We have made a lot of changes here at home lately. Plenty of them. And not just your typical New Year’s Resolution changes that get dropped about 5 days into January- thankfully these changes seem to be sticking. When I started piecing them together in my head before I actually committed to them I called them my four F’s- Fitness, Family, Friends and Finances. Pretty corny, but I needed something to hold on to. The first, Fitness, is pretty obvious. Jered and I have registered for the Williamsburg half marathon on our anniversary in May. This is a huge step for me. Huge. I don’t really consider myself to be an athletic person, but I’ve decided to break away from some of my premature cognitive commitments and stop that nonsense talk. I can be an athlete if I want to be, I just have to work at it. And working at it, I am. I’ve been running quite regularly and I’m starting to enjoy it. Early mornings, fresh air, starting my day with just a little time to myself. It’s really quite nice.
So the next “Fs” are Family and Friends. These, too, are pretty obvious. I want to be more intentional about the time and energy I put into my relationships. Not just this year, but from here on out. I am so amazingly blessed with my sweet, beautiful kids, awesome husband and extended family- and I want to make the most of every minute we have together. We’ve recently begun to build some really fantastic friendships, and I want to focus on those as well. For me, friendships are the thing that tend to get neglected most when times get a bit busy. So the plan is to make more of an effort, be more of a friend, because my friendships matter to me.
Finally, and perhaps the biggest change we’re undertaking is “F”inancial. Fortunately, we’re not in bad shape. But to say we’re in good shape would be akin to calling me thin. We’re taking the Dave Ramsey approach to our finances, working first on getting out from under the student loan debt that has, until recently, felt like it would be around forever. Now, I’m not really a fan of Dave Ramsey’s style- I find him to be a bit cheesy, a little too talk-radio for my liking, but his advice is rock solid. So baby step number 2 is well under way. Once we’re done with the student loans, we’ll be debt free. No payments. Then we’ll be on our way to building our savings and eventually buying a house. Big plans for the future. Thinking about where we’ll be even two years from now gets me all sorts of excited.
So there we have the four F’s, which brings me, finally, to the title of this post. Working hard is hard. Most of the time it isn’t fun until the day is done and you look back and see what you’ve accomplished. But I’m sticking to these new changes. In the past, I step up to a change and over think every aspect of it, this time I’m stepping up and acting first, thinking about it later. So, that chocolate cake still smells good coming out of the oven, even if I decide I’m not having any. Spending all of our extra income is still tempting. Holing myself up in my house instead of getting out and doing things with friends and family is still my “comfort zone.” But I’m stepping out. Acknowledging that the cake smells good, but that my impulses are mine to reign in.
And now I’ve put it out for all the world to read. Hold me accountable folks.