Monday, January 7, 2019

My Future Planning for 2019

So it's the new year now.  Much like everybody else, I had thought about what I would like to accomplish for the months ahead.  I'd also thought about how the last year went.  Dad's passing was a huge transitional trigger for both Mom and I. There was a lot of purging that we are still doing between our work shifts. I'm still trying to use up or donate my old materials and clearing off my old project or DIY projects, on a weekly budget basis.  It's getting whittle down to less and less on the back burners but eventually this year, I should get all of it or almost cleared off.  I do have two goals that I would like to get underway among the purging.

The first goal is about my health. After spending about a decade nursing and living around Dad's health problems, I'll definitely want to avoid having my final years in sickness like that. I have some general idea of where to start: 1) work on my dietary intake, control better what foods and their portions that goes in me, 2) have an exercise regimen that's compatible with my job activities and 3) keep up with reading ways of improving myself with my health.

I have had the exercise equipment for doing the work, part of the problem was keeping my bedroom space clear for doing the work. As I'm getting rid of things, I'm also getting what helps to organize my remaining stuff better (under bed containers, vacuum bags, storage totes, etc.). It's getting better for having more space to stretch my limbs or just not knock/whack into anything. When the warmer weather comes back, I can do stationary workouts on the back porch area again. The other part is doing the work around my work schedule. The shifts are random so I could work late at night, then early the next morning on some weeks.  It's also an exhausting job if you don't pace yourself sustainably, like a long 8 or 4 hour rep session; it feels like a long workout sometimes on top of the mental stress from some customers so I might not do any exercising for that day because of work.  During the warmer weather, I would commute to work on my bike but only on half-days, 4-hour shifts because that's all what my body can handle for now.

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My second goal is about my employment.  While my current part-time cashier job is giving me money for savings, essentials and project funding, I've been reading or watching internet videos about how to improve my skills and to make a better living. Things like Alux.com, Jumpcut, Udemy Courses, whatever allows me a flexible pace with my random work shifts.  I won't make the same mistake again of quitting a job before you have another one to fall back on but I wouldn't want to do the cashier job for the next several decades of my life for all the muscle strains it gives me.

Mainly the one thing I want to do career-wise is get back into freelancing or just sell my artwork again.  Just not like it was with the online freelancing where you seem to get paid in peanuts (less than minimum pay) for work that I could be pay much more for at a 9 to 5 retail job. I would like to be make as equal or more as my art skills are worth (though I'll likely have to brush up on some of them).  My lack of confidence is on the legal/business side of freelancing.  I have some general idea for how a freelancer goes about their job, it's about getting a business number registered, collecting taxes and reporting the income properly among other matters.  The legal requirements are different on geographical areas (Like CRA in Canada and IRS in USA) so I need to learn what those are. My teachers back at OCADU did do their best to explain the whole process but they made a point of researching into the matter itself (rule updates, hands-on experience, etc.); internationally, they don't know how every country's set of rules for having a business are like.  With some dedicated time, I could finally get around to understanding the process in Ontario, Canada.  If I were have to suddenly to get by on my own, I would need to make better income than my current job allows right now.

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Well, those are my thoughts for the future for now.  I'll be posting up any artworks I make as I go though I might not do weekly as I tried in the last few months.  There are some things as I said that I want to clear away for good and that won't always be art-related stuff.  Basically, if I got something art-wise to talk/showcase about, I'll post them up here.  So, for whatever you guys aim to make of your year, I wish for you all the best success for it. Until next update!

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