What I'm Supposed to be Doing

I'm supposed to be updating my resume and submitting it on a job site. 

I'm supposed to be doing my taxes. 

I'm supposed to be riding.

Instead?  I'm looking at furniture online and writing a blog post.

Help!

Five for the Year

I've been reading about accomplishing goals and one of the keys, according to experts, is to get the goal out there.  After all, if everyone knows that you're going to try to do something, you're more likely to do the hard work necessary to get it done.

I set these goals last year and while I made some progress, I didn't complete any of them.  Here I go again, this time for 2012.

#1 - Read the shelf - read at least 52 of the books that I bought in the past but haven't yet read.
#2 - Emergency fund - have cash savings of at least six months worth of expenses
#3 - Hit my goal weight - lose enough weight to get out of the overweight category on the BMI chart
#4 - Write something every day - journal entry, blog post, character sketch, whatever.
#5 - Stay connected - reach out to friends, family regularly

Stay tuned for updates.

2011

I can't let the whole year go by without posting, right?

Six Months Later ...

The last six months have been pretty bad in my world.

T got seriously ill in late March and I had to make the decision to have him put down. I know it was the right thing to do. He was not going to get better and prolonging his life would have only drawn out the inevitable. I had the vet put him to sleep on April 1, his 28th birthday.

In early March, I had to go to the emergency room because I was having chest pain, numbness in my left arm, shortness of breath and lightheadedness. I thought I was going to pass out driving home from work. It totally freaked me out because I was going 70 miles an hour on the freeway at the time. Ultimately, it was a problem with my thyroid medication combined with too much stress rather than a heart attack which was a very good thing. I'm grateful for that, believe me, but still.

My job has been my own personal purgatory since I started it in February 2009 and I've had no luck finding a new one.

My life feels out of my control and I don't like it.

But really, I do have some control.

I can have some fun. To that end, I've started riding again.

I can limit my work days to ten hours a day.

I can watch my diet, limit caffeine and exercise to reduce stress.

I can start a Freedom Fund - saving six months worth of expenses so I never have to be held hostage at a lousy job.

I can really start looking at career options so I can do work that interesting, rewarding and makes a difference.

And I can write about all this on this blog.