Day 343 - Nightly Roundup

I hope some of you are doing a nightly round up and reaching to your goals. I am amazed at what progress I've made, often in five minute increments in all ten areas that I've chosen to work at. I'm never at a loss for what to do as that daily chart is right there waiting for every spare three minutes. And I go to bed now with a sense of enormous accomplishment, even if it was just being in the moment with my kids while we played blocks because I've taken the time to identify this as a goal.

There are no aimless minutes or hours, and no sense of "I should be doing x instead of y," because both x and y are getting me closer to my goals. There is something peaceful about feeling I'm always using my time to its best advantage, as judged by my own set of priorities.

But I also must admit the one year time limit is very helpful. More than once, by 9:30 p.m. I've just wanted to take a shower, put on my pajamas and to heck with that list of goals. But I remind myself 5 minutes per goal and I can still be done by 10:30 and have made progress on each goal. Baby steps, baby steps. And best of all, I'm just pushing myself for a year, now only 343 more days. And at the end, I can go back to any type of life I prefer.

Wishing you well on whatever you're striving for. I'll probably ask for an update on day 300, so be prepared;-). Eileen

1. Happy and passionate marriage to Greg - Check. And thanks Greg for the lovely lunch today. You're my favorite person in the world to spend time with.

2. Enjoy and nurture the kids - Kirk isn't feeling well, so we snuggled and read books. Then Kai got to have Mom and Dad all to himself, a rarity, for a rousing game of football.

3. Publish the Frugal Millionairess in 2010 - Still reading the New Writer's Handbook. Got in about five minutes today.

4. Found and run a successful dual use educational products company - Had a GREAT meeting with Sarah Manski, CEO, Posi-pair today. Very helpful.

5. Complete the backyard, creating a beautiful, groomed bird-sanctuary. About three minutes cutting back perennials while waiting for the school bus. This is offset by the fact I spent close to five hours in the yard on Sunday. Each area seems to have its ebbs and flows.

6. Achieve FI in 2010 - Sold a garden arch on Craigslist for $35. That brings my total Vanguard Star account to $566.39. That includes the cancelled trip, the money from Greg's uncle, etc. of $531.39 + 35 (today's arch sale) = $566.39. Not bad!

7. Spirit/catchall of friends, family, spiritual life. To experience joy and give joy and be in the moment. Read a bit of the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

8. To be and feel healthy and beautiful. Did about 20 minutes of yoga.

9. Create a beautiful, organized house that adds happiness to our lives. Spent about ten minutes organizing the family room and the kids' toy box.

10. Constantly seek to improve my business knowledge by improving my business vocabulary. I signed up for a free service called Investorwords.com that emails me one new word a day. And I'm continuing to go through the list of marketing terms from about.com for the other three. Cash asset ratio, cost per rating point, cost per thousand, counter advertising,