(Did I tell you I was gonna be at the beach this week? If not, Hello from the beach! :))
As I sit here in my skivvies this morning staring at you guys while I type this (can you see me through the screen?), I’m reminded how important it is for us to take vacations every now and then so we don’t burn out. And I feel like it’s always one of those things that most of us “know” we have to do deep down, yet it rarely sinks in until we’re forced to make it happen. Either by our employers, or by our family members ;)
So while I am technically working right now by sending this darling note your way, rest assured I’m most surely resting. I just happen to need an hour or two every morning to check up on my peoples and make sure nothing’s exploding or I’m missing out on a million dollar opportunity ;) You know, cuz that happens all the time. It’s something I like to call “hustler’s peace of mind” – just give us a little time to check-in, and then we can enjoy the rest of the day stress & worry free! Haha…
But anyways, what was I talking about? Oh yes. The beach. It’s that time a year again where my generous parents rent out a beach house to their lovely children and we all spend a week reminiscing about the good ol’ days and devilishly start crafting the future. Like how we’ll have these amazing jobs and lifestyles “by this time next year,” and guessing how many children or girlfriends we’ll gain as well. The former being for my sister and I who are long settled down, and the latter my brother who is no stranger to meeting beautiful single women :) And who knows, maybe he has some kids we don’t know about yet too?
The point is though, we love dreaming and planning out loud what our worlds can possibly be like down the road. Something we all do on a regular basis probably, except here we say it out loud and then hold each other accountable. Or at least give each other $hit over some beers when we grossly underestimated the challenges we were taking on (“You couldn’t triple your salary this year? What is wrong with you??” ;))
Here’s a look into the past goals I’ve set for myself over the years:
- 2010: Hoped to be living the good life and blogging full-time. (Success!)
- 2011: Wanted to grow my blogging biz even more and start SAVING MONEY instead of breaking even all the time. (Success! But man did I work my tooshie off…)
- 2012: We over-extended and had 3 goals last year: #1) Get the Mrs. pregnant again. Fail. Though to our credit we just started trying again last week :) We’re going for a 2nd one, baby!! Woohoo! #2) To only be working on Budgets Are Sexy and ONE other project. Fail. I ended up starting more and not getting rid of all the others, haha… And lastly, #3) Move to a new area. SUCCESS!!!! Yes – 1 out of 3, I’ll take it! :)
So needless to say I never stop pushing myself. And neither should you, for that matter. What’s a life without some good dreams? I think that’s been the weirdest part for me over the past month or so as you’ve probably noticed on this site – not knowing what I’m working towards next. I’ve been using this time away here to really think hard on it and ask myself *what* I really want to get out of this next year of work/life balance, but I have yet to put my finger on it.
So for 2013/2014 my goal will be simple: Find your next dream and cut out the crap. A simple one, but not an easy one. As long as we can put a finger on what our end goal is though, it should get better to identify and start eliminating those obstacles that need clearing out of the way. And 12 months should be more than enough time to lock and load – life emergencies not withstanding.
I think I know what will help with this too: metal detecting ;) Nothing like searching for treasure while mulling life over in the sand! Haha… As soon as these lazy bones wake up, I’ma get out there and try and beat my $1.14 record from two years ago too ;) I swear a Spanish gold coin or vintage Rolex is just waiting to jump out and into my pockets! If only I can find where those damn ship wrecks are…
What are your goals for the rest of the year?
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[Photo by NeilsPhotography]
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I want to do the whole metal detecting on a beach scenerio. I almost thought about getting on Craigslist and trying to find someone who has a metal detector and is down to start a bromance. I would just be using him though.
Have a great vacation.
I love the idea of a metal detector. I think you might have inspired me to go out and buy one also. It will also give my 3 year old son and I something to do together.
I read somewhere about a man that lost his wedding ring while swimming at a beach. But the ring was found by a woman that had a metal detector.
We lost a wedding ring at the beach–a nice one too–teaching our daughter how to swim–it was like a cartoon scene as my husband slipped, cursed and I, from the beach heard “OHHH S)#*%)*#!” and looked up to see him falling backward into the water, and the wedding ring literally flipping up, over his head, and then plunk, into the water. It was a bad day. My brother-in-law bought a metal detector and attempted to find it, but it was never found. :-(
So sad Jessica! I’m sure it would be found at some point, but who knows how many decades later :(
@Brian — I always see one or two on CL looking to trade it for something else. Maybe you can get rid of something you don’t use and pick up a nice detector!
Best wishes on conceiving that second child. We are just about ready to accept our third into the world. My wife is 38+ weeks along and we are ready to go. Glad to hear you made that decision. Kids are a lot of work, but they are an amazing blessing.
Congratulations to all of you!
Thank you very much!
Awesome! Hope to get to #3 too one day in the near future :) Hope everything goes smoothly!
One out of three’s pretty good J$! And following on from your Epicetus thing yesterday, my fave quote, my way to keep focused on work and goals is ‘When a man does not know which harbor he is sailing for, no wind is the right wind’. Courtesy of Seneca. Got to keep making those goals!!
LOVE THAT QUOTE!! A new one for me – thank you :)
My boyfriend and I met a guy about a month ago who was combing a local pond with a metal detector. We asked him if he ever finds anything and says he regularly finds gold rings, necklaces and bracelets AND he did find a Rolex a couple years back!! He said it cost him $1000 to restore which he paid for with all of the other little pieces he had found that year. The pond he combs seems to constantly have a huge Puerto Rican party going on, and gold is a big part of their culture for all ages. Those little kids dive under and do flips and hand stands and come up without their jewelry and this guy finds them all! He said he does check local postings when he finds things like the Rolex and engagement rings to see if he found something he can give back.
That’s nice of him :) Hard to do too, I bet! I’ll have to go and research where that pond is, haha…
I will steal your 2011 goal because it fits me perfectly. “Wanted to grow my blogging biz even more and start SAVING MONEY instead of breaking even all the time.”
I hope to be able to add your ” (Success! But man did I work my tooshie off…)” part as well.
First good luck with bringing another little one into the world.
Vacations are magical. Yes, I used the word magical. As long as you enjoy them. I have friends who constantly work on their “vacations”. not that you can’t make a phone call or two but there is a huge difference between that and working half the day and vacationing the rest. Just remember that each time you go to sit down at your computer while on vaca.
Well wishes in establishing your plan to simplifying the next few years goals.
The Warrior
NetWorthWarrior.com
Working on trying to figure out my exact goals for the next year :-)
1) I need to make career decisions or at least decide on a path for the next 5 years
2) Be more passionate about whatever I am working on
3) Become more others focused rather then self focused (kids are helping with this one ;-) ).
4) pay off the last $ i owe anyone and take a scuba trip somewhere with my wife :-)
I will like to join you on #3 – a hard one to do indeed!
I’ve always wanted to get a metal detector and see what I could find with it. But, alas, I did nothing about that when we lived in SoCal and there are few beaches in Omaha. ;) Our goal is to continue to grow our business and establish another stream or two of income.
I tell myself that there’s so many people with metal detectors, all the good stuff’s been found already.
Instead, I’ll just sit here and enjoy my umbrella drink.
All the good stuff can’t be found already because people are losing good stuff every single day! I’ll come and show you while you’re sitting there drinking your fruity drink ;)
Sounds fun!!! I need to re look a my goals and see what’s going to be next for me. I got through the first year at my company, hoping this next year is awesome.
Have an awesome vacay! I’m sending lots of love and good vibes your way that you don’t have to wait too long for sweet baby #2 :)
I am on the other side of the metal detector; John was very generous and bought me a lovely ring (nameday and professorial one). We are at the beach as well and I have been very careful to leave my ring at the hotel – not too keen on loosing it in the sea or the swimming pool. I like your goal for 2013-2014 – simple and elegant. And really hard I find since cutting out the crap is always problematic. What a student of mine said in Rome applies (‘who decides which of this old crap is valuable?’). Enjoy your holiday and good luck with the baby making….
That’s great man. I need to come up with 1 or 2 big goals and that’s it. There are just too many things on the list right now. It’s a bit distracting really.
It never occurred to me that dudes with metal detectors were just out there relaxing, and if you find some treasure that’s just a bonus.
For the rest of my year I want to draw cleaner lines between work and life, and focus on doing one or the other (or maybe that won’t work, we’ll see…).
Good luck making the baby!
That line between work and life is a hard one to find and stick to for sure. If you can figure it out I’d love to hear how :)
First, congrats on trying for #2! That’s HUGE!
Second, I LOVE relaxing with fam., enjoying the moments we have and talking about the future. I swear it’s even more fun talking about it than actually doing it….which maybe is a bad thing?? I dunno. Either way, I’m totally with you here.
Just don’t forget the sunscreen…
One of my remaining goals for the year is similar to yours. We are trying to get all of our paperwork finished so we can adopt our second child. Best of luck to you!
you too man – I know that’s not cheap :(
Have fun at the beach – I’m super jealous! And good luck on baby #2!
This post was funny! I’m glad you’re getting some down time, even if its only the hustler’s kind. I wish you the best in finding your next big dream and, more importantly, cutting out the other stuff. Be gone, stuff that don’t matter!
If only we could take vacations whenever we wanted to!!!! Have fun on yours! Sounds nice. Haha…though I technically live 5 minutes away from a beach and never make it there. Too busy trying to make money.
My goal is to buy a house! We’ll see how that goes…
Cute post, J! I’ve been looking back at some of my old posts recently, trying to see which goals I’ve accomplished and which I’ve failed (err, not accomplished yet). My big goal for 2013 was to become debt-free (DONE!) and by the end of 2014 I want to have $10K in an Emergency Fund. Should be doable, right? ;)
For you? Easy as pie :) Just keep writing your heart out and being awesome!
Enjoy the beach! And congrats on starting to try again, hope those boys can swim too :)
I love the way a beach rejuvenates you. It was a deal breaker for us to move to the beach when we left Northern territory.You share the beach with crocodiles up there so i definitely wanted to be able to use the beach again and enjoy it without thinking my dog was going to get eaten any second (NOT terribly relaxing)( google images monster crocs NT) Please don’t typo that either you might get some ahem “interesting” search results! These beach babes with reptilian skin are not photoshopped I have seen the boat picture one in the flesh myself. Needless to say i almost needed new underwear (sorry for the overshare!) If you ever make it over to AUS I will have a huge list of everywhere to go… should have been a tour guide.. side hustle????
The weather is not all that flash today so the beach is out but this article may have just done the trick for me to get back into planning mode! Congratulations on trying for number 2! We are thinking about that for us at the end of the year at the latest. Our little one is just dying for a playmate hes now 14 months so feeling the pressure! ha ha.
I have already begun to “cut the crap” Avon was making me minimal money and I was investing a lot of time travel and stress for little reward so have made the choice to cut it. Of course the upline has tried her best to talk me out of it. Get this though, she has 105 (approx) in her downline, makes over $200,000 in sales a year and gets about $65000 as her annual income from it!!! I reckon that’s crazy! I think if she nutted it out to the hours vs income it would…. suck. I am not betting on that to be my financial plan! So now it is back to blogging, flipping, and some other things I have in the works for a few months time… wish me luck!
Wishing you lots of luck! It’s hard to let go of things you’ve put a lot of time and effort into (and even money) but better to move forward now and work towards the next thing before you get sucked in even more. I have to do this like 3 times a year when I shut down sites I’ve started that didn’t do too well (or at least as well as I wanted them to). So shut ‘er down and move to the next! :)
@JaneSavers Me too! Keep the tips coming J Money so we can follow in your footsteps!
@JMoney Got me thinking I should buy a metal detector and head to the beach #moresidehustling
My goal is to grow my blow’s traffic, spend less money, and save more money. I also want to get to my condod paid off!
You want to sell more “blow?” You’re a REAL hustler! ;)