Why on earth would we move our family of four from 2300 square feet of luxury into a house of 1100 sq ft which is less than half the size.

In a word…

Simplification.

We have lived in our dream house now for nearly 7 years.  It’s great.  It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, a big kitchen.  It’s perfect.

We can totally afford it.  We have a tenant in a detached in-law suite behind the garage who pays a big chunk of our mortgage.

So what is it?

I guess the question is ‘do we need all this space?’ and we are thinking that the answer is ‘no’.   We don’t.

We have several rooms that we never use.  We have closets that are full of stuff that we don’t really need.  We have to paint the house every 5 -7 years and that takes either time or money.  We have to clean it, we have to maintain it.   We have to maintain all the stuff inside of it.

Yes, that’s what home ownership is all about.

But, it doesn’t have to take up so much of our time.  If we cut the size of our house in half, it accomplishes several things.

One, we have half as much house to keep up.

Two, we have to get rid of at least half of our stuff, and will free up more time and energy by not having all this stuff around.

Three, we will not spend as much money on the house.  The mortgage payment will be lower and the maintenance will cost less.

Four, we will probably leave the house more.  The kids are getting to an age where they will be doing more and more activities and we will be out and about more anyway.  It will be nice to know that we aren’t sacrificing time that we need to spend maintaining the house, and will be able to enjoy living instead.

More life, less house.  That’s what we are thinking.

We may be crazy and we may get there and realize it is just too small.  But I kind of doubt it.  I think it’s going to be great and we are going to love the freedom that will come with it.

Right now we are in the midst of demolishing the old 50s kitchen.  If it’s going to be a tiny house, I at least need it to be functional.  I’ll post some before and after pictures in the next post.

Career

I started the year knowing that I was miserable at the company I worked for and that I needed to make a change.   I knew there was a potential opportunity somewhere in the murky unknown future to work for my friends but when it could happen was a great unknown.

I’m not one to sit back and wait for things to happen,  so it was a very difficult situation for me.  I found myself agitated with the lack of control I had over my life.  So I halfheartedly looked for a new job.  I even went on an interview.  But I knew even in the middle of interviewing that my heart wasn’t in it, and that I wanted to work for my friends.

I couldn’t stand to not be in control of my destiny, to wait for something to happen.  It was very difficult time for me.  Eventually, and this is the weird part, I surrendered to the universe and trusted that it would happen if I just had faith and relaxed.

And it did.  I went on vacation for two weeks and I had this unshakable image in my head that I would be giving my notice on the day I got back from vacation.  This seemed illogical to me and I didn’t know how it would happen but once again I decided to trust and surrender.

The Sunday night before I went back to work, my friends came over and offered me a job.  I gave my notice the next day, my first day back from vacation.  I’ve been there 4 months now and am ridiculously happy.

Lesson learned:  Tell the universe what you want.   Be very clear about what you want and have some faith that it will happen.  Let go of trying to control the situation.

Goals for 2010: Be the best Project Manager I can be.  Become more organized, develop new processes, become LEED Certified.

Health/Fitness

My goal for the year was to run the Beach to Beacon 10K, and lose a little weight and gain a little fitness in the process.

I did run the Beach to Beacon 10K in August and also the Trail to Ale 10K in September.  I ran several 5K races as well.  So far this year I have run 193 miles and I’ve lost about 15 pounds.

Lesson Learned: Having a fitness goal gives me a reason to go to the gym, or to go for a run.  Knowing that I was going to run a competitive race like the B2B really kept me motivated all year.

Goals for 2010: Run the Maine Half-Marathon (21K) in October.  I will have plenty of time to train and it will give me a goal that will last most of the year.  Also, I plan to increase my year’s mileage to 500 miles.  I want to get faster – I’d like to average 11 minute miles in the half-marathon.  And finally, I’d like to lose the last few pounds before I turn 4-0 in June.

Affiliate Marketing

I didn’t have a goal for the year other than to learn all that I could.  I love AM and I am doing pretty well for how little time I spend on it.  I love the unlimited scalability of it.  I love waking up in the morning and seeing sales that have come in when I’m asleep.  I love averaging 300% ROI and knowing full well that I can do better.

Lesson Learned: After playing around with CPA for half the year, I don’t feel okay about it and won’t continue to put effort into it.  I will concentrate my efforts on products that I would buy, that have real value.  I have yet to see a CPA product that didn’t feel scammy to me.

Goal for 2010: Dedicate more time to AM in general.  Fully develop three new content-rich websites in areas that interest me which have multiple monetization avenues.  I already have two sites planned out and ready to implement.   I will spend more time on link building and article writing.

Home

Our ongoing quest to declutter and simplify has been going well this year.  We have gotten rid of all the baby stuff and a huge amount of books and miscellaneous dreck.   The house is looking great.

Another ongoing goal is to fix up the house.  There’s nothing wrong with our house, but it is 210 years old, so it always needs something.  We’re trying to get it to that perfect state with all upgrades completed so if we find another dream house further up the coast we’ll be ready.  It’s hard to think about selling our house though because it is so wonderful, but we do love fixer-uppers and we do dream of moving to Damariscotta.    However, we both love our jobs so our goal isn’t to move this year.  It’s just to have the house in “sale-ready” condition…just in case.

Lesson Learned: Decluttering and simplifiying creates an awesome environment.  What also comes from simplifying life is a lack of want.  We don’t need or want stuff anymore.  If we do need anything we tend to purchase it at a resale shop so we can give it back to Goodwill when we are done with it.

Goal for 2010: Get rid of more stuff, continue updating the house, keep on enjoying life in a very old house with a great soul.

I always feel better after writing and/or saying my goals out loud.  Once they are “out there” I cannot take them back and I feel accountable.  Even if people forget, I don’t forget that I told them.  Also, I’m a huge believer in asking the Universe for what you want, because the Universe will conspire to give it to you.  Goals are part of that process.   And, as my friend Hollywood knows…Goals Work.
What are your goals?  Use the comment section to put yours in writing and send them out to the Universe!

Then when I moved up to Maine in my early 30’s, I took another stab at it.  My husband (a runner) and I did some 5Ks together.  I didn’t take them very seriously.   My last one of this era I had to walk because I was  pregnant.  I took another 5 years off from the sport, raised my babies to toddler-hood and didn’t think much about running.

This year I surprised myself by adding “Run a 10K” to my life’s to-do list.  Where did that come from?

Then I surprised myself even more by rallying my husband (who had run it twice before), his family and our friends to run the Beach to Beacon 10K this year.

The race was on August 1st and it was amazing.

I had technically been training for this since January.   We did have a rough two month stretch in March-April when we were all sick.  My husband even had a bout with pneumonia.

August 1st came up quickly.  I was shocked at how fast it arrived.  When we started this adventure on treadmills at the YMCA in January, I thought we had all the time in the world.

I don’t think this incredibly wet Spring and Summer helped any either.  There were weeks where there were only one or maybe two days that it didn’t rain.   But still I progressed, gradually increasing my distance.  I had never really ran more that 2 miles without stopping before.  But I found myself doing 2.5, then 3, then 4.5.  I am not fast, these are slow miles, but I did them one after the other.

The Monday before the race my husband and I did a trial 10K run.  I finished despite it being a very hot and humid day.  We celebrated with brunch at Bintliff’s.  They didn’t seem to mind that we were dripping with sweat!   I was ready.  The weather wasn’t going to be worse than that – so I knew I’d be fine.

At this point I liked running okay.  I hated the first mile, but I usually had a smile on my face walking back to the car.  I still didn’t think of myself as a runner.

I’m pretty sure running produces the same chemical or hormone that is produced immediately following childbirth. I remember clearly my husband giving me the “are you kidding me” look when following 12 hours of labor and an hour and a half of my son’s head being stuck, I announced “I’d do that again!”. And I did.

Up until the race, I still didn’t enjoy running. However, during the Beach to Beacon, something changed.  I changed.  I became a runner.

I’m not sure when it happened exactly.

It could have been when running past a group of spectators that were blasting music through a professional sound system, a bunch of us started clapping along to the music when running past.

It could have been when running through town, turning the corner onto Shore Road, with hundreds of people lined up on both sides of the street, when I realized I was grinning from ear to ear and actually enjoying this. And I was doing something that all those people watching were not doing.

Or it might have been when I saw the finish line and knew I had something left. I began to sprint and passed a half dozen people before crossing the line. Then kicking myself for leaving that much extra in the tank and vowing to run sub-60 minutes next year.

For the rest of the day, and the days that have followed, I have a sense of peace and contentment that I don’t remember ever having had before.

And I do know one thing…. I’ll do it again.

Started by Bob Miner, a Vietnam vet who found a way back from reclusiveness through the animals, DEW has built up quite a menagerie of creatures.

When you first enter the park, you are presented with the normal animal park assortment of barnyard creatures such as sheep and goats.

My daughter made fast friends with one older looking goat.

First she gave him a big hug.

Then she went in for the kiss.

After passing by some bears, kangaroos and wallabys (wallabi?), I spotted this handsome fella.

In my opinion, the Hyena was the scariest animal in the park.  Bob told us that they can run at speeds up to 18 MPH which they can sustain for an hour.  There’s no out running these guys.  And just look at the way this hyena thinks that my son = Lunch.

Hyena Staredown

Man that’s creepy.  Here’s a video that shows Bob feeding the Hyena while it whines (laughs) and devours huge chunks of meat without stopping to chew.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The town was well defended by cannons and armed militia men.

However, the Pirate ships would not turn back.  And the Pirate invasion could not be stopped.

The town was looted….to benefit the Lincoln County Family Holiday Wishes organization.    I was impressed by the event.  It seemed that the entire town was dressed up.  I even spotted a Pirate Dog.

And the costumes were not of poor quality, these were theatrical costumes, not the Wal-Mart Halloween variety.

A great event, for a great cause,  in a great town.  If you want to see amazing photos of the event, click here and here.

Where have my dreams gone?

But then over the next few weeks I relaxed into it and the ideas started flowing. As of today, I have about 62 items on the list. They include many travel destinations (Machu Picchu, the monasteries at Meteroa, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (thanks Dan!)) as well as things that I’ve already done but now want to do with my kids (swim with dolphins).

I am lucky that I’ve already done many things that would have been on this list (skydiving, living in a foreign country, backpacking around Europe) but that means I have to dig deep to come up with more things to do.

It’s been fun trying to push myself to add items to the list. My husband is writing his own list, too and it’s great when some of our items match (we both want to have a beer with Mike Rowe) And it’s also very cool when some don’t (an African safari?). We’ll both get to have even more adventures helping each other to check items off of our lists.

I was surprised by one item that I wrote down. Run a 10K. Until I wrote it down, I hadn’t realized that it was already on the list in my head. I’ve run 5K races but my conscious mind told me that 10K is just too far. But is it really?

So, last month I committed myself to run the Beach to Beacon this year. And despite the registration snafu that occurred, I was able to get a spot. I’m still hoping that the registration issues will be worked out and my husband and our friends will be able to run as well for team Colby Co.

I’ve been running consistently since the beginning of the year and I still have 4 1/2 months to train. I’ve been running on a treadmill, but starting today (supposed to be 55 degrees out!), I will run outside as much as possible. I’m hoping to do 3 1/2 miles outside today.

It just doesn’t work.  What does work is doing one thing at a time and actually getting them done.

One at a time.

Focused attention and action.

Shut off the email.  Put the phone away.  Close your office door.

Start first thing in the morning with the one most important thing you have to accomplish.  Not the easiest thing.  Not the most enjoyable thing.

The most important thing.

Get it done and you will feel amazing.  You can move on to the next thing knowing that your day has already been a success.

Now it’s time to look forward to 2009 and write down my goals. I accomplished almost everything I had set out to do in 2008 with one exception (which I cannot write here).

I will attack that goal with gusto beginning now.  I don’t feel as if I failed not being able to check it off the list by Dec 31st, I feel more that my due date was too aggressive and I need to be a bit more realistic with this one.

I’ll give myself another year.  Max.

Here are my other goals for 2009:

1. Double my income by adding two new revenue streams.
2. Do three joint ventures with like minded entrepreneurs
3. Increase my email lists by a thousand subscribers.
4. Always provide quality content that is useful and provides value to list subscribers as well as blog readers.
5. Post regularly.
6. Find my voice.

I love this time of year when it feels as though we are all going through a renewal and getting another chance to get things done.

The only thing I don’t like about this time of year is that the gym suddenly gets crowded for the next 6 weeks.  Then around mid-February, I’ll have my pick of the machines again.

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