New Year’s Resolution

Before I get into the true meat and potatoes of this post I have to share two terrible things that have happened to me this past weekend. First, Melissa and I learned that the HBO Max reboot series Gossip Girl has been cancelled after just two seasons of perfection. We’re both absolutely devastated by this painstakingly putrid loss. The original Gossip Girl from the late 2000’s remains one of the greatest shows in television history and I dare say this 2.0 version was giving that masterpiece a real run for its money. While this news certainly sunk my battleship, the next fateful discovery destroyed my entire fleet!

Our Health Club and Spa, the gym I’ve been jacuzziing with since 2006 will be permanently closing effective February 28! I about fell over and rolled down the two stairs into the parking lot when I read the sign posted on the entry doors. I’m sick with devastation. Never in a million years did I expect something so awful to befall me this early into 2023! In just over a month I will be gymless and while there are plenty of gyms around, I can’t just go to any old one! I have to have a swimming pool, jacuzzi, and sauna! There is no point in me going anywhere that doesn’t have those three things! I feel like I truly belong at the Missouri Athletic Club, which is a bastion of high society athleticism and leisure in the St. Louis area, but with a $400 monthly membership rate, I just don’t see that happening in my immediate future and after reading this post, you’ll understand why…

Earlier this month, I was reflecting heavily on 2022 and honestly, I wasn’t feeling the absolute best about my overall life progress on the things I feel are most crucial to my future success. I felt that my debt wasn’t as low as it should’ve been, I hadn’t gotten any further on getting Shithead published, I made very little headway on my next book, overall I just wasn’t feeling the year as a whole, so I vowed to ensure this year plays out differently.

Then one day at work shortly after this reflection, I was having a conversation with an associate of mine and was telling this individual how important it is to stop and celebrate this particular win that had occurred in their life and to not overlook the success they’d achieved. They recognized I was correct in my remarks and together we celebrated their win, but more importantly, I realized I very much needed to hear my own advice.

Stepping back from that Debbie Downer mindset I was able to reevaluate last year and see that real progress had in fact been made. While my credit card debt remained stagnant over the past year, I managed to pay off ALL of my student loans! Thousands of dollars have been erased off my total debt because I stuck with the plan I concocted following my College Is A Scam post! This was a real Mission Accomplished moment for me and while I did celebrate it at the time, that celebration needs to be continued because if it was up to Discover and the like, I’d be paying on those leeches for another two decades! I only have so much money to spare, so my credit cards were forced to take a backseat to the priority I set with my student loan payoff. In addition to those loans leaving my life forever, I also paid off my LASIK, so again, that was a couple thousand dollars of debt I didn’t bring into 2023 with me. Acknowledging and celebrating these realities made me feel infinitely better about the past year and incredibly hopeful about the one ahead. I’m now more certain than ever I can be debt free in 2023!

Erasing my debt is paramount to my future success. I had hoped to take an extended period of time off to focus on my literary endeavors, but decided that while this is still very much something I know I need to do, it’s something that needs to wait till I have no more debt. The peace of mind that will be brought with not having anymore unnecessary monthly payments to make or financial weights bearing down on my shoulders will be beyond freeing and most definitely put me in the best headspace, which is where I need to be if I plan on pursuing my literature full time.

So, while I’m working to erode this debt from my life, I will also be working to expand the audience of verybeneficial.net. Increasing my subscribers will undoubtedly make me a more lucrative prospect to any future literary agents and publishers. I’m confident that if I can showcase I already have a built in audience for my work, I’ll be able to secure a book deal and bring all my dreams into my reality. Becoming a published author is something I’ve dreamt about for nearly my entire life and I know I’m ultimately the only one who can make this happen for me, but you can help too!

Please Like and Follow me at my author page on Facebook, Benjamin T. DeShon; Follow me on Twitter at veryBENeficial; and if you haven’t done so already, please subscribe to my blog in the space provided at the end of this post! Once you’ve submitted your email address, you’ll get a confirmation email and after a simple click verifying you’re you, you’re subscribed! Also, please do share any of these with anyone you know! Every new follower helps, so please and thank you in advance and a HUGE THANK YOU to all those who have already done all this! Your support means the world to me! You all are SIMPLY THE BEST because without each and everyone of you, I wouldn’t still be doing this in the least.

Despite the abysmal fact that I’m about to be gymless, I feel most confident about the prospects of life that await me in the year ahead. I know I can not only pay off all my debt, but I can also set aside a comfortable sum of money to support myself while I pursue my true passion of literature, so Melissa doesn’t have to end up getting that often talked about second job at Dunkin’ Donuts. I also have several thrilling blog prospects ahead that will propel me to new heights in viewership and with more views will hopefully come more subscribers! My posts highlighting local businesses here in Cutesville and those showcasing my travels were some of my greatest hits last year and with a travel line up of New York City at St. Patrick’s Day, Tulsa to see Madonna in July, and Christmas in London all on the calendar, I’m sure this’ll be my best year yet! All of this combined will hopefully culminate to the ultimate intersection of personal success. After all, I didn’t write my novel, Shithead, for it to sit idly on my computer, but everything has a place and time and I know I’m not there just yet, which is why this year must be the penultimate progression towards that much desired grand finale. So, here’s to 2023!

As always, THANK YOU so much for viewing! Please feel free to leave me a comment below as I love reading and responding to them! I’ll return soon with another all-new post, so until then, I wish you all, all the best!