Developing Follow-Through

I have a lot of random things that I'd like to get better at doing regularly: guitar, drawing, comics, photography, learning Japanese, exercise/yoga, journaling, waking up early, reading the Bible/praying. I've noticed that I tend to cycle through the hobbies sporadically when the mood and desire strike me, but I don't really stick with one long enough to really improve much. I don't think there's anything wrong with having multiple interests; in fact I think it's fun and interesting! But I don't want to just keep cycling through and getting stuck in mediocrity.

Thinking about it, I have two problems to solve:

1. Creating time for these interests. I can do this by increasing my available time through waking up earlier; and decreasing time spent on non-productive activities like getting sucked into watching videos.
2. Developing follow-through and consistency, not just peaking and falling every time. I'm not sure how I can sustain the interest. Possibly creating focus points for each week/month and trying to stick to a general plan?

I have a few days off this week from work, and I'd like to try to reset my clock and see if I can start making some good habits in pursuing these interests.

Ideal Schedule

0700 - out of bed, prayer
0745 - leave for work

1830 - get home, dinner/event
2100 - gym / freelance / etc
2230 - get ready for bed, prayer
2300 - lights out

Tips for spending your alone time productively

Alone time doesn't have to be boring or a void in your social life. Lifehacker has a few pointers on how to live those solitary moments well.

putting quotes into action

What makes a good quote? To me, it's often concise, encapsulating a deeply profound idea using a minimum of words. Also, it's usually one by a famous person whom I admire for what he/she did during their life. Because a quote by them doesn't just stand alone, but also is taken in context of what they are known for.

The best quotes-- and I think this would vary from person to person, are the ones which actually motivate you to do or act in a different way. Ones which take you one step closer to the person that you want to be. Because as nice as quotes look put up on your wall, they're just decoration unless put into action.

One of my goals for this upcoming year is to put into action a pretty famous, near-cliched quote:

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
~ Mahatma Gandhi

The idea here is that when I'm discontent with things around me, or things about myself that I want to change and improve-- to think about what I can do about it, and then actually do it. Not just sit back and complain.

I want to conquer inertia in my life and do things.

My Random Goals In Life

• Learn how to play piano
• Create a webcomic
• Go snowshoeing
• Learn cross country skiing
• Build a guitar
• Create a useful and cool mobile app
• Write a novel or short story
• Screen print and sell t-shirts
• Hand bind and sell books
• Be published in a tech or information science magazine
• Learn how to make a gigantic billowy apple pie completely from scratch
• Make Youtube music vids with a distinct look/sound
• Write a blog that talks about God in a real and interesting way
• Create a unique Wordpress theme that revolutionizes how blog info is displayed
• Reduce the amount of processed food/drink that I consume to nearly zero

Notes to myself on how to be a better person

Various forms of accepting, instead of avoiding, the difficult things in life.

1. Kill procrastination. Instead of putting off undesirable decisions or tasks, attack them head-on and do them first! This will reduce stress and worry, increase productivity, and get rid of wasted time.
2. Learn how to deal with conflict with people. Instead of being passive-aggressive, be active in working things out. This will make you happier and resolved instead of brooding in bitterness. Even if things don’t work out perfectly, you will not feel the weight of stewing in unsaid words.

new year's... focus?

New Year again. When I was younger, my family used to go to our aunt's and uncle's house nearby for New Year's Eve. We didn't do the exact same thing every year, although I do remember one very rousing late night involving card playing, money being exchanged, and my uncle who kept digging into a magic box for more coins when he ran low. Sometimes we did share our New Year's resolutions; my high school self stood in the circle awkwardly and even more awkwardly stated my intentions to do well in school that year. Wow. The nerdiness of that is just... painful.

Anyway, I didn't make resolutions to really keep them for the rest of the year, more just to say something according to good ol' American tradition. I stopped making them until pretty recently. Last year for some reason, I landed on the somewhat oblique and abstract resolution to "Let go of bitterness." In all openness I was aware that it sounded somewhat cool to tell people that. (Oh, you're taking up jogging in the new year? I'm letting go of bitterness in my life, learning deep breathing meditation, and apologizing to anyone I have ever wronged in my life. EVER.) But to be honest, it was a personal challenge to myself to spend the next year trying to make peace and let go of grudges.

I did actually think about my resolution throughout the entire year, and even more surprisingly, did make some inroads towards my goal. Some were little, some were very big, and some probably could have gone a lot farther than they did. But looking back over the past year in this area, I do see a good amount of growth, and I'm hoping, the start of a habit of living.

So in the tradition of last year, I have made a similar resolution this year. I am not planning on sharing it in the interest of preventing my pride from expanding. I actually think that "resolution" isn't the right word for it; I like "focus" better, since that's really what I'm doing. I'm focusing on this area during this year, and challenging myself to grow and become a better person.

However, I have made some regular New Year's resolutions which I will describe for you here:

• Put things away when I am done with them -- I would say "be more organized" or "be neater" but this statement really boils down the reasons why my desk area is messy. It's because I take something out and I just leave it out. I don't take the time to put it back. It really should be immediately when I am done with whatever doodad I was wanting to take out in the first place.


• Keep track of what I spend -- I spent an entire evening making a very complicated looking Excel spreadsheet with many sheets and pages and even colorful pie graphs! Just to be clear, I am horrible at managing my money and I don't save or anything. Quite horrendous. I am hoping that this colorful fun-looking spreadsheet will make me more interested in seeing where my money goes and into what category. Yes they are color coded and have borders around them. I am proud.


• Give my seat up for people on the T -- Well, not just anyone, but the people who look like they really need/want a seat: the elderly, infirm, mothers with children, or with child. I do sometimes give it up but I have my moments where I'm too shy to right away and the golden opportunity passes, and then it gets awkward (in my head), and then I just don't offer at all. My goal is to not be afraid to offer my seat. I'm weird that way.

finding yourself

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

I was riding in the car and saw this message posted on a car repair shop sign. It was one of those sign boards that spell out the letters with little light bulbs. We were at a stop light and in slow traffic, and when I first saw the sign it read: "Honk if you need an oil change." While I was pondering how a honk-for-oil system would work, the message changed and I was surprised to read the above quote since it had nothing to do with cars or automobile fluid.

Normally I don't really go in for quotes or sayings, but this one struck a chord in me. A lot of people go on vision quests or try to fix quarter or half-life crises or simple dissatisfaction by going to some new place to "find yourself." But what this quote is saying to me is that all that doesn't really matter; you won't find yourself by transplanting somewhere else. What matters is you making yourself the person that you want to be. That's when you'll find yourself.

I guess what I like about that philosophy is the implication that life improvement doesn't come from vacations or vision quests, from getting away from things you don't like. It comes from making the most out of where you are in the now.

writing again

My days are quite free now since my job ended last week. Amidst job searching and applying to school I am determined to use my days well. One of the things I wanted to do was to blog again. My life is full and I feel content, often busily so, but I miss thinking and writing. Even though I don’t brood as much as I used to, I think that there is a measure of good in journaling and pondering.

I read a New Yorker article about the journal entries of Susan Sontag which are going to be published posthumously. She wrote something along the lines of stating that the act of journaling is important because it is in that place that we think about ourselves and so really make who we are. Kind of an abstract idea, but it struck me as true… studying history is important to keep the past mistakes and triumphs of humankind in memory. In the same way, journals keep our personal past mistakes and triumphs in memory, and we can learn from ourselves. We can see ourselves in an entirely different way when we set down on paper or keyboard what we have done or what has been done to us. And we can see what we have done in our pasts and try to make our futures better if we are aware of who we are and our habits and pitfalls.