2013 Resolutions - Mind, Body, Spirit - Always Try

New Years Resolutions:

I have the general framework for my 2013 resolutions.  I am going to make 2013 a year of balance, where I focus on the three major aspects of life - mind, body, and spirit. I am going to make it a point, each day, for the next 365 days, to do something each day to enrich my mind, my body, and my soul.

There are a variety of ways I plan on doing this:

Mind - in terms of the mind, I want to alter the diet of information that flows into my mind. That is going to mean reading and writing more purposefully and more deeply. That is going to mean being more deliberate about the media I consume, how I consume it, when I consume it.  That is going to mean trying to engage my mind more by playing challenging games, doing challenging puzzles, and staying focused on them.

Body - in terms of the body, I want to be more conscious of my diet and more purposeful in exercising, but at the same time, be gentler with myself as well - make sure I am getting enough sleep, make sure I am getting enough quiet time, make sure I am getting enough relaxation.  It is going to mean eating more purposefully as well - both in content and quantity.

Spirit - it terms of the spirit, I am going to spend a little bit of time each day in meditation, and dedicate a little portion of each day to prayer.  I am going to incorporate spirit in more of my daily considerations and activities, and simply try to move through the world with a more spiritual focus.

All of these can and will be intermingled - some of them go very naturally together.  For example, I may focus more on Tai Chi practices, since that is an excellent mingled of all three.  I can learn more (mind) about spiritual subjects (spirit).  There is a lot of opportunity for cross pollination in these three areas.

I think what it comes down to in the new year is the more deliberate pursuit of balance in my life, all across the board.  It will be challenging of course, because there are always outside pressures that are trying to push us off balance and sometimes they can be almost overwhelming - but the art of life lies in the trying.  We accept that we will not always succeed.  We simply focus on always trying.  I kind of like that as the mantra for the coming year.  "Always Try".

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Also, since one of the things I truly love doing is watching movies, I am going to keep a yearly count of all the movies I watch from beginning to end, to look back at the end of the year at what I watched and when.  I've already started the year by watching two movies that I enjoyed - one new and one slightly older.  I went out today with Tony and Tyrone and we saw "Les Miserables".  It was an enjoyable depiction of the play and within it the performance by Samantha Barks stood out.  Then, I came home and as I moved through the afternoon I watched the very excellent Prometheus. A good start to the year, movie wise.

Movie #1: Les Miserables & Movie #2 Prometheus

2012 New Years Resolutions

After contemplation and discussion, I've finalized my 2012 New Years Resolutions - and here they are, short, simple, and sweet:

1. Be Deliberate.
2. Read. Read. Read.
3. Write a Novel.
4. Ride the Bicycle.

After a discussion with T.R. I dropped two of them off - I dropped being present and I dropped continuing on my journey of simplification.  I dropped being present because, all in all, it is contained within being deliberate.  I dropped continue on my journey of simplification because I didn't really need to make that a resolution - that is a journey, a set of choices, a lifestyle decision that I am continuing on whether or not I have a resolution, so no resolution is necessary.

So, whoever you are, wherever you are, I hope you have a year of love, compassion, and joy ahead of you.

Happy New Year

2012 New Years Resolutions

Okay, this are my 2012 New Year's Resolutions. In general, I like to keep my resolutions down to a handful of things, so I can keep them in front of me more easily. I find that if you have too many resolutions, you can rapidly lose track of them and they essentially become meaningless. These are not in any order or priority and I may adjust them in the next couple of days.

1. Simplify.

2. Be Present.

3. Be Deliberate.

4. Write A Novel.

5. Read. Read. Read.

6. Ride the Bicycle.

Now, let me expand on them a little bit.

1. Simplify

For the last two years I've been on a journey of simplification. I have been shedding possessions because I find that, the fewer things I have, the clearer I become. I definitely intend to continue on my journey down this path. I am not sure where it ends, but I am sure it is a journey that I want to continue. Specifically, I intend on simplifying in terms of continuing to shed physical things and attempt to simplify the internal things as well.

2. Be Present

I spent a good portion of 2011 in battle with the Monkey-Mind. All too often, the Monkey-Mind won and pulled me out of the moment - I lost the present to the future or the past. I am hoping that I will be able to win that battle more often than not in the coming year.

3. Be Deliberate

I very much want to make 2012 a deliberate year. I felt in 2011 that I was buffeted a lot by things going on around me, and that I made my own decisions that contributed to that sense of being buffeted. One of the ways that I see of getting past that challenge in the coming year is to simply be more deliberate - to do things with contemplation and intention.

4. Write A Novel

Pretty simple. Pretty straight-forward. I am going to write a novel.

5. Read. Read. Read.

I definitely intend on spending more time reading in the coming year. I love to read and I have the sense that I did not get enough reading time in 2011. So, 2012 is going to be the year of reading, reading and then some more reading.

6. Ride the Bicycle.

I have a perfectly good exercise bike that I ride regularly, but I do not ride it often or far enough. I am going to focus on riding the bicycle - more often and farther, over the coming year. It's an excellent source of both exercise and stress relief and I need to do it again and again and again.

Semi-Random Thoughts on 2012

- I want to make it a deliberate year, a year where I carefully consider and do the things I want to do.

-i want to make it a focused year, where rather than scatter my energies across a variety of things I pull in a tight focus on a few things that I can have a significant impact against.

-i want to make it a year of actively embracing change and new, different, and interesting things.

-I want to make it a year of slow and steady transformation.

-At the core of it I want to read more, write more, and ride my bike more.

-i want to continue on my journey of simplification, giving away half my remaining stuff and not accumulating any new stuff.
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End of the Year Thoughts

I am sliding toward the end of the year here and I am starting to have end of the year thoughts. At this time I like to do sort of an internal review and summary of the incidents and accidents of the year before. I look back at the things that influenced me, at how they influenced me, and at any lasting impacts they might have had.

Its not a season of answers. It's more of a season of questions, a season of observations. Those questions and observations will be mixed together, sorted through, picked over and will eventually combine and take form as my resolutions for the New Year. I think they've already got their rough forms shaped out, but their finished forms remain to be polished.

I am looking forward to the New Year with a certain level of optimism, a greater level of optimism. Inside, I feel as if I am in a good place. I am looking forward to the New Year and what it is going to bring. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think I am going to try and make it a more deliberate year and a more focused year. With those two attributes as the twin pillars of a temporal and secular faith, I am going to focus on Cathedral building. I am going to direct thoughts and activities toward creating some grand.

Of course it is all deliciously vague at this point, but that part of the fun of it, part of the joy of it. There is where that sense of optimism is rising from. A sort of gleeful desire to create in the coming year. A sort of tantalizing sense of an impending and anticipated journey. That feeling of excitement when you're about to embark on a trip that you've been anticipating for quite a while.

It's a great feeling. It's a good way to end the year. It's a good way to start a New Year.
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New Years Resolutions

Theme:

"Go, Do".

Focus:

Relationships, Poetry, Music, Exploration, Exercise, Movies and Reading

What I am going to try to do this year is spend time doing those things that bring value and quality into my life. When faced with the question of "what should I do", than the default answer is going to be "Go, Do". What I am going to "Go, Do" is going to fall into one of the focus areas.

Happy New Year to anyone who happens to read this. I hope that you have a wonderful year unfold for you.

I Contemplate New Year's Resolutions

I’ve been contemplating my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions. Last night T.R. and I were talking about them, in a general sense, and that conversation has been slowly spinning around inside of my mind, as such conversations tend to do.

At work we have some basic motivational tools – we use Mission Statements and Value Statements and Imperatives (and half a dozen other named things) to keep resolutions foremost in our thoughts. Like the New Year’s Resolution process it meets with greater or lesser degrees of success, depending on the perceived value and the ability to translate such general statements into specific actions.

I think the same challenge is present with any sort of New Year’s Resolution – it must be broad enough to allow for flexibility (given our general inability to predict the future) and yet at the same time specific enough to be useable. I had a pretty good resolution last year – Walk Simply (Write, Act, Learn, and Keep Healthy) and do it all simply. I was more successful than not, through I would have liked to have done all of them more, it was a good motivational set of resolutions that stayed with me through the year.

I would like to have something similar for 2011. My thoughts are running along a bit more complex of a resolution. First, at the high level, I would like to have a general reminder/directive to help me make decisions, especially when I am trying to decide which course of action to take. I am learning toward making 2011 the year of “Go, Do” as a general motivational directive.

I am also thinking about nestling underneath it a set of smaller, more focused objectives. One of the things I’ve been wrestling around with in a “general direction of life” sort of way has been the nature the life we live. I’ve spent a good portion of the year in an observation mode, watching the world around me, watching myself – my actions and reactions, my joys and sorrows, my interests and disinterests. I’ve been powerfully influenced by the overall trend toward simplicity, a journey which I plan to continue.

In general terms, we can divide our lives into “time spent doing things we have to do” and “the things we want to do”. Nestled between the two is “time between”. It seems to me that th e greater joy I have in this life arises, as I would expect it to, from the balance of “things I have to do” and “things I want to do”. As long as the balance is healthy and leans toward “the things I want to do” my happiness increases, my content rises.

There are a couple of factors that influence that balance.

First, there is the “time between”. We spend a significant amount of time between things. Finishing one, waiting to begin the next. That is a significant pool of time that we can tip toward “the things I want to do” – for example, we can fill it with socializing, writing, reading, music, game playing, walking, conscious observation, meditation – whatever it is we value, we can slip a lot of that into the time between. Having o bserved myself for the last year carefully, I really have a lot of space spent “between” – sometimes somewhere up above two hours a day – that is a lot of time. That is hundreds of hours a year. That is an enormous amount of unused potential.

Second, there is “half time”. Half-time is that region of our lives where we are doing one thing (or experiencing one thing) but thinking of something else, or perhaps even doing something else that detracts from the value of the time spent – it is time when you are only half-way there.

So, in terms of a New Year’s Resolution, I would like to capture a couple of things – first, using the “Go, Do” mantra, I would simply like to recapture a portion of the time between, and second, I would like to convert a portion of “half-time” to full time by working on focusing on the thing I am doing in that moment and not thinking about things I am not doing in that moment. That is what the “Go, Do” mantra is aimed squarely at.

So, the other areas where I was thinking about New Year’s Resolutions is a simply question – what is it I enjoy doing? When I “Go, Do” what am I going to “Go, Do”. I jotted down a handful of ideas of the other day, just the general areas I would like to focus more time in.

Relationships – quality time nurturing my relationships.

Poetry – both reading and writing.

Music – both listening and playing.

Exploration – both internal and external.

Exercise – both incidental and focused (as in a class or classes).

Movies – especially quality films.

Reading – good, quality reading, either fiction or non-fiction.

All in all, that is a pretty broad sweep for a New Year’s Resolution, so I may elect to narrow it down, or lay a theme into it or under it or around it. But it is a good start. The process of writing thing ent ry has allowed me to contemplate it even more and I can see the gems of the Resolutions of 2011 starting to shine.

The Sun Breaks Free

The sun found it's way to freedom following our first winter storm of the year, which happened to be right on schedule with the first day of winter. After seven straight days of gray and rain it was nice to see the sun, nice to feel it on my skin, nice to walk underneath it. I made it a point on the drive home to stop and take a walk through San Tomas Aquino River park and watch the rainfall runoff splashing down the river, then came home to a simple dinner of a ham and cheese sandwich and a salad.

We've reached the still point at work, that point during the Christmas season when virtually everyone is on vacation and so our workload slows to a mere crawl. I think I got three email today, all about the same subject. I had one meeting and missed another because I got a doctor's appointment time wrong - I had written it down right, I just got it tangled in my mind - fortunately the tangle was that I showed up an hour early, so I took advantage of the mistake to head over and have a nice sushi lunch.

I am looking forward to a very quiet and very soft Christmas this year. With input from my beloved T.R. I've decorated my tree very simply this year, indeed, I've keep all my decorations to a minimum. I've got a string of lights on the patio. I've got the tree up with a single ornament (a Hallmark Eastern Bluebird). I've got a simple wreath on the front door. That is it, and it is also all I need or want this year. This is a very minimalist Christmas, with an remembrance of what the season is about, the birth of Christ, our savior.

I am starting to turn my mind toward my New Year's resolutions for 2011. I haven't carved anything in stone yet, but I have some ideas circulating inside my imagination. I managed to keep 2010 a simply year, focused on healing. Besides recovering from the amputation of my toe last November, a long and slow process, I also had the second toe surgery, to correct the hammer toe that developed on the same foot, so I spent my share of time limping and healing this year.

I also focused on other forms of healing, starting (and maintaining) counseling sessions for work stress, which were probably long overdue. The sessions have been very fruitful and I feel like I have most of my work stress under control. It's no longer a 500 pound gorilla knocking the crap out of me, but rather a handful of imaginary monkeys picking at things. Oh, every now and then something will happen that sets me off, but the recovery time from the stressful incident is far quicker. I don't dwell on it - I recognize it for what it is and am able to deal with it far more effectively than I could just a few months ago. I've still got a ways to go, but I am headed in the right direction and most importantly I feel as if I have the tools to continue on the path of healing and on a "return to the center", so to speak.

I am looking forward to the New Year and I think whatever my resolutions may be, one of the key components if a more focused internal journey and a more expansive external journey. One of the things I've been contemplating on the internal side of that journey is to focus and dedicate the year to poetry. I was discussing with T.R. and one of the things I thought about was spending the entire year with Frank O'Hara (one of the great American poets - if you are unfamiliar with his work run, don't walk, to the nearest book store and buy or order one of his works, or the complete and unabridged volume, which I have).

2010 - Simple Resolutions for A Simple Year

2010 started very simply and gracefully for me – a long weekend in the company of friends, but in person and virtually. I ended the old year and started the new in the company of my dearest T.R. and I cannot think of any other way I would have liked for it to end and begin.

I am keeping my New Year’s Resolutions simple this year, complete with a simple acronym to remind me of them – WALK Simply.

-Write
-Act
-Learn
-Keep Healthy

-Simply get the full worth of each day.

I am consciously making the choice this year to keep things simple.

One Notch Back

One of my New Years Resolutions has been to try and take things one notch back.  What I mean by that is to try and slow down a little, try not to be multi-tasking all the time, try not spent too much of this moment in the next moment.  So far, I have been fairly successful at it.

I had a solidly good day at work today - it was busy, in and out of different meetings, dealing with customer issues, the usual stuff of the working world - but it was the good kind of busy the kind where the day passes quickly and when it closes you feel like you accomplished something.  That is always a good feeling - feeling each moment pass fully.

I got home tonight and had a simple dinner, then watched a little TV (the new show "The Beast" with Patrick Swayze), did dishes, and am now waiting for Fringe to start.  If you are not watching Fringe, I recommend it.  It is an excellent show.  As I wait, I thought I would drop online and make a journal entry.

I don't think I had any particular insights today other then to recognize, internally, the value of my approach of one notch back.

If - Rudyard Kipling

It is a very quiet day at work here today so I have turned my minds eye toward planning and thinking about the year to come. I've been working on my New Year's Resolutions and have been contemplating various thematic inspirations. Sometimes, rather than invent the wheel every time, we can turn to the inspiration of people who were far wiser and far more eloquent then we are. Which brought me in turn to "If" by Rudyard Kipling. I thought I would share it here if you are unfamiliar with the poem, or even if you are, it is a singularly powerful personal mission statement.

If
Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Resolving Resolutions

2008 is drawing to a close. I am a "New Years Resolution" type of person, so I tend to take some time at the end of each year and the beginning of the next to review my resolutions from last year and make some resolutions for the new year. These are my resolutions from 2008. I tend to look at them and see what worked (successful) and what didn't work (unsuccessful). In between the resolutions I consider successful and unsuccessful are the ones that are either ambivalent (a little bit of both) or irrelevant (overcome by events).

2008 RESOLUTIONS

1. Do something personally productive within my environment the equivalent of every day, and record those actions, so that I can see the activity going on.

I would rate this one as success. I was not able to do something personally productive every day - life and "The Project That Almost Broke Me" intervened and it was a brutally stressful year at various times - but, I consider it a success because I was able to maintain daily logs (of both work and personal items) through the year and both the process of keeping the logs and reviewing them were very insightful. So, though I did not success in the literal sense, the intention was highly successful.

2. Stay in touch with old friends. Create and maintain a communications/contact log.

I would rate this one as successful - the purpose of it was to not let my personal contacts fall into disarray because I was otherwise occupied and in that, I think it was a successful resolution.

3. Use mass transit the equivalent of once every ten working days. Resulting in a reduction of my commute foodprint by 10%.

Also successful. Between mass transit and virtual working I was able to meet and exceed this goal.

4. Take 52 day trips to different places in order to explore and expand my environment.

Not successful. I only managed to get out and about exploring about half the amount of time I wanted to. The intention of this resolution was to just enjoy the small paradise that I live in - I was able to enjoy it, but not as much as I would have liked to. On far too many weekends I was simply burnt out.

5. Aggressively support a specific charity through the year, one that engages you.

This one was not successful. I did more charitable support work in 2008 than in 2007, but it was not as focused as I would have liked. I may carry this one into next year.

6. Spend time each day in prayer and meditation.

Unsuccessful here as well. I lost a lot of focus during the year to stress (I would not hesitate to say 2008 was the most stressful year I have had in a decade or more - there were times when the work or personal life was more intense, but not more stressful.) One of the drawbacks of that level of stress was a loss of focus.

7. Engage in creative writing at a pace of approximately 1 page per day.

Unsuccessful - though I did manage to write far more than I had the previous year and I liked the quality of writing, it lacked the discipline and their were long periods of time when my inner voice was silent or muddled.

8. Learn 12 New Things

Unsuccessful as well. There was learning in the previous year, but too much of it was in the form of negative lessons - learning things the hard way - learning things to NOT do in the future. It counts as learning, but it missed the purpose and intent of the resolution.

9. Engage in some nest building activity every week, for 52 nest building things, and log those things so that you can track them.

Unsuccessful as well, but I definitely intend on carrying this one into the near year. At its root what I want to do is pay more attention in crafting the small portion of the world that I live within.

10. Journal on a daily basis.

Successful. That alone makes me consider the whole exercise a success. I did a very good job this year of observing and self awareness, which means I am entering 2009 feeling - good, feeling strong, feeling so very fortunate.