Achieving Goals

The Wife today asked me about goals. She wondered why we hadn't spent a lot of time talking about what our goals were and how to achieve them. It seems to me, though, that we spend quite a bit of time doing both. What she meant, it turned out, is why we haven't written them down on a piece of paper and created logical action plans to realize them. The answer, I thought, was that I didn't think that was necessary.

When she asked what my goals were, I was momentarily at a loss because there is really only one right now -- getting into a position to buy a house in about a year. Other goals I have had in the recent past have actually all been realized.

I wanted to find someone wonderful that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Check that one off the list -- I've got The Wife and I couldn't possibly have done better on this one.

I wanted to get myself into a position where I could earn enough money on a reliable basis that The Wife didn't have to work. Check that one, too -- it took moving to Tennessee and back again and a lot of hard times on the way, but it seems that we are finally in a place where we needn't be anxious about money all the time, and we can make it just on what I earn practicing law and teaching.

I wanted to do something with my life that was more than just lawyering. Check. I'm teaching and writing and those things are helping me grow professionally and personally.

So all that's left is getting back into a position to buy a house and get in the game of home ownership and equity appreciation. That was a primary motive to our move to Tennessee, because the cost of housing there is so low. But finding work to power the payments proved much more difficult than we had thought, so we've come back to California. Here, the money is turning out to be adequate, and the challenge will be saving enough to break in to the market. The cost of entry here is prohibitively high. But if The Wife's business takes off, then we can use the money she makes to save up for that price of admission.

After that goal is realized, I suppose I'll need to devote more attention to my other professional projects, which will be coming along nicely by then. But for now, keeping control of my professional life, helping The Wife get her business off the ground, and saving money to put my family in a better position by next summer is where I'm at.

These are good goals, ambitious but within my grasp. Here's hoping that you, Loyal Readers, are on the path to realizing your goals, too.