“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” – Melody Beattie

It’s 9 : 18 AM on day 2666 of my journey towards independence and I managed to pray, read Revelation 21:5 and promote my 50 New Feet Campaign benefiting MiracleFeet – raised  $6 616 only $5 884 more to raise by June 17, 2018 to help 50 kids with clubfoot .

Today being the first day of 2018 I thought I’d set some purpose-aligned goals which I know will be challenging to achieve. Take a look:

My Life’s Purposes

1. Make a difference
2. Change perceptions about differently-abled people

2018 Goals

1. Continue to be kind, honest and generous[i’m trying]
2. Choose people and organizations who choose me (if I’m someone’s second choice or if they’re actions prove that they are not that into me I will no longer give them the option to choose me I deserve better than to be anyone’s time-filler) [i’m trying]
3. Stop expecting people to be as I am [i’m trying]
4. Raise $5 884 more for my 50 New Feet campaign benefiting MiracleFeet by June 17^th 2018 which when added to the $6 616 already raised will be enough to provide 50 children with clubfoot treatment
5. Call at least 2 people ( related or non-related) at least once in three months to say hi or thank you [I spoke to 8 people some relatated some not since the begining of the year as a direct result of this goal i called them or they called me but i really wanted to speak to them (must call one more friend before Sept)]
6. Every day be the best SuperSidekick to Superhero Catherine Constantinides (she’s the best, most hardworking real-life Superhero I’ve ever met she totally deserves a SuperSidekick and I’m the only I trust to do the job properly – she totally deserves me) [i’m doing]
7. Publish my book Defying the odds: Where there’s a wheel, there’s a way
8. Go Hot-Air Ballooning (I did some research and found out that the major hot-air ballooning operators here in South Africa won’t take me because they don’t have wheelchair-accessible hot-air balloons but darn it I’ve ziplined and paraglided I refuse to believe that there’s  nobody in this country  who can help to make this happen… mark my words I WILL BE THE FIRST South African in a wheelchair to go hot-air ballooning in South Africa I don’t know how, when or who will help me but I can tell you it will happen somehow because I am Nisha Varghese and impossible DOES NOT apply to me) [I spoke to my physiotherapist about this and she said if i go on a normal hot-air balloon, which are the only kind available in South Africa, i won’t be able to see anything because i’ll ether be seated or carried so i dont thing i want to do it anymore]
9. Donate consumables to Breath of Life (Breath of Life is a project that takes care of orphaned and abandoned children in my city until they are adopted)
10. Donate books to the library
11. Make a dream come true with Reach For A Dream
12. Visit people at a retirement home
13. Participate in the CANSA Shavathon again this year [wasn’t able to go because I was recovering from surgery so my parents made a small donation to CANSA instead]
14. Plant 3 trees
15. Read 12 books [6 read so far]
16. Meet Sebastian Schütte, founder of the Panda Crew
17. Diarize at least one good moment of every day [I don’t do it every day like last year but i do it when i can]
18. Learn one interesting fact every day [don’t do it every day like I should]
19. Tell my life-story in front of a large crowd pf people (I have major stage-fright but I know if I just spoke in front of a large crowd once it would never again be an issue… I don’t want to roll through life scared )
20. Go to Paris, Rome, Athens and London

[Note: Post updated July 20, 2018]