Every so often, I go through intense moods of purging. Perhaps I get it honest since my mother would, on random Saturday mornings at 8 am, demand that my sister and I help her clean every nook and cranny of the house to get it ready for [insert season here]. With crust still in the corners of our eyes and yellow rubber gloves forced into our hands, our lanky, pre-adolescent bodies would saunter off to our designated assignments (Courtney! The bathroom, now! Erin, get the hose together on the vacuum and start working on those stairs!) and labor until the chrome shined on all the fixtures and the vacuum lines in the carpet all went "one way". Since my never ending project list seems to leave my room in slight disarray with all my books and notebooks (and hair products) strewn about, unlike my mother, cleaning sprees are not my preferred method of purging.Instead, tsunami waves of "I need a makeover" silently rise up over me and take nearly half of my wardrobe with them as they recede back to wherever the heck they came from. In fact, as much as I long for a closet bursting at the seams with beautiful clothing that makes me feel like I love what I'm wearing for every second of my life, the truth is I can't keep more than 10 real outfits in my possession because I either sell everything on eBay or give boxes of things away to the Goodwill.

I try really hard to buy things that are "me" in the first place, but without fail, one thing I don't quite love will send me into a mission of ruthlessly assassinating pants, tops, shoes, and any other article of clothing that has ever betrayed me—even once—on my quest for the perfect "It's small, but I love everything I own!" wardrobe.A few days ago, I felt those same tides rising up within me as I thought about this blog. I knew there was something in this "wardrobe" that I didn't quite love, and it was driving me insane as I searched for that one detail to fix.When my daily blog roll lead me to one of my favorites, Zenhabits.net by Leo Babauta, I was introduced to his new book, Focus, which he is giving away for free in pdf form on the main landing page of his website.I didn't even have to finish the book for the advice inside to confirm the underlying issue I had been having with the blog.Focus.When I first started Think & Grow Chick, the purpose was to hold myself accountable for all the various goals I had—big and small, superficial and important. While most of my goals remain the same, some of the things I talked about previously on the blog included my quest for the perfect makeup or style. Over the course of the year or so that I have been researching and writing about ways to accomplish various goals, the many that I had seemed to give way to the few that were most important to me: growing a head full of long, natural hair; getting my finances in order; starting a business; and living an overall positive, optimistically-minded life.Because I am now committed to fewer goals than I was when I first started the blog, I believe the dissonance between what my focus was then and what my focus is now was calling me to acknowledge the shift even though I hadn't until now. With every post I started about my "chosen few", the voices of the others called out to me. "What about my old goal sheets?" I'd secretly think. "What if there are readers who still want to know about those fashion goals or eating organic?" "What if people don't 'get' why I'm deciding to focus on natural hair, entrepreneurship, and personal finance only?"Leo's book, Focus, reminded me that I was over-complicating things for no reason. Though this blog is about goals, I realize I can't cover every type of goal and I can't be all things to all people. There is a reason why my chosen main topics have risen to the top, and I realized that I needed to be clearer on that decision to allow people to get the big picture of what the blog is (now) about.And just like that, I wrote a new about page:

I started this blog because I wanted a tool that could help me stay accountable to all of the goals I had floating around in my head. It has since turned into a wonderful community of African-American women (and some men!) who, like me, are interested in achieving goals that are important to them.The goals I speak about specifically on this blog relate to natural hair, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and life in general. I've chosen these subjects not only because they are my primary personal interests, but because–as of late—they speak to the greatest stereotypes about African American women and what we supposedly are able to accomplish.For instance, if you watch the news, go to the movies, read a blog, use twitter, or chat with friends on facebook, then you've probably been exposed to, at least peripherally, the following notions floating around:1. Nappy, super kinky/coily hair that is natural to virtually all African-American people is some how "less attractive/professional" than other types of hair and is "not supposed" to grow to longer lengths.2. Most black people (black women in particular) have poor credit and financially have a very low net worth.3. You have to be a young, white, and/or male (preferably from a prestigious university) with a high tech or web-based startup in order to be a successful entrepreneur.My mission on this blog is to not only expose the truth about African-American natural hair, personal finance in the black community, and what it takes to be an entrepreneur, but to encourage black women (and anyone else reading this blog) to be successful in each of the above arenas. As black women:1. We can grow our hair long just like women of any other race.2. We can achieve excellent credit and build wealth.3. We can start successful companies and become noteworthy entrepreneurs.How do I know that we can do all of this when popular "wisdom" says that we can't? Because I'm a black woman and I'm going to accomplish all of the above myself.Notice I said going to accomplish...the beauty of my choosing to start this blog is that I'm on this journey just like you. If you want to come along for the ride, I'd love to have you. Join me on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for though-provoking articles meant to kickstart your natural hair, personal finance, and entrepreneurship journey into high gear.

So that's the new "what" (natural hair, entrepreneurship, finance), "when" (Monday, Friday, Wednesday) and "why" (challenging assumptions, breaking barriers).Though the changes are slight (and not really new since I've been living this out for a few weeks now), I think they will allow my to focus my energies better and turn the blog into the success that I want it to be.What do you think? Will you miss any of the old stuff I started off talking about?