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Do you have a vision for 2011?

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Fireworks #1

Do you feel pressured to change something about yourself? Whether it’s your health, your work, your life, your marriage or your location, when the New Year is staring you in the face.

I don’t know about you, but there seems to be more pressure this year, than ever before. Perhaps I’m reading more blogs related to goal setting, making things happen or listening to the media, however I feel bombarded with messages on how to:

  • structure your day
  • organize your work
  • become more efficient
  • take baby-steps to reach your goals
  • make to-do lists
  • make short -term goals
  • make long-term goals
  • add five minutes to your walk a day and you’ll soon be able to run a marathon

As most of us know, January is the month when we make resolutions, and February is the one when most of us break them. Of course, this does not apply to you and me.

I try to set my goals based on a clear vision of where I want my life to go. For example:

  • In the next year, my goal is to have an agent and/or a publisher for my memoir.
  • In the next year, I want to launch my improved blog and website.
  • In the next 2-3 years I plan on moving to our house in Naples, Florida.
  • In the next 5-7 years I want to do 27 months of Peace Corps work.

So here’s my first change starting right this minute: I’m going to start smiling more. Why? Not only is it supposed to energize the brain and muscles, but it will make me feel happy and perhaps someone else too.

What about you? Do you have goals for 2011, or do you prefer not to think about it?

Now here’s a job I’d love. What about you?

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When I was five, our plane was forced into an emergency landing in a ditch at the end of the runway at Lagos airport, Nigeria. I shall always remember that glass of orange juice I was given by airport staff after the incident.
“Let’s do it again,” I said to my dad.
At eleven, I wanted to be an astronaut, like many kids, perhaps not most girls though, and at fifteen, air traffic controller was the only thing I could think of as a future career.
Planes and airports have always fascinated me and even today, at 53, I look towards the sky every time I see a plane and wonder, “Where’s it going?” For some reason, all planes are heading to a tropical location.
On my way back from the gym this morning, I heard an interview with a British author, Alain de Botton. He applied for a job as a writer in residence at Heathrow Airport. Botton has always had a fascination for airports, and my first thought was, lucky him. What a fantastic project to work on. During his interview on NPR (National Public Radio) he said, “Airports make us raw.” He said people open up and one man told him about his two families, one in Los Angeles, and one in London. How can a man have two separate families for fifteen years?

 

I love Heathrow airport Terminal 5, if you haven’t been there, I think it’s the coziest terminal I’ve ever experienced. Botton was stationed there and wrote, “A Week at the Airport.”
Another interesting comment Botton made was related to how we stand in line to go through security, and most of us have a vague sense of guilt but feel absolved once we make it through. Have you felt that? I know I have.
I just signed up for the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon to meet other adventure seekers like myself. This is my new adventure for 2011, Chris Guillebeau, Leo Babauta, and more exciting people are attending. Life is full of Gutsy Adventures, and I’m going to make it happen. 

What would you like to work on that’s exciting for you in 2011?

Should you give presents at this time of year?

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Pine tree from Flickr

In December last year, I wrote about my challenges of buying gifts for my husband. 

Now, only a week away from Christmas, I’d like to talk about the concept of buying Christmas presents.
With only five days left before Christmas, I have nothing to give my three sons, 23, 20 and 16. Clothes don’t interest them, or perhaps I should say, they don’t seem to appreciate clothes the way most women would.Whenever, I ask, “What would you like for Christmas?” they say, “Nothing.”

A few weeks ago, my oldest son mentioned a Kindle. He then ended up using his birthday money from Grandma, and bought his own.

My middle son ordered his own present on e-bay with money he’s been saving since Kindergarten, (yes, he’s great at saving money from Grandpa and Grandma since birth.)

My youngest son says he wants nothing more than for us to allow him to enlist in the Army and attend West Point.  (I’m not going to touch this subject right now.)

I know I should be grateful they don’t ask for presents, and part of me likes to believe that our year of frugal living in Belize shifted their attitudes towards acquiring less, however, this does bring out the “guilt factor” of having a tree with nothing underneath it.

Mega-blogger, in terms of having 200,000 subscribers, Leo Babauta has a blog post on, “The Case Against Buying Christmas Presents,”
When I read Leo’s comment, “I don’t love Christmas shopping, or the over consumption, frenzied malls, consumer debt, environmental waste, wasted time wrapping, and over-accumulation of needless stuff that goes with it,” I could relate. As Leo says, “Giving is great, but buying is not the solution.”
I sense a shift in the overall tone and message of the world economy. With a 14 trillion dollar debt in the U.S., people will have to keep working until they’re 69, before social security kicks in. I wonder how long before the population realizes we cannot keep living a “pretend” life of over-consumerism, and recognize the need to live more frugally, the way Leo Babauta, advocates.
So this Christmas I shall bake, cook, have parties, listen to my boys, give them hugs when they want them, and perhaps, if they’re lucky, knit a scarf they can use in the cold weather of Michigan, and New Mexico. I shall also buy a black T-shirt from a blogger I admire: Annabel Candy, “GetintheHotspot,” and some beautiful postcards based on the nature photography of my blogger friend LadyFi in Sweden. Finally I shall give a gift of sight to a child through the Fred Hollows Foundation.

What are you doing for your family, friends and the world this Christmas?

What’s wrong with simple pleasures in life?

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I recently had my annual check-up and was asked a standard question on the form: How much coffee do you drink?

 

“Three cups a day,” I wrote down.
The young female doctor scanned my answers and told me to cut back to one a day. “Three’s too much,” she said in a scolding tone.
I did what I always do when I disagree with someone. I tell them, “I’m from Europe,” as though that lets me off the hook.
I’m sorry, but there are some habits I enjoy, like my coffee before the gym, my coffee around 10 a.m. with a Danish cookie, and my coffee after lunch.
I refuse to change because statistics show one year that one cup of coffee is acceptable, but three is not. And the following year, caffeine is supposed to be good for you.
Simple pleasures like coffee or tea, should be enjoyed and not used to make you feel “bad” when you’re already doing everything you can to live a healthy life like: working out, eating fresh vegetables, fruit, lean protein and no fast food.
Now that I’ve been able to vent my frustration, time for me to grab my mid-morning Peet’s coffee. If you have not heard the story I wrote called: “My Italian Lover,” (trust me; it’s related,) you might enjoy a laugh.
What are your simple pleasures in life?

How to make a "someday" dream into reality. Chris Guillebeau talks in LA.

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Last Friday evening, one of my recent dreams became a reality: I met Chris Guillebeau. I arrived early and parked myself in a plastic chair, second to front row seat, inside a fun and funky bookstore called, Book Soup, in West Hollyood.
Bursting at the seams, a crowd of enthusiastic fans of all ages, including a young boy, (you can view photos taken by Dyana Valentine,) came to listen to him speak. There is a photo of Chris talking to me in the middle of all the pictures. You can’t miss my bright red sweater.
Chris talked about: how to live a remarkable life in a conventional world. He believes the two most important questions we need to ask ourselves are:
1). What do you really want to get out of life?
2). What can you offer the world that no one else can?
He mentioned a common theme that crops up when people e-mail him about taking action for something they want to do, or to change in their lives.“I worry I’m too late.”
Chris replies, “The best time to start was probably last year, but failing that, today will do.”
Unfortunately, I did not hook up with Jodi Sagorin, whom I wrote about last week.
I have many “someday” dreams that I plan to make into reality.  
What about you?
What dreams do you wish to make into reality?

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