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Personal Goals for This Week (2/13)
Feb. 13th, 2012 01:10 pm
It's been a little while since I've written here, and there are a bunch of reasons for that. The biggest is that I've set up a new WordPress blog where I'll be writing a lot about...well, writing. Telling stories in all kinds of forms is a really fascinating process, and I want to explore it a little more. I'd also like to take a step back to look at the impact stories have on our lives -- we tell stories to each other all the time, and a lot of the time we never even realize it.
What do news stories about celebrities say about us? Why do we pay more attention to a politician's personal scandals than their actual policies? What do the types of stories that suddenly get big in popular culture say about us as a people? I think there's knowledge to be gained by paying attention to these things. I'd also like to talk a bit about my own storytelling process, as well as have a centralized location to hold all of my web presences together. If you're interested in checking out what little I have there so far, feel free to go to http://www.jakebe.com.
As time goes on, I'll probably be cross-posting a lot of the Wordpress blog stuff here, but I'd like to keep this open as a more personal blog of sorts. Stuff that doesn't fit within the scope of the jakebe.com blog will go here -- you know, what's up in my personal life, exercise and such, that sort of thing. It's taken me a little bit of time for things to shake out that way and figure out which parts of the web I'd like to keep and what I'd like to abandon. As much as people use Facebook and what not, I really just can't get behind it. I play Jeopardy! and Bejeweled Blitz through it and that's about it. Google Plus has been abandoned as well, even though there's no particular reason for that either.
Anyway, personally things are going pretty well! Work has been brisk and I've been gaining more and more responsibility there. It's keeping me busy, but it feels really good to be a fairly big piece of a company's process. I like where I am. I've been trying to pick up a multitude of habits -- and admittedly I've been failing with quite a few of them. I'm hoping putting up a modest list of goals this week might provide the kick in the pants necessary to stick to a few of them. I know, I know, I've tried this before and all of a sudden I fall silent and re-appear months later with a re-start. Hopefully, this will be the time that sticks. (I know I've said this before, too.)
+ Meditate every day. I've talked about the benefits of meditation before, and it obviously helps me to keep my brain in order. So why am I not doing it more often? Because there are too many days where I'd rather spend another ten minutes sleeping in or mindlessly checking email or FA. Then I start the day off on the wrong foot, feeling guilty before I even get to work because I haven't used my time productively. This creates a ripple effect that carries through the rest of the day. At this point, it comes down to a choice: do I want to set myself up for success or failure today? It's a bit extreme, but that's what I'll have to do to stick to my meditation regiment.
+ Write every day. This is another thing that I'll need to take a hard line against. If I'm going to consider myself a writer, I need to write every day. Period. And that writing needs to be with the intention of showing to an audience. So, that includes blog entries, a Pathfinder page for the game I'm running, interactive short stories and "real" stories that have the intention of being published online or in print. I'll start with a 500-word minimum this week.
+ Run at least five miles this week. The Bay to Breakers 12K is coming up in a rather short period of time, and if I want to have a hope of keeping up with my blisteringly fast friends I'm going to need to start training NOW. I'd like to get into the habit of running with a 'barefoot' stride, as evidence seems to point to this being better for preventing injuries and the like. Running five miles this week guarantees two or three nights of work, which should work well for starting me on the path of getting in better shape.
+ Set aside at least three hours for reading this week. I used to be a passionate bookworm, but I'm ashamed to say that my reading habits have degraded so far over time they're practically non-existent. I have a stack of books, short stories and comics I keep meaning to get to but blow off for other things. If I'm going to be a writer, I'm going to have to immerse myself more in the work of other writers, and that means reading. Much to the chagrin of my husband, I'm going to say comic books count here as well -- it's not quite Robin Hobb, but it's a form of storytelling that I identify with and there are lessons to be learned there as well.
+ Eat my own food more often. Eating out is hellaciously expensive. Not only that, but most restaurants hate you and want you to be fat. It's true! Take a look at the nutrition information for most of your favorite haunts; that's the only way I can justify a restaurant stuffing 1100 calories into a freaking chicken sandwich.
So there you go -- that's what I hope to get done this week. If I don't make a follow-up post discussion how I did, someone please call me on it! Also, go visit http://www.jakebe.com for blog posts and the like.
What do news stories about celebrities say about us? Why do we pay more attention to a politician's personal scandals than their actual policies? What do the types of stories that suddenly get big in popular culture say about us as a people? I think there's knowledge to be gained by paying attention to these things. I'd also like to talk a bit about my own storytelling process, as well as have a centralized location to hold all of my web presences together. If you're interested in checking out what little I have there so far, feel free to go to http://www.jakebe.com.
As time goes on, I'll probably be cross-posting a lot of the Wordpress blog stuff here, but I'd like to keep this open as a more personal blog of sorts. Stuff that doesn't fit within the scope of the jakebe.com blog will go here -- you know, what's up in my personal life, exercise and such, that sort of thing. It's taken me a little bit of time for things to shake out that way and figure out which parts of the web I'd like to keep and what I'd like to abandon. As much as people use Facebook and what not, I really just can't get behind it. I play Jeopardy! and Bejeweled Blitz through it and that's about it. Google Plus has been abandoned as well, even though there's no particular reason for that either.
Anyway, personally things are going pretty well! Work has been brisk and I've been gaining more and more responsibility there. It's keeping me busy, but it feels really good to be a fairly big piece of a company's process. I like where I am. I've been trying to pick up a multitude of habits -- and admittedly I've been failing with quite a few of them. I'm hoping putting up a modest list of goals this week might provide the kick in the pants necessary to stick to a few of them. I know, I know, I've tried this before and all of a sudden I fall silent and re-appear months later with a re-start. Hopefully, this will be the time that sticks. (I know I've said this before, too.)
+ Meditate every day. I've talked about the benefits of meditation before, and it obviously helps me to keep my brain in order. So why am I not doing it more often? Because there are too many days where I'd rather spend another ten minutes sleeping in or mindlessly checking email or FA. Then I start the day off on the wrong foot, feeling guilty before I even get to work because I haven't used my time productively. This creates a ripple effect that carries through the rest of the day. At this point, it comes down to a choice: do I want to set myself up for success or failure today? It's a bit extreme, but that's what I'll have to do to stick to my meditation regiment.
+ Write every day. This is another thing that I'll need to take a hard line against. If I'm going to consider myself a writer, I need to write every day. Period. And that writing needs to be with the intention of showing to an audience. So, that includes blog entries, a Pathfinder page for the game I'm running, interactive short stories and "real" stories that have the intention of being published online or in print. I'll start with a 500-word minimum this week.
+ Run at least five miles this week. The Bay to Breakers 12K is coming up in a rather short period of time, and if I want to have a hope of keeping up with my blisteringly fast friends I'm going to need to start training NOW. I'd like to get into the habit of running with a 'barefoot' stride, as evidence seems to point to this being better for preventing injuries and the like. Running five miles this week guarantees two or three nights of work, which should work well for starting me on the path of getting in better shape.
+ Set aside at least three hours for reading this week. I used to be a passionate bookworm, but I'm ashamed to say that my reading habits have degraded so far over time they're practically non-existent. I have a stack of books, short stories and comics I keep meaning to get to but blow off for other things. If I'm going to be a writer, I'm going to have to immerse myself more in the work of other writers, and that means reading. Much to the chagrin of my husband, I'm going to say comic books count here as well -- it's not quite Robin Hobb, but it's a form of storytelling that I identify with and there are lessons to be learned there as well.
+ Eat my own food more often. Eating out is hellaciously expensive. Not only that, but most restaurants hate you and want you to be fat. It's true! Take a look at the nutrition information for most of your favorite haunts; that's the only way I can justify a restaurant stuffing 1100 calories into a freaking chicken sandwich.
So there you go -- that's what I hope to get done this week. If I don't make a follow-up post discussion how I did, someone please call me on it! Also, go visit http://www.jakebe.com for blog posts and the like.
