As I was reflecting on the past year, I thought about what my goals were last January, and how I went about following through on them. Rather than making specific goals, I had more of a basic, vague idea of what I wanted to do. What I realized in looking back was that I did make a series of simple changes over the last year, which overall have had a positive impact. Here’s a few that have been especially helpful:
Created an Account on Fiverr
As a freelancer, I’m always looking for effective ways to find new business. I made an account on Fiverr back when I took on a side hustle challenge, and I am so glad that I did! I share my in-depth review of the site here.
Some people doubted the value of Fiverr for their own side hustlin’, which I can understand. Let me say that Fiverr is just one more useful tool to generating business. This site introduces me to clients and brings me new projects that I truly enjoy. There are many clients on Fiverr who are willing to pay fair rates, so you’re not working for pennies.
One of my favorite things about the site is that you can create whatever gigs you want and give new things a try. By creating different gigs related to content creation and editing, I have expanded my business beyond just freelance writing. I’ve been able to really hone in on the needs of my client base, and in turn, I’m able to offer them much more.
Opened Rewards Credit Cards
In the beginning of 2014, I started looking into “travel hacking”. Since we like to travel and we also like to avoid debt, it was a no-brainer! I signed up for the Barclay card, quickly earned the bonus, and am still racking up miles on it today. It’ll be a huge help when we book tickets to Bulgaria again this year.
Since M has been actively trying to build his credit, he also signed up for a few cash back cards. We just got a bonus from Chase, as well as cash back from Discover. We’re going to hold off on applying for any more cards this year, but I’m happy with the rewards that these cards have provided while helping us to boost our creditworthiness.
Made Health a Priority
One of my goals last year was to really focus on my health. I consider myself to be a pretty healthy person, but there are always improvements to be made. Staying active is sometimes a struggle since I spend a lot of time at the computer.
In my search for a fitness routine that I could actually stick with, I came across hooping. If you’re looking for something fun that doesn’t feel like exercise, give it a try. I absolutely love it! When the weather is warmer, I start off every day with about 30 minutes of hooping outside. Now that it’s cold, I’ve had to bring it indoors. I look forward to turning on music and taking that time to recharge.
Being More Eco-conscious
I don’t want to be a wasteful person. I don’t want to use more resources than I already do, so I try to be mindful of that. One of the little ways that I do this is by hanging our laundry to dry, rather than using an energy-sucking dryer. We bought a drying rack from Ikea in the spring, and I used it outdoors all through the warmer months. Now that it’s winter, I do a combination of hanging clothing up in the basement and running the dryer for heavy items. It’s a little thing, I know, but it makes me feel good. It probably doesn’t hurt the electric bill, either 😉
So those are just a few of the simple changes that I made in 2014 which have had a positive impact on my life. Hooping and being eco-conscious are really more of lifestyle changes, while Fiverr and credit card churning has been good for my wallet. Hopefully, I’ll stick with all of them!
Did you make any lasting changes in the past year?
Great job on your changes! Glad you opened a rewards card- that’s where the money is!
Thanks Holly!
I think one thing I did in 2014 is really decide why I was blogging. Was I trying to get freelance gigs? Was I just trying to get advertising? Was I trying to leave my day job? I finally realized that I blog because it’s a hobby and I decided going forward that I only write when I feel like it. I’m not forcing myself to stick to a rigorous schedule or anything. I took a lot of pressure off of myself : )
That’s great, Liz! So many people throw in the towel with blogging because they don’t know what they want from it. I’ve realized that I can’t stick to a posting schedule either. It just doesn’t work for me.
I love that putting the health as a top priority. When I got admitted last year, all I want is to be healthy and to lose some weight. I used to go the gym, but I think I would just do Zumba or yoga in my house.
The change I made is slightly annoying for other bloggers, but hopefully they don’t mind: I stopped actively commenting on blogs. I only comment if someone comments on mine. Thankfully enough people seem to stop by that I’m busy enough commenting back, but I used to get up 45 minutes early to do commenting and it’s been a lot nicer not having that burden.
I also started credit card churning and just made $300 essentially in the course of a few weeks. I am just about done churning a $500 spending requirement for a free round-trip flight on Sun Country – love travel hacking!
I think your comment policy is a good one since your blog is well established. There’s only so many hours in the day!
These are all great! I’ve thought about signing up for Fiverr, but haven’t pulled the trigger so to speak. My concern is that because I’d be competing with others already established for the same services, I’d have a difficult time getting jobs. It’s like a product sold from multiple shops in Etsy; the shop with the most/highest reviews is likely to get my business. I’ll read your review after this and see if you convince me. I’ve been waiting to take the next step in travel hacking and have had my eye on the Barclay card. I had to follow your hooping link to see what that was, but I do know someone who does that. That’s really neat! When I lived in Grenada I hung my laundry to dry, and it really helped with the electricity bill. I liked that part of it and the fact that I was consuming less electricity, but it was always frustrating when my clean laundry got rained on.
There is so much competition on Fiverr, but I think there’s room for everyone. If you deliver a quality service, you’ll quickly build up a customer base and others will take notice. It’s worth a shot.
These are all great simple changes. We’ve been eating more healthy and will be making some more changes to make sure that we continue this important trend this year. We want to be more eco-conscious as well and starting a compose bin in our yard is a great start.
Those are all great things! I also started travel hacking last year too! I think you may have just sold me on Fiverr. I want to try out some new things and it’s probably a good testing ground.
Yes, that’s a good way to put it- a testing ground. Definitely worth a try!
I started to get more into travel hacking in 2014 and have been loving it since! I think we earned a little over $3,000 in free cash and travel alone in 2014 through travel hacking.
Isn’t it great? I can’t believe that I waited so long to get started!
I have used Fiverr for services, but would never think to establish my own account. I think that I feel like it would be hard to get traction with so many others out there, but I am sure if you set up your profile correctly, you will get good hits.
It’s taken some trial and error, but overall, Fiverr has been really worthwhile.
I went to a gym that had a weighted hula and it was really fun! That build whole exercise programs around it! I love the simple changes you made overall. I think we can easily overcomplicate out lives with too many goals. 🙂
It is a lot of fun, and I definitely see and feel the results of hula-ing in my abs!