Tag: faith

The 2016 100

The 2016 100 — or — How to Build a Better Casey

Last updated on April 5th, 2021 at 10:39 pm

I can’t even lie, guys—coming up with a list of 100 goals for the fourth year in a row was hard — ridiculously so. I’m a very different me than I was when The 2013 100 came out, back when free time was still an abundant commodity I didn’t even know I was taking for granted, trying to fill it with countless things that’d keep life interesting.

A problem I most definitely don’t have in 2016!

As I work at surviving the upcoming year—especially with our second child’s imminent arrival—I needed to make the list a lot more realistic; I’m all too skilled at chasing ambitions that exceed my lifestyle’s capacity, and I’ll need to keep wary of that in 2016 if I want to see myself make it out the other side!

So without further ado, The 2016 100. It took a couple of days to polish off after recovering from the gauntlet that was 2015, but I feel like it’s a list that will really make waves in this life o’ mine should I see it finished!

But hey—that’s what I say every year 😂

Thanks for reading!

1) Write an amazing series for Black History Month
2) Win a vacation for my dry cleaner
3) Watch Creed; Mad Max: Fury Road; The Martian; Ant-Man
4) Take Eric to a sporting event so he can stop complaining about getting left from sporting events
5) Phase my old 3.5″ hard drive out
6) Get rid of my old electronics
7) Stop biting my nails
8) Get rid of the wedding thank you cards I never sent
9) Clean out the basement crawl space
10) Build shelves into the crawl space
11) Give my FWD Powershot 2 to my old manager the hockey coach
12) Do the CN Tower Edgewalk
13) Sort out my old TD employee RSP
14) Consolidate everything down to a single notepad

Though a chiropractor I started seeing late into 2015 told me I’d developed some mild sciatica in my back, I didn’t need him to tell me I carry too much STUFF. In a digital age where we can pack mountains of information into a single device, there’s really NO NEED for me to carry all the draft posts and note that I do—save the fact that working from hard copy’s the way my brain’s WIRED.

In 2016, I need a little more focus to keep all my ideas stored in one place so I’m not constantly carrying EVERYTHING in my house made of paper, knowing that I probably scribbled SOMETHING on ALL of ’em.

15) Sort out the Internet situation at home so I can stop relying on tethering to LTE data
16) Learn enough Spanish to understand my sister-in-law’s Mexican wedding in May
17) Find time for date nights, which will involve finding someone who wants to babysit two kids… how about we just find more awesome things to do at home, just in case?
18) Try Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake
19) Get to 0 drafts on CaseyPalmer.com by converting everything into live posts
20) Install the growth chart for my kids that we got at my office baby shower
21) Update all the old content on CaseyPalmer.com
22) Upgrade the site infrastructure to better support contest traffic
23) Redesign the heck out of the blog (Twenty Sixteen, what up)
24) Find the time to pack more lunches for work
25) Clean up and optimize my Pinterest account (I still have that copy of Pinterest Savvy lying around somewhere)
26) Shave more regularly
27) Hand out my remaining business “cep” cards so I can put in a new order (wait—do we still do business cards?)
28) Clear out the bookshelves to prepare for Baby #2
29) Replace the lost key to our 2011 Ford Edge
30) Figure out what I ACTUALLY need to run my site and invest in THAT.
31) Replace our bathroom sink
32) Meet with the people who I never seemed to schedule in through 2015 (Aaron, Emma, Ria, Adrienne, Dianna)
33) Get a Brookhaven Computer Cabinet

The 1% of the Casa de Palmer workspace I use to do all the things isn’t the best—in fact, it’s falling apart. As I get older and start formalizing my #BloggerLife, Sarah and I agree that my workspace should evolve to show that. It’ll take some saving to make it happen, but it’d be a nice addition to the home.

CONTINUE READING: That’s just a THIRD of the list. Click here for the REST! “The 2016 100”

32 Things I Know Now That I’m 32: #13—If You Won’t Believe in Yourself, Who Will?

I’ve learned to steadfastly believe in myself and that I can do anything I put my mind to, because expecting anyone else to without them being in my head feels unrealistic. I’m not high on myself—I speak very matter-of-factly about my #BloggerLife and everything it’s given me ’til now—but this world frowns on tooting your own horn, preferring that you fall in line and do what society expects of you. And that same world is the one with everyone too afraid to lend each other a hand, burned by life so often that they’re unable to trust without tangible proof that they should bother.

The world wants most of us convinced that success isn’t in our futures, making things infinitely harder for anyone straying from the norm. It values conformity not conviction, obeisance over originality—if you want a destiny you can truly call your own, you’ll need to do more than just walk the walk and talk the talk… your principles need to live through every fibre of your being so the world can see you stand tall in your beliefs!

But are you willing to do everything you must to go all the way?

Many bloggers I’ve known were full of passion and energy—but they, like myself, pointed it all in the wrong direction. Party harder. Blog faster. These were the things we’d do as we struggled to get noticed, trying to be the first bloggers out the gate rather than be the ones who did things best.

But what’s the point of shouting when you’ve got nothing to say?

CONTINUE READING: You’ve gotta believe in yourself. You’ve GOTTA. This post is a little reminder of WHY. “32 Things I Know Now That I’m 32: #13—If You Won’t Believe in Yourself, Who Will?”

Dreams Can Only Take You So Far

Last updated on April 4th, 2021 at 01:38 am

Life is a lot like the old folk tale of the Little Red Hen. To paraphrase for those unfamiliar with the tale, the plot follows a hen who finds a grain of wheat and (SPOILERS!) over time cultivates it into a loaf of bread through harvesting the grain, threshing it, milling it into flour and baking it. Through the story, she asks other animals for help, but met with a smug “Not I” every time. When the bread’s baked and she asks who’d like to help eat it, the same animals eagerly volunteer—but by then it’s too late; since none of them worked to create the bread, none of them get to partake of it, either.

Sadly, the same applies to our ideas — no matter how amazing they seem in your head, unless you make them tangible, you’ll find it really hard to get others to believe in you.

Don’t tell me what I can’t do.

“Can’t” is a word I’ve heard often in my life.

“You can’t do that — you need to focus on your studies so you can become successful!”
“You can’t write on that — it’s too risky! No one will care!”
“You can’t chase your dreams — it’s time to grow up!”

Though my current situation makes me immensely glad I never threw the towel in on the #BloggerLife and kept pushing forward, there were plenty of times I nearly listened to the people who didn’t see my vision.

CONTINUE READING: What gets my goat when people think blogging is easy, and why you need to have something to believe in. “Dreams Can Only Take You So Far”
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