I go through periods where I'm convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that I've found the Meaning Of Life And The Whole Universe And Everything, and I'm convinced that this certainty will carry me through the rest of my days, or at least through the rest of the decade.
It's my own personal 43, for those of you who are Hitchhiker fans. Hey, I am 43. What a coincidence!
Then, for no reason I can determine, I lose interest in my latest passion. It's gone. Poof.
Sometimes the passion reincarnates itself into some similar or related passion. Or perhaps not.
For instance, 1997 would be the year of Tarot. I bought about 10 different Tarot decks. I learned everything I could about reading & understanding the layouts, the cards, and so on. I loved to look at the cards - they were so beautiful! I can't say I believed that the readings held the truth, but I just enjoyed the experience.
Then I dumped the whole thing. The cards eventually became interesting things for my baby girl to look at and to chew on. And then they found their way into my stamping projects.
Yes, I was hit with rubber stamping mania. I began making my own greeting cards with a vengence. Not only that, I insisted on giving sets of blank cards to other people as gifts.
Here's an example of a greeting card I made with a Tarot card:
And here's another card I made - no Tarot card here, just stamps and assorted inks and paints:
I'm going somewhere with this, honest. (Well, the pictures of the cards are entirely gratuitous.)
Here are other things I've obsessed about:
Running - don't know why. I'm not a runner. But I do subscribe to a running magazine, and I did buy $200 running shoes, a $65 windbreaker, and $45 gloves for running in cold weather that I recently gave away to a homeless man on the street.
Home decor - I seem to come back to this one every now and then. I seem to be here now.
Artsy crafty stuff - I love the notion of decoupaging my furniture and creating bold, mixed-media designs on my walls. I've never actually done these things. I just like to think that I could if I had the time and inclination.
Weight lifting - I've come back to this one repeatedly in my life as well. I love it when my arms are hard and strong. I love to feel powerful. I'm totally NOT powerful right now - I'm quite out of shape, actually. I'm considering going back to the gym. If I wait long enough, the feeling will pass.
Being self-employed - I tend to return to this one again and again. The problem is that in between times, I'm not interested in it at all. Or maybe I'm just lazy. I tend to be interested in self-employment when I'm not liking my boss. Last year, I devoted a lot of money and time in trying to get an internet business going. It might have taken off if I hadn't changed jobs. I love my new job. I love my new coworkers. But I betcha that if I have a tiff with my new boss, I'll be back on the self-employment bandwagon again. I'll blog more about this another time, but the summary is that I'm an obstinant know-it-all who can't tolerate being told what to do.
Money - I go through these extremely frugal kicks where I wash out used ziplock sandwich bags and I shop at thrift stores. I do up a budget on excel and insist my husband follow it. (This perplexes him since he's the one who pays the bills and looks after the money, mostly because he knows if it's up to me, it might not get done.) I read books on financial planning and I fret about our debt. Clearly, I'm not in a frugal kick right now. I probably could use a frugal kick, though.
ANYWAY, so about 2 years ago, I figured out that my obsessions fit broadly into 3 categories:
1. Family & Lifestyle - this includes anything that makes our lives more fun & pleasant. The home decor thing fits in, as well as all artsy crafty things, cooking, homemaking, and anything to do with my daughter's development (because I obsess about that too even though I didn't include it in the above list).
2. Health & Recreation - this includes anything that involves getting into shape, dieting, eating more vegetables, and also traveling, and other fun things.
3. Independence - this includes anything to do with finances, my career, and continuously moving myself in a direction that allows me to set my own agenda. I'd like to either be self-employed, independently wealthy, or employed by someone who thinks my shit doesn't stink and I can't do anything wrong.
So, I decided to make these 3 areas the focus of my five year goals. I did this during a time when I was obsessed with goal setting and success. This obsession also reappears frequently.
I'm 2 years into it. 2007 will be Year 3.
I haven't looked at my goals lately, so after I posted the previous 2 entries, I pulled them up and took a look at them. I'm not doing too badly with some things, but could use some push in others.
Basically, what I did is to create yearly goals out of my 5-year goals. Then I create monthly to-do's to get me to my yearly goals.
My goal for this year was to finish my daughter's bedroom. So I need to redirect my attention from the living room and the carpet and finish my daughter's bedroom!
In 2007, we can begin to consider the living room again.
Unless I'm obsessed with something completely different by then!
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