Seven months ago I laid out my list of happiness, this is the update to it. I will be 100% honest when I say that I totally forgot about the article for the last 6 months and only re-read it as I was reviewing the archives here. I am happy to say that there have been some improvements.

The original article was broken into two sections, short term and long term goals. Both lists were pretty long, but I’ll start with the accomplished list on the short term.

Accomplished items from the short terms goal list

  • Resolve debt. I feel very confident that by the end of the year all of my short term debt will be eliminated, leaving only a small student loan and my mortgage as my only serious debt. This was accomplished by moving most credit card debt to a 12 month interest free credit card and all but halting purchasing anything that was not needed.
  • Spend more time away from the computer and television. Contrary to the above statement, I did purchase a 42″ plasma TV in March, and oddly enough I don’t watch it nearly as much as I thought I would. With the summer starting when the original article was written, spending time outside occupied a lot more of my free time.
  • Enjoy the outdoors with my dog. Through some friends, I found a park close to my house to let my dog run leash free, and made regular trips with her after work when the sun was still out and on weekends. With daylight savings almost here, these outdoor trips are now only left for weekends, and soon it will be too cold for my 8lb dog to be outside longer than a few minutes. I do really enjoy watching her run though.
  • Eat at a nice restaurant at least once a month. While this did offset the debt issue, I have been able to make it to a nice Sushi place or a great Thai restaurant at least once a month. This is just something I really enjoy.
  • Home remodeling. I managed to get the afore mentioned plasma, which has been hung on the wall, all cables hidden, and my entire living room and dining room painted. Some needs a second coat still, but it looks much better than before. Back in August I wrote about the unexpected cost of home remodeling which covered getting my entry way, kitchen and pantry tiled out. The kitchen looks worlds better now.
  • Be more humble. I’ve learned to bite my tongue a lot more.
  • Think before speaking. Again, I’ve learned to take a bit more time before spilling out everything.
  • Wear colors other then black at least once a week. Kind of a funny one, but I do own mostly black clothing. My work had a ton of blue polo shirts made, so I wear one of those at least once a week now.

Onto the not so good stuff. There are a few items that have not been addressed fully in my short term goal list.

  • Start taking my camera with me everywhere again. Now that I have a laptop that goes everywhere with me, the point and shoot digital has been going with me more, but I still don’t take it out nearly enough
  • Continue spinning records. Sadly the dust covers on my 1200′s are dusty.
  • Make it to the gym at least twice a week. I’ve been paying for a gym membership that I haven’t used since March.
  • Stop eating after 9pm. Still a very bad habbit of mine. Partly due to the fact that I don’t get out of work until 6pm.
  • Loose 10 pounds. Not going to the gym + eating after 9pm means I haven’t lost any weight.
  • Wake up 20 minutes earlier every day. Still can’t do this one – I was never a morning person.
  • Go to bed 30 minutes earlier every day. It’s 11.44pm as I write this, do you think I’ve been doing this either?

The good is more than half of the not so good stuff, so I am proud of that. Now it is a matter of maintaining what I’ve already accomplished while including everything else I haven’t.

Because I don’t think seven months is enough time to properly evaluate the long term goals I originally set out, I won’t give the breakdown for those yet, however there is also nothing currently I feel I need to add. Making life changes is not easy, I’m also a very stubborn person, so it is difficult to start the changes, even more difficult admitting what they are and where I’ve failed.

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