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Nicole

Goals

Monthly Review: October Goals

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone had an exciting end of the week and Friday evening. I know I did. Remember the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge that I wrote about? Well, I won the grand prize! I’ll share updates and pictures on Monday, but for now, let’s talk about goals.

One of the major themes of this blog is goals and goal-making. I haven’t covered goals in great detail until now, but now that it is the end of September (I’m still trying to come to terms with this), I figured it was a good time to introduce my monthly goal series.

Each month, I plan to recap how well I achieved the goals I set and what my goals for the following month will be. Since I didn’t set September goals on the blog, today I’ll only focus on setting October’s goals.

October is going to be an interesting month. I’m wrapping up the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge and I’ve officially started this blog: two things that were taking up a bit of my time the past few months. Now that those have wrapped up, it’s time to shift priorities in new directions.

September 29, 2012 by Nicole

Home screen of Centz by Nicole Kendrot, MyMoneyAppUp Challenge Finalist Design

Career

Preparations for the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge Awards Ceremony

A while back, I decided to try doing something that I had never done before. I entered an app design challenge: the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge.

The MyMoneyAppUp Challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department in partnership with the D2D Fund and Center for Financial Services Innovation, is a contest that encourages people to come up with ideas and designs for mobile applications that can help Americans shape and control their financial future. With an interest in personal finance and a background in design, I decided to give it a try.

I had been wanting to gain experience in mobile, but had not had many opportunities to do so leading up to my decision to participate in the challenge. After learning about the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge, I knew I had to participate. I figured that no matter the result, submitting an app design would be an interesting and challenging new way to stretch my brain.

Fast forward a month or two and I finished an app design proposal and submitted it hours before the submission period ended. I was hopeful when I submitted my app, but had no idea how many people would participate or the other types of proposals that people would submit. To my surprise (and excitement!), I received an exciting email one afternoon: I had been chosen as one of 8 finalists for the app design competition!

September 26, 2012 by Nicole

A view of the CN Tower in Toronto as the sun begins to set

Canada, Destinations, North America, Ontario, Travel

24 Hours In Toronto

Hello all! Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I sure did – I traveled up to the fabulous city of Toronto, Canada. You couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. The sun was shining, it wasn’t too hot or cold, and the only time it rained was when I was fast asleep in my bed. I traveled with my boyfriend and we stayed for roughly 24 hours.

September 24, 2012 by Nicole

Life

Everyday I’m Hustlin’: 6 Ways To Get Things Done

If you read my previous post, you know that I have a lot of things on my Flux List. I came up with 80 things that I’d like to accomplish at some point in my life. That’s not a terribly long list, but it is quite sizable and many of the items themselves are not exactly small feats. Let’s be honest, checking off every single one of those items will take a sizable amount of time and money. It’s exciting to think about crossing items off my list, but it’s quite daunting at the same time.

So how do you get started when you set out to cross off the items on your bucket list or flux list? Well, my approach is hustlin’.

I have a day job that helps me accomplish many of my career goals. However, there are so many goals that I don’t get to work towards in the X number of hours I’m at work each week. Each day, I carve out time outside of work to dedicate to my other goals. I’m up early nearly every morning to either run or work on side projects.

How can one hustle to achieve their goals? Here are some of the strategies that I’ve put in place to aid in my hustlin’.

September 19, 2012 by Nicole

New York City Skyline in Fog from Hoboken

Life

The Flux List: 80 Things to Accomplish Throughout Life

I took the above photo while on a morning run earlier this summer. It’s a view of the New York City skyline from Hoboken, NJ. Whenever I run along the river and look over at the city, I can’t help but feel alive. New York gives me this energy. It’s a city so full of action, adventure, and surprise. No, it’s not perfect. But it does not fail to keep you on your toes. Running along the river makes me feel alive, but it also gives me time to reflect on those things that I want to accomplish in life.

For the past year or so, I’ve been collecting and recording moments and accomplishments that I’d like to experience or achieve at some point throughout my life. I’ve been developing the Flux List. You could call it a bucket list, but I like to think of it as a living, breathing record of what I want to do throughout my life. As I grow and learn and assess my priorities, some things may be added. Some may be removed. The Flux List represents my personal zeitgeist. It represents what I want to do in life and what is important to me. Some will be easier to achieve, some will not. Some will be crossed off the list years and years in the future. Some might be crossed off next week.

September 17, 2012 by Nicole

Goals

What To Expect From Living in Flux

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of life, career, money and travel, I want to make sure we’re all on the same page. Or, er, screen.

September 14, 2012 by Nicole

Life

Wayfinding Through Life

Why hello there! Welcome to the first post of Living in Flux.

Living in Flux is going to be a blog about life. Or, about approaching life. We live in crazy times. Life is full of the unexpected. Good things happen. Bad things happen. Life happens. Sometimes, it may seem as if we have no control. Frankly, sometimes life feels as if it is just one fat joke. This blog is about rolling with the punches, going with the flow and making the best of the curveballs that life gives us. It’s about taking an active approach to life. It’s about wayfinding. Looking at the signs and making the best decisions we can to achieve our goals.

September 11, 2012 by Nicole

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