It's Been Awhile: A Catch Up.

I realise that it has been quite some time since I last posted anything on here. Sorry about that! Things have just been a little more hectic and time consuming than before. To save having a mini-spam of posts about a number of different things since I last spoke to you I figured making a little 'life update' post might be better.

The beautiful snowflake charm necklace I got from one of my nans.

Biggest bit of news first: I'M TWENTY-ONE! As of the Monday just gone I reached another big age milestone. The actual day itself didn't feel too much like my birthday, but that's probably because I did most of my celebrating the two days previous -that, and I had uni. On the Saturday I got treated to an Oxford Street shopping spree. I was quite reserved about what I got though, because although my boyfriend kept saying I could go as crazy as I wanted, I know he is very money conscious, so I didn't want to wreck his bank account too much. Then on the Sunday I had most of my immediate family come around for red velvet cake; and on Monday, after coming home from uni with two vases in tow for my lovely flowers, I went to Frankie & Benny's for dinner and had the most delicious salmon!

Secondly, I'm back at uni now. That was a little crazy at first because there was a bit of an issue with online registering within the Psychology Department, and then there was an issue with timetabling as a result of the registration stuff. It doesn't sound like too much, but I'm a very neurotic person so I was in stress central for the first two-ish weeks. Things have settled down now thankfully, and so far I'm enjoying my second year. But that's probably because I've not had to do any assignments yet.

The beautiful pink lilies that my boyfriend got me for my 21st.

Also I am thoroughly enjoying Lush's Autumn/Winter products at the moment! When their store by my campus released their A/W stuff I went in there twice in the same day, and only felt the tiniest bit ashamed about my very apparent addiction. Then there was a student shopping event in the mall one evening and Lush were open, so naturally I went in and got even more stuff. And I've been in another couple of times since then (Oops... Sorry bank account!).

Another thing I'm also really enjoying at the moment is Strictly Come Dancing. I just love to watch people dance and admire the female dancer's beautiful dresses! The only bad thing is that I get really jealous of all the professionals for being such graceful and talented dancers, and of all of the celebrities for getting the chance to learn how to dance.

Finally, I met the most adorable and friendly, little kitten on my walk home from the town centre the other day! That's not exactly note-worthy to most of you I expect, but I am a massive cat lady and that cute, little thing really made my day. I met her a few roads down from my uni house and after a good fifteen or so minutes of petting and stroking I forced myself to carry on walking home (I honestly would've stayed there all day if I could have, and not looked weird) and the sweetheart followed my half the way home! It was honestly the sweetest thing!

What are some of the things you guys have been up to and/or enjoying since my last Blogger appearance?
-Hannah. :)

Core Personal Projects: The Key to Future Happiness?

Hello fellow introverts! As I'm sure all of you are now aware, I have read Susan Cain's fantastic book 'Quiet'. This is yet another post relating back to one of the many things this book has taught me.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who wants a happy life. As part of my happy life I want a job that I truly enjoy, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that either. However when I think about all the potential jobs out there the majority of them don't look that appealing to me. I know there are a number of aspects that I would not enjoy, and as a result I would end up hating my job. For example, I could never work in retail. I know myself, and I know that I would not be able to handle small talk at the tills and challenging customers. Just the thought of having such a job fills me with dread. And the same goes for higher paying jobs, deemed as more successful than retail, because I know a lot of them involve presentations.

Although I really want a job that I love, it just wasn't looking like I was going to be able to have that. That was until Susan Cain pointed out that introverts work with passion and enjoyment when they're working on something they really care about. She referred to the things that individuals care about as Core Personal Projects (CPPs). According to the book introverts don't mind, or even find it hard, acting in an extroverted way when they have to give a presentation relating to something they truly care about. I can totally relate to this. Once you get me talking about something I feel very strongly about, I talk with a great deal of passion, and it's pretty hard to shut me up -although telling me you 'really don't care' usually works.

A little later on she explains the three steps you can take in order to find out what your CPPs are. So, setting the book aside and grabbing a notepad and pen, I began work on figuring out what my CPPs were. I'm not sure how well I did at identifying them, but I managed to piece together four CPPs that I named: Personal Life Goals, Social Justice, Organisational/Planning Roles, and Statistics and Analysis -which is more of a sub-CPP of Organisational/Planning Roles than a stand-alone one.

So hopefully now that I've been enlightened a little, I stand more of a chance of landing the perfect job once I've graduated. And hopefully it stays that way, as the idea of unstable employment and being unemployed makes me feel pretty anxious.

If you would like to work out your Core Personal Projects then just follow these three steps, as detailed in 'Quiet':

1. What things did you love doing as a child? As a child what did you say you wanted to be when you grew up? -Analyse them for deeper meanings. 
2. What sort of work do you usually gravitate towards?
3. What things are you envious of?

From your answers to these three questions you can slowly group common phrases together and thus identify your Core Personal Projects.

For anyone interested in doing so, I wish you luck. Hopefully my brief instructions were clear enough without me adding examples. And if you'd be willing to share your CPPS, I'd love to hear what you came up with in the comments!

-Hannah. :)