Planning for Progress

As you all know, I have made a commitment to myself to write every day this year. Whether it be a full in depth post about amazing deals, fashion fixes, or inspirational entrepreneurs or just a motivating thought for the day, I must fulfill my need to write. And yes, it is a need. It is my catharsis. It soothes me. It helps keep my emotions in check. It makes me feel like my true self. This, however, is not my only goal for 2011. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the year of preparation and progress. Great things are going to happen, and in order to embrace the positive changes, we must prepare ourselves for them.

"People will achieve anything if they think it's worth it and that they're capable. Capability comes with information. Educate yourself about your goals so you can make powerful choices that affect the changes you want in your life!" - Jillian Michaels

Today, I challenge all of you to take a look at your goals for this year. Are they realistic? How committed are you to achieving them? Are you capable of achieving them? The only way to know is to buckle down and do your research.Take the month of January and prepare yourself to take on the year. I'll use my goals to give you an example of my game plan:

• Become a Zumba Instructor
• Lose another 20 pounds
• Run a marathon
• Blog daily
• Become a certified wedding planner
• Build my portfolio as an image consultant
• Build my portfolio as a full figured model
• Plan my BFF the most amazing Bachelorette weekend ever (hey, it's one of my goals, ok? Don't judge me) on a reasonable budget
• Save $10,000
• Organize my closet to make getting ready in the mornings a cinch

Some of these I've been working on for a while - picking up running (I'm up to 2 miles and working on my first 5K), following the WeightWatchers plan, etc. - but other things required a lot of investigating.

I am an avid Zumba enthusiast. I love going to classes, I have the DVDs at home, I love the sweat I work up, and most of all, I love that Zumba is basically one big party. But over time, I realized, I was dishing out $5-$15 dollars per class. Not the smartest move for a Budgetista. If you put on your hustler's hat, the first thought that should come to mind is "if you're going to do something you love doing, why not get paid for it?" Think about it. An average class has about 20 people in it. Most instructors teach at least 3 classes per week. You do the math. So I asked my fellow enthusiasts, some of which are instructors themselves, and got the inside scoop. Since then, I've set aside the funds to get certified, learned what I need to do to gain experience, and plan on actually teaching classes in March!

Think about your goals. Ask questions. Seek answers. Take the next 31 days and develop a solid game plan. Because, let's face it, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail and 2011 is not a year for failure. In the words of my BFF, "go forth and conquer your dreams."

♥  - The Bougie Budgetista