A little less than a year ago I was challenged by someone who took a personal interest in my welfare, if only for a moment. They challenged me to make goals out of the things I wanted in life. Otherwise they’d never get accomplished, as they had not yet.
Goals require a specific end, they require that outcome to be measurable, and they also require a timeline.
With this in mind, I made a list. A list I had completely forgotten about until I just stumbled onto it while looking for something else on my BlackBerry. This was my “In 5 years” list.
My goals which I set out to meet “In 5 years” were as follows, unedited:
- Bachelor’s Degree: BA? BS?
- Divorced
- Social life
- Financially stable WITH:
- Nice Car < 5 yrs old (SUV Hybrid)
- 3 BR house (buying? garage, basement?)
- Plasma / HD TV
- Home network (w/ media?)
- Real jewelry
- Teeth started … Done?
- furniture sets
- budget for vacations
- budget for excursions
- budget for clothing
- decent toaster oven
- HE washer & dryer
I knew that after moving from the DINKY 2BR apartment the four of us were in that I was feeling good about where I’m at. I’m astounded to see how far I’ve actually come. Because even though my goals weren’t focused on as a list, they were in my heart and I took opportunities where I could.
I’m proud to say that from my list I already have:
- Social life. I’ve weeded out the dead weight in my life that kept me so busy but doing absolutely nothing. I don’t get out much yet, but sometimes I do. And I’m working on building relationships.
- And a good handle on financial stability:
- – Bills paid on time
- Nice Car < 5 years old. And while it’s not a hybrid, it IS the ‘new’ SUV style: Crossover! And it’s HOT!
- 3 BR house … WITH the basement AND 2-CAR (attached) garage I wasn’t even sure was possible to get in 5 years! Inside are SEVEN freaking closets, TONS of cupboards and counter space, a dishwasher, laundry area (with more counters & cupboards) and TWO AND A HALF bathrooms! (And the full bathroms aren’t small, either!) There’s a water softener, brand new furnace that was put in for me (landlady hadn’t planned to replace it, but wanted to help ME with heating costs), a sliding glass door from the living room to the back yard to watch the kids play and/or easy access for grilling. It also provides easy access to the clothesline in the back yard as well as the nice, wood shed that’s *wired with electricity*!! The landscaping is great, and it’s all at the end of the road lined down both sides with oak trees which meet over the road shading it GORGEOUSLY.
- Home network with wireless connection, with a really nice laptop that I hadn’t even planned on!
- No gemstones (what I meant by ‘real’ jewelry) yet, but I do have a little more jewelry, and none of what I have is crappy.
- Furniture sets: The kids now have 2 sets of matching bunk beds!! And I’ve got matching dressers. I’ve also got 3 large (matching) bookshelves which I love. I even have a monster-size set of fancy hangers that I wished a year ago that I could get someday!
- Decent toaster oven. Not only did I get the best one I could find, I also got a really great charcoal grill! And a table & chairs for eating outside.
No doubt that still leaves a good list. But who would have imagined that I would have accomplished so much in just one year??
Life has been hard. None of this has been a cake-walk. In fact, mostly it has all come out of very scary situations:
- My car blew up and I didn’t have one for weeks. Had NO CLUE what I was going to do with bad credit, and it worked out!
- Landlords of DINKY apartment wanted me to sign a year-long lease after being month-to-month for 2 years, and keep my now-big 3 kids of mixed genders sharing a room the size of a jail cell! (6′x9′) They were forcing me out, but I had nowhere to go and no cash to move. And in ONE day, I found a dream house and it became mine.
- Home network: I almost missed out on the laptop I wanted, because ALL the stores were out of them. But I finally found one more than an hour away, and they wouldn’t hold it. But we made the trip anyway, and were able to get it on sale, and had JUST enough money for wireless router that works with my phone system.
- Getting one of the kids’ beds involved the ex, and that went terribly (I cried in the store and the security guy had to hug me – UGH!!) and was also scary when he threatened to leave me there with the bed in front of everyone.
- The toaster oven ended up unwittingly putting me over budget, and caused much stress in order to work it out and avoid banking disaster. Much the same for the grill, except that time someone had promised to pay for half and then never gave it to me, leaving me with the same outcome. But somehow that just all kept working out too
And there are still more things that I need to accomplish. Time to refine the list a bit:
- Degree: BBA
- Divorced
- Social life
- Financially stable WITH:
- Old debts paid off (completely!)
- Good credit (750+)
- HDTV & Stand
- BlueRay player
- Teeth started … Done?
- Kitchen table & chairs
- Decent patio furniture
- Bedroom furniture: Jeannie
- Bedding x5 (why is this SO expensive?!?)
- New living room furniture
- Gemstone jewelry
- In monthly budget: money for vacations
- In monthly budget: money for excursions
- In monthly budget: money for clothing
- In monthly budget: money for curricula (learning games, et al)
- HE washer & dryer (unless I’m still here)
- Downpayment on a house (for whenever I choose to buy)
A very doable list for the next four years. In order to make it I will HAVE to in the next one year start college classes and get at least half of my old debts paid off.
- request funding for school so I can start.
- fix brakes on truck ($300)
- get new tires for truck ($400)
- fix strut on truck ($500)
- get COMPLETE credit report
- default resolution group – make arrangements for student loan
- make arrangements (or plan) for all other bills (consult consolidation group?)
I knew I felt good about where I was at, and that it felt right. But to see the list, with half the big things crossed off … including the two things that I thought would be the longest, hardest, and most unlikely (house and truck) … I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere. What a blessing that is! It makes working *so* doggone hard a little bit easier.
