So I managed to do the initial tests for situps and pushups. This morning I rolled out my lovely lavender yoga mat (I'm still a beginner, but I needed something so I didn't get kitty litter from the floor on me when I started last year. plus I love purple...) and started with the sitting up.
In the initial test, I did 25 situps. Apparently that's not too bad considering when the last time I did an actual situp was (Freshman year in gym class if you must know). That puts me in Column 3 as far as the workout schedule is concerned. Not sure whether I'm going to go for the Column 3 workout or scale it back to the Column 2 one, which is easier. I guess I might as well go for Column 3 though since the whole idea is to push myself.
Pushups on the other hand is another story. Apparently, I am quite incapable of performing even one good form pushup. I threw shot put in high school and I can barely do a pushup. This is so so very sad and pathetic. I can raise my weight off the ground, but the whole lowering it thing kind of gets me. It's something about the way your arms are supposed to support you. Mine just don't. I guess the bright side is that at least I now know that my arm muscles are useless. Also, there's enough time between now and my birthday that I can do the 6 week workout plan twice.
That's right. By my birthday I'll be able to do 100 pushups and 200 situps without even thinking about it. And that still leaves time before the summer starts. Happy Bathing Suit Season to me!!!
January 30, 2010
January 28, 2010
Exercise Prep
Next week's habit is to exercise every day. I figure if I put exercising as one of the earlier habits, by the time we get to the end of the year I'll be closing in on my goal of getting in shape enough to be a high school athlete. I do have to admit though, that it is kind of sad that most of my preparation for working out was done sitting in front of a computer. I have a plan for working my way up to 100 pushups and another for working my way up to 200 situps and even an 8 week guide to building up to a 2 mile run. Unfortunately, I have no running shoes. Pathetic. I know.
The really sad part about this is that I know I should go out and buy a pair of running shoes since I know I'll be using them all year, but I really don't want to. See, I've never actually bought a pair of sneakers with the intent of running in them right away. That's right, I have never ever had a specific pair of running shoes. In all of my years of going to camp and playing sports I've always just gotten a new pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year. Then, the next year, when they were all broken in, they became my gym shoes. It's been that way as long as I can remember. And never did a pair of shoes actually last for more than the two years. At the end of the school year they were usually all but destroyed.
Maybe it says something that I actually wore running shoes all the time and now I don't. Possibly something about my sense of style. Although I'm still not convinced I ever actually had a concrete style per se. I might have to think about that when I get around to cleaning out the closet. In any case, it definitely says something about my current athletic ability versus that of when I was in high school. In short it used to exist, and now it doesn't. And today is the day we change all of that. I've been looking online at a few different types of running shoes. Since I'm going to do my initial test for the one hundred pushups and two hundred situps tomorrow, I think I'm going to use my shopping day on Saturday to go pick out some nice new shoes. Possibly one of these.
Adidas Response Stability
Nike Zoom Structure Triax +12
The really sad part about this is that I know I should go out and buy a pair of running shoes since I know I'll be using them all year, but I really don't want to. See, I've never actually bought a pair of sneakers with the intent of running in them right away. That's right, I have never ever had a specific pair of running shoes. In all of my years of going to camp and playing sports I've always just gotten a new pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year. Then, the next year, when they were all broken in, they became my gym shoes. It's been that way as long as I can remember. And never did a pair of shoes actually last for more than the two years. At the end of the school year they were usually all but destroyed.
Maybe it says something that I actually wore running shoes all the time and now I don't. Possibly something about my sense of style. Although I'm still not convinced I ever actually had a concrete style per se. I might have to think about that when I get around to cleaning out the closet. In any case, it definitely says something about my current athletic ability versus that of when I was in high school. In short it used to exist, and now it doesn't. And today is the day we change all of that. I've been looking online at a few different types of running shoes. Since I'm going to do my initial test for the one hundred pushups and two hundred situps tomorrow, I think I'm going to use my shopping day on Saturday to go pick out some nice new shoes. Possibly one of these.
Adidas Response Stability
Nike Zoom Structure Triax +12
January 27, 2010
The First Ten Things (Part V)
9. Read The Whole Bible - I know this seems like a really weird goal, but it's not. I grew up in church. My grandfather was a preacher, my uncle is a preacher, my dad is a preacher, it happens. So since there's all this lovely churchiness running through my blood. And since I happen to actually like all of the churchiness, I've decided to do what most people never do. Read the WHOLE Bible. It's on the favorite book list of half of Facebook, but most people have never actually read the whole thing. The way I figure it, if I can get that much out of someone else summarizing it on Sunday morning, I should be able to get a lot more by reading it for myself.
While I'm pretty positive that I'm not going to understand all of it the first time, my goal is to just make it seem less like some ridiculously foreign language that nobody can read without 60 years of studying. The best part is that there already a program online about how to break it down and read it in 90 DAYS. 3 Months isn't that long, and really that works out to a couple of pages a day. So this should fit in fine since I already read a heck of a lot every night.
10. Move To A New City - Although I have to admit, I do like being able to look out the window and see grass and trees, I don't think I'm really cut out for the suburbs. At least not right now. Maybe when I get old and have kids or something. But for now, my heart is in the city. So my plan is to figure out how to move there. I'm sure this will be the last of the goals to even get started. Mainly because it depends on me actually having an income. Which I currently do not. Hopefully I can pull this off before the end of the year though. A year in suburbia would probably be all that I could take.
While I'm pretty positive that I'm not going to understand all of it the first time, my goal is to just make it seem less like some ridiculously foreign language that nobody can read without 60 years of studying. The best part is that there already a program online about how to break it down and read it in 90 DAYS. 3 Months isn't that long, and really that works out to a couple of pages a day. So this should fit in fine since I already read a heck of a lot every night.
10. Move To A New City - Although I have to admit, I do like being able to look out the window and see grass and trees, I don't think I'm really cut out for the suburbs. At least not right now. Maybe when I get old and have kids or something. But for now, my heart is in the city. So my plan is to figure out how to move there. I'm sure this will be the last of the goals to even get started. Mainly because it depends on me actually having an income. Which I currently do not. Hopefully I can pull this off before the end of the year though. A year in suburbia would probably be all that I could take.
January 26, 2010
The First Ten Things (Part IV)
7. Keep In Contact With Friends and Family - When you're little, keeping in touch with your friends is never really that hard. For the most part they either live right next door or just down the street and go to the same school. When you get older, things start to change. It seems like all of a sudden none of your old friends are in the same area and getting "the gang" together to watch a movie on Friday really isn't going to happen. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've recently moved back home, but most of my friends from high school aren't even in the area anymore. Add that to the fact that a decent number of my college friends still live in the area around the campus and I'm put a decent ways away from most of the people who I refer to as friends.
I don't think that distance should be a good reason not to talk to people though. Especially not in the age of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. This idea was further reinforced after reading a post over at Marc and Angel Hack Life entitled Real Friends Never Grow Apart. If two ladies born in the late 30s can find each other and still be friends after 52 years and multiple relocations in the age before the internet, then I see no reason why I can't keep in contact with the people I care about. Maybe I'll start a Birthday Calendar and send cards. Or at least let people know about my blog.
8. Start 52 Good Habits - This one should pretty much get accomplished in my quest to get through the other nine goal like objects on the list. Especially since Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits has pointed out in his book and blog that one the best way to accomplish a longer term goal is to break it down into habits that you do on a consistent basis. At least I think that was the point he was trying to make. In any case, the main idea is that if you want to save money, reviewing your finances weekly would help. If you want to run a marathon, daily running and exercise would help. So I want to take the year and establish 52 good habits. I know that most people say that it takes 31 days to start and reinforce a habit, but I think I'm going to count each action as it's own habit. So my morning routine would get broken down, making sure I do each step, instead of added to the list completely as one habit. I'm not exactly sure I'll be able to come up with 52 things that I don't do at all, so some of the things on my list will be things that I already do but want to make sure I don't forget.
I don't think that distance should be a good reason not to talk to people though. Especially not in the age of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. This idea was further reinforced after reading a post over at Marc and Angel Hack Life entitled Real Friends Never Grow Apart. If two ladies born in the late 30s can find each other and still be friends after 52 years and multiple relocations in the age before the internet, then I see no reason why I can't keep in contact with the people I care about. Maybe I'll start a Birthday Calendar and send cards. Or at least let people know about my blog.
8. Start 52 Good Habits - This one should pretty much get accomplished in my quest to get through the other nine goal like objects on the list. Especially since Leo Babauta over at Zen Habits has pointed out in his book and blog that one the best way to accomplish a longer term goal is to break it down into habits that you do on a consistent basis. At least I think that was the point he was trying to make. In any case, the main idea is that if you want to save money, reviewing your finances weekly would help. If you want to run a marathon, daily running and exercise would help. So I want to take the year and establish 52 good habits. I know that most people say that it takes 31 days to start and reinforce a habit, but I think I'm going to count each action as it's own habit. So my morning routine would get broken down, making sure I do each step, instead of added to the list completely as one habit. I'm not exactly sure I'll be able to come up with 52 things that I don't do at all, so some of the things on my list will be things that I already do but want to make sure I don't forget.
The First Ten Things (Part III)
5. Start an Exercise Program/Routine - So I used to be in shape. Between middle school and high school I was on the field hockey team, on the track team, and in marching band (yes this counts as a physical activity. you try running from the 20 to the 20 in what is essentially 8 seconds with the top half of your body facing the sideline, your feet facing the endzone, playing an instrument that is half your height, all while trying not to run into anyone or get hit by a trombone slide).
Fast forward 4-5 years and I struggled to run up one of the highest hills in DC, or even the three flights of stairs to my department's floor on my way to class. I'm not saying that I hate my body or anything like that. I actually like the way I look. That might be the hard part of all of this. I pretty much want to build up some running stamina and basic muscle groups while keeping my body almost exactly the way it is now. So my plan is to work my way back to at least high school running standards (2 miles in under 20 minutes) and increase the number of pushups and situps I can do consecutively. That shouldn't be that hard to do seeing as there are very detailed plans to do 100 Pushups and 200 Situps on the internet already that look like they work and are also kind of doable.
6. Improve my cooking skills - I like food. And in order to keep up with an exercise routine, I'm going to need to eat better. To eat better and not go broke, I'm going to need to learn to cook better. Yeah, that makes sense. Plus, I love to entertain. And my friends love to eat. This sounds like incentive...
My mom once kicked me and one of my friends out of the kitchen for exploding a closed container of chocolate in the microwave while trying to make a sundae. We also got kicked out for exploding marshmallow peeps, heating a Christmas cookie over a candle, and a whole lot of other stuff. My cooking skills have since improved but I'm nowhere near cooking a 5 course meal on a Tuesday for just me. I think here the goal is just to be able to consistently cook about 20 things and maybe add in 2 really hard impressive things so I can pretend I know what I'm doing if I ever have super important company, like at the holidays. I think that's a good goal for someone who loved watching the original Iron Chef on The Food Network.
Fast forward 4-5 years and I struggled to run up one of the highest hills in DC, or even the three flights of stairs to my department's floor on my way to class. I'm not saying that I hate my body or anything like that. I actually like the way I look. That might be the hard part of all of this. I pretty much want to build up some running stamina and basic muscle groups while keeping my body almost exactly the way it is now. So my plan is to work my way back to at least high school running standards (2 miles in under 20 minutes) and increase the number of pushups and situps I can do consecutively. That shouldn't be that hard to do seeing as there are very detailed plans to do 100 Pushups and 200 Situps on the internet already that look like they work and are also kind of doable.
6. Improve my cooking skills - I like food. And in order to keep up with an exercise routine, I'm going to need to eat better. To eat better and not go broke, I'm going to need to learn to cook better. Yeah, that makes sense. Plus, I love to entertain. And my friends love to eat. This sounds like incentive...
My mom once kicked me and one of my friends out of the kitchen for exploding a closed container of chocolate in the microwave while trying to make a sundae. We also got kicked out for exploding marshmallow peeps, heating a Christmas cookie over a candle, and a whole lot of other stuff. My cooking skills have since improved but I'm nowhere near cooking a 5 course meal on a Tuesday for just me. I think here the goal is just to be able to consistently cook about 20 things and maybe add in 2 really hard impressive things so I can pretend I know what I'm doing if I ever have super important company, like at the holidays. I think that's a good goal for someone who loved watching the original Iron Chef on The Food Network.
The First Ten Things (Part II)
3. Get A Job - Currently, I live at home with my parents. I moved home after recently graduating in December. My GPA was half decent, but with the recent downfall of the automotive companies and my unwillingness to work for the people who print the money (The Department of Defense is always hiring, they make money for them to hire if there is none.) I am currently unemployed. Not cool. Not cool at all. Even if my parents let me live here for free forever, I wouldn't want to. Most of my friends left the area the day we graduated high school, if not then by the end of that summer. The few that are still in the area are either still in school, trying desperately to get out of the area, or have full-time jobs. I need to get out of here, but until I can afford to live somewhere else (And I only mean live. I'm a recent grad. I don't eat lobster for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don't really need cable or a land line. And most public libraries have internet if it really gets that bad...) I am stuck here. In the middle of nowhere. Instead of in the city. Where I truly belong.
4. Take Control of My Finances - Once I have a job, I don't want to waste all of my money on things that I don't really care about. For the most part I'll be following the advice of Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich on his blog and in his book. Spend on what you love, Save on what you don't care about. Essentially, I get to keep my coffee, tea, scented candles and pet but say goodbye to magazines I don't really read, soda that I don't really drink and high cable bills when I only watch 5 shows that I can also watch online. My goal is to have $1000 in my savings account by December 31. That shouldn't be too hard as long as I can get through goal #3...
As an added bonus, If I can reach my savings goal and manage to be able to have a concrete spending plan I think I'm going to start reading some of the books off of The Personal MBA Reading List. This list is 99 of the best personal finance, personal development, and general business knowledge books out there. Although maybe I'll give myself credit for this part anyway since Ramit's book is on the Personal MBA list this year.
4. Take Control of My Finances - Once I have a job, I don't want to waste all of my money on things that I don't really care about. For the most part I'll be following the advice of Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich on his blog and in his book. Spend on what you love, Save on what you don't care about. Essentially, I get to keep my coffee, tea, scented candles and pet but say goodbye to magazines I don't really read, soda that I don't really drink and high cable bills when I only watch 5 shows that I can also watch online. My goal is to have $1000 in my savings account by December 31. That shouldn't be too hard as long as I can get through goal #3...
As an added bonus, If I can reach my savings goal and manage to be able to have a concrete spending plan I think I'm going to start reading some of the books off of The Personal MBA Reading List. This list is 99 of the best personal finance, personal development, and general business knowledge books out there. Although maybe I'll give myself credit for this part anyway since Ramit's book is on the Personal MBA list this year.
January 25, 2010
The First Ten Things (Part I)
So in order to get started on my way to being a Renaissance Polymath I have decided to list the Top Ten Improvements I Can Make This Year. I tried to pick things that will have an effect on my habits and lifestyle not just random meaningless tasks to do (like cleaning out my sock drawer).
1. Get Organized - I've always been the type of person that wrote things down. I have countless notebooks from middle school and high school that are filled with random notes to myself. The biggest problem that I have though is that I always manage to have some sort of catastrophe in my life (at least the way I see it anyway...) that manages to get my productivity system to completely fall apart. Last year I read Getting Things Done by David Allen. It seems like a decent system to start with. I also managed to finally figure out just what I need to write down to be able to stay focused. So with my Christmas money (Thanks Fam!!!) I brought myself a nice new Franklin Covey planner to use this year. A good investment for me since I have used planners similar but not as structured for the past 10 years or so. My friend called one THE BOOK OF LIFE one year as she was convinced that without it my brain would melt and I would forget everything about my life.
The real goal here is to find some sort of a system for me to use so as not to lose all of the information and stuff that's important to me. Which leads me to #2.
2. Get Rid of 365 Things - I know. You're wondering how an unemployed, recent college grad, who lives in the same room they did when they were 6 can have 365 things to get rid of. You'd be surprised. I apparently have quite a few things to get rid of. When moving out of my apartment in December I found that my filing cabinet had bank statements from before I started college, my closet still had clothes in it that hadn't fit since freshman year, and I had way too many highlighters, post-it notes and refillable pencils. Keeping things that don't get used is a waste of space, filing papers I will never need again is a waste of time, and buying duplicates because I can't find the original is a waste of money. All things I complain about not having enough of already. And that doesn't even begin to cover the random stuff that managed to sit in my parents' house two hours away for 5 years.
I've been a fan of Erin Rooney Doland's work on the site Unclutterer for awhile now. And they've had some really great tips on how to get rid of things that are just lying around for no reason. Add that to the hate that I share with them for unitaskers and I think this just may be my go-to site for the next few months. Also, I'm kinda curious about Erin's book Unclutter Your Life In One Week. I think I may have too much going on right now to try to do it all in one week, but maybe it'll help if I hit a wall with getting rid of stuff. Or maybe I won't need it at all. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
The point here is that it'll be much easier to organize and care for the things I do have if they're all things I like, use and enjoy. That and I'll never again have to lug 3 crates of papers from one apartment to the other while wondering where they came from.
1. Get Organized - I've always been the type of person that wrote things down. I have countless notebooks from middle school and high school that are filled with random notes to myself. The biggest problem that I have though is that I always manage to have some sort of catastrophe in my life (at least the way I see it anyway...) that manages to get my productivity system to completely fall apart. Last year I read Getting Things Done by David Allen. It seems like a decent system to start with. I also managed to finally figure out just what I need to write down to be able to stay focused. So with my Christmas money (Thanks Fam!!!) I brought myself a nice new Franklin Covey planner to use this year. A good investment for me since I have used planners similar but not as structured for the past 10 years or so. My friend called one THE BOOK OF LIFE one year as she was convinced that without it my brain would melt and I would forget everything about my life.
The real goal here is to find some sort of a system for me to use so as not to lose all of the information and stuff that's important to me. Which leads me to #2.
2. Get Rid of 365 Things - I know. You're wondering how an unemployed, recent college grad, who lives in the same room they did when they were 6 can have 365 things to get rid of. You'd be surprised. I apparently have quite a few things to get rid of. When moving out of my apartment in December I found that my filing cabinet had bank statements from before I started college, my closet still had clothes in it that hadn't fit since freshman year, and I had way too many highlighters, post-it notes and refillable pencils. Keeping things that don't get used is a waste of space, filing papers I will never need again is a waste of time, and buying duplicates because I can't find the original is a waste of money. All things I complain about not having enough of already. And that doesn't even begin to cover the random stuff that managed to sit in my parents' house two hours away for 5 years.
I've been a fan of Erin Rooney Doland's work on the site Unclutterer for awhile now. And they've had some really great tips on how to get rid of things that are just lying around for no reason. Add that to the hate that I share with them for unitaskers and I think this just may be my go-to site for the next few months. Also, I'm kinda curious about Erin's book Unclutter Your Life In One Week. I think I may have too much going on right now to try to do it all in one week, but maybe it'll help if I hit a wall with getting rid of stuff. Or maybe I won't need it at all. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
The point here is that it'll be much easier to organize and care for the things I do have if they're all things I like, use and enjoy. That and I'll never again have to lug 3 crates of papers from one apartment to the other while wondering where they came from.
2010 Book List - January
There are quite a few self-help books out there. This year, I'm going to try to tackle a few of them to help myself whenever it seems like my latest 2010 goal progress could use an extra push. Since there are so many books and so little time, I'm going to try to pick what I think are some of the most useful and most interesting (if only to keep me sane during this whole process) books that are out there. My first book is more of a self-help parody than anything else. So here's what I know about it so far, and why I chose it. Be sure to look for an actual review after I'm done reading.
Helping Me Help Myself - By Beth Lisick
This seems to be as good a place as any for someone who is sick of the way things are and ready for change. It's not so much an actual self-helpy, you'll feel bad because we're so perfect and you're not book. Which I love. Instead it's pretty much Beth's journal as she takes a year to follow the advice of the country's major self-help gurus and improve her life. It doesn't sound like she takes the whole thing too seriously either. All in all, it should be a good read, and maybe give me a place to start once I seriously get into all of the self-helpy stuff later this year.
Helping Me Help Myself - By Beth Lisick
This seems to be as good a place as any for someone who is sick of the way things are and ready for change. It's not so much an actual self-helpy, you'll feel bad because we're so perfect and you're not book. Which I love. Instead it's pretty much Beth's journal as she takes a year to follow the advice of the country's major self-help gurus and improve her life. It doesn't sound like she takes the whole thing too seriously either. All in all, it should be a good read, and maybe give me a place to start once I seriously get into all of the self-helpy stuff later this year.
The Renaissance Polymath Defined
Now on to a bit more about the type of person that I want to become.
Ren⋅ais⋅sance
rɛnəˈsɑns
ren-uh-sahns
–noun
1. the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
2. the forms and treatments in art used during this period.
3. (sometimes lowercase) any similar revival in the world of art and learning.
4. (lowercase) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival: a moral renaissance.
pol⋅y⋅math
pɒliˌmæθ
pol-ee-math
–noun
a person of great learning in several fields of study; polyhistor.
List of Renaissance Men
List of Polymaths
Some of the greatest minds in history are on those two lists. I always wonder if that had something to do with the time period in which they all lived. It's interesting to me that now everyone always tells you to focus on one goal for your life. But what if these people were told the same thing? Maybe they were. Maybe they just ignored the advice, who knows. I guess that's something else to consider for a while.
Ren⋅ais⋅sance
rɛnəˈsɑns
ren-uh-sahns
–noun
1. the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
2. the forms and treatments in art used during this period.
3. (sometimes lowercase) any similar revival in the world of art and learning.
4. (lowercase) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival: a moral renaissance.
pol⋅y⋅math
pɒliˌmæθ
pol-ee-math
–noun
a person of great learning in several fields of study; polyhistor.
List of Renaissance Men
List of Polymaths
Some of the greatest minds in history are on those two lists. I always wonder if that had something to do with the time period in which they all lived. It's interesting to me that now everyone always tells you to focus on one goal for your life. But what if these people were told the same thing? Maybe they were. Maybe they just ignored the advice, who knows. I guess that's something else to consider for a while.
Welcome To The Wonderful World of Me
Happy Monday Cyberspace,
So I think I'm gonna give this blogging thing a try. It's sort of like writing a journal right? Only millions and millions of people can possibly read it. And yet, here I am. Writing my first blog. About improving myself.....
Most people have a problem with writing publicly about improving themselves. For one, it means that there is something wrong with you. Something horrible that you hate enough to complain about all the time. Why not just admit it. I know it. You know it. Your best friends and drinking buddies definitely know it. There's something about you that bothers you. Something that you really want to change, but don't know how or where to start. Well, there's something about me too. A lot of things actually. Like how I'm 23 and only started to spell a lot instead of alot because of the red line on my cell phone. The little red line that tells you you're an idiot and need to go back to grammar school and learn English all over again.
Unfortunately, that's not the only thing I don't like about my life and the world around me. So here I am. I suppose now would be as good a time as any to explain who I am and what I'm trying to do. So... Here goes nothing.
Awhile ago, I started reading blogs. College students tend to look for any and every way to avoid doing work or studying. I was no exception. I mean come on, who in their right mind looks forward to reading an engineering textbook. I don't even think you can really call it reading. My classes had too many syllables in the names, used books that contained over 500 pages with only 50 real sentences and were taught by teachers with foreign accents. In rooms that echoed. School was fun, but every once in awhile it got to just be annoying. And then I figured it out. It wasn't the classes, or the books or the teachers. It was me and how I approached learning. Too bad I didn't really figure that out until my second senior year. By then it was pretty much too late.
I had finally realized that I needed to approach learning differently. I have always liked learning, but apparently, at some point in time I had stopped learning what I wanted to learn. I attempted to learn things because others told me that the information would one day be useful or necessary. That just doesn't make sense. The real key is to live your life and decide each day if you can make it easier, better, or more productive by learning. Once I started thinking of education and information in terms of improving and making my life better, it all seemed to make more sense. So I started what I like to call "The Butterfly Project." (It seems like a nice enough name. "Project - Improve ME" sounded like some secret government operation or something. Or maybe I just have an over-active imagination and watch too much TV.)
Anyways... My goal is to improve my life one day at a time, by starting with who I am today and working my way to who I want to be. This project isn't about becoming perfect in any way, shape, or form. Instead, it's about my quest to find the information that will help me improve myself and the world around me.
So I think I'm gonna give this blogging thing a try. It's sort of like writing a journal right? Only millions and millions of people can possibly read it. And yet, here I am. Writing my first blog. About improving myself.....
Most people have a problem with writing publicly about improving themselves. For one, it means that there is something wrong with you. Something horrible that you hate enough to complain about all the time. Why not just admit it. I know it. You know it. Your best friends and drinking buddies definitely know it. There's something about you that bothers you. Something that you really want to change, but don't know how or where to start. Well, there's something about me too. A lot of things actually. Like how I'm 23 and only started to spell a lot instead of alot because of the red line on my cell phone. The little red line that tells you you're an idiot and need to go back to grammar school and learn English all over again.
Unfortunately, that's not the only thing I don't like about my life and the world around me. So here I am. I suppose now would be as good a time as any to explain who I am and what I'm trying to do. So... Here goes nothing.
Awhile ago, I started reading blogs. College students tend to look for any and every way to avoid doing work or studying. I was no exception. I mean come on, who in their right mind looks forward to reading an engineering textbook. I don't even think you can really call it reading. My classes had too many syllables in the names, used books that contained over 500 pages with only 50 real sentences and were taught by teachers with foreign accents. In rooms that echoed. School was fun, but every once in awhile it got to just be annoying. And then I figured it out. It wasn't the classes, or the books or the teachers. It was me and how I approached learning. Too bad I didn't really figure that out until my second senior year. By then it was pretty much too late.
I had finally realized that I needed to approach learning differently. I have always liked learning, but apparently, at some point in time I had stopped learning what I wanted to learn. I attempted to learn things because others told me that the information would one day be useful or necessary. That just doesn't make sense. The real key is to live your life and decide each day if you can make it easier, better, or more productive by learning. Once I started thinking of education and information in terms of improving and making my life better, it all seemed to make more sense. So I started what I like to call "The Butterfly Project." (It seems like a nice enough name. "Project - Improve ME" sounded like some secret government operation or something. Or maybe I just have an over-active imagination and watch too much TV.)
Anyways... My goal is to improve my life one day at a time, by starting with who I am today and working my way to who I want to be. This project isn't about becoming perfect in any way, shape, or form. Instead, it's about my quest to find the information that will help me improve myself and the world around me.
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