Show Notes
In this first goals check-in episode of Enthusiastic Encouragement and Dubious Advice, hosts Patricia and Nicole reflect on a busy first three months of 2026 that left most of their annual goals barely touched. They walk through individual progress updates with candid admissions about what has worked and what has gotten in the way.
Mentioned on the show:
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Sound editing by Jen Zink
Transcript
Music: [Intro Music]
Patricia: Hey there, scamps! Welcome to Enthusiastic Encouragement and Dubious Advice, the podcast for folks who would rather curl into the fetal position than lean in. I’m your host, Patricia Elzie-Tuttle.
Nicole: And I’m your wascawey wabbit, I’m Nicole Elzie-Tuttle. We’re recording this show on March 20th, 2026.
Patricia: As a reminder, this podcast is independently run and we are hoping to be supported by listeners. Downloading, sharing, and giving us reviews and ratings are free ways to show us support.
If you don’t have the spell slots to write something, we understand. Thank you so much for the five star ratings. Those help tremendously.
Nicole: If you have a few bucks to donate to the show, our Patreon memberships start at $3 a month. There are three tiers to choose from and you can gift a subscription. For a Spring Equinox gift.
And if you’re looking for other ways to support our show, you can find those on our website at eedapod.com. Uh, we have a bookshop where you can find any books that we mention on the show ever. We also have the EEDA newsletter, which Patricia writes and has written for many years.
Patricia: Yeah, we’re going into year seven.
Nicole: Yeah.
Patricia: We’re in year seven now.
Nicole: Yes!
If you’re interested in the newsletter, the Enthusiastic Encouragers tier of our
Patricia: Ooh, the middle tier.
Yeah.
Nicole: The middle tier of our Patreon basically gets you access to the Patreon plus the newsletter, and it’s a dollar off if you paid for them separately.
Patricia: Yeah.
Nicole: And we also have a merch shop where you can find some shiny stickers and you should totally buy some and stick them all over things to let people know how awesome our show is.
Patricia: It is also my birthday coming up. Hello Aries season. So subscribing, giving us reviews, ratings, those are all great birthday gifts. I accept all of them all of the time. Also, to celebrate my birthday you can donate to the transgender law center or donate to anyone fighting book bans.
Also for my birthday, you can call your government representatives and yell at them!
Or you can eat some of my favorite desserts. You can eat tiramisu or lemon meringue pie, or really good ice cream.
Nicole: It’s really good if you have that right after yelling at your representatives.
Patricia: Ooh, yeah, yell at government officials. Have some gelato.
Nicole: That is A+ right there.
Patricia: That’s my birthday plan right there.
Nicole: Yes.
We recently got back from a trip to sunny San Diego, California.
Patricia: Yes. My cousin was getting married and so we went down there for her wedding. This was my first time ever spending any real time in San Diego and it was lovely and beautiful and weird. And we got three library cards in two days!
Nicole: Hey-oh!
Patricia: From three different systems. It was a lot of fun. We stayed in an absolutely wild hotel.
I can’t even describe it. It’s called The Lafayette.
Nicole: The Lafayette
Patricia: Just look it up online. The pictures are bananas. Um,
Nicole: and the place is really like that.
Patricia: Yeah, but also what we didn’t know was like the lobby is also like it’s a club and a going out place. So like we got back to our room after the wedding and it’s just like full of people. Like drinks, dancing, loud and we’re like trying to get back to our room.
Nicole: There’s a person at the door trying to check IDs and we’re like, we just wanna go like shower
Patricia: and go to bed. The room did come with earplugs.
Nicole: It did. It was nice. They were even on brand.
Patricia: They were even on brand. Yeah.
Music: [Transition Music]
Patricia: So it’s the end of March and it’s time for our goals check-in. We like to do it quarterly. I think that works out really well.
Nicole: Is this our Q1 check-in?
Patricia: Oh [Gagging Sounds]
I also like quarterly because it coincides with like the changes of the seasons. So for those of you keeping track spring equinox, when we’re recording it anyway.
Nicole: At least in the Northern Hemisphere.
Patricia: In the Northern Hemisphere. Oh, it’s the autumn equinox.
Nicole: Is it the, I think technically it’s the vernal equinox.
Patricia: It’s the vernal equinox. Yes.
Nicole: Yes.
Patricia: In the Northern Hemisphere.
Nicole: Oh, I thought just applied to this time of year.
Patricia: Mm.
Nicole: Like that’s the name for this time of year.
Patricia: Oh, I don’t know.
Nicole: I don’t know. We’ll have to look it up later.
Patricia: We’ll have to look it up later.
But it is in the northern hemisphere, I assume the southern hemisphere, uh, the start of the astrological new year.
So this is the time that some people like to create their goals in the first place. So if you haven’t created goals for this year, like maybe this is your time. Also, like I mentioned, my birthday is coming up and whenever your birthday is, that’s also a ready made time for a reflection and intention setting.
Nicole: Okay, so full transparency on this one. The first three months of the year have been incredibly full, nonstop, and we have barely made a dent in our 2026 goals. The first three months were full of going to the sauna, and unexpected family obligations, and of course the OMCA White Elephantnt Sale, which we had to go to twice.
Patricia: Yes.
Nicole: Had to.
Patricia: Had to.
Nicole: There was travel, but the one thing we did like really focus on and try to make a concerted effort toward was cleaning out the office.
Patricia: Yeah. We have not finished setting up the office, but like you said, we made a good dent in it. I think one of the things I’m bumping into though for that is that we found a lot of things, some things are great and we’re keeping them, amazing. Finally got to the tub where I had my grandmother’s typewriter that I salvaged. And there’s some things that we are happy to get rid of and I’ve posted them for sale online at prices that are like reasonable or the same price that they’ve sold for like at other times, like I’ve checked previous sale prices.
And no one’s buying anything right now because the economy is trash. Gas prices are trash, grocery prices are trash. Healthcare is expensive. At the same time, we have a bunch of things that I prefer to sell, but people have other priorities and we’re really going to have to reexamine them and see if they should just be, you know, donated to the White Elephant Sale, or I could offer some stuff up to neighbors.
It is a really big reality check to find that I can’t even recuperate a fraction of the cost for these things that I spent money on.
Nicole: Yeah, it kind of makes you think a little bit about all the other things we spend money on.
Patricia: Yeah. It really, again, puts a spotlight on that and puts a spotlight on the idea of, eh, if I don’t want this anymore, I’ll just sell it.
That depends on someone wanting to buy it.
Nicole: Yes. That’s a thing people with Beanie Babies and stuff run into nowadays.
Patricia: You know what the funniest thing though, the one thing that did sell that I posted online
Nicole: were the Beanie Babies.
Patricia: Were the Beanie Babies.
Nicole: Can’t even use that as a joke.
Patricia: I posted two Beanie Babies. They weren’t expensive. It was like 20 bucks for the pair of them.
Nicole: People totally bought ’em.
Patricia: Someone totally bought ’em within like a day.
Nicole: Huh.
Patricia: Disney collectibles I’ve posted online, like all these things. No, nothing.
Nicole: No takers.
Patricia: No. No takers. Beanie babies though.
Nicole: Wild. Wild.
So I think the next few months, like decluttering and specifically making space for me to move into the office is still gonna be like our top priority.
And I know I am still really excited to see that happen. And what other treasures we find.
Patricia: Yeah. There are also so many things on our like goals list that involve both of us, and there are a lot of paperwork things like estate planning and some financial things. And those are also really high on the list for me, but I agree that decluttering is also right there at the top.
Nicole: Yeah.
Okay, so we’re gonna jump into some of the other goals we set individually, and one of my top ones was that I wanted to try to eat less candy and junk food. I wanna preface this, this is absolutely not about like dieting or weight or a desire to like make sure I’m super healthy with the food I’m eating.
Patricia: Yeah. We are not promoting orthorexia nervosa here. Like
Nicole: no, this is like I will eat a whole bag of candy and then my tummy will hurt like once a week.
Patricia: She buys sour jelly beans in the produce section of the grocery store.
Nicole: They’re in the produce section, they’re healthy, right? It’s like fruit.
Patricia: And then, yeah,
Nicole: I will absolutely sit there and eat the whole like little can of them while doing the transcript for this show.
Patricia: Yeah. And then you’re like, wow, I feel so bad.
Nicole: I feel bad. Maybe I should eat less candy.
Patricia: And not like bad morally, like your tummy hurt girl.
Nicole: Yeah. So I have worked my way through all of the winter holiday candy that Santa left in my stocking.
And now that I’m through that, I’m trying to be a bit more restrained and not eat a whole sleeve of thin mints at night, even though they’re in the freezer and it is hot here right now.
But I think working in my favor for the next couple of months, we are moving into fruit season, fresh produce season. And here in California, the produce is A-plus. And so I’m hoping I can maybe satisfy my sweet tooth by like when I’m craving strawberry flavored Australian licorice. Maybe I’ll just have some strawberries.
Patricia: Some bombass strawberries. The fruit here is elite.
Nicole: Yes.
Patricia: Elite fruit. And I do think it’s worth noting, like you’re not avoiding candy and junk food altogether.
Nicole: No.
Patricia: Um.
Nicole: Just trying to cut back.
Patricia: Just trying not to be…
Nicole: So my tummy doesn’t hurt.
Patricia: Yeah.
Nicole: And I don’t feel so bad.
Patricia: Yeah. I think this is something we also discovered with your ADHD diagnosis years ago of certain things like sour candies around sensation seeking.
Nicole: Oh, absolutely.
Patricia: So it’s not even about like
Nicole: No, and that’s the thing, like I often will dive into this like four hours after my meds wore off.
Patricia: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Nicole: Right?
Patricia: Mm-hmm.
Nicole: Like it’s eight o’clock at night. I am now craving sensation and it’s gonna be like crunchy and salty or candy like.
Patricia: Right.
Nicole: So, and then I’m like 9:30, I’m like, oh, I don’t feel so good.
Patricia: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
I’ve been doing decently on my no buy list. I did get a little stationary while we were on vacation, and that was an exception that I put up front.
I have bought some shoes. I have bought some shoes and I’m gonna do it again. But I’m probably going to be going into work on campus more and they are shoes I could wear for work.
Nicole: You know what that’s needed. You haven’t needed work shoes in like five years.
Patricia: That’s true. Yeah. I haven’t needed work shoes in five years.
I can’t just continue wearing sneakers. Um,
Nicole: Jurassic Park Reeboks.
Patricia: Jurassic Park Reeboks. Cause I fit in kids sizes.
Um, yeah, so like I, I needed some, need some grownup work shoes.
Nicole: Let’s see, one of the things I have been working on, and I think I’ve been doing a pretty good job about, is keeping track of like little home tasks and other things that need to be done around the home, or just things I need to take care of. Specifically without relying on Patricia as much.
And the way I’m doing this is primarily with the Reminders app in my phone. So like if she’s tells me like, oh, we need to, you know, check the credit card statement tonight and pay it off. Like, instead of just going okay and waiting for you to bring it up when I have my laptop, I’ll pop it into the Reminders app real quick and say like, okay, I’m gonna check it at like 7:30. And then I get a reminder at 7:30, it’s like, go check your credit card to see if you need to pay it. And just little things like that. To try to remove some of that burden off of you.
Patricia: That, that intellectual labor.
Nicole: Yes, that’s the word I was looking for.
Patricia: Yeah. Yeah, thank you. I think sometimes in couples, there’s a person who’s more of the project manager and the person who’s the more of the doer and you know, with perimenopause especially, my brain is like a colander.
Nicole: Yeah.
Patricia: And I can’t hold onto everything for multiple people and you know, no one ever should, unless you have, you know, children and, and blah blah blah. But I’ve actually found your use of the reminders app has been really like, has taken a weight off of me and it’s been really helpful.
So I’m glad that it’s working out
Nicole: Great!
I will say it’s primarily working out for like short term things like, oh, I need to do this thing tonight. It is not been so good at like bigger projects that have been on the plate, and I think that’s primarily because they don’t show up in my everyday to-do list.
Patricia: Mm-hmm.
Nicole: They’re on like a longer to-do list.
Patricia: Mm-hmm.
Nicole: So as we were prepping for this show and talking about it, I was saying like, oh, maybe I need to set a reminder for myself on like Sunday night to check the bigger project list
Patricia: mm-hmm
Nicole: and figure out like what I’m gonna work on, say like Thursday night when I have some free time or something.
Patricia: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaking of Thursday night, that’s been turned into my hobby creativity night. And I’ve been doing pretty well at partitioning that time and being like, okay, I’m getting my writing, my podcasting, like all these other things are getting done on other nights, and Thursday night is hobby night. So like the fence around that time has been pretty good.
The thing is, is every week it’s ending up being snail mail. Which I’m doing great on the birthday mail project wherein I send birthday mail to anyone who will give me their address and birthdate. And you can always email this information to eedapod@gmail.com and I’ll put you on the list. But my goal for creativity night and hobby night is a variety of things, and so far it’s just been snail mail every week.
So I am going to have to think about if I actually want to have snail mail on another night, like snail mail on a different night. And use my Thursday night creative hobby time for the other stuff I wanna do. Singing, piano, crochet, ukulele, making zines, like all those things.
‘Cause those are all also on the table. I just keep writing mail.
Nicole: I get it. I totally get it. The children yearn for the mail.
Patricia: The, the children yearn for the mail.
And I love doing it. Like it’s not a burden. I think it’s just the easy, I think it’s also the easier of the things. It’s the thing I’m most comfortable with.
Nicole: Yeah.
Patricia: So that is what I gravitate toward.
Um.
Nicole: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Speaking of wanting to do other things, I have been hit and miss with reducing my social media time. I was doing pretty well there. I think our trip to San Diego kind of threw me off a little bit because it really disrupted our day-to-day routine and it left me with a lot of sometimes like weird downtime.
Patricia: Mm.
Nicole: And I didn’t know how to fill it and we weren’t at home, so I just kind of gravitated towards that.
Patricia: Yeah,
Nicole: I think I, I have been pretty good. I’ve gotten my phone use down to like, around the four hour mark, which. Is pretty good for me. And that’s not all like social media time, that is other things.
Sometimes it’s work email, sometimes it’s audio books, it’s all kinds of things. Some weeks are better than others. I’m still working on this. What I’m really trying to eliminate here though is the like spending two to three hours just like scrolling away on like a Friday night kind of thing.
Patricia: Yeah, I’ve been trying to get back to the no phone after 9:00 PM and I’m really hit and miss with that.
I do put my phone on Do Not Disturb at 9:00 PM I find that what happens after 9:00 PM is
Nicole: Stays after 9:00 PM
Patricia: Stays, no stays. Oh my God.
Is, you know, 9:00 PM, go brush my teeth. I am using my phone to listen to my audiobook, but I’m not scrolling social media. But then when I go to plug my phone in on my nightstand, maybe I check my messages one more time, and at this time it’s 9:30, so I do think I really need to work out a way to plug my phone in, not on my nightstand.
Nicole: Yeah.
Patricia: I can’t plug it in in a different room entirely because in case there’s a family emergency, I do wanna be able to hear my phone, but I think it needs to not be within arm’s reach of the bed.
Nicole: Yeah, I think we can work on that.
I have also been wanting to take more pictures of us. I mean take more pictures in general and just being okay with doing that on my phone, but also really of taking pictures of us.
I think I did take some fun pictures on the San Diego trip, less now that it has passed, less than I wish I had done.
Patricia: Mm-hmm.
Nicole: And especially of pictures with us. I think there’s some on your phone that I really wanna get ahold of though.
Patricia: Yes.
Nicole: And you were better about making sure pictures of us got taken.
So I want to try to be more conscientious about that in the coming, just like being out and about, but also if we go on any more trips.
Patricia: Yeah, and thank you for that reminder. I need to share those pictures with you.
I am on track with my reading goal of 120 books. I’ve read, I think 26 books so far this year, and I’ve read some physical books too. Which is more accurately described as books I have physical copies of. Because some of these I listen to on audiobook, but there’s currently a physical copy sitting on my shelf, and now for some of those I can get rid of that copy completely. Which is the whole reason why I have a physical book goal as well, is to ideally read somehow that physical book so then it could get out of the house.
Nicole: That’s fair. I did say that I wanted to start hiking more. I haven’t even made a move on this one. I would like to. I don’t think I can count the, like four miles I walked around San Diego with our friends towards this, ’cause that’s not really in the spirit of like primarily wanting to be out and touching trees and stuff.
I do think now that the weather is more, well, it’s way too warm right now.
Patricia: Now, it’s too… okay. Goldilocks. It’s too cold. It’s too hot.
Nicole: But it’s, it’s not like frigid outside, California frigid. But also the days are longer. They’re getting longer again. Which leaves more time for being able to go out into the trees.
So maybe, you know, given some time, I can maybe try to do this once a month or something as a start.
Patricia: Yeah.
Nicole: We’ll see. We’ll see how it goes.
Patricia: I have definitely not yet found additional movement outside of Pilates. It’s not for lack of want. I find myself increasingly wanting to move more. It’s for lack of time, money.
And also I’m still dealing with this potato elbow injury I gave myself on Christmas.
Nicole: Yeah. I think the time thing you hit on something there. I think that’s really an issue for me and like wanting to go hiking also.
I feel like we just need like a couple of extra days in our week.
Patricia: Yeah. And also I’ve barely written on Optimistic Hoarder.
And again, it’s not for lack of want, it’s for lack of time.
Nicole: Okay. Revising. Maybe we need an extra week’s worth of days in our week.
Patricia: Just a week off in the middle of the week.
Nicole: Yeah, I think that’d be really helpful.
Patricia: Yeah.
Nicole: We’ll work Monday Tuesday, have five days off.
Patricia: Mm-hmm.
Nicole: Work Thursday Friday, have two days off.
Patricia: Okay. Yeah, I’m down.
Nicole: Yeah. I think this is, can we call up the calendar people and see if we can get this sorted?
Patricia: Yeah, the thing is I also have so many ideas for Patreon and for marketing of EEDAPod and the newsletter, and I lack time. The desire is there and I’m very excited about bringing you all more content and maybe these next three months, this, this Q2, I work on figuring out how to manage time better, as well as put up some fences around my time.
Nicole: Yeah, I wanna say like, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, but also where your time is already so like, structured.
Patricia: Yes and no. I still fear looking at like, how much time am I actually on Instagram? Like
Nicole: yeah
Patricia: I know I could buy myself at least three hours in the week, right?
Nicole: Mm.
Patricia: Um, at least.
Nicole: Okay.
Patricia: Like at least so.
Nicole, is there anything new you wanna add at this point or anything falling off your list?
Nicole: You know, this year I went a lot simpler with my goals. I didn’t make as many, and I think there are several of them that I didn’t talk about today that are also fairly doable and I’ve been pretty good at, so I’m not dropping anything off just yet.
What about you?
Patricia: You know, one of my goals at the beginning of the year was to keep my inbox under 50, and I think my inbox just needs to be a nightmare for now. Like it’s just, I can’t make it a priority. It’s too much, and I already stare at the computer so much between day job and then EEDA stuff, and then book riot stuff.
Like, going through my New York Times cooking newsletters, I think I need to unsubscribe from some things. Um.
Nicole: Yeah, maybe feel a little less pressure with that.
Patricia: Maybe feel a little less pressure from that. Although I do love them when I look at them. So, you know, it’s something for me to think about, but I think I need to be less hard on myself about wrangling my inbox.
I think it just needs to be, like I said, it just needs to be a nightmare right now.
Nicole: Okay. Embrace it.
Music: [Transition Music]
Nicole: What do you want our listeners, I almost said guests.
Patricia: What do you want, all our guests that listen to the show?
Nicole: Yeah. What do you want them to take away from this?
Patricia: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it all the time. Your goals serve you and you do not serve them. And if a certain goal isn’t serving you or they’re causing you an obscene amount of stress, like my inbox, does that really need to be a goal?
Nicole, what’s your takeaway?
Nicole: Yeah, along those same lines, like your priorities can change and it’s also okay to add new goals that weren’t there at the start of the calendar year or whenever you decide to start. Like, the rules are made up and there’s not even points involved. So
Patricia: yeah.
Nicole: Patricia, what’s filling your cup right now?
Patricia: You know, the trip to San Diego was really, really lovely and something I didn’t mention up top is that my therapist is down that way and normally I have therapy over, over video call. And I got to meet her in person, and have therapy in person and, and see her really cool space and that, that is filling my cup. And also celebrating my cousin and seeing some of the family I love like that is also really feeling like filling my cup. I got to see cousins who are in from out of state and it was, it was wonderful.
Nicole, what’s filling your cup?
Nicole: Yeah. While you were off with your therapist, I met up with one of my besties from college. I haven’t seen her in like five years, and then we proceed to like spend the whole two days together.
Patricia: Yeah. She took two days off of work to spend with us.
Nicole: Yeah, it was fantastic. That just really overflowed my cup. So good about that. And then also though, being down there, we spent a lot of time really close to the ocean. Like close enough to hear the waves and stuff, and that always just fills me up a little bit, like tops it off.
Patricia: Yeah. We haven’t been to the ocean at all this year, like up here.
Nicole: Yeah.
Patricia: Should do that.
Nicole: Yes.
Patricia: April.
Nicole: Sure.
Patricia: Toes in the ocean.
Nicole: Okay.
Patricia: Well, that’s our show for today. We’d like to thank our awesome audio editor, Jen Zink. You can find her at loopdilou.com, and we’ll leave a link to that in our show notes.
Nicole: You can find the full show notes and transcript at eedapod.com.
That’s E-E-D-A-P-O-D dot com. There you can also find a link to our Patreon, our bookshop link, and a link to the ongoing, Enthusiastic Encouragement and Dubious Advice newsletter. You can also find us on Instagram and Bluesky at EEDAPod and email us at eedapod at gmail dot com.
Patricia: We are nothing if not consistent.
Nicole: And if you’d like to give Patricia a gift for her birthday, might I suggest subscribing and rating us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts that allow for ratings. It really goes far in helping other people find us.
Patricia: We would also appreciate anyone who can subscribe to us on Patreon. Support there is going to help us keep the show going, especially without ads.
We really don’t want to be telling you about vitamins or I don’t, I don’t even know. Supplements and
Nicole: mattresses and socks?
Mattresses and socks. I think the mattresses and socks are the least offensive.
Fair. I don’t know. I don’t listen to commercials anymore.
Patricia: There you go.
But you can find us at patreon.com/eedapod.
In the meantime, we hope you find ways to be kind to yourself, drink some water and read a book. We’ll be talking to you soon.
Nicole: That’s gotta be some… some ice water and turn, we gotta turn on a fan. My eyeballs are sweating.
Patricia: Whooph.