April 2010

This is the first month in my plan to Change of My Life for the Better.

My goals for this month was to establish new eating habits and exercising regularly. My measure for success would be to lose 2 lbs. I lost 8lbs.

Weight loss is what I call Zero-Degree goal because there’s no degree of separation to complete these goal. A One-Degree goal would be making a sale because it requires another person to make a decision. Since Zero-Degree goals are just dependent on me, I can’t blame anyone else if I fail. Also, modest Zero-Degree goals lets me have small successes in order to build larger success upon.

My other goal was to focus on my spending habits. My belief is that wealth isn’t about how much you make but about how much you spend. My wife and I established a budget 8 years ago where we would give each other an amount in cash each month for undocumented spending. That amount given to each one of us was to do as we wished. When the cash was gone. It’s gone.

The problem is that I’ve been going over $20 here, $40 there every month and putting it on my credit card for 8 years. This year, I’m paying off my credit card by freelancing without using income from my dayjob because that goes to household goals. This month I kept to my $120 and didn’t go over.

April Successes

Bike is fixed. – Doing this helped me because it had been broken for a year. I got it fixed without spending any money. And in the process found someone to go biking with. Also, this lets me have a family activity to reach my goal instead of just a solo activity.

First client site finished. – Doing this helped me towards my goal because I’m re-establishing contacts with old clients in order to rebuild my freelance business.

Reconnected with one of my dream goals – I wanted to climb Kilimanjaro since I was 20. For some reason, I thought it would cost $14K and so it was never a serious consideration. I looked over my dream goal list and decide Kilimanjaro was my top dream goal and I wanted to get serious with it. So I did the next thing which was research. I found out that climbing it would cost $5K (guided tour, plane ticket, equipment and clothing). I also set a date of Summer 2012. I also asked two friends if they wanted to go with me. I got a tentative yes just based on the cost and time frame. I’ll work out the details over the next few months.

Decided to ride the 2nd day of the Coors Classic in Aug. – One of my goals is to do a 3-Day 150+ mile bike event. I’m going to do one next year. My sister has been wanting me to ride one for 5 years now. To ease into that goal, I’m riding with my sister on the 2nd day of Coors Classic on August 1st this year. She’s sneaking me into her race group. It’s only 50 miles, but it will give me experience in what I can expect next year.

April Status

Weight loss: 8lbs and currently maintaining at 158lbs. (Goal: 140lbs – by Year End)
Earned Income: $400 (Goal: $10K – by Year End) (This is income outside my dayjob)

April Spending

Monthly Cash – I give myself $120 in cash each month. That number is derived from a formula that I learned at a seminar called the Millionaire Mind. Here’s the explanation.

Food – $43.28
Entertainment – $36
Things – $37.52

Basically, most of my money went to eating out. I only bought one thing which is a phone protector for my cellphone. The entertainment was one movie and going out with friends. I kept to my $120 this month. Yay, me.

May 2010 Goals

• Get to sleep every night before 2am on weekdays and 3am on weekends.
• Finish Ockham Design, my freelance site.
• Lose 8 lbs. so I’ll be down to 150lbs.