My life 2009 to 2010
Posted by creining | Filed under Personal
In my post a year ago, My life 08 into 09, I had a list of 7 things I wanted to accomplish. Well, I didn’t get them all done but that’s not a bad thing at all. I accomplished all my goals in 2008 which I felt really good about but it also caused me to become burned out and to miss living in the present. I learned a lot between about living my life during 2009. Here’s what I mean.
I have a tendency to always look ahead to tomorrow or the next month or even years ahead. I don’t think that it’s necessarily bad to look ahead and have personal or professional goals I want to accomplish or places I want to visit. However, I do that too much and it begins to dominate me. I remember when I was a little kid I couldn’t wait to be older so I could do more things. Get a job, drive a car, stay out until curfew, move out of the house, go to college, get a real job, buy a house.
Just a few years ago I would lie awake and think about all the things that I had to get done at work the next day. Or what I needed to do to plan a trip that was a year away. And on and on. I’ve found that there is very little I can do about anything in the middle of the night, except sleep.
I would start to think that I only have this one life and yet there is so much that I would like to do. So that lead me to try to orchestrate my future and the outcome is that I start to miss out on what is happening now. I start missing the journey because I’m wasting so much energy planning the future.
So I’m working on learning to live in the present, in the moment. Being aware of the journey and forgetting about the destination. I don’t want to sacrifice the present for the future because I won’t feel any accomplishment until I reach that goal. Wash, rinse and repeat. I don’t want to live that way.
This doesn’t mean that I have to give up all future plans. Living in the moment doesn’t mean to throw out all responsibility or become cavalier about everything. I have bills to pay, groceries to get, a house to clean, family to visit, deadlines for work. I just don’t choose to obsess over my future. I like to strive for a balanced awareness of my past, present and future with the present being my fulcrum on life’s see saw.
I like the way my life is now. I have more freedom to do what I want, when I want to and with whom. So now I would definitely say I’m living for happiness and satisfaction today. I know that I’m not going to be happy every day, but satisfaction with life covers a lot of ground.
After having said all that, my goals for 2009 were:
- Find and purchase 5-10 vacant wooded acres in Wisconsin (I didn’t do this; I still want to and this is going into my 10 year plan)
- Camp at Dells of Eau Claire, Nelson Dewey and Point Beach state parks (did it, loved it!)
- Vacation on Holbox Island, Mexico (we did this over my 30th birthday, a hidden gem!)
- Travel to India (I spent 16 days in Southern India, a wonderful adventure!)
- Fly fly fly (a trip to Washington Island is in order) (not this year)
- Design and start a half-sleeve (I have ideas of what I want but this is something I am not going to rush)
- Road trip! Wyoming (Yellowstone), Washington, Oregon, Arizona (Grand Canyon), Colorado (not this year, I didn’t even have enough vacation to attempt this!)
And I am making some 2010 goals. They are not too aggressive as they have been in the past and I’m not going to obsess over them or be upset if I don’t accomplish them.
- Camp at Sidie Hollow County Park
- Trip to Alaska, Anchorage to Denali
- Travel to Argentina
- Fly fly fly (a trip to Washington Island is in order)
- Learn about investment real estate
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