Ruby Loves Adventure

Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Early today I was chatting with my friend about goals. She said she finally quit her job and is trying to look for another one at a multinational company. Staying 10 years at a local company, she realized she had enough, and looked for something better. Same friend told me her goals: she wanted to go abroad. It took her approximately 3 years before she made the leap.. and I'm glad she did. 

So, why are goals essential to your success?

Let me back up a bit here... and tell you some goals that I wanted to achieve:  

1. 1998: I wanted to go to London: Blame Boyzone, but yes, I wanted to see them live
•  2008:  I finally got to London, for free on a business trip. (Yes, business class all the way). You can see a very, very old post here. 
• Lesson learned: You will always find a way to make your goal into a reality, regardless of how much time it takes.
2. 2001: I wanted to move abroad. The Philippines got too corrupt, annoying, and the president was an imbecile. It really got annoying come 2012, when I definitely decided to move, by hook or by crook. 
• 2013: I moved to the USA. My original plan was to move to London but sadly, it didn't work out. Had another offer in Birmingham but since the USA came first, I decided to go with it. 
• Lesson learned: Sometimes what you want may not always be what you get. And sometimes what you get may turn out to be even better than what you wanted in the first place.

Those are just some of the goals I made happen for myself. There's a few more that I can mention: travel more (started backpacking around the UK in 2011, and Asia from 2012-2013)

Cambugahay Falls, Siquijor

How did I make it happen? Does this mean I'm successful?

First off, success is subjective. You can define your success in your own way.

Your goals are essential to your success because:  

1. It gives you focus - they say when you write down a goal, the more you get to make it happen. And that's true. I kept on writing down what I wanted to do, I told people who would dare listen what I wanted. I wanted to be the person who made things happen, and not just someone who says something and does nothing. A goal keeps you focused on what you want to happen, and then you move on to step 2


2.  You get creative - When you have a goal, especially a challenging one, you get more creative about how you would reach it. You start thinking outside the box and you're getting frustrated. Getting frustrated is amazing. It gives you something to obsess about: How do I do this? What do I do? What resources can I tap on? And that, my friends, is the start of step 3


3.  You make things happen - These goals tend to multiply: you get more and more of it. When you have a new goal, write it down, and set a date to review it. In my case, I write down goals whenever, but short term goals (ie within one month), I check the last day of every month. These are written down at least the month before. It feels so good to tick off things from my list and making things happen. The bigger goals, like moving from one country to another (not so easy, especially if you live in the Philippines), can go in a longer term goal and be on a separate notebook. 

It is so much fun to look back and realize hey, I made this dream (goal) happen!

Hopefully this has inspired you to make a goal. As of writing, here are a list of our goals to help inspire you:

1. Be financially independent (FI) - I became convinced I want to retire early after reading "Your Money or Your Life" and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" - I've always wanted my money to work for me instead of me working for money. In fact, I even convinced Peter to get in on the FI mindset! We're slowly making our way there, and we're taking the necessary steps to do it. 


2.  Get married on a budget - Weddings are expensive all over the world. And ever since we got engaged, I've been trying to think of ways to make our wedding very affordable. Our starting budget is $3,000 but it looks like it can balloon to $5,000. Keep posted. We're posting our progress here on this blog.


3.  Travel a lot (weekend, vacations), even with a full time job - 2015 has been good to us, travel wise. Here's hoping 2016 will be even better (note: planning trips to France & Slovakia in 2016, as well as mostly local travel).


4.  Monetize this blog as another income stream - Still a work in progress, but hopefully we can do it. Still trying to learn the ropes on this.


5. Get sponsored trips - We love to travel after all, and sponsored trips will be the icing on the cake!

Good luck on your endeavors! 

We had an interesting setup these past few days. You see, the boyfriend just got offered a job elsewhere, but there's a catch. These are the terms:
- a huge increase in his salary
- 10 less vacation days from his current job (which eventually got re-negotiated to 15 vacation days)
- most of our vacations planned for 2014 will be cancelled (the other company wanted him to start early)
- Longer hour days, probably

When faced with that situation, what would you choose? 



Most people want to get the additional money, the offer was indeed amazing, I have to say. But my point was:
1) Working in an American company can suck - they don't value as much vacation time as other companies (European companies are good, they offer a lot of time off). 10 working days for vacation every single year? Are you kidding me? My family lives on the other side of the world (the Philippines), and his extended family lives in Europe. 10 days off is not enough to visit both families! Granted, in the end they offered him 15 but see point 2)
2) Cancelling 4 vacations just sucks -- and is very disappointing. One month before the vacation and it's going to be cancelled!

In the end, he chose to stay in his current company. While the pay is lower, the flexibility is good. There is a work life balance, but the loss of the other opportunity looms like a cloud. I wanted to just let him go and do what he wants but he refused. I'm too much of an outlier and a non-conformist, but apparently that's a good thing? For most, what he chose was just unfathomable - WHY? But for me, well, if I were in his shoes, I'd go running for the hills. I would not compromise my travel time for work time. Never. Then again, it is his choice, not mine.

It hit me that the American companies just don't value vacation time. I never thought it would be real but it was.



If this happened at some other time, when the travel wasn't there, then maybe it would have been a different story. But for now, no. The excitement and all the planning has been intangible in value. The cancellation of everything? Sure, that can be offset with the money, but then again we don't really need a lot of money anyway, for me what matters most are experiences. I sure hope there will be other, better opportunities out there. I just don't want him to be disappointed in the long run.

As they say, as one door closes, a window opens. I just hope we see that window soon.