Three Things

It seems to me that there are three things that are really most important to me. These are basically my long-term, short-term life goals. These are the desired end result of all my new years resolutions and any actions I take to better my life.

1. Have a happy home- I mean a place that's comfortable, where the people I live with are happy. I want to make sure my wife is happy with where she lives. I want to be able to feel good there too. I want to make sure that the place is clean and well kept-up, and that it's a place where I can actually feel at home.

2. I want to do my job well- I've never really given this one much thought prior to the recent past. I've always thought of jobs as a kind of necessary evil. Something you have to do to get money in order to live in this society. I still kind of feel that way. I'm not a big believer in all that "follow your bliss" stuff, (although I think if you really want to get into a particular profession you can, so long as you're willing to stick with it for a long time and be patient and persistent, but that's a different post). But doing my job well makes me feel better not only about my job, but it makes me feel better overall. Not doing my job well makes me feel awful, and I'd rather feel good than awful.

3. Be financially stable- If I ever become rich it will be by accident. I'm not concerned with being wealthy, but to not really have to worry about money (meaning, not having to worry about how I'm going to pay my bills, not having to worry about having enough money to meet my basic needs, etc.) The less I have to think about money the happier I seem to be.

These things are all tied in together. If one starts to fall apart it tends to affect the other two. And all three things, when it comes down to it, take work. Daily work and daily sacrifice. Even if it's taking the trash out, keeping up with all my paperwork, or budgeting our money for the month. None of it is hard work, it doesn't require an incredible amount of strength or intelligence, but it requires a kind of consistent, persistent work, a little bit each day-- doing things when you don't want to do them. This seems to be basically how one is rewarded in this life.