New Year, New Direction

It is hard to believe it is 2017 already.  It seems like we just started 2016 just a few days ago, and yet, here we are.  Last year was full of changes and twists in the road that really challenged me and my views on the world.  In some respects, my life turned upside down compared to 2015 and in that respect it was hard.

As a short list of challenges from last year, I would have to include my realization of my weight problem, changing eating habits (to overcome the weight issues), losing my position as mayor and dealing with my ongoing issues when it comes to my business.  There were some good starts last year as well including becoming a vlogger.

But now, lets talk about 2017.

I’m not going to bore you with New Year’s resolutions or anything like that.  Instead, let’s talk about some new directions I am going to take in my life.

1.  Returning to Entrepreneurship

Since 2002 I have been running some sort of business venture at any given time.  Some examples would include my computer repair business, various iterations of online businesses, and working as a writer for online companies.  Over the last fifteen years there have been varying degrees of commitment to entrepreneurship including it being my sole focus, to barely paying attention to it at all.

2017 will be a big year where I put building businesses and assets at the forefront of my goals, and this starts from today (in fact I am working on it right now).

2.  Commitment to Vlogging

2016 was the first year that I have vlogged, and though it has been a sporadic process of mine, I really feel that there is some good potential in this area.  It is good from a business perspective as well as being good for my soul.  Talking about my life and challenges that I face is a good way to maintain a low level of stress in life, and I didn’t realize that vlogging would be so helpful to me in that regard.  In fact, if it wasn’t for vlogging, I don’t know if I would have ever noticed that I needed to lose weight.

3.  Reducing Distractions

Like many people, I find it a lot easier to procrastinate than to do work.  With easy access to the internet there are so many opportunities to be distracted if you let yourself and I am no stranger to having many unproductive days in a row.

That isn’t going to happen anymore.

I have taken steps to stop this from happening including giving up video games for the entire year (which if you know me is quite an extreme commitment) and I am looking forward to getting a lot more work done with all the time that will now be available to me.

4.  Getting more Sleep

Sleep has been one aspect of my life that I haven’t been very good with for quite some time.  It all started when I decided that getting up at four in the morning to exercise was the best idea for me.  At the time it was the only way I could fit the amount of exercise in that I needed to, but now that is no longer a possibility since I am so exhausted.

But I am going to work on this aspect of my life and should have less of an issue due to better time management.  I am hoping to be able to go to bed earlier in 2017 and still get up early enough to workout, and I am going to see how this works as we move into the year.  I know that it is going to be a work in progress, and it will take time to perfect my schedule.

5.  More Writing

Writing has been one of my favorite pastimes for years, but for the last few years I have not felt very motivated to write about anything.  I am going to attribute these feelings to the simple fact that I turned writing into a side-business of mine, and after doing that I lost passion for it.

But there are times when I sit down like I am doing now and just write.  It feels good to sit here with a little laptop on my lap and share what is sitting here in my head.  As an introvert it is almost easier to communicate this way and writing is therapeutic for me as well.  We’ll see how much more I write here and on the other blogs that I own, but I am thinking you will see me doing this a lot more than I have over the last few years.

While it is still the first day of 2017 I am really looking forward to making some changes in my life and if everything goes as planned, 2017 should be one of the best years ever.