New Year, New Life

I'm back! It's been a long time since I've had the energy to contribute to this blog but my simple dreams have not changed. With the new year, I've gained new energy and new determination to live simply in a complicated world. What a tough year 2009 was, 2010 has to be better.

This year I've vowed to make some pretty big changes and I'm determined to meet my goals. The first thing I had to do was get organized and figure out what I wanted. To do this I thought about the things that are causing stress in my life and what I can do to reduce or better yet eliminate that stress. One of the biggest stressors I have is my job. It's not a bad job and it provides a good living for me and my family but its not my passion. When you are forced to devote so much time to something that you aren't passionate about it makes things difficult. The drive to get out of bed everyday just isn't there. How do I handle this? Not very well, I'm afraid. I do however look at the job as a means to an end. The end being my three year countdown to retirement/doing the work I love and living the life I'm supposed to live. (You can see the countdown at the bottom of this page.) I also try to be thankful for what my job allows me to do, pay my bills, travel, meet new people, etc. I'm also very fortunate to have the opportunity to retire at a young age so that's what keeps me going in my current occupation.

Another area of my life that causes me stress is in the financial department. I know many people struggle with money issues and I used to be one of them. Right now things are going well, thanks to my job, but I am in debt and that debt costs me more than I'm willing to pay. It costs me time and I do not want to spend time working to pay for frivolous things and borrowed money any longer, so I had to get organized and come up with a plan to streamline my finances. I've used an excel spreadsheet and other money managing devices to keep myself in check financially but over time interest seems to wane. I've decided that a well thought out budget is necessary and I've determined that I must be more diligent about documenting my spending and sticking to the plan. So far, so good. I'm using my simple excel spreadsheet but making sure to keep all of my receipts and note all of my spending. This allows me to see where my money is going and plan to use it better to reduce bank fees while allowing me to stay on track to eliminate costly debt. So far, I've managed to pay off two creditors and I'm working on two more in the next month. I've always said that success breeds success. Once you get a few achievements under your belt it builds confidence that motivates you to keep going.

Of course I've also vowed to work on fitness this yea. Not unlike many women in this country, I have a certain (secret) goal weight that I want to achieve this year. To help keep myself on track, I also plan to run the Nashville marathon on April 24th. I've been planning to accomplish some of these goals for several of the past years but this year I've done things a little differently. I've declared to myself that these things will happen this year. I've written them down and I've posted these goals with progress report notes in places where I can't avoid them daily. I know my goals are lofty but I've been wanting to accomplish these things for a long time and this year I feel organized and very confident that I can do what I set out to do. For me, 2010 is dedicated to achieving what I've been putting off and making myself and my life better while moving towards a life of simplicity.