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One year ago was the last time I got up at 7:00am to drive to the full-time job I enjoyed so much that it made me want to freelance full-time. (Lesson learned: Me and big corporations do not mix.) July 8th, 2009 was a Wednesday. I’d originally intended to give my notice on a Friday, but I got halfway through the week and just couldn’t take it anymore. Some problem I can’t remember sprung up at the beginning of the day and I started thinking, What the hell am I waiting for? So, I walked into the boss’s office and said good-bye.

I know a lot of people fantasize about doing that and imagine it as a gleeful moment of emancipation. While I was definitely happy with my decision, the actual moment of resigning was a scary swirl of emotions, like good feelings and bad feelings had collided like high pressure fronts and low pressure fronts, creating an emotional tornado. I instant-messaged my best friend [...]

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For the past two Januaries, I’ve written out a list of 3-5 goals I want to accomplish in the upcoming year. I’ve also reflected on last year’s goals to see if I did what I wanted to do. I like to at least attempt to have forward momentum in my life, and having my list of goals above my desk helps with that.

Here’s where I stand with my 2009 goals:

1) Continue to pursue headache treatments

I first went to the headache clinic in January of 2009. Within a few months, we were managing my headache much better, though not ridding me of it completely. We’re still tweaking meds, but overall this goal was pretty much met.

2) Work to become full-time freelancer

I chucked my job in July of 2009 and haven’t looked back. I don’t know how I ever coped with working in an office in the first place. I still don’t have a long-term health insurance solution, but I’ll deal with that at the end of 2010. Another goal accomplished!

3) Maintain my weight with regular fitness [...]

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Two weeks and one day ago, I walked into my boss’s office, closed the door and said, “I’ve been doing some thinking lately…” which is when he leaned far back in his chair, as if moving out of hearing distance would stop me from telling him what he knew I was going to tell him. “I’ve decided I want to pursue freelancing full-time.” It is odd to think that speaking those words and signing a short letter is all it took to end a one-and-a-half-year period of my life. It is strange to know that you can leave your daily routine at any time you wish, and the only thing keeping you there is money or fear or comfort in the known.

I am so grateful for having that job for the past 18 months. It gave me respectable health insurance benefits during a period of medical distress. It paid well enough for me to cover my medical bills while also saving up money for this leap. I got to work in an office where my [...]

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Back in January, I set three goals for this year.

1) Promote my book as well as I can.

2) Meet new people and nourish current relationships.

3) Secret goal I’m not going to blog about.

I set three goals because I read that is the number of goals you can realistically achieve in a year. Many people fail to reach their goals because they try to do eight things at once. They want to keep their house clean and lose weight and organize their finances and become the Parcheesi world champion and get a promotion and learn to sew and volunteer more in their community and invent a cloning machine, because that final task is the only way you will ever be able to make so many changes in a year. There is only so much time, so it’s better to pick three big tasks and concentrate on those. It increases the likelihood that you will actually accomplish them. So, I typed my three goals, printed them out, and taped them above my desk so I could see [...]

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I don’t have anything against New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t usually make them for the same reason I don’t celebrate “Love Your Body Day.” Every day should be “Love Your Body Day” and every day is a new year. Every day is the fulcrum of your life story. However, I do need to rededicate myself to this whole health and fitness game and since my timing coincides with the start of a new year, I guess we can call this a New Year’s resolution. It worked out rather well three years ago, didn’t it?

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m slipping out of my groove and I know that I need to do something about it now or regain 50 pounds. The former sounds much more appealing than the latter. I have a lot of sympathy for people who regain weight, but I do not want to be one of them. So, here’s my plan of attack:

PastaQueen’s Not-So-Secret Plan of Attack

1) Write down my goals. I need to know where I’m going or else how will I [...]

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