(Read the overview for the basics of this 90 day push.)
Failure!
What’s the price of failure? Well, in this case it’s fifty bucks (paid to my most excellent nephew Ellory), which doesn’t make me happy. But I can’t be too upset, I saw this fail coming a mile off – it was my birthday week and I indulged in all the high-calorie treats generously thrown in my path. That said, I’ll double down this coming week to get back on track.
I finished the round of text edits for “Black Nouveau”, and will work on the second draft of “Hard Knox” for the remainder of this goal period. I’m looking forward to jumping back into that world, but this since this is legit second draft writing it’ll be more challenging to make the 25 page goal. I’ve been coasting a little, and will need to ramp up the intensity to be successful.
I ran into an odd situation with the blog posts this week, basically I started three that turned out to be on topics too “deep” for the blog format. They just started running long (and more rambling than usual), and try as I might they couldn’t be truncated. This led to a big late-week push to make the goal, but I liked the way the pieces turned out, so all is well. That said, I’ll need to be better at topic selection moving forward, and get them completed earlier in the week.
The 90 Day Goals
Black Nouveau Edits – Success
Edit a minimum of 25 pages per week. Start page: 213 End page: 338 – Total: 26
Weight Loss – Failure
Lose a minimum of 1 pound per week. Week start: 280.6 Week end: 282.0
(Stickk goal: 281)
Blog posts – Success
Write and post a minimum of 3 posts per week.
Teachable: Start at the Start
Journal – 4/8/15: Leisure vs. Lethargy
90 Day Transition: Week 4 Report
Key Learnings:
- Don’t kid yourself: I had an internal delusion that I might still make my weight this week, when it was clear I had done nothing to make that happen. The successes of the first four weeks led to getting cocky.
- The party’s over: The edits to “Black Nouveau” weren’t particularly hard, and I probably could have wrapped them up in half the time. This was a case of doing the minimum to make the goal. Second draft work is far more intense and I’ll need to up my game.
Things to watch:
- Early week let-up: I said last week I had to watch for slow starts, and proceeded to do exactly that. So I’m reminding myself again of the paramount importance of starting strong and carrying that through the week.
- Focus on details: Small things can affect the big things, and minor details can be the difference between good and excellent. Particular attention needs to be paid to my morning routine.
- Mental attitude & Passion: I’ve been dragging ass, enabling distraction, and allowing some Eeyore-like negativity to creep up on me – that needs to stop.
In summary, a much-needed kick in the ass, failure is awesome when it leads to greater focus. There’s a clarity in failure that does not exist in success, and that clarity is profoundly beneficial when you see it as such. A periodic bacchanal is fine (and fun), for me the key is to make it the exception and not the rule!
“There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.” – Richard Rorty