Starting off the New Year right!
January 4th, 2008
I have always believed that New Years resolutions are destined for failure because of the artificial nature associated with any changes we decide upon. Why would you need to wait till January 1st or even January 2nd to actually make any changes in your life? If something was important enough for you to make changes about it then you could start them on any day of the year.
That does not mean that this time of year isn’t good for reflection. Many people are off during this time of year and spending time with loved ones. This inevitably leads to having some time to think about what happened in the previous year and what will be coming up in the New Year. Leo over at Zenhabits posted a great article about 7 Essential Tips to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever and the article really struck home. During this time of reflection we can analyze what went right and what went wrong in our previous year. But most importantly Leo’s article points to some of the changes we can make to improve our upcoming years.
The air of simplifying runs through the article as does singletasking both of which I really appreciate and believe in. If we look at what we did last year and how we lived our lives and simplified them, reduced the number of goals that we took on and trimmed them down we would in all likelihood end up more productive and happier. From a strictly monetary point of simplifying would allow us to spend less on the frivolity that takes up too much of our time.
For me personally a lot of what Leo talks about in his post is something that I was intending on doing but he just happened to articulate it perfectly. I think rather than making arbitrary resolutions and dramatic changes taking small changes and integrating them into your life will have more of a lasting impact.
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2008 Goals
January 3rd, 2008
I wanted to start the year off with some goals that I have for the year. In the past I started off with some grand ideas about what I could and could not do. I’m sure a lot of people have the drive and start a great many things but the follow through is the issue. If you think about it most New Year’s resolutions end up broken within weeks if not days of being made. I think the biggest problem with a lot of these goals and ideas is the fact that they are very big. Often they are shifts in thinking which do not happen overnight. If you want to loose weight and you’ve been eating a lot and watching TV all year to all of a sudden expect you’ll be able to stop eating as much and hit the gym 5 times a week is a bit too much.
With that in mind I have some lofty ideas about what I would like to achieve but I am going to start off a bit smaller. I know that I would like to be in a completely different place this time next year from a financial point of view as well as from a personal one. So rather than say ‘I’m going to get rid of my debt and save X amount’ I would like to start off a bit more conservatively.
Some goals for the year include
- Cutting back on spending on unnecessary items such as alcohol and smokes
- Finishing my side project and registering it as a company
- Figuring out what I want to do about a job and a career (I’m up in the air and torn about this one)
- Concentrating less on the wasteful stuff and more on the meaningful things in life
I think I’ll start with those for the time being. Those are my short term goals and I will expand them once I see how I’m progressing. For example I am probably within a week of finishing up my side project and getting it into place. Once this happens and I’ve registered a business around it there will be a lot of work to actually start making money off of it. I’ve done the numbers and the business planning around it but I am not setting those as goals just yet; this project is an experiment. As with any experiment you know what you would like to see or even expect to see but trying it out gives you a better idea and in the case of a business if the idea isn’t successful you learn from this.
I don’t want to start the year off by saying I would like my side business to make me $20,000 by June because until it’s running I won’t have a clue what the potential returns will be. I’m going to start with the smaller pieces such as getting it up and running which is much more important now than mentally spending the money I haven’t made from it yet.
Cutting back on vices (such as smoking and drinking) is something I want to do anyways. I spend too much money on both and neither is an activity that has any real value or merit too it. But again rather than jumping in too far I’m going to set myself some smaller goals such as cutting back (on the drinking and shortly quitting on the smoking). These will help the financial situation but they will also help me with the final point, concentrating the more meaningful things in life. The consumer society we live in is extremely wasteful and although I personally don’t think I’m that wasteful nor frivolous I’m sure there are better things I can concentrate my energies on. Rather than watching TV two nights a week I can spend the time working on the side project. That would probably amount to 6-8 hours if I applied myself which might not seem like a lot but over time this adds up very quickly. It’s effectively a day of work. The rewards might be minimal at first but in the long run they might be substantial.
Overall I would like to say this will be the year of quiet change. I’m not going to try doing or taking on too much, but I would like to accomplish a few things. A slow quiet approach is probably the best way to do it for me right now. I think that knowing this is probably just as important as trying to accomplish the goals themselves.
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Happy 2008 and 2007 in review
January 2nd, 2008
Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully everyone has had a safe and happy holiday season. This is the time of year where you get together with friends and family and enjoy the season. It’s also the time where you spend the most money in order to buy gifts and extra food and drink for entertaining. Each year I am amazed at how much money I actually spend on Christmas and this year is no different in that respect. Reading other personal finance blogs its obvious that a lot of people have some restraint when it comes to what they do and don’t spend on Christmas but I have this suspicion that a great many more people find they’ve spent too much.
Spending around Christmas is inevitable. That does not mean it has to be without merit. I’m currently finding myself a little tight for money until next pay rolls around but I think this year is a little different from years past where I recognize the excessive commercialism and glut of consumerism not only in society but in myself as well. The New Year is often a time of change and reflection for people and I think this is no different for me.
The past year was an interesting one. I changed jobs to start the year off and in the process took a large pay cut to do so. The job has been working out for the most part but I am starting to think that I’ve learned what I can from it; the benefits of the pay cut are not nearly as great as they could be now. I think the next couple weeks I’ll be reevaluating my work situation as a whole to see what if anything needs to be done about it.
I also realized the power of the entrepreneurial spirit this year. Working for a small company you end up wearing a great many hats over the course of any day. Its stressful work but you quickly realize how much potential an idea can have as a business. To this end I’m in the process of setting up my first company on the side. The goal is for it to be a smashing success but the reality is that bills need to be paid so the process will be a bit longer than I would like.
On a personal note I got married this year and it was one very special day for my wife and I. It was a very expensive day but completely worth it. On a slightly darker note I’ve realized that some of my vices are worse than they should be and I’ll be working to remove them before they become real problems. I’m a little unsure of myself going into the New Year but I am certain that it will be a good year. A few course corrections in the next couple weeks will probably ensure that it’s a great one.
I hope everyone has had a great holiday season and that the New Year brings the achievement of all your goals.
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