Life Altering

The past couple months have been life altering for my wife and I. I have a son from a previous relationship that lived with his mother. She, (my child’s mother) was going on 5 years of continuous sobriety – as far as I am able to verify. She was a heavy IV cocaine user and would occasionally shoot up heroin to control the cocaine come-down. I wrote about her in my memoir.

She is now dead.

Another person added to the never ending list of addiction related deaths. Another, so close to home. A family torn apart. A daughter gone forever. A mother gone forever. A son, forever without his mom.

My wife and I have made all the necessary adjustments and changes to be the permanent care takers and parents for my son. The transition has been going really well considering what the poor boy has been through.

I quit my full time job and will be a stay-at-home dad for the near future. I want to build a stable bond with my boy. He has had so much change and disarray in his life that he needs a great deal of consistency and care from a stable and sober role model.

My wife has been completely amazing and flexible through this life direction whiplash. I have so much to learn from her generosity, love, and her unshakable companionship. She never ceases to amaze me.

My son’s chances of becoming dependant on drugs and/or alcohol are very high. Both parents’ were drug/alcohol users which covers the gene side of addiction and he comes from a single mother household, now a deceased mother, and already has an ACE (adverse childhood experience) score that is higher than his age. Individuals with an ACE score of 5 or more are 7 to 10 times more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs. That covers the environment and statistical side of things.

He has a huge mountain to climb and many obstacles in his path. We will do everything we can to get him through this with only minor bumps and bruises. It will take a lot of work and a lot more luck. Of course I am not a determinist, so I know everything I mentioned does not determine his life outcome, however, for us NOT to look at these things would be cowardly, and very dilatory parenting.

I will try to post another update on things within the week. I know I haven’t been consistent with my posts but things are beginning to mellow out here at home. More to come soon.

Any thoughts or comments in general would be great. 🙂

 

Let’s make a deal!

  
Anyone up for trading a free download of my book, A Walk in His Shoes in exchange for a review?  I can send it through Amazon to any email address and I will pay the $2.99 ebook cost. 

I am also looking for anyone willing to link my book to one of their blog posts in exchange for either my ebook download or I can link you (book, website, blog etc) in one of my posts. 

Hope you all had a great NewYears without the  regrettable hangover! My NewYears was fun filled with…..sleep. I had a hard time even staying up late enough. That’s how it should be, right? It was nice just watching movies with my wife, knowing I’d wake without any regrets or embarrassment. 

Here’s to a great 2016!!

If you are interested in any kind of collaboration, you can contact me different ways or comment below. 🙂

Thanks all!

Twitter: @DustinLJohn

Facebook: Dustin John -Facebook

Book website: A Walk in His Shoes

My book is finally finished!

 

I wanted to write a quick post about what has been going on over the past few months. I haven’t been consistent in posting on my blog….consistent or non-existent? Either way I haven’t posted here in a long while. Here’s what has been going on in my life-

I have stayed sober. Sobriety, or rather, the urge to use drugs has not been a problem. Of course I think about it from time to time still but there hasn’t been an emotional or psychological mind or body reaction to my thoughts. They have all been more of a “look-back” at the past. No stomach-turning roller coaster drops of drug induced fantasies. Nothing like that.

My wife and I have grown a passion and love for reptiles. We have acquired a lot of beautiful ball pythons over the past 6 months and if someone had told me that snakes each have their own personality, I would have told them they are insane. Sure enough, snakes are pure awesomeness. Some are cuddlers while others like to pretend they are a rock. “You can’t see me! I am a rock!” Some people don’t consider “being a rock” as having a personality but I have met people with far less statuesque ability. I don’t want to make this a blog about our pets so I’ll end this with a picture of our snake named Wanda.

Shifting gears a bit, I found myself hesitating on completing my memoir. My father and I started the book almost 9 years ago. We had countless meetings together trying to flesh out each other’s work, coordinating his chapter with mine; which we wrote in separate homes at seperate times by discussing important talking points. It was a large amount of work but at least we were in it together. After my father passed away I felt extremely lost. I felt lost because I knew I would never be able to talk to my father but I also felt lost with the book project. It was so close to completion. I did have our editor’s help and my family members, but it still made me feel empty and alone. The project seemed to lose its meaning in a way. I felt we had built a special bond during his last years here. Maybe realizing that my dad did all that work to never get to see it completed made me feel that pain. I don’t know exactly why it became so difficult to finish. We had so many great discussions about what it would be like to have seen the book completely done, bound, and in our hand.

I finally finished the book. Despite what my false self was yelling in my ear. I knew it was mostly lies and fear. I can’t blame the fear. After all, My memoir don’t paint me as a shining moral hero. I titled the book – A Walk in His Shoes.  It released on Amazon and Kindle on December 3.

I will write a more thorough post this weekend detailing more of what has been going on. If anyone is still interested in reading my memoir, you can get it as a hardcopy or as an ebook. If you are wanting to read it but don’t have the funds to purchase the book, let me know and we can work out a trade. Thanks everyone!

Hard copy—>  CLICK HERE!

Ebook——-> CLICK HERE!

A Walk in His Shoes

Facebook page—> CLICK HERE!

On the Facebook page, I am giving a free signed copy of the book away on the most recent Facebook post. If you are interested in winning a signed copy of the book, click the Facebook link above. Thanks everyone!

I saw my heroin dealer this weekend

On Saturday my wife and I went to the city to attend a reptile expo. The expo was at the state park which is also the same area of the city I used to roam around while I was homeless. My old heroin dealer would ride his pedal bike, meeting up with us desperate and wayward users who had no access to a vehicle. I didn’t think much about the correlation between the location of the expo and my past drug excursions, but I did think about it briefly, prior to going. I didn’t put a lot of concern on this because my employer is in the same city as where I was homeless and I have built new and sober memories at these areas now. Also, I didn’t want to ruin our day by navelgazing.

The area of the expo is an area I haven’t been to since I was using and when we were driving through the area, I began talking with my wife about how I was feeling uneasy and had a sick feeling in my gut. It was raining quite hard and transients were walking up and down the rough and graffiti littered streets. Right after we started talking about my emotional state, I seen a man on a bike pedaling towards our vehicle. We was not stopped- we were heading north on the narrow neighborhood street and the cycler was riding south on the sidewalk. As soon as I seen the man on the bicycle, I knew it was my heroin dealer.

I told my wife who it was. I didn’t feel like it was something I wanted to keep to myself. To someone who has never been addicted to heroin, maybe this situation seems kind of inconsequential but for me, it was a pretty scary situation. I am very glad my wife was with me. I am glad she is willing to listen to my issues and fears without much warning.

I know that if that would have happened earlier in my sobriety, I would have slammed on the brakes, bought heroin, and got high. The sickening feeling I had did pass, but it did shake me up for a few hours. Addiction continually baffles me in its unrelenting patience and power. It’s not something to play around with. I go months without so much as a thought about heroin then BOOM! there it is. This is a rushed post because I am at work. I wanted to get this down in writing before the raw feelings of the situation disappeared. Thanks for reading.

My Trip To the West Coast

♠Dustin and Maiju’s Road Trip♠

Our trip to Sin City and California was absolutely fabulous. This post will be mostly visual due to a failing ability to redact some of the photographs. It’ll be more of a picture book than a blog post. 🙂 Some of you may prefer pictures to my snarky and opinionated posts.

On our first day, we (my wife and me) drove from Utah to Las Vegas. We got a room at the Caesars Palace. As most of you may know, this picture is in the Forum Shops at the Hotel.

This next picture is of our bathroom. The main reason I am posting a picture of the bathroom we had is because there was no bathroom door separating the bathroom from the rest of the room. I found this very odd. It did however, take my marriage to a new level. Rushing into the bathroom when I had to fart was no longer an option.

Not gonna lie, the mirror in the bathtub was great, but I would’ve traded it for a bathroom door.

The view outside our window. Not the greatest picture but this was the first time I had seen the new attraction “The Linq”. It is the mega ferris wheel in the background. Each sphere/cart is like a small bar/dance floor. How crazy! And of course the dreamy Donny Osmond plastered all over the adjacent casino wall. I was a bit disappointed at the swamp cooler and duct-work view until I saw Mr. Osmond. That brought it back up to par. Have any of you ridden on The Linq?

On our 2nd day, we drove from Las Vegas to California. These pictures are taken on “The Strip” of course.

Buffalo Bills Hotel and Casino off I-15. Has any of my followers stayed at Buffalo Bill’s or rode the roller coaster? I’ve heard the coaster is pretty rough. The traffic was stop-n-go for almost 2 hours in this picture. Luckily I had good audio books and the brilliant mind of my wife to keep me from going ballistic on careless and inconsiderate drivers.

This was at a gas station about 150 miles away from anything resembling life. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to fill’er up! Gas prices back home ——> $2.20/gal

This was an old abandoned motel. It was creepy so we stopped and got a closer look. Would you stay one night here if you got paid $100? How much money would it take for you to stay a night at the old Royal Hawaiian?

 

We don’t have palm trees in Utah and they are my favorite tree. This street was right by our hotel in California. Not to be confused with Hotel California. Had we went there, we couldn’t have left…so they say. And no, that is not a UFO in the sky. That is a dead bug on my windshield. 😉

DISNEYLAND – DAY 1

This was Maiju’s first time at Disneyland. That’s us standing under the sign. The lines were long but they moved rather quickly. She woke me up before the sun came up. I think she was excited. 😀

Here is a short clip of us walking through Disneyland. She pays the price when she walks ahead of me. 🙂 https://youtu.be/rkuoRYCBh7I

 

Space Mountain

HERE IS A VIDEO LINK OF ME AND MAIJU RIDING THE TRAIN ROLLER COASTER AT DISNEYLAND

https://youtu.be/Hkaq-SYL_lU

ADVENTURELAND – DAY 2

I gotta say, the new Cars Land section of the park is phenomenal. They did a great job recreating Radiator Springs. We spent a lot of time in Cars Land. The only down side was Adventureland only had two places to eat an actual meal. Cotton candy, churro’s and ice cream is tempting to eat all day but a hot meal is always a good thing to throw in there at some point.

Cars Land – Flo’s Cafe (they have delicious breakfast)

Maiju in front of Radiator Springs souvenir shop. “Come to the geek side…we have pi”  🙂

REAL-TO-LIFE LIGHTING MCQUEEN & TOWMATER

Lightning McQueen and Tow-Mater are full-size vehicles complete with animated facial movements and voices. They are actually giant remote controls operated by a remote control that is worn around the neck of the operator. I know what I want for Christmas! (hint hint)

Von Lightning Mc-Q

Tow-Mater the lady-killer

Radiator Springs Racer’s race car attraction is one of the most expensive theme park rides in the world. It cost over $200,000,000 (200 million) to build. When it first opened in 2012, the wait to go on the ride was 6+ hours. We rode it twice and waited about an hour, to an hour and a half each time. Well worth the wait. By far the best ride there.

Radiator Springs Racer’s

TO GO FOR A RIDE ON RADIATOR SPRINGS RACERS,

CLICK HERE—> https://youtu.be/HgE7B01XD4M

My wife thinks I may have been on the coaster in this picture. It’s hard to tell so lets say that I am.

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS – DAY 3

I turned 36 or 37 on this day. I always forget how old I am. I think I’m getting old too fast. The time just keeps flying by. Anyway, the day was a bit cooler than the previous days. I thought it was going to rain but it never did. Maiju had enough of the jarring rides and so did my neck. We spent most the day walking around the park and enjoying the views.

The worlds largest 3-D motion simulator where King Kong rips T-Rex’s jaw in half. Dinosaur spit literally hit me in my eyeball.

One of the original “JAWS” filming locations.

WhoVille

The Jurassic Park ride was the only ride my wife was looking forward to going on. It was closed for renovations. That was a bummer. Guess we have to go back now. Shucks.

CRYSTAL COVE – BEACHCOMBER RESTAURANT – DAY 4

I was informed of this place by a fellow blogger so my wife and I put in a reservation. This place is absolutely beautiful. The next few pictures are all taken here.

HOLLYWOOD BLVD – DAY 5

We walked down Hollywood Blvd, took pictures, ate, and went to the Museum of Death for the first time. This place is absolutely nuts. For anything gruesome, dead, jack-the-ripper, murderish, morbid, death cults of the past… this is the place. They have actual memorabilia/weapons from the most well-known serial killers. Way cool but EXTREMELY CREEPY! It costs $15/person and its an unguided tour. No photography allowed- that is probably best for all of us. 🙂

The Museum of Death

Capitol Records Building

DAY 6 – BACK TO LAS VEGAS

This was somewhere between California and Nevada. Southbound traffic was a lot lighter. My road rage was at a fairly reasonable level.

Back in Sin City. I have always loved the bright flashing lights of a moon lit Vegas. Here is the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris Hotel and Casino. If any of my followers have eaten at this restaurant, how was it? Is it worth it? We have never been inside. I am interested to know what you thought. It’s a beautiful tower- no doubt on that.

I KEELYOU!! – BALLYS

When we finally settled into Vegas, we stayed at Treasure Island. We both agreed that Treasure Island was a far better place to stay compared to Caesar’s Palace. The bed was far more comfortable, the room was nicer, the bathroom had a door, the view was better and the in-room dining was the best $60 I’ve ever spent. It was heaven. I was hesitant to spend the extra money for room service food but it was by far a memory that will last me forever. It was just fantastic to sit on the bed with my wife, relax, chat and eat impressively good food.

You can tell by how much fun I was having in the dork-fest reflection pic below. What little you can see past my reflection, was the view of Vegas from our window. I always request our room as high up as possible because I go wild-crazy over silly things like that. I think we was on the 27th floor or somewhere close to that.

This street performer was floating in mid-air right in front of us. I was so fascinated with this ability, I had to google how she was doing it. Isn’t it just awesome?!

This was so mind-blowing for a street performance, I had to throw down some cash. The ability to float in mid-air!

Here’s one more angle just because it’s that cool!

HOMEWARD BOUND – DAY 7

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you for following. 🙂

Emotional Growth

I often hear in the recovery community that some emotions are bad while others are good. I understand that point of view but I believe it is incorrect. It may not seem like a problem, but I think it is very important to be precise when talking about this topic so that we are not led astray. Emotions can be extremely powerful and if we perceive them incorrectly for a long period of time, it can be catastrophic for our recovery. It has always been an emotion that I acted on that caused a relapse.

Some people believe anger is an emotion that should be suppressed, ignored or outright avoided at all costs. Anger is healthy. Anger is the opposite of depression and is a valuable emotion that we should speak to, and evaluate in much more depth. If you begin to feel anger, that emotion is there for a very good reason. Suppressing it or ignoring it is only erasing your true self. Of course, it is possible to allow anger to get out of control. That means you are not listening to what it is saying to you. You are simply allowing it to operate you like a giant meat puppet. Figure out what it is telling you. Don’t confuse anger with rage. Rage can be destructive. If you are swinging a baseball bat through the flat-screen, it is safe to say that you are no longer angry. If you act as though your emotions are “against” you instead of there to help you, you are not going through optimal recovery and very little growth, if any, will occur. Your emotions are your friends. Your emotions are your true self. Don’t treat them with contempt or hatred. Each one of your emotions is a part of your personality eco-system. They are your Board of Directors. They are your Congress (a Congress that actually does something useful.)

When I was in early sobriety, I remember how powerful and overwhelming my emotions were. So I understand the early random flooding bombardment of uncontrolled guilt-cry-happy-joyous-disgust fits that hit without warning. I also know that I made it through that time and I am still alive. Emotions always fade away. That is why it is so important to understand what they are trying to tell us and why.

Relapsing because of a non-harmful emotion seems kind of silly in hindsight. When my father passed away, I felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest. The pain felt so powerful, so intense. I knew the pain wasn’t going to kill me and even though it felt similar to physical pain, I knew it was just a deep sadness and grieving in knowing I could never see him again. I allowed myself to wail over his death. I remember sobbing loudly and uncontrollably on my mother’s couch with my wife at my side. Right in the middle of my emotional deluge, a thought popped into my head. I realized at that moment that my father’s death was not a good enough reason for me to relapse. I knew I would be okay.

For so much of my life, I have misunderstood my emotions. I have let my emotions overrun my life by my misguided reactions and irrationality. I’ve mainly focused on anger and sadness in this post but all of our emotions are legitimate mind/body awareness that tell us everything we need to know. The hard part is figuring out what they are trying to say. As long as we don’t push them away and suppress them as unnecessary glitches in the system, we can grow and learn everything we need to know about who we are. Just remember there is always a thought before an emotion. You have that “magic quarter of a second” to beat your emotion to the punch. But don’t punch your emotion, violence is bad.

Road Trip to the West Coast

DISNEYLAND

To receive my wife’s passport, we have to drive to the Finnish Embassy in Los Angeles next month. We have decided that since we have to make the trip to the west coast, we will turn it into a fun and exciting vacation. I plan to do a blog post on our trip when we return home. It will include pictures and maybe one or two short video clips. If any of my readers who have never (or have) been to Vegas or California would like a picture or short video of anything specific, let me know and I will see if I can make it happen. Also, if you know of any awesome or amazing places that are a “must see”, I am open to suggestions! Please give your feedback and comments!

Here is our current route for our trip.

We will drive to Las Vegas from our home in Utah. Spending the first evening absorbing the views and dining under the lights of The Vegas Strip. We will be staying our first night at Caesars Palace (No, the REAL Caesar never lived there). see clip—-> http://youtu.be/526QUiYPgt0

“Is this the REAL Caesar’s Palace?”

The next day we plan to continue on through the Nevada desert into Southern California. We are staying 5 nights in Anaheim. We had a difficult time choosing our hotel because there are about 300,000 hotels surrounding the fence line of Disneyland. But at the same time, we don’t want to drive more than we have to. I will let you know how the hotel is when we get back. I think it will work out well.

We are going to do both amusement parks that Disneyland has. Disneyland Park and Adventureland. Because the resort is so large, we are going to do Disneyland Park one day and Adventureland the next day. My wife, being from Finland, has never been to Disneyland and she has always wanted to go. She is an avid collector of Disney movies. I am anticipating an overflowing waterfall of joy and happiness pouring from my wife’s entire body upon arriving to the park. I must admit, I am feeling a bit whimsical myself. We both deserve a carefree week of fun and enjoyment and I am looking forward to our trip.

The 3rd day we are going to Universal Studios to test out their “front of the line” passes. Nothing better than a passive-aggressive “haha! sucker!” to all the sun-baked people who have been patiently waiting in line for 2 1/2 hours. As long as we avoid any smirking or eye contact everything should be okay.

What is your favorite thing to do and see here?

The 4th day will be mostly open for sight-seeing, great food and exploring. Walk of Fame, Museum of Death, sandy beaches, city roaming, things like that.

Day 5  we wanted to drive to the Sequoia National Forest and get up close to those monstrous sequoia trees. I am a little concerned that too much of the forest will still be closed from winter snowfall. If that is the case, we will have some more free time to roam around Southern California.

Later that evening we will drive back into Las Vegas and spend the night at Treasure Island.

The next morning we will drive back to Utah. A part of my back story while using heroin and other drugs took place in Las Vegas. Being homeless and walking the streets of Vegas is a much different place than it is when you are sober and have purpose. Another distant reminder of what my life was, to what it is today. Making fresh, bright and sober memories from a past that is all but forgotten. I am truly grateful for the chance to rebuild my life from the solid ground up.

!!! Please comment if you have any requests for specific pics or footage; or if you have any suggestions on specific sites, places, rides, diner’s or areas that are in proximity to our destinations !!!

My Wife Stopped Breathing

The past couple weeks have been rough. Wait, no- I have been rough on myself the last couple of weeks. There, that sounds better. Wait, nooo- not better, just more truthful.

I was locked and loaded at the first of January to reach towards some new goals. War paint, tactical gear, and high-powered ammunition; all ready to set a blazing path of absolute rambo-style badassary through these puny underpowered and unarmed goals. And then…..

And then my wife stopped breathing. I know right?! That’s what I said! How could she be so selfish and stop breathing at a time like this?

After I realized “oh shit! she really can’t breathe!” I washed off my face paint, threw my night-vision goggles on the bedroom floor (it’s really hard to drive with them on), and I rushed her to the Emergency Room.

Come to find out, she had an unpronounceable virus in her vocal chords that became so inflamed that when she coughed, it would close off her airway. Her asthma was pretty pissed off as well. She was given some breathing treatments and a kettle full of various medications.

She is still getting over the sickness but she is doing much better. She also has her voice back. That is unfortunate for me because when she wakes up and reads this, I may be next in line for the Emergency Room.

All jokes aside, I don’t want to sound scornful or unsympathetic that my wife became ill. At the time, it was horrifying. The only thing that mattered to me was taking care of my wife. She is everything to me. She is my entire world. Without her I would live in a world of darkness and seeing her gasping; struggling for even the smallest drop of air, completely stopped my world from turning.

My silly little goals to become healthier, stronger, or just to become a better person will always be there waiting for me. (Was that an excellent way to make procrastination sound tender and inviting?) Anyway, my point is my wife needed me. I wanted to use my energy to help her through that nasty sickness because that’s what life is really about. Being there for each other when we need it most. The times when it is hardest for them to laugh or smile are the times we need to dig deep, and throw a big shovel-full of love right on top of them.

Despite the small deviation to “A Better Me”, I was not able to quit sugar cold turkey, but that is hardly a surprise. I have cut it back drastically. I have drunk 3- 12oz sodas in 11 days and I have been able to cut back on candy as well. I think I have eaten 3 pieces maybe 4 since Jan 1. One of those pieces was a piece of Finnish candy that tasted like overused engine oil with a hint of black licorice. I have also gained 2.5 pounds. That’s not a whole lot by that snippet of measurement but if I continue to gain a pound a week, I will weigh 692 pounds by the year 2025. Not bad Dustin…not bad!

THANK YOU!

And kiitos to my rakas ❤

I started blogging about my addiction to heroin in May. Over the past 9 months I have met some wonderful online friends who have helped me in so many ways. Giving advise, hope, support, and love.

I plan on continuing this open journey with you all and I appreciate all of your support.

Thanks to all of you who have allowed your stories to be told in such a vulnerable and naked atmosphere. Being honest and open is what relationships are truly about.

I have enjoyed reading many of your wonderful posts. Whether funny, happy, helpful, angry, sad, depressing, joyful, engaging, silly, or thought provoking, I have enjoyed the growing journey with you all.

Here’s to 2015!

A Better Me

There are some changes I will be making, as well as some personal goals I am setting for myself starting January 1, 2015. These are not empty resolutions that get thrown out after the second week of January. These are life changes that need to take place and continue on throughout the course of my time on earth.

Now that my life has settled into place and the unexpected tremors of early sobriety have long dissipated, I want to focus a bit more on my success and purpose as a human being. This does not mean I will stop doing what I need to do to stay sober. It just means that, on top of staying sober, I want to achieve other goals. There are also things about my life; as well as myself, that I am not okay with.

1- My weight. When my father died in October 2013, it affected my eating habits. I linked the death of my father to the foods he ate over the course of his life. Already having eating/food issues from a very young age (me), as well as very similar eating habits as my father, I started to despise eating food. As far as I knew, food killed my father and I hated it. Now, whether or not food is to blame for the death of my father; it doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that I gain back my weight. I am not bulimic or anorexic. I just get pissed off at food and a lot of food textures gross me out. Some of my issue goes back to when I was a young child. I am still trying to figure it out and I plan to see a nutritional counselor. I guess it is also possible that I have Sensory Processing Disorder. I hate soggy, gritty, slimy, chunky textures and putting any of those in my mouth sounds about as fun as sliding naked down a huge razor-blade into a pool of rubbing alcohol. Any of my readers deal with this hyper-sensitive full-body-gagging experience? Same with folding a piece of 80-grit sandpaper in on itself but I’ll save the goose-bump hypersensitive touch stories for another time. Ugh!

GOAL- I will gain the weight back to my average size. This means I need to gain 15 pounds. That may seem like a small task but…I am a small man and will have to eat a massive amount of calories.

NUTRITION

2a- Drinks. I have been drinking waaaaay too much Mt. Dew, Pepsi, Red bull, Coffee, and other sugar loaded drinks. January 1st I am done. Well, one cup of coffee a day. No other soft drinks or sugary soda crap. Gotta have the coffee jump-start! Creamer, no sugar. 🙂

2b- Candy. I eat too much damn candy. I eat candy every day. milk duds, reeces pieces, M&Ms, Red licorice… I devour that shit. Willy Wonka would be jealous of my candy cupboard. Where is all the slimy soggy candy?! I guess that would be too easy. January 1st, DONE.

3- Work-out. I have started a work-out routine but they always stop. I always do it for the wrong reasons. This time, I am starting a workout because- well, I am getting older and I don’t want to die any time soon. I have been extremely rough with this body the last 20 years and I need to show it some love. I want to be healthy, strong, agile, headache-less and alert. January 1st, it’s on.

BUSINESS

4- My wife and I both work but we have opposite schedules. She works days and I work nights. We have worked this terrible schedule long enough so we are going to fix it. We have been talking about our plan to start our own business doing something we both enjoy. We know what direction we are going to go and have worked out the base decisions. Our business plan will start taking shape objectively on January 1, 2015.

5- Aside from our personal business goal, I am also setting a completion/publish goal for my book. I haven’t had any luck with agencies and I can’t just sit on it forever. My book will be getting published in 2015. If that means self-pub, so be it.

I’m sure there are many ways I can become a better person but I know the topics I listed above are the most important to me currently. Maybe when I wipe all these out I can work on some others. I am glad I have a precise starting point. Its time to walk the walk.

Thanks for your continued support my friends! For more great reading, stop by a fellow bloggers site at http://afterthepop.me/2014/12/26/hope-for-2015/

-Dustin