Decisions.... Change.....

This month has been huge for me. There has been a number of changes that I was just not ready for. Things like my oldest getting one step closer to being an adult (something I am not sure that any parent is really ready for), realizing that my Brownie is another year older, (and age is catching up to her) and the biggest, a change in my day job. Personally I feel like that is the scariest of them all.

For my whole entire adult life I have worked in a very structured environment. I have never had to worry about my job security or if my job would be there when I went into work the next day. It has been a comfort to know that I have a paycheck no matter what happens, and that my family has all of their needs covered. To an extent that has all changed. You see I am retiring from the military. This is a giant change. I am losing the structure and the consistency that I am so use to having. I am not going to lie and tell you that I loved this structure and consistency, however it gave me comfort to know that it was there and that no matter what my family was taken care of. Being in the military has also given me a sense of purpose. There was always something going on, something to be completed, a Soldier to be taken care of... Something. It was a never ending cycle of what was to come next. However that is all changing. With retirement I am losing the hustle and bustle of the military, the extra worry for my Soldiers that I am responsible for and...well... to some extent my sense of purpose.

In realizing that I am losing my purpose I now must make some decisions, and I must make some changes. I now must refocus and find a new purpose, new goals, and new things to push forward too. The question is what will that be. There are alot of people that have told me to work as a federal civilian, others have told me to stay home and enjoy retirement and my children.... All the while my friends and family are making bets about how long it is before I go stir crazy and lose my mind.I must admit that I am quite concerned about these prospects and I also know that I am not one to set still for long.

I look at the picture that I have posted above and I feel that it is very telling of the situation that I am currently facing. There are two directions that I am able to go, and I must make a decision about which way to go. Do I take the path that has been cut by others and appears to have a lot of traffic or do I take the cut off to the less traveled road and take an adventure to a new beginning? If this were you standing at this point which way would you go? Why would you go that way?

I would love to see your responses in the comments below and have a conversation about this. I hope that this will help each of us as we are all in this situation from time to time in our lives. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Happy New Year's!

(Photo taken at Seth and Abby's wedding while I was assisting Whitney Montgomery, owner of WAM photography)

Happy New Year to each and everyone of you! Thank you so much for following me into the New Year and continuing to take the time to read my blog. I look forward to sharing more with you over the coming year!

This is the time of year that everyone (including myself) make plans to change something about ourselves, or to accomplish a goal that we have waited to long to complete. Do you fit into this category? I know that I do. I also fit into the category of people that do well for a few days to a few months and then I slowly lose the momentum to continue, which leads to an ultimate failure. I think alot of my issue is that I put to much stress on myself that I have to complete it the task, and I make it to difficult to such a point that I give up. Like everyone else in the world I have alot going on in my life. There is my family and all of my children's activities, my husband's career, my career, and my photography. Which does not leave much daylight to accomplish other things that I have in mind. I believe sometimes I am just over ambitious. 

This year I have decided to limit myself to 8 items for personal growth and development and for the photography side I am limiting myself to 8 as well. This gives me a total of 16 items to work on over a course of 365 days. I think this is something a little more manageable than what I was previously trying to accomplish. Some of the items I have picked can be accomplished in a very short period of time and some will take me the whole year to accomplish. However I believe with the ability to spread items out that this may make it each goal much more attainable than the ones that I have chosen in previous years. In some cases one goal builds off of another, giving me motivation to move forward and accomplish one goal to get to the next and see improvement as I go forward. 

What are some of your goals this year? How attainable are these goals, and at the completion of the goal what will be accomplished? I believe that these are all things to think about when making goals or New Year's Resolutions. If there are not solid answers to these questions you are going to be less likely to complete the goal. You are also going to be less likely to complete a goal if the end result is not something that you can physically see or is tangible in some way. 

I wish each and every one of you an amazing New Year and I hope to hear about your goals and how you are progressing with them. I also hope to hear from you when it is time for those special moments in your life that you would love to have documented. I am more than willing to do that for you. Please do not hesitate to contact me!