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I'm trying to become the kind of person that actually DOES things, rather than just sitting around thinking about doing things. It's not an easy transition.

One thing that has helped is understanding my own personality. I'm someone who is easily influenced by others. In my quest to be loved, I tend to adapt to the people around me. It's not necessarily a bad thing; understanding this about myself is helping me initiate changes that actually stick.

For example, last year I decided it was time to get my personal finances under control. I finally had a job with a salary, the student loan payments were starting to come due, and it was time to be a grown-up. Besides the internal motivation ("I want to have my house in order, I don't want to always be in debt"), I tried to surround myself with other influences that are pro-personal-finance.

I started subscribing to personal finance blogs. The Simple Dollar and Get Rich Slowly are a couple favorites. Every day, sometimes even a few times each day, my RSS feed would gift me with information, tips, stories, and inspiration about getting my life and finances in order. The more I heard about it, the more it seemed natural for me to integrate budgeting, frugality, and savings into my life. I understood myself well enough to know that hearing about this constantly would encourage me to change, and it has. My goal is to pay down my student loan debt by 10K this year, and so far I'm on track!

I'm not sure that this method will work for all of the life change I'm hoping for, but it certainly can't hurt. So bring on the blogs: health and fitness, Christianity and grace, librarianship, even parenthood. (Never hurts to be prepared, right?) I know who I want to become, so filling my life with wisdom from other folks on the same path just makes sense.

The calls to action don't hurt, either.

Bring it on.