Time to Refocus

I can't believe it's been so long since I've been on here. One thing is for sure, time and life doesn't wait for anyone. I've been checked out for a while, trying to get my head on straight and it's taken longer than I'd hoped but I've made a few decisions while I was out.

The first thing I've decided is to be thankful for the time I have and to make every effort not to waist mine or anyone elses by lingering on negative things. I realize that I'm lucky. I was tasked to go to Afghanistan for a year and I would have been leaving today excet that I didn't pass the physical. Tomorrow, I have an MRI on my head and neck, while I'm not sure what that will bring I'm glad that I'm still here with my family. Everyday with them is a gift.

The second thing I've decided kind of goes along with the first. I've decided that I'll put in my retirement request in March 2011 for March 2012 if the AF will allow it. Everyday it gets more and more difficult to continue doing something my heart just isn't in.

The third decision is that I need get serious about taking charge of my life and prepare myself for the transition to a simpler life. There is too much for me to do to get ready to waist time on negative things. I need to be present and pay attention to what I'm doing to make sure that I'm going in the direction I want to go. I've taken time to get my mind back on track and refocused on my goals and my future.

Getting Things Done

Well, I didn't accomplish everything on my list last week but I did get my taxes filed. I was pretty upset to see that I could have written off my gambling losses, if I had any, but not my daughter's high school tuition. That's part of what's wrong with the world today. The government gives too much to people who don't necessarily deserve it while others, who work hard to make it get nothing but higher taxes. There is something definitely wrong with a society that allows gambling to be written off but not a child's education. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of taxes.

I did make progress on some of my other goals as well. I exercised a little over the last couple of weeks but I really need to kick start my fitness and stick to it. I did manage to stay on budget so I feel good about that. I transferred the GI Bill to my daughter. Got some, but not all,of my office work done. I worked on some writing projects but didn't make any progress at all on my book. Even though I didn't make the progress I was hoping for in the time I was hoping for, I'm still keeping track of my goals and moving towards them everyday.

Back to Simplicity

The subject of this blog is the journey to a more simple and authentic life yet since starting it my life has become more complicated. I need to refocus my energy. All isn't lost though, over the holidays I made a list of the things that I wanted to accomplish this year and assigned a time-line to those events. I posted that list in prominent places around the house and in my car so that I'd be reminded daily of my goals for the year.

I realize now that I haven't necessarily lost focus on simplicity because organizing is a big part of it. You have to know what you want before you can ever get there and the vast majority of my goals for this year contribute to simplifying my life (paying off bills, loosing weight, and finishing half done projects). Most of the things on my list have been causing me stress because I want and need to get them done but I haven't managed my time and life well enough to make it happen. I spend more time thinking about what needs to get done, making excuses for why I haven't done it and worrying about the consequences of not getting tasks done. Getting control of our lives and how we spend our time is a big part of simplifying. To help me get organized and stay motivated, I'm starting a new post where I'll list what I've done and what I'll do the each week to simplify my life.

What have I done this week to contribute to my simple dreams?

1. I made a chore chart for the kids to help me and learn how to do domestic tasks. (Again, and this time I'm sticking to it!)

2. I made a budget and vowed to document all of my spending so that I can get better control of my finances. This is extremely important to my future because my income will be cut in half in three years and I need to have all of my debt paid off and extra funds built up.

3. I paid off two bills.

4. I took my lunch to work all week to save money, eat healthier and stop being wasteful.

5. I vowed to become more productive and reduce time wasters like watching TV and worrying. I hardly watched TV at all this past week.


What will I do next week to simplify my life?

1. Get up earlier so that I can write in the morning before work.

2. Stick to my exercise plan so I will not feel bad about blowing it off when I know it's really important to me.

3. Do the office work I brought home this weekend to relieve the pressure that's causing me to loose sleep.

4. Finish transferring the GI bill to my daughter and call her college about it. (How is this part of my simplifying process? It's something I need to do that causes me stress when I forget to do it. If I did it the first time I'd planed to, it'd be a completed task that I no longer need to give my thoughts and energy to, thereby simplifying my life. That's why being organized is a big part of simplifying)

5. File my tax return. (Again having things on my to-do list hanging out there causes unnecessary stress.)

So, those are the big plans for the upcoming week. Wish me luck!

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.