Enticed back to blogging by the ever faithful meme...

Thanks ever so much to Seeking Solace and my fellow Brit Sidonia for luring me out of my blogging stupor by tagging me...I've been really struggling to find the motivation to write anything at all. I'll do Seeking Solace's meme first as I'll have to spend a bit of time thinking about five (vaguely interesting) things that you don't all already know about me.

So, the five things that I do everyday in order to be successful...

Hmmm. Actually, before I start, I should say that I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about how I define success and how I am/am not successful in the various areas of my life. Leaving my PhD programme made me realize that I've spent most of my life defining my success by my achievements in academic pursuits (and some other competitive fields). I'd never really explicitly considered that I could be successful by having good relationships, being a good friend, being healthy, being involved in the community, and even just being happy and content. I've been fortunate to have had many of these things in my life, but I never thought of myself as successful because of them. Clearly, the way I view success has changed monumentally. Perhaps it had to after my long period of depression and my long period of physical illness last year? Perhaps it had more to do with my decision to leave my PhD? I'm not quite sure, but I'm thinking about this a lot as I try to figure out where I'm going from here. I'd like to write about it some more too, but, for now, on with the meme where I'll interpret 'in order to be successful' as meaning feeling generally good about stuff!

1. Like Seeking Solace, I! must! have! coffee! Usually, I'm a skinny latte girl, but the weather's warming up which means my addiction to mocha frappuccinos will soon resurface. Yum!
2. Wash my hair! I know that lots of people (including my hairdresser) advise against it, but I just feel totally yucky if I don't shower and wash my hair every single morning. To compensate (or at least assuage my guilt!) for the relentless washing that I put my hair through, I do splash out on lovely shampoos, conditioners and other treatments. (Bonus OCD confession: Even if I go to the gym first thing in the morning, I can't workout properly unless I wash my hair before I go, which means that quite often I wash my hair twice a day. Please don't tell me off! I've already stuck my fingers in my ears so that I can't hear you! :))
3. Tidy my home. I know that's very boring, but I can't get any work done if the flat is messy, so I try to make sure it's relatively tidy before I go to bed, otherwise I end up procrastinating by tidying/cleaning for way too long in the mornings...
4. Spend at least some time chatting and hanging out with my husband. He's just the best and almost always helps me to feel better and figure stuff out. He's also tons of fun.
5. Listen to music and also not listen to music! Yes, I know that sounds odd. I love music and no day would be complete without listening to some. But, I also need to have quiet times too. My husband doesn't get this. He'd happily listen to music from dawn until bedtime, but I really do need noise-free time.

I'm not sure who's done this already, but if you haven't and you'd like to, consider yourself tagged!