy to say "I can't do it perfectly, so I'm not going to do it at all."  I'm glad that I stuck with this challenge and did the best I could.  That's all we can do--isn't it?

So I wrote about Things I've Learned as an Expat.  You may have read some of the posts and thought "I've learned the same thing going back to work or being married."  You see, we all are continually learning things.  I hope your life isn't stagnant.  We need to challenge ourselves and find ways to stretch ourselves.  I challenge you to take a few moments and make a list of things you have learned...

Thank you for sticking with me this month.  I've had fun and enjoyed your input along the way.  Now back to life with a bit more framework for accomplishing a few things I would like to do!

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