Beginnings (and endings) present decisions that have to be made. It is requiring that I move out of my comfort zone, which is “living in the moment” to consider the present in the light of the future. In a number of areas, I chose to put off making decisions until closer to the time when I would have to implement them. And so, here I am, starting with the first of the changes.
I wanted to try out cuts in various expenses before they become necessary, so that by the time we retire, we already will be living within our expected income. My first change is to trade in my business telephone for a residential listing, my landline for a cell phone. That change cuts our telephone numbers from four to three, but it also eliminates my free business listing in the yellow pages section of the telephone book. That means, people cannot find me easily, once I make that change. It also means that I have a reason to contact all of my previous customers to let them know of the change and provide them with my contact information.
Another factor, one that I could not have taken into consideration, is that the change is being made during a downturn in the economy, which is, contrary to statements by the press, affecting North Dakota. Small businesses are hit particularly hard. In part, I imagine, it’s because when there are not sufficient numbers of good-paying jobs, a number of folks decide to start their own businesses rather than take what jobs are available, and so you have an increased number of individuals competing for an even more limited pool of projects. I have mixed feelings about that. Small businesses and freelancers may not have the resources to survive the downturns.
The next change, which I had projected for a year and a half from now, would be to eliminate paid Internet presence where I cannot occasionally promote my commercial products and services. Without an upturn in the economy before the end of this year, that change may come more quickly than I originally thought it would.
One last thing fascinates me about all of this, and that is that I rather enjoy the analysis and planning processes. I hope to discover that I am good at determination and implementation of change.
