Hundred Goals After 100 Days

Yesterday officially marked my 100th post at Hundred Goals.  Reaching the hundred mark feels like an accomplishment.  When I first starting writing I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted my blog to progress towards.  At first I thought I could write about my journey towards accomplishing a list of 100 life goals.  I soon realized that there was a plethora of other subjects I could write about and not simply make a list of my accomplishments.

The first goal on my list was to eliminate my credit card debt.  While working towards completing this goal, I realized how important finances are to our success, and to achieving our goals.  This link between finance and goals became the tag line to the site; “Achieve Your Goals While Managing Your Finances.”

While writing about personal finance is something I enjoy, there are other topics I am passionate about.  A lot of my subjects have an eco-friendly undertone.  Our Earth is finite and taking care of it should be just as much of a priority as is living a frugal, debt-free lifestyle.

Here is a short list of some of what I consider to be some of the better articles I have written since I started out on this writing journey:

Dream a Little Dream- This is my very first post.  This was before my list of goals was complete and discusses briefly why I decided to begin writing my blog.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does- Here I write about my journey into financial Hell.  If I hadn’t found myself in this situation I may have never realized how I was hurting my future.

Get Out of Debt Quick!  6 Easy Steps to Financial Freedom- Countless websites claim to have a magic bullet to wipe away your debt fast and easy.  I take a different approach, one that requires a person to admit that they screwed up, that their debt is their fault and that they have the power to fix their situation.

Finding Meaning- Each of us have different priorities and ways of feeling that our lives are valuable, here I discuss my values and what is important to me.

I’m Not Giving Up My Life- Some people don’t want to give up their life of purchasing Stuff in order to prepare for the future.  I don’t want to give up my life either.

Prison Walls of Barbie Dolls- In this article I discuss how we build our own prison by accumulating Stuff and debt.

Master of Our Own Slavery- How do the choices we make today affect our freedom in the future?

Over the last 100 days I have come to realize that there are many challenges to maintaining a website.  Finding time to write a daily article can be a challenge.  I have a busy schedule with work and school and blogging requires a significant amount of time.  Not only do I need to write an article that has something worthwhile to read, but I also need to spend time reading other blogs, magazines and news articles in order to keep my brain juices flowing.

Finding things to write about hasn’t been much of a problem so far.  Even if I don’t have an article planned for the day, just a few moments of staring at a blank text box is enough to motivate me to write something.  Not only do I need to focus on writing an article which is interesting, and hopefully fun, for my readers, but I need to work on building an audience.  This is probably the biggest challenge of blogging.  My site statistics look a lot like a roller coaster, huge up and downs from day to day.

I am beginning to feel that I am finally finding my voice, something I was concerned about when I first began writing.  My writing seems to have improved as well.  Instead of working towards reaching a certain word count, I write about what is on my mind, even if it is only a couple hundred words or more than 1,000.

This website has also allowed me to focus inward on my values and give them real consideration as I put those values into words that are being read by an audience.  It is easy to say that you value something, but it is entirely different when you actually consider why you value these things.  It brings them closer to your heart and the more consideration you give these values, the more important they become.

I want to thank everyone who continues to visit my blog.  Having people read my words is very rewarding.  One hundred down, many more to go!!!

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Please check out the ”Carnival of Pecuniary Delights #4: Living Green & Saving Green Edition” which features links to numerous other personal finance blogs about frugal living, money management, debt & investing, including this site!!!