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****This blog is no longer updated at this address! Come check it out at http://thinkandgrowchick.com. All of the archives are available there as well****

This site is my online journal that documents my attempts to reach various goals inspired by the principles found in the book, Think and Grow Rich. Join me as I strive to meet financial goals, fashion goals, school goals, hair-care goals, and everything in between. I hope that other young women will relate and find my journey useful to read about; this blog is for me as much as it is for women seeking resources for personal development and freedom. To get a daily dose, follow me on twitter and facebook...and don't forget to follow my blog!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Initial "Think & Grow Chick" To-Do List

Alright. If this blog is going to be my online journal for achieving my goals via the T&GR principles, then I guess I should state which goals I'm trying to achieve. I'll go into detail about each of these individual goals in later posts, but right now I just want to lay my initial goals out so I know what I'm working with. As the T&GR principles state, determining exactly what it is you desire is the first step to success. As I'm sure most young women can relate, my main goals fall into the following categories:
  • Money/Employment
  • Style
  • Beauty
  • Health/Fitness
  • College
  • Organization/Time Management
  • Spirituality
Let's take a look at what exactly I'll be working towards this year...
(This is a long, detailed list, so if your lazy, you can just skip down to the bottom of this page to look at a summary of my goals without the commentary)

Think and Grow Rich

All my goals dealing with money, work, and entrepreneurship will hence forth be labeled "Think and Grow Rich". Napoleon Hill's plan should be especially applicable to this category in my life because, well...that's what his plan was developed for! The three main immediate goals I have for thinking and growing rich include:
  1. Starting a series of beauty and vintage fashion events on campus tentatively named The Lemon Bar
  2. Developing a network on campus comprised of student businesses then promoting them to local, non-student businesses in the city
  3. Have enough income from my own ventures/freelance initiatives to not have to work a part-time job while in school
In a nutshell, I have competing passion for both entrepreneurship and vintage fashion/beauty/generally creative stuff, so every hour that I spend at a part-time job feels like a complete waste of my time. I would love nothing more than to devote all of my free time to a business I've started in creative industry and get paid for it. So no more dreaming about it...I'm taking T&GR's advice and I'm planning on it.

Think and Grow Stylish

If you're rolling your eyes here, then you probably should be reading a different blog. I can't help it; I love fashion, particularly vintage fashion. Vintage is great because it generally cost less than new clothes, yet the quality tends to be better and it's completely unique. As a poor college student, you can't beat that.

While I'm always tweaking and re-tweaking my look just to keep things interesting, my current quest for a great wardrobe comes at after the Armageddon of my flooded apartment. Not only was everything soggy, but mold had taken over the room. Here's a pair of some never worn vintage Stuart Weitzman for Neiman Marcus pumps...


...RUINED! I wish I could just put it behind me with days worth of retail therapy, but the problem is I'm very tight on cash. I also attend Howard University, a school where style is required, not an option. Therefore, my goal is not simply to snag some great clothes, but to do so as close to $free.99 as possible. Hopefully the T&GR principles are up to the challenge.

Think and Grow Pretty

T&G Pretty overlaps a little bit with T&G Stylish and T&G Fit, but this section deals with my superficial goals about changing up my look. I recently just turned 21 (woo-hoo!) and I've come to realize how bored I am with my look. Now don't get me wrong...I think I'm cute, but I've been riding the same wave for a while now, and as a legal, bona fide adult, I desperately want that "grown" look. I won't deal to much with clothes here because I already went over all of that in T&G Stylish, but my hair and makeup goals will be handled here.

Speaking of makeup, I've donned the same look since high school; a bronzy face with pink lips. I desperately need to not only new makeup, but new technique as well. Truth be told, I'm actually not the greatest at applying makeup. This may shock my friends because many of them say I taught them about makeup, but in reality, I only know a few basic techniques that work, and I've been pimping them since I was 16. Granted, my makeup generally looks good, but I have a hard time changing it up, and nothing I do exudes the "grown and sexy" look I'm going for.

As for the hair, I've been natural for about 6 years now; I love my big, curly afro and would never think of going back to a perm. *However*...I do feel like I've exhausted all of the popular natural hair-doos out there and I definitely need a change. Most of the stuff for natural hair online deals with transitioning out of a perm or mastering basic styles. The internet has yet to tackle what happens when you've been natural for a while and you love it, but you're a little bored with the monotony of a 'fro?

Hopefully I can successfully do that here; my goal is to find new signature look for both my hair and makeup.

Think and Grow Fit

I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but I have gotten SO out of shape lately. What once was the body of both a track and field athlete and a ballerina, has now been reduced to that of a girl who spends too much time on the couch. I've only gained about 10 pounds, but because I have a naturally round face and was always muscular and lean my entire life, and extra 10 pounds looks a really flabby to me. More than the way it looks, an extra 10 pounds is an indication of active lifestyle I've all but abandoned in favor of lazy afternoons in front of my Macbook. I'm kicking my sedentary butt into shape; I'm using the T&GR principles to get fit and to tone up.

Think and Grow Studious

This is my senior year of my chemical engineering program in college. Though I'm not graduating because I'm on a five-year track, this year is very important because it'll determine whether or not I'm graduating on-time. I've flip-flopped in the past, both with my grades and my major (I changed to Finance for a semester, but I decided to switch it back this year) so I really have no room for mistakes this year. Though Think and Grow Rich was not written to help someone will school, this might be the most important goal it can help me reach. I'm retaking a lot of classes this semester, so my goal is two-fold; I want at least a 3.5 this semester and I want to save up enough money this year to be able to afford summer school sessions so that I can graduate on time.

Think and Grow Organized

Organization is so overlooked yet it's so important. I feel like I don't even really have to go into detail on this one; I simply need to stop procrastinating and learn to keep important things mentally and physically in their place. That's part of the reason why I started this blog ;-)

Spirituality

I obviously do not need to use the Think and Grow Rich principles for my Christian faith (that's what the Bible is for), but that doesn't mean I don't have spiritual goals, because I do. Spirituality is without a doubt my most important goal and the crux of any success I have had or ever hope to have in my life. Without Christ, I am and would have, nothing. Therefore, I will document my spiritual growth on this blog when appropriate because it's such an integral part of my life, but I am making the conscious decision to be discerning about it on here because one's walk with God is a very intimate, personal thing.

Summary
Whoo! You are dedicated if you read through all of that! If you didn't, no fear; I summarized all of my goals below:

Think and Grow Rich (Money/Employment)
  1. Start a series of beauty and vintage fashion events on campus tentatively named The Lemon Bar
  2. Develop a network on campus comprised of student businesses, then promote them to local, non-student businesses in the city
  3. Have enough income from my own ventures/freelance initiatives to not have to work a part-time job while in school

Think and Grow Stylish (Style)
  1. Rebuild a my funky wardrobe on the cheap!

Think and Grow Pretty (Beauty)
  1. Find a new, wearable signature look for my makeup and learn the proper technique to apply it.
  2. Get out of my natural hair rut and while working to make my hair healthier.

Think and Grow Fit (Health and Fitness)
  1. Return to my active lifestyle, drop the excess 10 pounds, and tone up my whole body.

Think and Grow Studious (College)
  1. Earn at least a 3.5 GPA this semester and save up enough money this year to be able to afford summer school sessions so that I can graduate on time.


Think and Grow Organized (Organization/Time Mgmt)
  1. Quit procrastinating and mentally and physically keep things in their respective places.

Spirituality
  1. Grow closer to God!!! (via prayer and The Bible, not T&GR)

Now go forth and read my blog to see how my goal chasing and the Think and Grow Rich principles work out!

2 comments:

  1. I love the theme of your blog! Very good information. Goal-setting is so important if you're truly passionate about something. This summer I was reading a list of my goals when I was a senior in highschool, and now that I am a second yeard graduate student working on my PhD, it was amazing to see how some of my "dreams" back then became reality. Setting goals early gives you a foundation to build upon and a never ending source of motivation. Good luck on your journey! : )

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  2. Hello Ms. Mae!

    Your a second year grad student working on your PhD? Oh, my, I'm surprised you have time to even read my blog! I'm really happy that you like it though, I think you hit the nail on the head when you took the time to look back on your dreams only to realize that you are now living them. I'm hoping I can look at this blog a few years from now and have many of my goals crossed off, and for my readers to have completed many of their goals too.

    Thanks for stopping by!

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