I read the beginning of my blog yesterday. It has a very short TO DO LIST:
1. Sell the wine shop
2. Sell the house
3. Sell the current boat
4. Buy our cruising boat
That list written on July 19, 2008, looks remarkably similar to today's TO DO LIST! I have procrastination tendencies, but at face value, a four-item list and eight months to accomplish it?
Of course, those four items are just the titles of very long to-do lists containing hundreds of items. On those lists, we're not doing so badly. Last July seems like five years ago if measured in what we've accomplished, and for my own enjoyment, I think I'll hit the highlights.
We went through all the steps necessary to put our business on the market, and when the listing expired this month, we went the extra step of understanding the details and numbers well enough to speak intelligently about them. Our guerilla marketing plans go into effect next month.
The house looks awesome. We now have three empty bedrooms. The living room, kitchen and master bedroom are staged to look like a model home. We sorted, preened, pruned, tossed, resorted, sold and gave away enough stuff to fill several houses. The CDs were all uploaded to the iPod and sold in a garage sale. The books were sold on amazon.com or donated to the library. We sold everything from a desk chair to a pocketwatch on Ebay. We're now lean and ready to move on out as soon as someone else wants to move in.
Isabella, the boat we're selling, looks beautiful. I refinished the toe rails in the blistering heat of August (what was I thinking?), and we've got almost all the exterior wood looking great. The canvas needs two more zipper pulls, which arrived in the mail today. The bulkhead is refinished, the engine starts effortlessly, the hand pumps work, the electrical wiring issues are solved. She even has her own web site and is advertised on Craigslist.
We've shopped extensively, electronically and in person, for our cruising boat. Once we've sold two of the three things mentioned above, we're ready to buy an Island Packet. The good news is that in the intervening months, the prices have dropped almost 40%. That might make up for the fact that our house has also dropped in value -- just not 50%!
When I look at lists like this one, I'm ecstatic that all but two or three of them are DONE.
Since we can't measure how close we are to our goal, we can at least measure what we've done to prepare. Could we have done more? Maybe. Would it have made any difference? We don't know. All I can do is say, "Well done," and start on tomorrow's list.
1. Sell the wine shop
2. Sell the house
3. Sell the current boat
4. Buy our cruising boat
That list written on July 19, 2008, looks remarkably similar to today's TO DO LIST! I have procrastination tendencies, but at face value, a four-item list and eight months to accomplish it?
Of course, those four items are just the titles of very long to-do lists containing hundreds of items. On those lists, we're not doing so badly. Last July seems like five years ago if measured in what we've accomplished, and for my own enjoyment, I think I'll hit the highlights.
We went through all the steps necessary to put our business on the market, and when the listing expired this month, we went the extra step of understanding the details and numbers well enough to speak intelligently about them. Our guerilla marketing plans go into effect next month.
The house looks awesome. We now have three empty bedrooms. The living room, kitchen and master bedroom are staged to look like a model home. We sorted, preened, pruned, tossed, resorted, sold and gave away enough stuff to fill several houses. The CDs were all uploaded to the iPod and sold in a garage sale. The books were sold on amazon.com or donated to the library. We sold everything from a desk chair to a pocketwatch on Ebay. We're now lean and ready to move on out as soon as someone else wants to move in.
Isabella, the boat we're selling, looks beautiful. I refinished the toe rails in the blistering heat of August (what was I thinking?), and we've got almost all the exterior wood looking great. The canvas needs two more zipper pulls, which arrived in the mail today. The bulkhead is refinished, the engine starts effortlessly, the hand pumps work, the electrical wiring issues are solved. She even has her own web site and is advertised on Craigslist.
We've shopped extensively, electronically and in person, for our cruising boat. Once we've sold two of the three things mentioned above, we're ready to buy an Island Packet. The good news is that in the intervening months, the prices have dropped almost 40%. That might make up for the fact that our house has also dropped in value -- just not 50%!
When I look at lists like this one, I'm ecstatic that all but two or three of them are DONE.
Since we can't measure how close we are to our goal, we can at least measure what we've done to prepare. Could we have done more? Maybe. Would it have made any difference? We don't know. All I can do is say, "Well done," and start on tomorrow's list.
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