Dec 20 2008
Meeting your New Years Resolutions.
Every year I’d make my list of new years resolutions and would forget about it within a month. In July of this year, I watched the movie “The Bucket List” and it changed my life. The story was about two men who are given the news that they have cancer and a time line of when they could die. They devise a plan to make a list of ten things that they have always wanted to do but never took the time to accomplish. It was a wild list too! Imagine skydiving in your fifties? I’ve never done it and I’m younger then fifty!
I got to thinking about it and then decided I too would make a list of ten things and call it “My Bucket List for 2008.” I picked goals that were obtainable and easy to manage. I decided that I would accomplish at least two for each month because that was all I could afford. Unfortunately I misjudged the amount of money I would need and I was unable to do two of my choices. I will add them to my 2009 bucket list instead! This time I plan to devise a budget that will provide the necessary funds for the goals on hand.
Today I went through some of my journals from May 2008 up till now. I found out that I kind of stopped writing my daily agenda back in November? That’s because I’ve been working hard on completing one of my goals; it was to write a novel this year. I looked at my calendar and journals and realized that I started on the Novel back in August. I had read this book called “How to write a novel in 30 days.” It was about this NaNoMo Club, which meets in the month of November and takes 30days to write a 100,000 page novel and have it typed up too! Well it took me a month to write the basis of my novel and the last four months have been typing it up. I’ve been working on the rewriting phase and adding new chapters to this book.
I’ve also spent many hours researching hundreds of books about my topic of interest. I never realized in all my lifetime how much time was wasted doing absolutely nothing. It seems like I’m working harder now that I’m older and defining my goals in a much more productive way. This is something everyone should do. One day when were very old and on our deathbeds we all want to be able to say we lived life with no regrets, followed our dreams and met everyone of our goals to the best of our ability. Can you honestly say that now? Have you given yourself a good track record to follow? Or are you just going along in life with no direction at all?
Talking to many students including my sons who are at the age now to go to college. They are seriously confused about what to do with themselves. I believe they have both since childhood have devised several career options pertaining to life. First it was I want to be a fireman, then it was a policeman and swat team person, a paramedic, an engineer and now a truck driver! He finally decided which one to do and is currently going to school for it. I’m proud of him for even coming to a decision. I was in my 30’s before I became a true career woman. Before that I had been married and raising two small children and I worked here and there but nothing that could be called “a career.”
Now after several life changing events in the past four years I have literally started at square one and I’m asking myself what career do I want? Many of us will be in this boat with the way the economy is. With factories and large corporations downsizing to deal with this recession we will all have to find new ways to provide for ourselves. This is the time to tap into your instincts and find something to do that you love. I’m not just writing because it’s a career option. I’m doing it because it comes naturally to me and it’s something I get joy from when I immerse myself in the world of make believe.
I do research on fiction and non fiction topics. I’ve learned a lot of new things this year and I am proud of myself for doing so. Now you will have to do the same. Take some time each day to learn a new thing. You never know what may come around the corner of life but you will find it rather amusing that when you do have to make some sort of decision that the universe has been prodding you along in that very same direction. Whether you believe in such things is not the question. What you do with the knowledge in your mind and heart is.
