Friday, August 13, 2010
Day 1
I woke up this morning and realized that all the awesome things I had planned for myself this summer did not happen. I read a lot of books. That's one thing. I completed three more classes towards my master's degree. That's another. Both of those look and feel boring - on paper and in person. And what about all those other things I planned? Get in shape? Feel healthier? Stop having back pain which I can't even chalk up to "an old sports injury?" Plan awesome, exciting summer-type activities? Yeah, didn't quite get to those ...
Rather than dwell on my state of impotence or mourn mundane dreams not realized, I decided to start a blog to chronicle what will (hopefully) be a year of change. Yeah, that should do it! The 3-Stone challenge started as an operant behavioral experiment I was going to run on myself. Goal: lose 3 stone (when it comes to weight, I like thinking in archaic British terms); set-up: after each stone lost, reward self with pair of ridiculous shoes. Ta-da - my very own Skinner box. But that seemed like too much of a cliche (it's the type of scheme that could probably be repackaged as "the Sex and the City" diet) for me to focus on alone, so I decided to redesign and make it even cheesier.
I'm 30 ... 3 stones ... what are 3 things I'd like to do with my life now that I've completed 30 years of it? Here they are:
1) Take better care of myself: I left this one intentionally vague so it could encompass a lot - from health and activity to being more mindful to letting myself sleep in to not starving myself for a pair of damn shoes.
2) Be more adventurous: I'm not totally sure what this means, but I think I want to start breaking up my routine (please see above) and embark on more invigorating activities. The trick will be how to accomplish this without gobs of money, since our household is waging financial warfare on our consumerist habits of old. A subheading to this goal would be "be more creative/clever when looking for something to do."
3) Make decisions: notice I did not add any qualifying adjective before that one like "good." I'm not interested in making good/right decisions (obviously those would be preferable), I just want to start making more of them and then taking responsibility for those actions. As of late, I feel like I let things happen more than I make decisions, so I'm reversing my position and taking a stand on neutrality.
The Rules: so far I've only come up with two, but I'll add on as I go.
1) Write every day.
2) Do something active every day.
And away we go ...
Rather than dwell on my state of impotence or mourn mundane dreams not realized, I decided to start a blog to chronicle what will (hopefully) be a year of change. Yeah, that should do it! The 3-Stone challenge started as an operant behavioral experiment I was going to run on myself. Goal: lose 3 stone (when it comes to weight, I like thinking in archaic British terms); set-up: after each stone lost, reward self with pair of ridiculous shoes. Ta-da - my very own Skinner box. But that seemed like too much of a cliche (it's the type of scheme that could probably be repackaged as "the Sex and the City" diet) for me to focus on alone, so I decided to redesign and make it even cheesier.
I'm 30 ... 3 stones ... what are 3 things I'd like to do with my life now that I've completed 30 years of it? Here they are:
1) Take better care of myself: I left this one intentionally vague so it could encompass a lot - from health and activity to being more mindful to letting myself sleep in to not starving myself for a pair of damn shoes.
2) Be more adventurous: I'm not totally sure what this means, but I think I want to start breaking up my routine (please see above) and embark on more invigorating activities. The trick will be how to accomplish this without gobs of money, since our household is waging financial warfare on our consumerist habits of old. A subheading to this goal would be "be more creative/clever when looking for something to do."
3) Make decisions: notice I did not add any qualifying adjective before that one like "good." I'm not interested in making good/right decisions (obviously those would be preferable), I just want to start making more of them and then taking responsibility for those actions. As of late, I feel like I let things happen more than I make decisions, so I'm reversing my position and taking a stand on neutrality.
The Rules: so far I've only come up with two, but I'll add on as I go.
1) Write every day.
2) Do something active every day.
And away we go ...
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