A New Year, A Fresh Start

I love New Year's Day -- in fact I'd venture to say it's my favorite "holiday". As much as I love Thanksgiving and being with family and the reflection of all that we are blessed with and Christmas, with its emphasis on loving one another and giving, New Year is all about me.

Me, me, me!

While I'm joking about the selfish side of New Year, it actually is the self-help lover's day of renewal. A fresh start ... out with the old, in with the new. And I'm totally into that.

These days even though it's more fashionable NOT to make resolutions (probably because so few follow through) I really do have a lot of goals and aspirations for where I'd like to be at this time next year and let's face it, New Year's is as good a place to start as any.

So with that in mind, I've decided the main areas I'm choosing to focus on in 2011 are HEALTH and CAREER.

When it comes to health, I'm no different than most -- I want and need to lose weight. I want to bring my body back to a state of wellness and fitness. That's going to involve some major lifestyle changes. I've talked about it before on this blog but honestly haven't followed through as I'd like. As much as I'm inclined to, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. My intention is to simply let go of past mistakes and be serious about eating better, getting daily exercise, and taking better care of myself emotionally and mentally as well.

With that said, I'm not starting my "diet" today. I'm still in prep mode at this point. We just arrived home last night from a holiday with our family so I don't have the house stocked with healthy food (or purged of the unhealthy stuff!), meals have yet to be planned or recipes prepared, and the exercise room still needs to be put back together (after the water problems we had before we left.) So it will probably be a Monday, January 3rd start for us (hubby is joining me for the "Healthy in 2011" quest.) My goal for today and tomorrow is to just get ready for Monday!

My career goals are simple as well -- I intend to start an online business (or two, or maybe even three ...) After moving last year I felt as though I'd been given a second chance to think about what I wanted to be doing with my everyday life. My former career path kind of fell apart due to some health concerns and then with moving, I ended up leaving my "rebound" job as I like to think of it that I wasn't really crazy about to begin with.

That leaves me unemployed and at a crossroads. I can either look for a regular J-O-B or I can create my own. I'm leaning towards self-employment since the type of job I'm looking for is rather scarce these days (entry level, few skills required, high paying, and with a very flexible schedule ... yeah ... you don't find a lot of those jobs listed!)

AND -- I have always wanted to be my own boss. I know it probably sounds crazy since it's so much easier to let someone else worry about business details and just be the worker-bee that shows up every day, does whatever is on the daily slate, and has a dependable paycheck directly deposited into the bank every other week. But I've never been one to take the path of least resistance (darn it!)

Now that we're settled into our new house and I've run out of excuses for getting started (company, holidays, etc.) I do have a few areas I'd like to pursue. It's time to get serious about getting one of these business ideas off the ground. If one goes well, I'll expand to another. If the first doesn't pan out, I'll give the next idea a shot.

Either way, I'm going to focus on using my time wisely with prosperity in mind. Between getting healthy and focusing on building a business, I expect that 2011 is going to be VERY busy.

I like busy. I am good when I'm busy. I'm excited about being busy!

So here's to a very healthy and prosperous new year. For me. And I'm hoping for you too!