a journal of small victories

Today is the first day of 2018, but also the first day of the Uber Frugal Month hosted by the FrugalWoods. This is the second time I’ve attempted the challenge, but i’m pretty confident that it will go well this time around.

FrugalWoods is a blog about financial independence and simple living: both things I strive for. They last hosted the Uber Frugal Challenge this summer — but it was hard for me to really focus on it in the midst of heavy client deadlines and summer vacations.  So this time around I’m in it for real.

Here’s a couple things that I think are setting me up for success with the Uber Frugal Challenge this time around:

My budget gets a fresh start.  …. it kinda has to. Last year I neglected my budget, which is slightly scary as it was my first year of self employment, and I definitely saw the inside of a restaurant far too often. I actually had a goal of only spending money on half of the days in 2017, but I don’t have to check my bank statements to know that I failed that one miserably.

The ‘Booch: I’ve discovered a couple youtube channels that have sparked an interest in home fermenting, and I can feel that interest spreading to more cooking and ways to be self sufficient. I currently have batches going of Kombucha, Sauerkraut (this might be the first time i’ve ever spelled that right on my first try), and sriracha sauce. Its possible a garden pops up in my backyard this spring, so I’m dreaming up the possibilities.

I’m finding it easier to focus on work at home more than ever. Up until about a month ago, I found it impossible to get any work done at home. I’m not really sure how it changed, but i’m going with it.

and finally.

I’ve never been more interested in ways to save money and attain financial independence.

Ultimately finding financial success is a function of

1. How much money you make.
2. How much money you spend
3. What you do with the difference

In 2018, I am looking to optimize all 3 of these this year. Starting the year with an Uber Frugal Month ought to kickstart it all.

Today at 11.59 is the last chance you can sign up on the FrugalWoods website. If you miss out on it and want to see the updates, let me know and I can find a way to share them with you.

For a number of years i’ve called the blog at danhefferan.com ‘The Journal of Small Victories.’ but the post that actually explains that has long been absent from the web.

Today I had a change of heart and decided to really double down on this blog here at danhefferan.com. Even earlier this month I had been trying to kill this site once again and move all of my content creation energies over to dauntless.co, but the truth of the matter is this:

danhefferan is here to stay. The journal of small victories is here to stay.

This isn’t a 2017 year in review post, but the energy I plan on carrying into 2018 is a large motivator behind this move.

2018 will be a year where I look at growth on all fronts: improved health and relationships, an expanded business with 5 espressos, and I plan on experimenting with creating additional income streams through various online properties. — I’ll look to detail this in a post in the next week.

Small Victories.

Who celebrates small victories?

They are easy to ignore, a small client project is finished, the scale reads a smaller number than last week, you successfully go to a brewery and only order a salad instead of your usual slew of beers accompanied with beer.

These hardly are the huge monumental steps that you feel the need to broadcast to social media, but maybe they should be.

Success begets success: small victories lead to more small victories, and eventually lead to the big victories.

I quit my job in 2017 to pursue my web design and development business however that wouldn’t have happened without the help of small victory after small victory.

A few years back I created a set of ideal job titles, and the two that resonated most deeply were ‘Champion of small victories’ and ‘chief story teller’

and I think ‘Champion of small victories’ will carry forward. Lets celebrate the small victories, as those are the ones that lead to more small victories, and eventually lead to big success. don’t believe me?

lets try something.

Imagine your dream job or business

What does it look like? What do you do? Who do you serve? How does the job make you feel?

Next, lets imagine that you’re on the bottom of a staircase, and there are a number of steps that lead from where you are at the bottom of the staircase and the top where your dream resides.

What does the step that is right below your dream? What job or milestone exists that from which your dream is simply a natural progression?  An editor for the New York Times might look to first work as an editor for other big state news papers before finding the primo job with the NYT.

You can use this idea to keep working backwards- to become an editor for a big state newspaper, you’d likely need to be editing for a smaller paper, or writing for a big paper. Regardless of what the actual path looks like, you can likely trace a path from where you are today and your dreams.

success begets success

small victories lead to more small victories, which lead to the big victories.

lets celebrate the small victories my friends. I have the cheap wine ready.

So there’s some news to share.

On May 8, 2017, I turned in a resignation letter to my employer and began my journey into fulltime self employment. I always thought this post was going to be easier to write than it actually is.

My friend and WordPress development ninja, Topher, told me at some point last year that “As soon as you’re at a point where you would have made more by spending your day freelancing rather than going to your job, it’s time to quit” …. or something like that.

In reality, this jump was 4-5 months overdue, but the security that comes with a steady paycheck — even if it’s a job that’s far from a great fit — is an intense drug.

5 espressos had a year of huge growth last year, as we had the opportunity to start working under more established businesses, and this year has continued that trend. I’m pretty excited about where things can go- though this transition still feels pretty intimidating.

My strengths make looking out into the future really easy and enticing, but my workload suggests that the most important thing is just taking things day by day- finishing the work that has to be done, and then moving onto the next day. With more clients come more opportunities and more responsibilities, but it also comes with the chance to try new things, and each new experience has the chance to be magic.

Steven Pressfield, in his book Turning Pro, writes of the difference between an amatuer and a pro, that there’s a definitive point where you decide that your days of amatuer habits and practices are over. That from that point forward, you’re a pro, and approaching each day dedicated to your craft and all that’s involved in that craft. Last week was that day for me.

It’s terrifying, it’s exciting. It’s time.