We’re a couple of days into 2018 and it is time to hit the road running. Earlier, I gave you a broad idea of what this blog would be about in 2018–improving, doing, and pushing forward. Today, though, I wanted to take a quick moment to put to paper the actual plan!
In 2017, I had a loose conception for my blog and I think that is one of the major reasons I couldn’t keep it up… and frankly that just made me feel worse. This was supposed to be a happy space to explore new things and engage with people in a way that took me out of my comfort zone, but, instead, as months progressed, just thinking about what I should be posting to my blog gave me a sense of anxiety and morale deflation. Surely I was making things harder than they really were… Surely I was a failure because I couldn’t commit to even one or two posts a week… How come I couldn’t just commit? I knew that I would feel infinitely better once I had posted something… anything.
I would sit at my desk racking my brains for a topic only to experience a mental freeze in the moment and leave a few short minutes later with nothing but a vague post headline with no body… and it sucked.
Well I did my research about why I was getting these kinds of mental blocks, and it turns out that maybe I hadn’t thought things through as much as I could. Perhaps I had given myself a blank notebook to write in, but little to no direction as to what I could be writing about. I’m not the journaling type and as such, I had, in effect, set myself up for failure simply by burdening myself with a task I didn’t have the tools to complete. I was out at the deep end of the pool without an floaties and no one to teach me to swim. Of course I’d feel like a failure.
Google Keep is a tool that helps me keep a running list of the topics that could become posts!
Well I got savvy and did what I did best and that’s read up more about this blogging thing and decided this time around to actually prepare myself ahead of time for what I would need to do to get this (re)going and staying on-track.
I’m a schedule person. I work in a schedule heavy industry and I live by having a brief idea of what my day will look like from the moment I wake up. I love schedules, I tell people every day at work that if they want to bring more success to their projects they should design and implement schedules. When it came to this blog, though, that never clicked.
So when I read all these articles touting the success of simply mapping my blog and creating broad topics–clearly articulated paths and directions–that I could easily adapt into simpler more concise posts, it made all the sense in the world. Moreover, I read about the importance of putting that road map on paper (again advise I dish out on the regular at work). We’ll here you go! Here’s the plan for Doing Better Today 2018 edition:
As noted previously, this year I want to focus on taking small steps and doing simple things that will have a big impact in my future. As such, I’ve come up with three new broad topics and my goal is to share something about each once a week (that’s at least three posts! Way better than my super occasional one…)
Making Money with Common Cents
In 2017, I came across the idea of “Passive Income” and I was intrigued.
Who doesn’t want to make additional income each month without finding a whole new job or taking on a second one? I love the idea that there are ways in which companies will pay me to be their customers that cost me nothing to take advantage of. I love the thought of investing loose change to pad my funds for the future. I love idea that taking advantage of rewards or taking a quick survey would get me discounts right now on the things I’m already buying on the regular.
I’m super frugal as is, but who doesn’t want to stretch their dollar as far as it can go. So every week in 2018, I’m going to look at one way we can use our common sense to make common cents!
Building Character with Sweat Equity
In November, I closed the deal on my first home. I am now the proud owner of a simple condo. Although home-ownership is going to help me financially in the long-run by giving me a controlled monthly payment vs. possible fluctuating rent costs, there is a lot that goes into upgrading and maintaining your own property, I’m finding.
As such, rather than farming out the service, if I can take care of it myself, I plan to put in the sweat equity! It’s not just about saving (or making) money, it’s about the opportunity to learn new tactile things to help me build character and hone a new skill set.
But not everyone does, or can, own a home, so I plan to use this section to also explore other ways you can apply yourself physically to improve yourself and well-being. Maybe it’s taking the time to learn the neighborhood. Or joining the local Sierra Club on a weekend hike.
Sweat Equity doesn’t just apply to home-ownership in my book. As long as you are getting out and moving, you are putting in the physical effort now to reap physical, mental, emotional rewards in the future!
Boosting Brains to Achieve Continuous Learning
This is definitely in line with what I was trying to accomplish last year, but this time around I have a more concise purpose. If Passive Income helps you financially, and Sweat Equity helps you physically, we need to have an explicit mental task each week, of course. That’s where Continuous Learning comes into play.
Also called “Life-Long Learning,” it’s the idea is that there are always opportunities to increase your knowledge about something. In fact, the goal is to never stop learning, and with everything available to us today either online or in our respective communities, you never should.
Whether it be in the digital realm, down the street, or up a mountain, I want to explore with you all the ways that you can live a life of continuous learning.
Phew! I think I’ve got my work cut out for me this year. But I’m hopeful that with a structured plan–one article a week on achieving common cents, getting down an dirty with sweat equity, and hitting the books with continuous learning–I can get this blog back into shape and really help anyone out there looking ways to make themselves their best selves. After all, we are doing better today!
Good Luck!
Caitlin
- Have You Pushed Forward Yet?… Goals to Improve Myself, My Finances, & My Future in the New Year!
