Goals for 2012

Thanks to a post on Kelly Exeter’s blog at the start of this year, I’ve really been focusing on my goal for the year – Independence.

 

You can read her post here:

http://www.kellyexeter.com.au/one-word-for-2012/

 

I commented on this article before I even followed Kelly or read her blog. I promptly forgot about the website for months, but my key word kept sitting in the back of my brain. I totally forgot where I’d even read this, and then after much searching, dug up the post again!

 

This was before 26 Years and Counting was even born, though in hindsight I wonder if the Independence word floating around in the back of my brain prompted me to focus on my personal blog. I love travel and my travel blog, but that’s for another place & time right now and I’m fairly accepting of that.

 

It’s now September. Have I achieved Independence? 

 

As with most things in life, the answer is both yes and no, because that’s just how life is!

 

The key things I mentioned in my comment on Kelly’s blog were:

 

Health – mostly my husbands. 

Well, this one is a giant, unequivocal yes! We’ve worked consistently and hard at changing our lifestyle and we’ve sacrificed by going down to one income so hubby can truly take the time to get ‘”fixed”. At a check up with endocrinologist recently, we were told in 6 months it’s expected that my husband will be 100% healthy. (For those who don’t know, in March 2011 Ben was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic, then a year after learning all about needles we found out it’s Type 2, now controlled with diet & exercise. We still don’t know what triggered it officially, but have our own suspicions.) So, in total, that will be a two year journey for us, but to spend two years of your life fixing something that usually is chronic, ongoing and shortens your life by many years – well it’s just so worth the sacrifice that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Postgraduate degree.

I am still constantly changing my mind about what to study. Mostly because I love to learn and quite frankly, I want to study most things I find! I also haven’t studied as I just don’t have the time commitment right now. Perhaps when I get to work from home & have saved myself 15 hours a week of commuting, I can put that time to good use and study again.

 

Business.

I wanted to start a business. I’ve always wanted to start a business and work for myself. I can’t remember when I started wanting that, but probably as soon as I started working in a $2 store when I was 14! Well, now I’ve started two businesses! I’m still a little behind on actually getting in clients (which most people will agree is pretty critical haha), but that’s mostly because I don’t have any cash for marketing yet. That will come, and my businesses cost me a whole $100/year to keep as is, so it’s not like it’s draining my bank account to not have clients yet. In the meantime, I’m working on being 100% set up in the background & developing the best services I possibly can, which I think is worth the time. I demand quality from others and I plan to give absolute quality to my clients.

 

Finances.

As I said just above, going down to one income has made us take a hit. We took a further hit when my area of professional work (research anthropologist) became even more under-funded and I had to go back to any old office job just to pay the rent. There were large periods of unemployment and terrible jobs. I even had to resort to going on Centrelink for a while. I may not like my current position, but it has provided us with a bit of stability in the financial sense. I paid off the small amount of debt I incurred during the unemployment months and I’m working on saving & business investment money now. This is half and half a success – I would like to be far ahead of where I am, but I’ve also accomplished the most significant part of my goal – to be debt free as I always was.

 

Where to from here?

Well I’m going to keep working on my goal – Independence. I realise now that it was wrong to say Independence was a goal for 2012. This is a goal for my life now. I can’t see that changing.

 

A big thank you to Kelly for her post earlier this year – I never knew a short post would make me think so much and create such a focus word for me. It’s something I’ve always known about myself, but the One Word blog post fixed it in my mind in such simple, solid way.

 

4 Replies to “Goals for 2012”

  1. Aw Vanessa this is really cool. And I love your word!

    It’s amazing how focusing in on one single word can really clarify a whole year (or life even!) I have found exactly the same as you this year and when I look back on my word (no!) it has really influenced my year in a hugely positive way!

    1. I think I will be making sure I have a relevant word every year – it’s just so easy to stick it in your brain and get on with things this way.

  2. […] blogged previously on how Kelly’s blog post inspired a goal in my life of independence. Plus, she’s writing a book and she lets you read it as she […]

  3. […] (Last years was Independence, you can read about it here.) […]

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