90 Days to Change My Life – The Plan

 My Life  No Responses »
May 122012
 

So I’ve given you the ‘Whys’ on why I need to change my life, now we’re going to discuss the ‘How.” I’ve had a hard time fully working out the ‘How’ so this post has taken longer than expected to write, but I’ve finally decided on a plan of attack for my next three months. It seems a bit convoluted, but I’m tackling five different areas of my life so there’s a lot that needs to be addressed, though I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible. So here goes:

Professional: The goal here is basic, to finally be professional about my profession. I haven’t taken it seriously and it has rewarded me accordingly. If I don’t treat my business like a business how do I expect to have any success? The other part to this is to get a few of my blogs up and running. There are three in particular that are up and established and have a monetization strategy in place and now they need to be completed and fine tuned to draw traffic their way.

  • Goal #1:  Get The Writing Diva up and open for business and secure my first client.
  • Goal #2: Get the sites A Big Butt and a Smile, Sweet Potato Pie and a network of sites that shall remain nameless up and running
  • Goal #3: Write a minimum of 500 words a day (min 6 days a week) not counting the updates for this challenge. 500 words is not a lot, but just forces me to get back into the habit of writing everyday.

Social: I don’t get out of the house much. OR I get out the house too much  in very short time frames, trying to make up for all the times I was stuck in the house. Outside of that I’ve done a lousy job of maintaining relationships (familial, friendships, romantic) and if I’m not making an effort I can’t really expect anyone else to either. So my main focus here is to strengthen current relationships, make some new ones and get my ass out of the house more often.

  • Goal #1: Work somewhere other than the house one day a week. A lot of places have wi-fi (not just the library either) and I should at least spend a few hours once week working somewhere besides home.
  • Goal #2: Reconnect with old friends and strengthen those relationships. Make a point to go out at least twice a month either on my own or with someone. Sitting in the house all day for weeks on end does me no good.
  • Goal #3: Date. The UPS man isn’t into man delivery so try for 3 dates with three different men over the next 90 days. It will be good for me to get back out there and try at least. No pressure for anything else. Just dating.

Physical: I’ve been gaining and losing th same 20/30 pounds for years now. That needs to change. I’m also not the neatest person in the world. While I will never be a neat freak (I HATE cleaning) I need to do better. My room is a MESS and the rest of the house isn’t much better. A cleaner less cluttered envrionment makes for a happier me so for my mental and physical well being I am going to need to clean and organize my surroundings.

  • Goal #1: Exercise (at least) twice a day six days a week with one of those workouts being P90x. Do better with my oral health (brushing and flossing a min of twice a day) and just taking better care of my physical self.
  • Goal #2: Completely overhaul my eating. Drastically cut out the sugar. No more fast foods. A minimum of 30 grams of fiber a day and 16oz of water after everything I eat. Take pictures of what I eat to keep me honest.
  • Goal #3: Clean and organize my life. Keep my room clean or clean-ish. Make Sunday mornings Clean Up Day to tackle not just my room, but the house and laundry as well.

Family: I haven’t been the best mother or big sister over the past several years. When I’m depressed, I turn into an angry, mean, anti-social hermit. I’m no good to anyone. So all of the above actions ultimately are to make me a better, healthier person which in turn makes me a better mother and big sister. Changing my life will have a drastic affect on theirs as well. For the better of course.

  • Goal #1: Institute a Family Game Night (on Wednesdays). This is an easy and fun way to spend quality time and bond with the kids. We’re all pretty competitive in this house so I will enjoy kicking their asses in any game we play.
  • Goal #2: Read a bedtime story to the two youngest ones minimum 5 times  a week. The little ones are 7 and 8 so bedtime stories are still something they would enjoy and make for good bonding times.
  • Goal #3: Plan a family outing (at least) twice a month. The girls are in the house way too much. We are on top of each other way too much. It’s not good for anyone. We need to get out as a family more and this is a way to do it.

Financial: Yeah this is the part that really makes my head hurt, and while it ties in with my Professional goals it is definitely a category in and of itself. As I’ve stated already, I haven’t really taken my business seriously and I’ve suffered for those decisions financially. Also, I have no savings and a debt obligation, while mainly comprised of student loan debt, that’s massive so there is a lot to tackle there.

  • Goal #1: Start earning more money. Nothing can change until I do that. So I’m aiming for a steady 1000 dollars a month by the end of the 90 days.
  • Goal #2: Start saving 20 percent of my income off top, no questions asked. If I’m not paying myself first I won’t be able to accomplish any of my long term financial goals.
  • Goal #3: Get a handle on my debt and make a plan to start paying it off. There’s so much to focus on in the next 90 days that I’m not worried about starting to pay off debt now, but to at least have a plan in place to start the process in the near future.

So there you have it, my plan for the next three months of my life. None of the changes are particularly drastic with the exception of the changes to my diet, so I think they are all completely doable in the next 90 days and when done together can add up to significant changes in my life. To keep me accountable I will make twice weekly updates on my progress and may ( I stress may) add a video update once a week. I’m supposed to do video for a few of my other sites and I’m not sure I want to do one for here too. We shall see. I’m excited. The Challenge begins Monday May 14 2012.

Never quit. If you stumble, get back up. What happened yesterday no longer matters. Today’s another day, so get back on track. You can do it.

 

90 Days to Change My Life – Introduction

 My Life  No Responses »
May 082012
 

I’m drowning. My life is a mess and has been for awhile. Brief highs are punctuated with long lows and I”m tired of the roller coaster ride. There is no reason for me not to have the life I want to have. I can (and should) have the success I want, a thriving social life and fun and stable family life. I have allowed life to happen to me for too long now. I have been surviving and not living. And after a really bizarre breakup and a Series of Unfortunate Financial Events, I decided enough is enough. It’s time for a change. A real substantive change and there is no better time than the present.

To kick off this Change My Life in 90 Days goal I needed a plan. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and decided the changes need to be major – small changes weren’t going to cut it – but they had to be attainable – to far out there and I may feel too overwhelmed to make any moves. Change is difficult. It hurts. The body would much rather do what it has always done, so I needed a balance of both: enough change so my life would be markedly different by the end of 90 days, but not so far out of reach that the goals I set are near impossible to attain and I get discouraged.

Finally the time frame. Why 90 days? Well it takes about 30 days to form a new habit and I figured a total of 90 to really make it a part of your life and to crowd out the bad habit. I knew the time frame I set for this challenge couldn’t be so short that I didn’t have the chance to make real changes in my life, not too long that I got bored or discouraged with the process. 90 days seemed like the perfect time frame to get things done, long enough for real change to occur just short enough to work with my fickle attention span.

So now that we are clear with the ‘Whys,’let’s address the ‘Hows.’

I want to change my life in five areas: Professional, Social, Physical, Family, and Financial.

Professional – It is high time I treat my career like a career and not a hobby. There are a gazillion reasons why I haven’t been treating my writing/blogging/consulting business as a business – but all of that is irrelevant at this point. The goal now is to establish myself as a true professional in my field and secure new business based on the changes I make over the next 90 days.

Social – I don’t get out much. I spent weeks/months in the house without going anywhere. Or if i do go somewhere it’s either by myself or with family. After a few days of being out with my peers I realize that I’m a MUCH better person/mom/big sister when I’ve had the opportunity to be out and have fun. I want to do more of this. I also wouldn’t mind meeting someone I can have a nice, healthy, exciting adult relationship with.

Physical – This doesn’t just apply to my physical heath but my physical surroundings as well. I am not neat. But my not neatness reaches new heights when I’m not in a good mental state. So let’s just say right now my room looks like a category 5 hurricane combined with a level 5 tornado combined with cyclone hit it. Yeah. Not good. SO the goal is to clean and organize my room (and complete other chores around the house) and keep it clean and organized over the next 90 days. As far as health I’d like to break my addiction to sweets and lose (and keep off) 20 pounds over the next 90 days. It’s time to rid myself of the same 30 pounds I’ve been gaining and losing for 10 years now. The first 20 is a good place to start.

Family – I haven’t been a very good mother, sister, daughter lately. I’m constantly tired, angry and mean. I’m disgusted with myself and my life and I’ve been taking it out on everyone else. I need to spend more time with my daughter and my siblings and need to set a (much) better example for them on what living a purposeful life is like. The current example I’m setting is one of a defeated woman who just let things happen to her and doesn’t make anything happen. Definitely going to set about changing that.

Financial – My finances have been a mess for years. Recently my credit has started to improve so that’s definitely a good thing, but the key now is to not only improve my credit but to create a steady stream of income, pay down debt (student loans I’m looking at you) and create a solid nest egg for myself and then, eventually, for my kids. I’ve been freelancing a long time. And while many freelancers live hand to mouth, there are plenty that are successful and have thriving, financially successful businesses. I plan on being in the latter group and using the next 90 days to set the foundation so I can be there.

So that’s it. These are my goals over the next 90 days. I need to change my life and I realize the only way it’s going to happen if I set a goal, make a plan and execute the plan so I override old, bad habits with new, successful ones. Tomorrow I will lay out the actual plan I plan on following over the next 90 days and the barometers I will use to measure success. Till next time.

Never quit. If you stumble, get back up. What happened yesterday no longer matters. Today’s another day, so get back on track. You can do it.