Last Post of the Year

This is my last post of 2016.

I imagined I would have a lot of time in my hands to kill today. My plan was to take a nice hike with my husband Hamed to walk and talk about our plans, last checking of our "to do's" for 2017 and reviewing of the year together. However, first, it rained. Second, I had this mounting headache for most of the day that didn't want to go away. I was initially very tired and sleepy. I attempted to go to sleep during the early afternoon but failed to do so. I think I took a 10-minute nap but that's it. It was one of those power naps though it totally woke me up.

It is now 6:46p and I have to leave in an hour or less to get to Marina Del Ray on time for our dinner reservations where we are meeting our friends to party until 2017! I almost didn't write this post and only remembered to do it because I was checking my planner and saw that I had forgotten about it. I thought, hey, it's the last post of 2016. I need to write my last post of 2016 on the last day of 2016. It's interesting though. For the past 1-2 weeks, I have been working on my goal-setting plans and the more I plan, the more I get excited about all that I want to do and accomplish. If anything, I can't wait for 2017!

I'm so excited to start the new year. And it's a different kind of excitement. You see, in the past, every time the new year came, I just wanted to be RID of the current year and just jump into the new year where I'll suddenly change and become a whole different person and somehow miraculously reach all my goals. However, that never happened. I think it was because I just wished to be different but I never tried to be different. But this year is different. What I am most grateful about for 2016 is that I believe I have learned the secret to goal-setting! I am not an expert yet perhaps, but I know that I have improved. For one, I am a different person. That's why 2016 was the year of "Change" for me. Now, come 2017, I can't wait to put my goals into actions. In fact, it doesn't seem like tomorrow is going to be that different from today or the day before because I have been working towards these goals for months now. It's like all that I've done in the past 6-7 months have been a sort of "training" to get me ready for the real thing, for 2017. And I couldn't be happier and more proud!

2017, I'm ready for you! 

Goal Setting & Hosting

Goal setting for 2017: almost done.

Exercise plan: check.
Nutrition plan: check (Whole30 for January)

Writing plan: check.

Business plan: still working on it. I mean, I know what I want to do and I set up deadlines to do them. However, I still need to get down to the nitty gritty stuff and list all the objectives and action plans I need to make in order to hit those deadlines head on! Today is the 30th of December. Technically, 2017 starts tomorrow at 12 AM. Obviously I'll be partying LA style until 2 am tomorrow night...but we do have two more days off after that (Sunday and Monday). So I hope to complete my plans until then and be ready to "GO!" come Tuesday morning, Jan. 3rd.

For today, I'm busy preparing my small apartment for guests...I have 9 people coming over. I don't even have enough seats for everyone...we will surely sit very intimately but I know it will be fun and I need to prepare the food, the apartment, the night basically. It's 7:13 am now and the guests will arrive at 8:30 pm. So I have over 13 hours, which is a LOT of time but I do have a lot to do including some shopping and picking Hamed up from Santa Monica in the afternoon. My plan is to be done with cleaning, cooking (or at least preparing for cooking in time for dinner), decorating...until noon today! That gives me about 5 hours.

Here goes nothing...

Torshak

Today, I'm cooking a traditional Gorgani dish. Gorgan is a small mountainous city in Northern Iran. It is the capital of Golestan, which includes other smaller towns around the area. Gorgan is surrounded by mountains and vast forests. One of the most popular forests is called "Alang Darreh". During the weekends, it is packed with tourists and locals camping or picnicing--all year round! During the early mornings, locals hike around the area--wow there's so much beautiful hiking trails in there and also another popular spot is "Nahar Khoran" which leads to "Ziyarat", a traditional small town which is located in the mountains. Ok I'm getting way off topic here. Remind me to dedicate a post just about the beauties of Gorgan. You see, I was originally born in Gorgan. I lived in Gorgan for about a year when I was 5 years old--I went to Kindergarten there actually. That's it. Other than that, I haven't lived there but have taken every vacation while I was in Iran..there! In a way, even though I haven't lived there that long, I truly consider Gorgan as my home. Its trees and its people are home to me. I have many homes, as I have lived in three different countries in the span of 28 years, in 7 different cities and two different states in the U.S. alone. But when it comes to Iran, Gorgan is my home.

Back to the dish--Torshak. In Persian, "torsh" means sour so "torshak" is little sour basically, its literal translation. However, "Torshak" is a traditional Gorgani dish as I mentioned earlier. It is in fact so traditional that many Gorganis don't even know about it! My own husband who was born and raised in Gorgan had no idea what it was before he learned it from my family! Anyway, it's a delicious fall-y dish. You can have it just by itself, as a dip, or with rice! It's garlicy goodness all the way!

Oh and another thing, I have a thing about recipes, I usually am an "eye person" when it comes to how much the portion of each ingredient should be so what you see are all approximates. Here is the run-down of the recipe:

Ingredients:
Garlic (minced, 2 tablespoons)
Butternut Squash (I used two small ones, could be one big one)
Lentils (I want to say 2 cups?!)
Salt/Pepper to taste
Citrus juice to taste (I used Narenj, a really sour orange known as "bitter orange" that can only be found in California and Northern Iran! But you can substitute lemon/lime juice for that)
Sugar (I used half a tablespoon but this one is also really to taste. You have to taste it at the end to get a TANGY flavor)
Water
Vegetable oil (the oil is for frying the garlic. You need to put enough oil so that the garlic is buried inside the oil. It helps with frying the garlic without burning them.)

1. Cut butternut squash into small cubes.

2. Cook lentils with minimum water.

3. When lentils are cooked through, add the squash. Add salt & pepper to taste. On a separate pan, fry garlic with the vegetable oil. Remember, you need to put enough oil to really have the garlic buried in the oil. Fry until the aroma of garlic fills your kitchen!

4. When both lentils and squash are cooked through fully and mixed well, and all the water is gone, add the fried garlic.
5. At the end, add citrus juice & sugar. Make sure to taste to get a tangy taste.

6. Turn off the heat, and serve! (Final pic will be posted tomorrow)

From Change to Anchor

Today, I start my day at Philz Coffee, with a cup of "Sooo Good" and cream. As soon as I hear the familiar voice of Justin Timberlake come on the radio, it doesn't matter whether I recognize the song or not, I feel right at home. I settle onto the couch, take a sip of my coffee goodness and do my part of writing.

I have begun planning for the new year. I'm using several different tools to plan. One of the things I'm also doing this week is I'm scanning my last year. What have I accomplished? What did I plan on doing? What were the good times? What were the bad times? What were my biggest regrets? How far have I come? How much have I grown? If I can sum up 2016 in one word...what would it be?

Change. I feel that one great theme of this past year is "change" for me. I want to also use the synonym "transition" but I feel that it does not quite capture all of it. No. It only covers part of it. The truth is, I have embraced change in a way that I never have before. There were good changes and there were bad ones. It's like as soon as I decided that I will accept and embrace change, I entered a new realm of happiness. These changes were in all areas of my life...my career, my aspirations, my relationships with family and friends...certain friendships had to end and certain ones had to begin. Inevitably, this is the cycle of life. More than anything, I see an element of maturity for myself, so much that at times I surprise myself.

I wonder what my "word" for next year would be. I didn't quite do this the years before but I want to predict my word of the year beforehand. Based on my goals and my expectations, I feel strongly what my word would be and that's...growth. It's interesting because I feel that I was stuck between the word "growth" and "change" for 2016 but I realized that ultimately, 2016, the whole year from beginning to end was this sense of transitioning and changing and shifting. However, come 2017, I want stability, no change, but instead I want to grow and maintain. It's like a combination of it. The word anchor comes to mind to emphasize composure and peace. Don't be surprised if you see such a tattoo on me in a few months...

I'm going from change to growth or should I say anchor? I don't know what 2017 has in store for me, but I definitely have a lot planned.

5 to Go!

In my last post, I reflected on my 2016 year up to that point, where 26 days were remaining. Now, 21 days have passed by and it's December 27th, with only 5 days left to 2017. It's funny how we start to count down when it we get closer to the end of the year! Well, maybe it's just me...

I'm not very proud of it but I believe I have not written in these 21 days. I think it was because I was busy for half of that time, but the real reason I did not write was because I was expecting too much of myself. In the past 5 months or so, I have switched from not writing at all like months passing before I write a small piece or blog post or even a poem. However, I have really turned all that around, and I'm glad for it. I really stepped it up this time. I created this blog and have "98 posts" to date! That's quite the effort! I didn't even write everyday. In addition, I worked on my fictional writing and have about 60 pages, which is a great start to a novel. And now, even though I have not written for 21 days, not my fiction, not poetry, not blog posts, with 5 days left to 2017, I have to finish it with glory! If I just write everyday until the new year, in these 5 days, if I just "publish" a blog post everyday, then maybe I can turn it around again and finish the year with a *BANG*!

I have been studying the science of habits for a while now. And there's this thing called "Key Stone Habit". It is believed that once you find out your "key stone habit," then a chain of events will follow or better yet, a chain of good "habits" that will be inevitable. It's like this, when you work out, usually a series of good habits follow like drinking more water, eating better, sleeping better, etc. It's a natural process but it's like with ourselves, we take it upon ourselves to improve on every area of our lives when we do well in that one area that is perhaps more difficult. Other keystone habits that ring true for most could also be having a good nutritious breakfast first thing in the morning or even making your bed after you wake up. For me, I think I've figured out one of my keystone habits--it's writing! No surprise there. I have noticed that the days that I start my day with writing, I am much more successful at doing everything I have set out to do; I am more productive. When I start my day with writing, I am more at peace, more happy, more me. There are many other more small key stone habits that I have and have already observed in me and am still figuring it out, but I think writing is definitely one of them. I feel as if I'm not complete when I don't write. My soul cries out for it if I don't pay attention to it.

In these past 21 days, I had this rising guilt in me about not writing. And then, instead of making it better by just writing a blog post, giving 10 minutes attention to it to write even if I don't work on my work of fiction or I don't give a full hour or more to it...instead, I kept making these big-ass goals to write for 2 hours or write for one hour or 90 minutes or etc... For whatever reason, I just never got to it. I got lazy, I got busy, I avoided it, I procrastinated on it, I forgot about it...and the reasons just go on and on. Certainly, I am giving writing my full attention when writing my new year's resolutions for 2017. In fact, writing is one of my "Big 3 Goals" of the year. I believe I will do great things with my writing this upcoming year as I have done this year. For me, having 98 posts in my blog is quite an accomplishment! Especially when I truly started writing back in August! Or maybe it was September?! In any case, I will improve even on that though. I will also make a new blog--one for my business where I post only writings that are about writing and about what I do. I may merge it with this blog or make one for itself. In addition, I will be working on my story to complete as a novel and make a serious attempt to publish it.

I think it's time. To show the world what I'm made of.  

26 Days to Go

This year has been one of the best for me. I feel like throughout the year, I've made all the right choices. Well, perhaps not all the right choices, surely, but overall, I've done well this year. I started the year, with making the decision to come to the U.S. and not stay in Iran with my husband. Even though I had lost my job as a professor and ESL teacher due to going to Iran for a month and a half, I still opted to come back. I had many reasons for wanting to come back and I'm glad they pushed me to do it, because it's one of the best decisions I ever made. After about four months or so, I felt like I had made a mistake and I needed to go to Iran and this time stay there until Hamed's visa was ready to go so we can come back together. I booked a flight and started applying some goal-setting strategies that I had learned from the many Darren Hardy modules and videos and conference I attended to make my stay in Iran as valuable as possible. Two days before my flight, Hamed's visa was ready for pick up. I cancelled my flight and awaited his arrival. After about 5 years, I finally saw my husband in the United States on June 2016.

We traveled for a month, just as I had always dreamed we would do. We took a family trip to Miami, FL and we went on our honeymoon to the most beautiful islands of Bahamas on a cruise, we traveled to NYC, my home, for less than a week and came back to Oakland, CA. After much research and thinking, we finally decided we wanted to live in Los Angeles, CA so we moved here in August 2016. We have been living here ever since. I have to say, since the beginning but especially now after 4 months, I am more in love with LA than ever. I love my apartment, my neighborhood, the weather, the city, the ocean, the people, and of course the added bonus of having Iran in the palm of our hands here in LA where most Iranian-Americans live. I am grateful and thankful for all of this.

Another awesome fact about 2016 is that I feel like I have finally identified my calling in this world. Because I made the decision to stay with my husband for a month and a half in January in Iran, I lost both my teaching jobs. However, by losing those jobs, I gained something much better. I was pushed to pursue self-employment as a writing tutor and editor, which has led me to begin Meela Editing. The business is still very much in its first stages, but I feel like it has come a long way since its "launch" though that was never an official thing. I feel that because of it, I have now an opportunity to be led into the new year, 2017, with tangible goals, for which I'm truly grateful. I am also able to call myself a writer. I have been blogging regularly (despite the past couple of weeks), I am working on two writing projects including a work of fiction and a memoir/cookbook, and I am also doing academic writing on the side. In addition, I have designed and have begun facilitating a series of Writing Workshops where I have combined meditation with Free Writing. I feel that most of this has been possible because I didn't simply say: "I'll do it next year". As I mentioned in my previous blog, ever since I heard a #DarrenDaily about the importance of starting right now rather than leaving it for later, I have been trying to put it into practice in my life and I feel that I have truly gotten results. Anything that I think of and do right away like washing the dishes, cooking, writing, exercising, anything really, I have gotten the best results. And likewise, every time I have left work incomplete only to do on a later day, something has come up and has caused me a lot of stress to get that original work done or worse---not get to it until it was too late.

I trust that in these 26 days of 2016, I am still due for a lot to be done and not just count this last month as the last month where I only await the new year but I continue giving it my fullest attention to be able to reach all the goals I have set for myself, and more importantly, to prepare for even bigger goals in 2017. 

Making Ends Meet

I feel like the past few days I've just been "making ends meet" in terms of getting work done. I've been overly exhausted, still, since the thanksgiving week. My entire family came to visit and it was very taxing. And to make matters worse, my fridge completely broke down that entire week and the repairman from G.E. came to fix it the Wednesday after thanksgiving when everyone had already left. There is only one more week of classes left plus a presentation I have to do for my Business class on the 15th and I have a frighteningly long list of "to-do's" I have to do both for my own classes and for my clients. It's a good think next semester I am not planning on taking more classes (except two dance classes, which I love and bring me peace rather than stress). I can then focus more on gaining more clients and not only reluctantly agreeing projects.

I think I'm also feeling like I'm only doing work to get it done even if it is mediocre at times, because I haven't been writing. I mean, I'm writing now, but, it's not the same. It's been over two weeks now that I haven't written in a consistent, everyday, put a timer and write 60-90 minutes. Even as I'm writing now, I feel like I have so much to do and I need to get back to them. Think of this, as my rant, for the most part. This past weekend has also been packed because Hamed and I have been so focused on cleaning the apartment (because we didn't get a chance to do so since everyone left a couple of days ago) and practicing our speeches for toastmaster's! You see, I'm giving my 6th speech (I have given the first 5 speeches, from the Toastmaster's Communicator Manual, twice in Oakland, CA at the Andeesheh Toastmaster's). And now, I'm giving my 6th speech based on the manual, here in LA at Motivated Toastmaster's. It's a lot of pressure because I haven't given a speech since last July and this is going to be the first speech I will give at Motivated TM and also it's my 6th speech so I need to have leveled up and be able to speak eloquently and beautifully using no notes--which is always the hardest for me. However, even in practicing my speech, I feel like I'm just doing it to get it done. I just sent a video of myself practicing the speech to my mentor but I am definitely not proud of it. There's one thing I'm thankful about though--I don't have Toastmaster's until Tuesday morning!

If there is one thing I'm really proud of for this past week is joining the gym! I've finally done it! I joined on Friday and have already been to a Zumba class then and worked out a bit today. I'm going to a cycling class tomorrow and will be getting a full "assessment"/training session on Tuesday. I joined the gym because I wanted to pursue this new approach of my life--don't leave anything for tomorrow or next week or next month or next year, if there is something you have to do, just do it now. Thus, I joined in this last month of the year and am planning on going to the gym at least 5-6 times a week. Even if I don't do a full class or I just run for 15 minutes and stay in the sauna for another 15 minutes, I have to do it. In this way, I will be getting my money's worth and I will start shred those extra pounds and be well on my way to get back in to shape come 2017!