The glass is half full – Look for the positive in yourself, others, and your situation
Be mindful – Ever feel like the days, months, and years pass by and you don’t know where the went? Perhaps you need to focus on experiencing the moments as they happen? Being mindful of yourself (feelings, place, context) and the world around you will tether and anchor you to the time you’ve been missing.
Smile – It costs you nothing and will make you and everyone else you encounter feel better. Seriously, it is that easy!
Exercise – Time to look yourself in the eye and admit you could use 30 minutes to an hour more a day doing some sort of strenuous activity. Preferably outside, and even better with others.
Habits you should kick
Skipping breakfast – Skipping the first meal of the day robs you of energy during the hours you’re most productive and messes with your metabolism.
Negative thoughts – the antithesis of the first habit above. Negative thoughts are the cages we build to incarcerate ourselves. There’s only ever going to be one person who will always be there for you and that is you. In your life there are going to be innumerable people who are going to bet against you and pull you down, why add to that crowd?
“Body Farming” – You touch your face two to four times every minutes, 91% of people pick their noses, 39% bite their nails, and people are constantly picking, scratching and irritating their skin. These activities are unsightly and unhealthy. Stop it!
Eating “fast” food – Companies know that Americans are a hurried and overworked population and they’ve gone out of their way to provide easy, cheap, and calorie rich food for them. While this might seem a blessing for Americans this food is largely heavily processed and consists mostly of corn, soy and oil. Calorie rich and nutrient poor. Stop it!
Habits you should cultivate
Learning something new – Are you expanding your horizons? What are you doing to expand your personal, professional, and creative toolbox?
Get up early – Think of a great person? Got one? I don’t know who the person you picked was but I knew they got up early. Before everyone else was up their were up practicing, studying, honing and working on becoming great
Practice empathy – Empathy is the ability to put oneself in some one else’s shoes, and the willingness to respond to that person’s needs. Empathy will help you see the glass half full, it will help you smile, and it help bring you closer to everyone around you.
Readmore – My own biases are showing with this last one. But, reading will help you grow as a person in every aspect of your life. It will help you go to places you can never go, understand things you never could, and know people you could never know!
Patrick understands that if you never try, you never fail
I made nine resolutions at the beginning of this year. I didn’t spend too much time thinking about my resolutions. Looking back most of them seem to be things I want to scratch off of my bucket list (which I have never made.) So, it comes as no surprise that I haven’t done very well this year. I’m hoping to take what I learned about resolution making this year (more about that on Wednesday) and apply it to next year’s resolutions. So let’s look at the list:
1. Get my SCUBA diving license – This is just something I’ve always wanted to do and I nearly did get my license back in high school. I made this resolution without thinking about my schedule or where I live… And, despite looking into programs it never happened. I think a big reason for this was because none of my friends are interested in SCUBA nor is my spouse and going through all the effort of getting the license and then not having anyone to enjoy it with made little sense. FAIL
2. Go skydiving – Another thing I’d just like to do sometime. Again, I had trouble finding friends who would want to do this with me and it seemed a lot of money to spend on something I couldn’t enjoy with people. Unlike the SCUBA license I still really want to do this so it might appear on next year’s list. FAIL
3. Become an Oddfellow – I’ve lived in this town for the last six years, four of those years were spent at the University. I was actively involved on campus in various clubs and organizations. Despite that I never felt like part of the community. In an attempt to do just that I investigated a number of the social fraternities, clubs, and organizations in town. Organizations like the Masons, Kiwanis, Rotary Club, etc. The one that was the most active internally and in the community was the Odd Fellows. I attended meetings and got to know the members and what they do in the community and after seeing all the good work they do, and all the fun they have doing it. I successfully petitioned the the Odd Fellows and became a member earlier in the year. WIN
4. Brush up on my Latin by reading Harrius Potter et Philosphi Lapis Fairy Tales in Latin – I’ve read a lot of books this year, at last count I’m at 65, none of them were in Latin though. This resolution came about over my guilt. I have a BA in Classical Civilizations and in earning that degree I took a number of Latin classes. Since college I’ve yet to use any of that knowledge and I’m sure it’s going to rot. I’m definitely doing this next year. FAIL
5. Participate in NaNoWriMoWrite a10,000 word story Write any story – As you can see this resolution went through a number of revisions. Even with all the revisions I failed to complete it. It wasn’t that I did no writing this year, I wrote a number of pieces of poetry and I’ve been updating this site regularly. When it comes to bigger writing projects though I find myself incapable. I have several ideas for stories, but no writing to show for it. This is going to be a resolution next year, along with submitting work for publication (terrifying, I know.) FAIL
6. Complete my Battlefleet Gothic fleet, Horde Army, and Chaos Army – I’ve got a number of metal miniatures. I love the little things. I love putting them all on a table and rolling a bunch of dice to play with them! Sadly, I haven’t had much time for this hobby this year. I didn’t have much time for it last year either which is why this resolution is here. Sadly, I only painted once or twice this year. I was only able to complete of few of the Battlefleet Gothic models. My Hordes miniatures lie untouched and I’ve traded off my Chaos army to someone who has the time and inclination to good use. FAIL
7. Make a Gaming Table – I’ve got the boards and the glue in my garage. My friend has the sand in his. All I need to do is get these things together with a little paint and this will be done. Just not this year. FAIL
8. Climb half-dome – The spouse did this last year with her cousins and I missed out. So, I put this as a resolution and even reserved a camping space. When it came time to go though we couldn’t figure out what to do with the dog, as they’re not allowed in the park… We ended up not going. FAIL
9. Get in great shape – I’ve been working out at least three times a week, every week (barring some holiday and weather related) this year. It’s been swimming three times a week with core, arms, and leg work on the off days. This was the biggest resolution on the entire list and I’m thankful to report that it is a WIN.
TALLY: 2 out of 9
That isn’t a score anyone should be proud of and I’m not. There were a number of resolutions that could have been accomplished in a single day and weren’t. I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about why I failed so badly and I have a few ideas, as well as some ways around them. I’ll share them with you on Wednesday.
So, here we are in the middle of February and my meditation habit forming goal lies in tatters around me. I’ve done it a grand total of 5 times since Jan. 20th which isn’t a stellar performance, and definitely not enough to form an actual habit. So where do I go from here? The important thing is not to get disappointed and give up. Self Improvement is a good thing and we all should be working on ourselves… If religion has given us anything good, it is the desire to better ourselves and those around us. Back on topic! What do I do now then? I’m not giving up on the Zen meditation, I’m going to continue trying to do it in the morning, but I’m thinking it will go on the back burner while I finish some other important things, and work on easier habits to form…
So what does that mean for you my beloved readers? it means expect more writing here, or less. One of the habits up on the block is writing daily. This can take the form of blog posts, creative writing, or professional writing. Another is waking up at the same time everyday. I’m thinking 8:30 AM or 9:00 AM. But that might need to be earlier I also need to do a test run on taking the train to Sacramento and how I’m going to do this commute for the next several months.
The writing goal is going to be at the top of the list, as I have 3 projects that have to get done before the 27th of this month, 1 that needs to be done before the 15th and several that have been sitting around for far too long. So those are a priority.
In other news, I’m done filling out all the paperwork for my internship, which makes it very real, I’m sure I’ll be getting anxious soon enough. I’ll share it all with you.
So I’ve hit a snag in my plan to hack my life with my simple 6 step program. It is a lot easier to drop a bad habit than it is to pick up a good one. Take for instance my current project, meditating everyday, not going so well. I’ve done it one and a half times since I started it on January 15th. That isn’t very good. That is terrible! Why the difficulty? Well, the goal isn’t as simple as it sounds at first. Meditate, that’s easy enough, right? Nope, I don’t have a set time I wake up every morning, so there isn’t a set time for me to do meditation in the morning. There is a new goal right there! Before I can make meditating a habit I have to make getting up at the same time a each day a habit, this isn’t such a bad thing as I’m going into a new job that will require me to be at work the same time everyday (and it isn’t late in the afternoon 😛 ). I also live with other people who wake up at different times than me and have different schedules it can be difficult to meditate then. I’m not giving up and I’m not complaining! I just need to re-think this and come back at it again from a new angle, or perhaps set up a decent sleep schedule (Diana will be happy 😀 ). Just like I said in the original post the important thing is to not give up!
Habits you should have
