So, about a year ago, I wrote this blog post about my five-year-plan, which I made in January 2006.

Back then, I was a wreck. I had a new baby, no home, no friends, and a five figure bank balance – the only teeny problem was it had a minus in front of it.

Being a fan of plans and targets, I gave myself five years to turn things around. The ultimate goal was to create a secure, happy home for my daughter.

In practice, that meant finding a way to earn a decent living (journalism being more of a hobby for the independently wealthy these days), getting a new house, settling into a new town and the trifling matter of paying off 70k in debt.

Gulp.

Needless to say, we didn’t do it in five years but *touches wood* I think we might just have cracked it in six.

I celebrated by buying a new boiler.

I know. Dream Big, as Rosie tells us.

One of my friends likes to call me a monomaniac (this is a form of insanity where someone is pathologically pre-occupied with one thing) but I prefer to think of myself as ‘focused’. But admittedly, while I’ve been working on the five six year plan, I have let a lot of other things slide. Friends. Relationships. Health. Hair. Especially the hair.

I suspect my new five-year-plan ought to focus on some of those things. But what’s odd is coming at goals from a position of already being quite happy thanks is a lot harder than being in a position of, “Oh God, if I don’t fix this, we’re sunk.” 

So I’m still formulating. And thinking.

Thinking about where I’d like us to be in five years’ time. What my career will look like, where we’ll live, what my life outside work should look like. It’s a lot harder than the other stuff, to be sure. But providing we end up in a place where Flea and I are happy, and together, and having even half the fun we’re having now, it’ll all be good.

But in the meantime, I resolve to:

  • Be better at doing and sorting laundry so that I never again inadvertently pack Flea’s pants when visiting my parents for Christmas, thereby meaning I spend Christmas Day in a pair of age 6-7 Batman pants. Honestly, those lines on my skin took DAYS to fade.
  • Stop telling Flea that wearing odd socks is cool, and make the effort to pair up socks when I do the laundry (see above)
  • Stop telling Flea that lack of sleep could make Mummy’s hair fall out, so it’s essential I get a lie-in on weekends.
  • Make a concerted effort to brush my hair before going on the school run. This rule won’t apply on Mondays, naturally.
  • Remember where I put my work phone on December 23rd when I last looked at it.
  • Read more blogs.
  • Make sure the house is a bit cleaner and tidier in 2013. By which I mean I will hire a cleaner, obviously.

I think that’s enough to be going on with, don’t you?