Ambitious Ambitions

I wrote an entry last August about things I need to do but haven’t… seeing as it seriously helped me reach some concrete goals, I figure it’s worth doing again, at least on an annual basis.

So, here we go…

1.  Learn to use design programs (well), ie: Photoshop, InDesign, Pagemaker, Dreamweaver, etc

As a promoter and marketing consultant, the #1 thing currently stifling my growth into being fully able to take on contract work and do it quickly and efficiently is the fact that I need to contract out every aspect of design work – which, when you’re doing marketing, is fairly substantial.  Picture: business cards, websites, flyers, brochuers, posters, banners, etc.  I need need need to get on this and learn to do it myself, because contracting it out is costing me money, time (which, in fact, is money), and clients (which are also money).  I have to get on this, because I’ve been putting it off in the hopes that my designers would magically become more available/reliable/giving – this has most definitely not been the case.

2.  Learn to make soup

I’ve finally, over the last couple of months, tackled this issue of cooking.  Since I moved out of my mom’s place at age 18, my diet consisted primarily of microwavable food or take-out.  Now, while take-out is actually a viable option if you live on your own, it’s not exactly the most healthy, cost-efficient, or variety-filled way to live.  Seeing as I was living well below the poverty line for most of the year, I finally forced myself to learn how to cook.  Beyond my usual pasta or pre-packed out-of-a-packet-or-box meals, I’ve now expanded to: stir fry; various meats, pan-fried (my oven is absolute shite); various hearty and healthy salads; eggs Benny; eggs of almost any kind; and actually breakfast of almost any kind.  My next ambition: soup, from scratch.

3.  Continue to do yoga

Yoga means I can’t drink the night before.  Yoga means that if I do drugs I can feel it when I’m in the classroom, sweating through every pore of my skin in drops that hit the mat to form puddles.  Yoga is an hour to an hour and a half each class where I focus on myself, my health, my inner well-being, and let everything else melt away.  It might be a crutch, an addiction, and a compulsion… but it’s better than the alternatives.

4.  Don’t have sex for money

Now, to most people, this may seem easy.  In fact, I would venture to guess that to most people it would actually be unthinkable.  But when you’ve been there, tried it, and seen how relatively easy, and relatively fast it is to make money that way… and then suddenly you’re unemployed, unwilling to work a full-time office job (which is what your educational background set you up for), and you don’t know what’s going to happen with your future… let’s just say it’s more than crossed my mind.  But I promised myself that I wouldn’t do it as long as I had short hair – and I recently hacked off even more of it to take it down to a pixie cut, specifically for that reason.

I’m exploring prodom work as an option, not as a permanent one, but just as something to keep in mind.  We’ll see.

5.  Budget, put money into savings, don’t spend money unnecessarily

These are bad habits I’ve always had and need to be rid of, because I’m pretty sure that (although I wouldn’t tell this to people who know me "in real life"), that the reason why I’m so down-and-out with money all the time has very little to do with how much money I actually make, and significantly more to do with what I choose to do with it.  While I refuse to live a lifestyle of complete and utter frugal behaviour like both my mom and little Puppy both do (you only live once, and y’know what?  I’m not spending my ONE life in a basement suite with nasty-ass bugs, while eating what basically amounts to cardboard and water), I could certainly at least stand to learn how to spend my money more wisely.  I’ve been learning – ever since I got that accountant (ooh, good call from last year!) I’ve been tracking my income and expenses and have gotten much better about my expenditures…  I just think I could stand to do better, and learn to set some financial goals for myself.  That, and consider the fact that one day I might be senile and physically incapable and might actually appreciate having put some money away for old age.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now.