Checking In

My computer keeps giving me the blue screen of death. I am 98% certain it's iTunes-related, which makes it all the more ironic that I'm using my iPhone to write this.

I set some goals for myself exactly a month ago, and now that it's officially February, I'm taking my first peek over my shoulder at the last 31 days to see how everything's gone.

My own personal brand of logic dictates that if I can be disciplined enough to take one photo a day with my phone for a month, I just might be able to do other more significant tasks with a similar amount of regularity. Currently I have 31 pictures from January.

I've also put together a list of twelve non-fiction books I want to read this year (ideally at a rate of one per month), and I'm happy to report that I just finished the first one this past week.

I've put myself on a plan to work out hardcore Tue-Fri every week to get back in shape. The first couple weeks were torture, but I'm slowly getting there and have the photos to show it.

...but then there's that creed. The creed based on such a great idea. The creed that was to change who I was and how I lived this one life that has been given to me. It worked out great at first like all these silly things do, but a couple weeks in I started thinking that maybe I'd bitten off more than I could chew. It became extremely difficult and exhausting to live up to every facet of that freakin' creed every moment of every day.

But y'know what? You don't win a race by jogging. All the great thinkers of the world were also great doers. In one of the greatest movies of all time, a quitting athelete offers this explanation her coach: "It just got too hard," to which the coach replies,

"It's supposed to be hard. It's the hard that makes it great. If it was easy, everyone would do it."

You can't rise to a challenge that doesn't exist. If it's not
challenging, you're not growing from it. And this year is supposed to be about growth for me, so I say bring on the creed.

It's been a great month and, all things considered, I'm off to a great start. But I can top January and I fully intend to.

Oh, and here's my pic of the day:



Styrofoam cup + pen which I used as an engraving tool = reason #47 why I am a guitar teacher.

Stay tuned, folks
-R.