Goals, not resolutions

I don't have any new year's resolutions. But I do have some definite goals. It's a growing, evolving list, and I still need to take some time this week in silence to think through my life, decide where I want to be in a year's time.

One of my goals is to get a new job and move off-campus. It's a necessity that needs to be accomplished within the year. I cannot afford my son's high school fees unless I earn a (much) better salary, and to change jobs would mean I need to move away from here too. It's a big step to take, but it has to be done.

Tied in with that comes the business I've been on about for ages, the one I need to start and get sustainable enough to live off of. It needs to become more than just a sideline this coming year. It will mean a lot of hard slog initially - not only getting things off the ground, but also working full-time and being a single mom. I'll have to cut back on my tendancy to have "nothing" time, where I sit and vegetate, accomplish nothing. I'll need to cut back on TV time too - I really don't need to watch all the hours I do, and could be doing something useful instead.

Another goal is to improve my woodcraft skills. Not the tracking-something-in-the-woods variety, but working with wood to create beauty and usefulness. There are a number of projects planned, measured, worked out. Now I need the wood and have to get going. Some of them are essential to an organized home - like the room divider / bookshelves to house our ever-growing collection of reading matter. Others are nice-to-haves, like new storage for CDs and DVDs, something else to put the TV on, dining table and chairs (when space allows) and work spaces / shelves in the kitchen. I have the brains, some of the equipment and the muscles to do this, and I need to get cracking.

I also plan to improve a couple of areas that I'm just almost-good in - from computer skills (online selling software etc.) to organic gardening (I'm operating on a random-gardening technique currently, chucking stuff in various places and seeing what happens - fun, but sometimes impractical).

I have to improve my self - exercise, water intake, diet, relaxation. I want to make time, money and space for a massage now and then, or a treatment that will make me look and feel better. I need to feel worth something again, and that can only come from inner reserves.

Other goals will come, I'm sure. Once I make a space for them in my thoughts, take the time to think them through from start to completion. Visualize what I want in my life and get rid of what I don't.

One thing I'm doing in the next two weeks is calling in a lady who pays cash for second-hand goods, to clear out the car-load of clothing, assorted books / furnishings / linen and old fridge in the garage. Another is to clear the house, create calm instead of chaos in the rooms we occupy. My son has volunteered to help - to give me the holiday I have not yet taken on my time off. He's seen how hard I've been working at Xmas prezzies, organizing funeral services, dropping in to the office etc. I'm joyfully amazed at his thoughtfulness.

So as the new year approaches, my life is calming down, speeding up, clearing out - all at the same time. One affects the other, and I'm doing my best to create a circle of positive change, ready for what the future may bring.