I'm currently full on into Operation Eliminate. Just now cleaning my garage, looking through old boxes and stashes. Only moments ago I saw an old fork on the ground. Just an ordinary old fork, nothing special. I picked it up and just as I was about to throw it in the trash I took note of it's design and realized it belonged to my mother, part of her old dinnerware set. And my mind was instantly flooded with childhood memories of countless family meals. Good memories and bad memories alike.

After years of thinking about it, we're finally going to do it. 'It' being spend a year or two traveling the world in search of epic adventure. This is a big deal for us. Sure, when you're young and single, traveling is easy. And I did my fair share of traveling in my days sans wife and kids. But now with a family in tow, it's going to be a challenge. But we welcome this challenge knowing it could mean memories to last a lifetime. So stoked.

I have a sudden urge to rant, so bear with me.

For the most parts, I've been very fortunate to have great clients. I often hear about 'clients from hell', but I haven't had any. Most of my clients have been very pleasant to work with, and only one has ever disappeared without paying. All but one paid my invoices... eventually.

Some clients however, don't see an urgency to pay, sometimes making me wait months, all the while telling me "the cheque's in the mail".

I'm sure no one noticed or even cares, but I've been on a bit of a social media fast in the last little while. Not a complete fast, since I did check in on Facebook and read a few articles from Digg and my Google Reader. But I've resisted posting to my blog, updating my Facebook and Twitter statuses and significantly limited my media consumption. My last Facebook update and the last time I even looked at Twitter was 11 days ago.

It's that time of year again and I love it. I've always enjoyed writing my New Years resolutions. The first step in making something happen is to write it down and say it out loud.

1. Learn to say 'No'

I took on way too much work in 2008 and 2009. While I did everything in my power to try to keep up, it would have been better for myself, my family and my clients if I scaled it back a notch. I'll to try and limit my self to preferably one, possibly three maximum projects at any given time from now on.

What I'm about to do is very scary. I've always been an extremely goal oriented person. Since I was a kid writing out Christmas wish lists for Santa Claus, I've always written down the things I want and the things I plan on doing. It's been a huge part of any success I've achieved in my life thus far. But I've always been private about my dreams and aspirations. I don't know why. Perhaps I fear ridicule. Perhaps it's because of all the nay sayers out there who make a life's work out of dissuading people from pursuing their goals. However I've changed my way of thinking in recent years.