Working Out Physically, Mentally and Spiritually

It is just after one and I have managed to do some chores, work out, set an appointment with SCORE to help me with my business plan (for free!) and an appointment to work out the details of volunteering for the organization I worked my senior internship. I also started writing my business plan and finished a few more chapters in the book serving as my picture for this post.

So far it is a good basic overview of the business but I don't see it getting anymore in-depth so I have ordered one that is more of a text book. I am not going to put this on the back burner I am going to go out there and get moving. I feel good and things are really coming together. I must have made an impression on more people than I thought when I wasn't letting life chew me up and spit me out. I have had no problem getting back in the game and starting to re-establish contacts.

This is day 2 of being back on track with my working out. I had gotten there before surgery briefly and then I took another few weeks off even thought I was fine. I made different goals this time and I think they will be easier to stick with. I am going to work on getting to 3 miles in thirty minutes on the elliptical. I am tempted to make more goals but I have found in other areas of my life it is easier to focus on that one goal and when you meet it decide where to go next. I get frustrated to easily if I can't hurry and move on to the next goal.

Also I have not stepped on the scale yet. I do want to get on just to see the weight I am starting at but I don't want to get obsessed about it. So if I don't remember to weigh in the morning before I drink a few cups of coffee I just don't do it. One day I will remember but I am not sweating it, and really it is easier to do now that my goals have changed and I feel happier.

I am also spending time getting closer to the God I believe in. I am determined to read a chapter in Proverbs each day and pray. I have also been talking to the hubby more and trying to figure out how we can plan things together for our future and our marriage. When I launch this business we are going to have to have a plan for how we are going stay focused and in touch with each other even if I  get so busy I don't have much time to spend with him. We both know it will take a lot of time and energy to start a business so we need to set some ground rules to keep our marriage a priority.

So I am working hard to make my dreams come true and hopefully I can help others realize their dreams in the process. Knowing what I want and going for it has already helped me with my attitude.

Well gotta go mow the front lawn and go to the bank and library and read more chapters in my book and then write more in my preliminary business plan document.

I have a new blog too Activate Your Dreams so please check it out. In the future I want to link it to my business website.

Looking Through My Social Work Notebooks

Okay I didn't save any of the files but I did save the complete journey through my senior year of Social Work classes. Consisting of 2 giant binders crammed full of useful information. I started by reading journal entries.

I am almost finished with them and I want to know who that person was. I was not the person I am today. I did mature as the journals progressed. I think I said over and over how much I liked helping people but also how much I liked working independently. My supervisor gave me projects to manage and left me with limited supervision. I should go through and count how many times I said even though it is stressful I love what I am doing. I have not felt like that in a very long time. Well not since I managed a weatherization project for the same organization right out of college. It didn't just make me realize that I am on the right track with planning my career it made me realize that I need to remove some of the negativity from my life. If that means not sharing my goals with my family (except the hubby) then so be it.

On that note I am going to change my life and begin by setting a few goals the first one is I am going to spend some time volunteering at the agency that I worked my internship.

Second I am going to work out 30 minutes a day on the elliptical. I am going to stay on the same max level in my program until I can hit a 10 minute mile and then set a new goal. That way I am not stressed out about the new goal before I get it started. In 30 minutes today I only did 1.3 miles and I was pretty sweaty. The main reason for this goal is that I get exercise every day and I have time for 30 minutes even on work days. If I work as hard as I can for 30 minutes I am sure it is better than just a few longer more lax work outs during the week and it forms a good health habit.

Third I am going to spend time every day reading one chapter in Proverbs for as long as it takes to ingrain the wisdom into my head. I am also going to set aside time to pray everyday even if it is just a few minutes.

Fourth I am going to spend the next two weeks learning everything I can about the business I want to start and try to come up with an outline to go to a free place that helps you with business plans. On that same note I am going to try to treat the people that come into the automotive shop with great respect even if my boss doesn't always treat me that way. It is not the customers fault and at least 95% of the time they deserve my best.

So I am working on things here and I really can't wait to get things started right now I am just excited about it and I know I need to keep working on a plan. I want to say a big thanks to JEFF KING who is super supportive.

Business Plan 101

Well I am working out a business plan a little at a time each day. I am trying to narrow things down and focus. Once I know exactly what services I am going to offer and how to apply fees I will launch a website.

I am giving my self two months to gather information and get the website started. I would like to launch the website by November 6th. I picked that day because I will be attending the local simulcast of Dave Ramsey's Entreleadership seminar. I figure I will learn a lot while I am there and want to tweak some of what I have started.

This will also give me time to develop good discipline in my life as well. In one week things have gotten better for me just by realizing what some of my dreams are. Also realizing that I don't have to spend a fortune to get there. Once things get off the ground there will be things I need to buy but not until I have a few clients. I know there will be some money involved in getting started but I can keep my investments minimal until I get stared. I will want to keep educating myself as well so I will be looking for cheap to free seminars and workshops I can attend to keep up to date on many current things.

I have time right now almost every day so if I spend my week days off like they are work days I should be able to pull this off in two months. If things are successful and I enjoy it as much as I think I will I can eventually quit my other job. Until then I am going to go to work and serve the customers like they were potential clients for my new business. Even if I feel down about something I am going to encourage my customers and try to make them feel great. Maybe it will help business at the shop and bring me future customers. Since I would not be competition for an automotive repair shop I don't see any harm in it.

Life feel like life again. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I have two months to develop a business plan and work on my life plan with my hubby. We went for a walk yesterday and talked a little about that and we are going to talk again after we look at houses today. So it is baby steps with us since his idea of a plan is sit back and watch things happen and hope for the best. I finally compared my life with out a plan to his life without video games (his favorite hobby) I think he got the picture. I truly think he just didn't understand how important it is to me. Now that he does we just have to work on it.

I am not Giving up!!

Well I am not sure where to find supportive people. Apparently I surround myself with negative people. I know that has been a part of my life more than it has not been but in the past I have had a few people that had my back. Now that does not mean they didn't tell me when I was being an idiot but it does mean they were supportive of many things in my life.

I don't have that right now and it is quite disheartening. I do have the skills to be a life consultant, I graduated with honors in my Social Work program. I was best at planning and management.I have lost some of that but I still have books and I can learn again.

I am not going to spend thousands of dollars to get a business running. I am not taking out loans either I hate debt. With the skills I worked hard in school to get I should be able to help people. The skills I need to learn are business skills, I need to design a plan to work with people, and figure out what services I want to offer. I need to write a good contract and learn about the legal and tax aspects.

I can see it in in the faces of the people around me and in the voices of those that I talk to they don't believe I can do it. They think my idea is crazy and stupid. Well sorry but that just pisses me off and makes me want to do it even more. I am going to spend every spare moment regaining my discipline and learning about business the next few weeks and during that time I am going to write all my ideas down. I am going to do this and I am going to be successful. I am also going to start looking for some more positive people to surround myself with.

I may even offer to help some people for free while I am trying to figure out an official plan.

Consulting or Life Coach

Well I was hoping to get to some fiction books this weekend but I am pretty excited about working on a business plan. I took and earlier version of this book to work with me today and read during the slow times. Unfortunately there were not that many. I read some before work and I have spent time researching liability insurance and life coaching as well as web-hosting and website building.

First I am not sure I like the Life Coach title at all but it is something people know about. Second I am not sure how to calculate my costs or make a business plan. I went to school for Social Work and I want to help people that want help.

I was thinking I would start with helping people to live on a budget to live a life with less stress. Like helping someone with a good income figure out how to save instead of spending more than they make. I am an avid Dave Ramsey fan but I would have to learn to use an excel budget because I can't use his software. I think his plans is great but I also don't agree with him on everything just most of his financial principals. I could also help people set measurable and achievable goals.

The thing is I need to start this myself again. I have to set goals and time limits for the things I want in life before I officially "open" a business. I need to work on my health and like I keep saying I need to clean my house and I need to sit down and work on an official budget for next month. Right now my budget looks like this: Spend the bare minimum and save the rest for a down-payment on a new house.

Sorry about my random ramblings I am tired from a long day at work. I was highly positive most of the day but I am feeling worn out and overwhelmed right now. Not unhappy but in need of a good nights sleep and a new day to work on my business plan. I figure it will take me at least a month to have some sort of working plan.

I Think I Know What I Want To Do With My Life

Well I am still thinking of a plan of action but I am really excited. I want to be a Financial/Life Coach. I know that I don't always seem to have it together myself but I think much of that has been because I could not figure out how what I wanted to do.  I was even starting to think that I don't like people. I just don't like some people and they happen to be some of the people I have to deal with the most.

As a Social Worker most of  jobs require you to try to help people and you work long hours helping people who don't want your help. Now I know that is not always the case and some Social Work jobs are very rewarding.So I spent about a year looking for a job in my field that would be rewarding and I couldn't find anything. Then I settled down in a job in an automotive shop where I love the job and most of the customers but I am not satisfied with working for a boss especially considering he is my step-dad.

Another thing I want to be able to do is choose my clients and tell them if they don't follow my advice then it won't work and the Social Work mentality (and code of ethics) requires you to empower the client to figure out for themselves what is good for them. It essentially takes the power away from you and gives it to the client and in most Social Work jobs that is a good thing to try and accomplish. It is also hard to do with a client who lacks common sense or any training in life skills.

So to get on my new plan I need to rediscover the discipline I had for myself while I attended school, got good grades, stayed reasonably fit and managed to make good financial choices. I still love to learn and have made good financial choices but I need to work on a few other areas of personal discipline. You can't teach discipline if you don't practice it. So my personal goals are:

1. to spend 30 minutes a day five days a week working out. That way I can skip the days I have to be up at the crack of dawn for work. This is a reasonable goal instead of trying to make 60-90 minutes I can start with 30 minutes and work my way up.
2. Spend at least  a minumum15 minutes on long work days and 1 hour on shorter or now work days of focused time working on a business plan. More if time allows
3. Clean the house all week long. If that means doing a load of laundry before work and after work on the long days then so be it. I really hate cleaning I would rather mow the yard 20 times than have to clean or learn to live on a 25 dollar a week food budget than clean. I have to suck it up and get it done.

The other thing is I want to spend 100 dollars to educate myself and try to start a website I spent 25 dollars on books so that leaves me 75 for a website. If I need to spend more I will take it from another area such as dropping down to one Netflix DVD at a time for a few months. Since that is our only form of entertainment it is in the budget but it can be reduced if needed.


For those of you who read today's earlier post my talk with my hubby or rather the letter I wrote him that led to talking went well. We don't have a concrete plan right now yet other than looking at more houses. Thing is just talking about it made me feel better. More than that I am okay with not moving right away as long as we have a plan to move even if that plan changes to saving more before we move because we don't like the houses in our price range.

I Think I Figuerd Out Why I Feel So Negative All The Time

I have been trying for years to figure out what has been making it hard for me to be happy and positive. My life doesn't suck when I take a step back and look inside my life is really great. Yet I get stressed out and depressed so easily. For a while I thought maybe it was my marriage or my job or even myself. I am not sure how the revelation came to me but I am pretty sure I have figured it out. My marriage is not bad could use some more communication but it is not actually the marriage. My job is a lot better than it used to be and I am part of the problem but not the whole problem.

I am pretty sure my discontentment comes from not having a plan. It is not for my lack of planning and setting goals but the fact that I can't figure out how to make my hubby understand my need for this. I used to think I was unhappy only because of the lack of communication in our marriage. Now I know if we talked for hours but never made plans for the future that I would still be unhappy.

So when my hubby tries to talk more he probably feels frustrated because it doesn't seem to help. He loves me and he tries but he is also the kind of guy who is happy to go to work and play video games and do it again the next day. He does not like to make plans and he really doesn't like to think about the future.

So what I have done up until today is make my own plans and try to get the hubby on board. He just agrees to keep me quite or leave him alone and then when I want to take action on something he finds a reason we shouldn't. It is not working and it is what is making me feel like crap all the time. I feel crushed when I make a bunch of goals and they can't be lived out, or if I do then I get blamed for any tiny bad thing that results. I can admit I have done a lot of stupid things in 33 years of life but in the years we have been married I have not made a lot of bad decisions that cost me more than a few hundred dollars.

We have a rental property with a small mortgage and 4 paid off cars. We have rent a house and we save quite a bit every month because I do all the financial stuff and I am pretty frugal and of course I love to live on a plan. It just feels so empty when it is just my plan. Who knows though maybe now that I have found the root of the problem and discuss it with my hubby that he will feel like he can focus on that instead of trying a bunch of other things. He really is a good guy.

I wish I would have figured this out years ago. I am not sure how the counselors that we have been to have not figured this out considering most of my complaints about our marriage were about the lack of planning for the future. I don't usually have too many other complaints about my husband at least not anything real important. I also think any of the minor things will be fine if we can focus on this one issue that has really been bothering me.