Where do we go from here?

The new year -- any new start -- brings with it some analysis about where you are and what you're doing, and if you want to keep doing what you're doing.

We were talking about that last night. It was four years ago today that we moved here from the Bay Area because we wanted more of a quality of life than what we had. We wanted to make the most of every single day that we have together. Working 10 hour days at high-stress jobs in the Bay Area was not the way to do that.

We'd talked about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go "after" those careers came to an end -- and being in high tech corporate environments where reorganizations and layoffs came with great regularity, we knew that could be any day.

There are some good books out there about finding your passion, living your dream life, making a life while making a living. We read a bunch of them. And talked. A lot.

And it resulted in our move to Red Bluff, changing careers, changing everything about how we'd lived before. We'd do it again in a heartbeat.

But you don't just stop growing and changing and evaluating even when you're very happy with what you have (and we are thankful every single day).

In the Feb. 2 issue of Woman's Day magazine, there is an article about "what I want next" and a process to help you get there. It's amazingly simple. While I couldn't find a direct link to the article, this site has the bones of the process. (Cathy Bonner, the author, also has a Web site where she sells and promotes her book.)

I've been thinking about it ever since I read about it. Although you're supposed to spend only minutes answering the questions and formulating goals, I've found that the questions are following me through the day and giving me some insights into where I want to grow, if not answers just yet.

If you try it, let me know what you think. More to come....