It’s almost one month in my new apartment. Hard to believe, but time does fly. (Whether you’re having fun or not.) And I’m achieving my goals.
The most important goal is that I’m still thankful. I never really thought about it before, but maintaining an “attitude of gratitude” takes effort. Which also explains why I never particularly had that attitude, now doesn’t it?
On the bright side, the effort is fairly small so achieving the goal is easy. I wake up in the morning and quietly pray to say thank you. It feels good to have a roof over my head, I can take a shower any time, and there’s food in the cupboards. I still need a bed, but I have blankets and a pillow so I’m thankful for what I have.
By the way, I went to Yvette’s yesterday to pick up the rest of my clothing. It was a little nerve wracking, but all went smoothly. I also picked up my dining table and chairs. That’s a welcome addition to the apartment. I didn’t ask for the living room furniture or bedroom set because she and the kids are using them. I agreed to let her have them until we reach a final property settlement.
Many thanks to Jay for going with me. He has a pick-up truck. And we also picked up my bicycle and trailer. So now I can ride, and getting groceries is going to be much easier.
Obviously a big goal isย Getting Happy…when you wish you were dead. I’m supposed to launch a Kickstarter campaign tomorrow, but have to delay that. This is a goal postponed, but there’s a good part, too.
I have to postpone the Kickstarter campaign because I don’t have my Amazon Payments account verified. But in the files I picked up at Yvette’s yesterday I found an IRS EIN confirmation letter. This verifies that I have a properly registered company. I didn’t think I had one. Finding that letter saves me waiting two weeks to get one from the IRS. So I think the Kickstarter campaign can be launched Monday, 6 May.
This also gives me time to accomplish a goal I’ve been ignoring. After all, it’s much easier to sabotage your happiness than it is to wait on results.
The goal is to connect with three charities for the Kickstarter campaign. One is ShelterBox USA, another is Habitat for Humanity and the third is Wounded Warrior Project.
ShelterBox and Habitat for Humanity both provide people with shelter. ShelterBox does it after disasters (think Hurricane Katrina and earthquakes in Haiti), and Habitat does it in our communities by building houses. You can tell by how happy I am to have an apartment that shelter is an important part of getting happy. Yes, I was working on getting happy while living in PADS (homeless program). Having a place to call home takes happiness up a great big step.
I picked Wounded Warrior Project because I’m a veteran. Suicide among vets is a serious problem. So in addition to helping with the book, I want to help a community organisation like WWP.
Of course, you’re asking “Well why on earth would you ignore a goal like that, Conrad?” You’re right. It’s a good goal. We can achieve a lot by working together.
I ignored the goal because I’m afraid. Yes, it’s that simple. I’m afraid people will say no, and I don’t handle rejection well. Seems kind of stupid when I read it, but it’s the truth. But I made progress today.
I’m a ShelterBox volunteer. so I sent an e-mail to the Volunteer Co-ordinator today. My publisher is a sponsor of Habitat for Humanity, so I sent an e-mail to David today. And I have a friend who has worked with Wounded Warrior before, so I sent him an e-mail today, too. I’ve asked each person for help to connect with the charities.
The plan is to give $1 to each charity for each book pledged. That’s $3 from each pledged book going to worthwhile causes. My dream is to have 1.5 million books pledged. That’s a lot, I know. But there are 750,000 attempted suicides in the U.S. each year. So getting twice that many books pledged seems like a good start to making that number of attempts go down. Does that make sense?
So I’m making progress toward my goals. And getting happy is more and more a daily occurrence. Which also makes achieving goals a whole lot easier.
Please remember to share your story. You can do it on the blog by posting a comment – that’s public. Or you can do it privately on the Share Your Story page. That sends an e-mail straight to me.
Thank you for reading. And thank you for sharing.
