What I Loved This November: Creative Tools, Life Updates & Wins

Well, hello there friends!

I wanted to do something that I haven't done in a while: a R.E.P.O.R.T., if you're unfamiliar, each letter of the word stands for something. Let's have a look before I share:

• R for reading

• E for editing

• P for playing

• O for obsessing

• R for recommending

• T for tweaking

Before I get into all my favorites, let's also start with a little reflection about the month and the things that happened.

Reflection

The month of November started very chaotic for me. It was the month that I had to restart therapy and also began working with a psychiatrist again. It's needless to say that a lot has happened. It was also the month where my graduation projects were due, so aside from the general stress I was dealing with, I also had to figure out these important projects that guaranteed I'd graduate.

In the midst of chaos, there was also some peace. It was during this time that I was able to rely on my faith more than ever. I've shared before how Jesus saved my life, and He continues to do so every single day.

Even with so much happening, once again I wanted to take some time to acknowledge the small wins in my life and to show gratitude for the little things that did work out well.

Here are some of the things that carried me through November.

Reading

This past month I've done a fairly good job at reading again. To work alongside the fact that I've been going to therapy, I also got a book that was recommended to me by her.

The following, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You by Elaine N. Aron, has been a huge companion of mine for the last month. I also made sure to get the workbook to go alongside it so that I could take notes and put the things I've been learning about myself in practice. She explains a bit better about what the trait means, but it's definitely worth the read as I was able to resonate with things a lot more because I've been understanding myself.

Editing

I'm not sure if I've shared, but I've worked with Intrusive Sports Agency as part of my internship requirement for graduation. I've been having so much fun with them and creating content for their athletes, including some awesome things like the following:

We've made some of these "Get to Know" graphics to work with the athletes and showcase a more personal side of them as well. My goal was to also make sure that I was getting some data for my research project where I'm studying whether BTS content is more effective than performance-based content when gathering engagement from an athlete's audience.

I'm super excited to share the results, but obviously I won't be able to do so until after I present it (December 2nd, it's literally right around the corner!).

Playing

One thing about me is that I'm going to play cozy games. I feel like I experience enough anxiety and stress throughout the day where I'd prefer to play games that calm me down and distract me.

Some of these have been Sims, Minecraft, and even Baldur's Gate (a bit more energy-focused but story based and it's after D&D, my favorite game in the whole entire world!).

Recommending

For this new month, I'd say that the biggest thing I'd recommend is business casual clothing that you can wear to work. A bit misconception that happens in the sports world is that we dress casually the entire time. One thing I always say is that it's better to be overdressed than underdressed.

For our women, get a nice pair of slacks and a comfortable shirt that you can wear. Get some more shirts, do a nice rotation, and life will be healed again -- yes, it's that serious.

Tweaking

This is one of the new things that I've implemented here on SightingSara's weekly R.E.P.O.R.T.s, and it of course includes me changing the branding one more time. Maybe it's because I'm a graphic designer, but I genuinely enjoy the process of creating a new branding for myself.

This time the reason why this change is happening is because I want to use my current branding (crafty and fun style) for another work-in-progress-brand that I've got. On another hand, this meant that I had to work on a new branding guideline for SightingSara.

I genuinely cannot wait to share with you guys more about this brand I'm working on. I wanted to make sure that I left the sports stuff separate from the crafty one - the audience is, well, completely different.

Conclusion

So, yeah, that's what I've been up to.

During this time I've been able to grow so much in my personal faith, career, and life in general. My intention for December is to make sure that I continue working and getting better and better.

While you're here, I want to invite you to share your November favorites in the comments, what have you been obsessed with? What are some things that have genuinely helped you? Even further, I have some great resources that you can use like my free resource library and other useful things I post here and on social media.