(Read the overview for the basics of this 90 day push.)
Gaining Momentum
A better week than last, still room for improvement. I’m in the process of making a decision which will have a huge impact on my day-to-day life, something I’ve been procrastinating on, that I’ve finally put a deadline on. I don’t mean to be obtuse, but its something I need to keep close to my vest. I mention it only to share that no matter how unrelated things in our lives may seem from us accomplishing goals like weight loss or writing a book, everything in our emotional ecosystem effects everything else.
The 90 Day Goals
Black Nouveau Edits – Success
Edit a minimum of 25 pages per week. Start page: 61 End page: 130 – Total: 69
Weight Loss – Success
Lose a minimum of 1 pound per week. Week start: 285 Week end: 282.4
Blog posts – Success
Write and post a minimum of 3 posts per week.
90 Day Transition: Week 1 Report
Journal – 3/19/15: Process NOT Motivation
Objects: The Evil Side of My New Kindle
Key Learnings:
- Everything matters: Couldn’t put my finger on why I was having such a challenge starting the day strong. Taking a step back and seeing the whole of my life allowed me to identify (I believe) the source. I’ve made a decision about this broader issue, and will see what kind of effect it has this week.
- Habits form slowly: Not rocket science, but paying attention to the incremental gains made in restructuring my day reinforces that it’s worth the effort.
- Mental attitude is everything: This can’t be overstated, and I encourage you to watch your attitude and how it affects your moment to moment experience. A momentary flash of “what’s the point?” can derail a morning, day or life. Perfection isn’t the goal, the goal is to be mindful of when your attitude goes south, and re-framing in that moment (not days later).
Things to watch:
- Don’t get cocky: This was a good, but not excellent week. I take a lot of pleasure in accomplishing these goals, but that can tend to lead to some overconfidence. I’ll put it right here – I demand of myself a better showing this week than last. I haven’t kicked into the “magic zone” where I feel my creativity peaking, and that’s where I want to be.
- Emphasize positive mental attitude: I could feel myself oscillating in a “good enough” mindset – this is where I’m in a head-space thinking anything “extra” is fine. The goal is a genuine state of “am I bringing my best, am I being excellent”, and this requires attentive mindfulness coupled with the goal of excellence.
- Create better evenings: Since I began experimenting with flipping my day – having long mornings, and short evenings – I continuously battle a tendency to blow the two hours that is my post-work day. There are a number of visual art projects I’ve put on hold in favor of the writing, and I’m going to take advantage of the evenings to do at the least some daily practice to get my eye back.
In summary, week 2 was a good week, but showed more weaknesses than strengths. But that’s the purpose of weekly analysis – not to beat yourself up, not to cover yourself in praise – simply to see what we think about what transpired in the previous week. Being able to handle the paradox of “I’m a fine human now and I want to improve, to push beyond” is key to not falling down a rabbit hole of “I suck” or “I’m awesome”. Both are nutty mental states, and life’s too short to be a slave to the mind games we play on ourselves.
“Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca