2011 Annual Review (and How You Can Have a Great 2012)

In my last post, I shared some hard questions that I asked myself before even attempting to do my annual review. After answering those questions, I simplified my usual review process by using Chris Guillebeau’s two basic questions: What went well this year? and What didn’t go well this year?

As it turns out, 2011 was a pretty successful year. Of course, there are always ways to improve. I could have done a better job of launching Liv Simpl, for example. But enough generalities, here are my answers to two very revealing questions. I also share ways that my lessons can help you; hopefully they’ll inspire you to do a review of your own.

Continue Reading →

Being Radically Honest With Yourself

A few weeks ago I mentioned an article about Radical Honesty that I’d read on Esquire’s website. The article was incredible and, as a result, I decided to write a really great post (how presumptuous of me) about how Radical Honesty could change your life. This weekend I sat down to write that post, when it hit me: What the hell do I know about being radically honest?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a tell-it-like-it-is type person, as most of my friends can attest. But, this weekend, I finally admitted that I’ve been lying to myself for two years, maybe more. Every time I tell people that I like my job, I’m lying–it’s just okay. Every time I say I don’t mind doing something that I don’t really want to do, I’m lying. Every time I agree to take part in something that’s not really “me,” I’m lying. Some may argue that these are just minor “white lies,” but I think it’s these lies that do the most damage because they aid our self-deceit and stymie our growth. How can I even begin to talk about Radical Honesty if I can’t even be truthful with myself? Continue Reading →

[Debt Beatdown] Holiday Thoughts

It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote an update on my goal to pay off 45K in one year. In my last article, I wrote about downsizing and other pre-work that had to be done. It was a busy period. These last 2 1/2 weeks have been less busy, yet more challenging, mostly on an emotional and mental level. Simply put, the holidays are a difficult time to cut back. Continue Reading →

Abandon Your Goals…or Not

Yesterday I did a lot of thinking about goals. In fact, this post started out as a statement against the need for any goals at all. But something didn’t feel right. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that goals do serve a valid purpose in our lives.

Whenever I start to question my theories, I do a little research. I ended up finding out that there’s actually a “no-goal” philosophy. One of the key advocates is Leo Babauta, author of The Power of Less and blogger at Zen Habits. In fact, Leo wrote a fairly controversial post in which he said “the best goal is no goal.”

Baloney. The no-goals philosophy is shaky for two reasons:

living a life without goals is a goal in itself and
many of the supporters of the no-goal approach are people who, by admission, were productivity masters focused on achieving as many goals as possible. Now that they’ve achieved most of the goals that they sought out to, they can afford to live according to the no-goals philosophy.

But to tell people out there who are on the grind, working towards something meaningful to abandon their goals is, in a word, disrespectful. It’s also unhelpful.

What is helpful is understanding goals and knowing how to stop them from taking over your life. You do that by developing the right mindset. Continue Reading →

[Debt Beatdown] Moved, Sold and Eliminated

Dear Reader: Since this is a holiday week I’m going to flip the script a bit. Instead of three articles this week, there will be two. One today and one on Wednesday. Also, I normally post my Debt Beatdown Report on Fridays, but since this week is Thanksgiving & Black Friday, I’m posting my progress on Monday (today). Enjoy!

Whew! It’s been an exhausting month. I have officially finished the pre-work I had to do before kickstarting the debt beatdown adventure. There were three areas that I needed to handle: lower my housing costs, automate expenses, and sell anything I didn’t need. Here’s how it went: Continue Reading →