Rubber Legs & Solid Progress

Quick Update

This is going to be a fast update once again because it's been a little bit crazy recently, and I'm actually pretty tired even though it's only 1:47 a.m. For those of you who know me, you know how tied that means I am right now.

Well the goals from the previous post are a bit delayed, and I'm giving myself an extra week for most of them for what seems like a really good reason to me: shortly after the last blog post, only a week after recovering from severe dental surgery that saw the removal of multiple wisdom teeth and impacted molars, everybody in our apartment caught a severe strain of stomach flu. So a lot of strained muscles in the back and side later, some (lots) of kidney pain later, and after all the unpleasant details that I'll skip the long and short of it can be summed up in this: I lost 9 lbs in one day.

Not very nice, and since solids were off the menu, again, it's taken me until today to recover, and I'm still running on only about 60% normal energy. Worked out in the gym today for the first time in 3 weeks, and felt the rust. Rubber legs and a lot of soreness, but I did manage 15 miles doing hills on the exercise bike and I did it in 40 minutes, which felt like breaking through to some crazy new level so I was really happy with being able to push myself like that considering how sore, stiff, and rubbery-legged I felt even before getting started.

Also had one of my best buddies from Alaska call me, and he was kind enough to let me vent some minor frustrations that have been building up, and that's just healthy. Talked to his wife, who is also a very good friend of mine and I forgot how much her voice always sounds cheerful and uplifting. Wish there was a lot more of that in the world.

Recently on my writing blog I wrote a post I wanted to link to because in a lot of ways it reflects my shifting back in thought, my refusal to let the slide go on any longer, and a willingness to work and take risks again. This post was on my ridiculously ambitious writing goals for the next month. I even failed to mention that the supporting articles I would need to write would number around 300 for the month on top of everything mentioned.

On the plus side: so far so good. I know it's only three days into the month, but so far I'm even doing slightly better than my writing goals. And in addition to that, a strange thing has happened that has already made my month. Usually when I am buried in freelance work, my creative work suffers or disappears or becomes a chore. The part of my brain that functions highly for freelancing has always been the complete opposite of the one that is firing when I'm getting ideas left and right for my fiction, poetry, and screen writing.

Except this time, for the first time, my creative writing mind is firing on all cylinders again at the same time I'm absolutely killing the freelance writing. In the last couple days I thought of a new idea for a great story, wrote the outline, wrote some killer lines, and am already two full pages (single spaced) into it. Even while writing this post I stopped and put down a couple paragraphs of a pretty sweet soliloquy for another future story. Oh yeah, I already wrote something like 20 articles today and did some editing work, too.

Started reading a Clive Cussler novel. I'm a big fan of Cussler, and I find it easy to get into his stories because I've always been a huge history buff and a huge David Morrell fan, and Clive seems to hit the 50/50 balance that fuses the two.

Along with everything else going on, I have a split in my heel. I think from my skin getting way way too dry, and it's painful, so hopefully over time that heals and I can earn the money this month to get the rest of my teeth fixed. Those are the most important medical issues now. Already having the wisdom teeth out and recovering has made a huge difference.

So the more detailed posts are still going to be later this week, and I think I have some dandies lined up, but for now, I think it's bed time :)

Self Improvement: Little Victories Matter

Changing Life Daily

My first blog post on taking responsibility and fixing my life went over pretty well. Did receive a couple of concerned phone calls, which is very touching, but these problems were years in the making - not a sudden outburst. If anything, overall I'm actually feeling really good about 2010 to this point and about the strides I'm beginning to make in getting to where I want to be. Monday was a very good day, and while the blog post I'm going to write sharing my large list of approximately 120 goals for 2010 will have to wait for a few days based on schedule, time constraints, etc. I did want to share a little bit about today and a small amount about what has happened already, what the short term goals are, etc.

Well Friday was pretty good, too. I told my brother that one of the most frustrating aspects of being where I am now in life is falling back to the old fears and anxieties that come up every time I think about talking to someone I don't know, approaching random people to chat, and especially so with females. This goes back to issues from my youth, in which I was painfully shy up until, well about half way through age 19. This fear and anxiety frustrates me the most, because it's not like I don't know that all the senseless fears about socializing are just that - I've been a very outgoing extrovert and also know how well people respond to a genuine extrovert. So how am I back to this point?

Well Friday I had to walk through a lot of piled up snow to get to Barnes and Noble and buy some books on how to use Microsoft Power Point 2007 for a freelance writing contract I have now. Once in the store, I decided to take an hour off from life and just enjoy myself. It was warm, I had gotten one heck of a workout just to get to the store, and there were some books I wanted to skim, including the revised version of Timothy Ferriss's The 4 Hour Work Week, which I'm a huge fan of. So I found a copy, read through a lot of the new material, and decided to force myself to work through the fear of talking to random strangers by refusing to leave until I struck up a conversation with three people.

After putting the book back, the first person I ran into was a very pretty young lady about my age whose name turns out is Christy, and she was looking at one of my favorite books. Perfect. I didn't even need to come up with an ice breaker beyond "hello," and Christy was actually really nice, we ended up chatting for about 20 minutes. This should be something simple to do, and at one time in my life it was, but now for where I am and for overcoming old fears, it was a really perfect set up. Admittedly, I didn't talk to two other people, but I figured 20 minutes was plenty, and that was a great way to end on a high note. Another small step to returning to the person I want to be.

Once in a while, taking a step to change your life actually turns out to be nice and easy. Today I worked. A lot. Friday was the first day I felt normal since the massive dental surgery, and my production has been fantastic since then. With the 3 month fever gone from the infected wisdom teeth, I also feel a lot less miserable and a lot more like myself. But to Monday. Gabe got great news that he was accepted into college. It's not either of his top 2 choices, but now he knows no matter how the rest pans out, he'll be able to continue on to achieving his life long dream of going to and graduating from college. He has his safety net. I took 4 hours off work in the afternoon to hang with my brother and one of my best friends, and that night we celebrated by going to IHOP (one of Gabe's favorite places).

And personally, it was a great night for me and an example of how self improvement comes with a lot of little victories that even the people around you might not begin to realize are happening. Going with the self confidence, the socializing comfortably, and the getting over the instinctual fear of talking to the opposite sex (and once again I can not stress how much this old anxiety really ticks me off and even embarrasses me). Eating out with my friends felt like it used to. I had no physical anxiety at all, cracked jokes half way across the room with the waiter, and kept throwing out jokes and jests until the pretty waitress was cracking up. Eye contact, smiling, laughing, and I felt relaxed. I finally felt relaxed!

Some of the old fears and anxieties had gotten so bad over the past year I actually had some panic attacks in crowded public places, which even at my most nervous/least self confident had NEVER happened before until the past year. So being relaxed and happy and joking wasn't a small victory for me by any stretch, even if I'm re-claiming ground within myself I had owned years ago.

Changing my life to get to where I want to be means making daily life changes. One thing that encourages me is that humans are (science even says) habitual creatures. This is why things seem to come "naturally" for some people while for whatever reason it's next to impossible for someone else. If I work daily on a conscious level to overcome fear, doubt, frustration, and anxiety then eventually the positive opposite of those like confidence, self esteem, faith, and happiness will become habits, and then become subconscious habits. In the same way a long spiral can turn your mind and body against you, the same concept can be used to your advantage to turn things around.

I know from experience how much my entire attitude or emotional make up can change simply by making a daily conscious decision to look at the silver lining, regardless of circumstance. Self improvement is like personal growth: it has to be a conscious choice, especially once you've fallen off the path for quite some time.

There have been some good things going on in other areas, too. I have landed some major freelance writing contracts, and am in great shape for the next 2 or possibly even 3 months. In fact, there's a chance that from March to May I'll make nearly 70% of what I did all of 2009 combined. I've also paid of some of my short term "floating debts." I use this term to refer to non monthly debts that I had for short term reasons. I reimbursed my brother for groceries for when I was really suffering with the wisdom teeth recovery, as well as for the medications. I re-paid Gabe who loaned me an emergency $60 at the beginning of the month when a student loan company screwed with my checking account right before rent was due. Half of my wisdom tooth surgery is paid for, with the other half on monthly payment plans, and the gym membership is covered for another month. Not bad.

Oh yeah, Truth Exposed Publishing, LLC is about 2 months ahead of schedule, and Jon and I are watching the passive income increase something like 200-300% a week. The pure numbers still aren't much, but based on how AdSense, search engine rankings and indexing, and other online stuff generally works, we're way ahead of schedule and it's really a great sign for later this year when enough time has passed to see the full effect of our early work this year.

My own passive income is growing about 20% this month above normal, which definitely adds to the confidence in my ability, but even better is I had one of those "A-HA!" moments that really changes the game. Enough so that by my 30th Birthday this year I'm hoping to be at the point where I don't have to freelance write at all any more if I don't want to because my passive income will be enough to pay all the bills and then some. In January that was a dream. Now it looks like a very achievable goal.

Speaking of which, some very short term goals for the next 2 weeks for me, so things I want to do or want done by March 9th:

• Pay off all "floating debts." Right now, that would be a $75 donation promised to Coe, about $150 I owe lawyers for drawing up the LLC papers, and the hardest of all, $600 I still owe Mike from when he basically made sure I got to Austin to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime, something I still greatly indebted to him for.
• Pay off my lowest balance credit card. That one would be at $350 right now.
• After spending this week getting back up to speed in the gym, I want to bike a marathon distance a day, so 26.2 miles a day on the exercise bike, 5-6 days a week (it varies how often we make it to the gym). And yes, I did get this idea from The Biggest Loser. While workouts have gone extremely well, I need some big time goals to really push me, and that one certainly counts. Especially since I bike the steep hills program on the exercise bikes.
  
• Start 20 conversations with strangers I meet while out and about...which will force me to also go get out and about.
• Write 2 chapters of a book for my sister.
• Send 4 letters (old fashioned, snail mail) to various friends and family, especially thanking them for the good they've done for me in my life.
• Write more freelance articles in these next 2 weeks than I did in the first 6 weeks of the year combined. This might actually be necessary to make the financial goals mentioned earlier.
  
• Get some plastic bins to act as dressers. I'm really tired of living out of suitcases.
• Take some personal time for myself daily.
• Read 2 books I haven't read yet, or started reading yet.

There are others, as many of my goals are long term but require daily or weekly work, but this is a pretty ambitious list as it is. I had no illusions. Even though I've been to the "promised land" before, I know that fixing my life, much less changing my life, is not going to be an overnight thing, and it's not going to be easy.

But I feel good. Recently I've been joking a lot more, smiling and laughing like I used to. The confidence is beginning to ebb back, and I'm finding it easier and easier to concentrate on the silver lining again. Some of the fire is back, and the fight in me is definitely back. Not sure that part ever left, but it might have been getting stomped down on the ground for a couple years. At least it's standing again.

Sometimes self improvement is great, and sometimes the process sucks, but my goals are clearly set, and I'm not afraid of a lot of 18 hour days to get there. Thanks for the kind words and the support everyone, and I hope ya'll are having a good night and peaceful dreams.

Why Do I Need to Fix My Life?

Changing My Life Begins w/ Fixing My Life

So I have to be honest right off the bat, while it's completely true that I feel like I have to fix my life, and that it won't wait any more, I'm a little bit anxious about sharing this since I never really imagined having a blog online that actually reflected something on my personal life. That said, there are some things I'm not going to be completely open about because there are plenty things in my life that need to have privacy, both for me and those I care about.

But starting in 2010 I find myself in a weird place. Not to sound like some self inflated self help guru who is always pumping pep and sunshine (those people and their fake plaster smiles drive me nuts - if you're THAT happy about a Perkins muffin, how much joy is left when something actually relevant good happens?), but I am definitely at a place where I've reverted back to too many bad habits and old habits, and I'm not happy with this backslide because it's keeping me from being the person I want to be, can be, and who I've even been.

That's right. I said fix my life because I am not one of those people who desperately needs a change because I've never done anything. Quite the contrary, despite having the same anger, self-doubt, and mal-adjustment issues a lot of people have coming out of high school or a small town, I absolutely BLOOMED in college.

I'm not going to go into the full story here, I'll go into an abbreviated version of the back story later, but basically from high school I was ostracized and unpopular for a good portion of the time, and didn't develop a lot of the social skills that came naturally to people who weren't in the same boat as myself. That awkwardness definitely made the beginning of college bumpy, but I came into my own and transformed my life to become one of those rare people who really was "THE MAN."

Not that there's ever just one, and granted the giant beard that made me easily identifiable all across the Coe College campus helped, but I was extremely popular, went from completely introverted to extroverted, depressed personality to out going and happy. I enjoyed every single moment of life, even through huge strings of tragedies and turmoil, loved my friends and fellow classmates dearly and saw a lot of that returned. I had an incredible amount of self confidence in who I was, what I was becoming, and the faith to tackle anything regardless of the obstacles.

And despite amazing adventures, great friends, and more stories in the last 10 years than 99% of people will have in their entire lives, somehow I lost it. The mojo, my confidence, I was beaten back into old habits and fell into an old shell I thought was done for good. It's easy to fall into old habits you don't like. Very easy. It was amazing I held out for as many years as I did, but here I am reflecting on my life in 2010, 10 months away from turning 30 (and how the ((explicative)) it got here this quickly from "college age" is beyond me), one year after the worst year of my life (and 2005 was utterly devastating enough it almost destroyed me - and it didn't even compare to 2009), and so I sat down to look at my life.

There are several clear cut reasons for this reflection now, some bad, and some actually very good. The main ones are:

• 2009 was so terrible, I threw in the towel in October, so I already had 3 months to look ahead.
• In 2009 a friend died on my birthday, the 3rd time in 5 years that has happened. That will screw with you pretty badly.
• A change in environment with a nice apartment, good roommates, and a SAFE area have helped me to stabilize my life and stop the sinking feeling.
• The freelance work has been FANTASTIC the past 3 months after two terrible years, which also included me losing my dream job in Austin, Texas. My brother and I's business has me excited and passionate for the first time in quite a while.
  
• The past 2 years are the first time I haven't been happy, content, or driven (at least one of the 3) on a day to day basis in 10 years. It's also the first time I've had to deal with severe depression again for the the first time in a decade. That scares me, saddens me, and it pisses me off that I'm not getting pissed off enough about it.
• There have been some really cool/amazing/odd/opportune projects and potential projects both work-related, creative work related, and otherwise that have begun to come my way, seeming to line up very much with each small stride I make in "returning" to being me.
• There are a LOT of people right now abusing power, wealth, position, and situation to unfairly and unjustly hurt friends and family of mine, and that's brought up a lot of conflict within me of my old self vs. my new self, old codes of honor and faith vs. new ones, and has forced me to examine every part of who exactly I really am right now. There were a lot of things I didn't like at all when I looked honestly, with the scales fallen away from the eyes, so to speak.
  

So the reflection brought a lot of things clear to me:

1. I need to fix my life, and I need to do it RIGHT NOW, and I want to fix my life forever - hence the name of the blog.
2. I'm not the person I want to be, can be, or need to be. I'm a firm believer that everyone has a degree of purpose - maybe not necessarily a specific calling, destiny, or fate, but that if you're really in tune with who you are and who you should be, you're happier when you're on that "path" because you're in line with being who and what you're meant to be. Time for me to get back on that line.
3. I was a person who could change lives just by being me. I am just as capable of being that person, or even greater, and it's time for me to dig with all the past scars, traumas, and bad habits until I am that person again.
4. I'm the only one who can drastically change my life, and here comes the rub: I have the power to do it by sheer will alone, if I simply have even half of the old confidence or belief in my abilities that I used to have. So how do I change my life by sheer will power when I don't have it? Well there's the rub again.
5. I'm not content with being content. I know what my realized potential can be, I've tasted it. Here comes the scary but brutally honest statement: I'd rather die than go back to being stuck in the old shell, bound by the old chains, plopped down in a mediocre life that I depressingly accept as "good enough."

That's not a suicide threat, it's not a cry for help. In some ways it was an INCREDIBLY encouraging revelation for me, because it showed a spark of the old fighting spirit that everyone knew me for. Life could crush me over and over, months could go on where I was a living example of Job (old Testament guy with a real bad stretch - not the synonym for work) but I was always fighting, always moving forward, and always growing.

That fire is an inherent part of me, and I want it back. All of it.

So now we're getting down to the nitty-gritty. Fixing my life, changing my life. I don't intend to get back to being the person I was, I intend to become better and work tirelessly on becoming the full embodiment of the person I know I'm capable of being when that potential is being realized and I'm following MY path.

So I don't want this post to go on too much longer since it is the introduction, but just a little bit more and I'm sure there's tons of stuff about fixing my life in this post that will eventually be full blown posts in and of themselves. So I'll end with several points, observations, caveats, rules, whatever. You'll get the gist of it while reading.

• A lot of these posts are going to be about money and business. I'm passionate about the business Jon and I are starting, I'm passionate about freelancing, and since these (and paying off debt to free myself) are huge parts of my life, there will be a LOT of posting about these topics.
• I recognize everything is connected. Dropping 50 pounds so the downstairs neighbors think I'm cuter isn't just a vanity thing - it's health, it's self confidence, it's a self image thing, it's emotional, it's the type of thing that can cause an avalanche of positive side effects. The same could go for paying off credit cards. Less stress, confidence from a goal achieved, money freed up can allow me to travel, help others, pay for a gym membership, take an arts class, etc. It's all connected. Little things matter a whole lot.
• Spiritual is important to me. If you don't believe in any of that, fine. We all have a right to our own point of view, but if you don't like reading about how the spiritual impacts my life, just skip those sections. That said, I'm not going to over-spiritualize things, either. I'll talk about what's going on as I'm viewing things at the time I'm blogging and fixing up my life, and that's how it stands either way. I'm okay with positive or critical comments in the comments section as long as it's not a flame out.
  
• Goals are important. Does 99.9% of the world think that building a functioning recliner out of nothing but cardboard and duct tape has nothing to do with self improvement? Probably - but this is something I've wanted to do since 2002. I can't tell you why it would be important to me, but it is and I'm not going to feel guilty or odd about it. If something on my upcoming list of 150 goals for 2010 sounds bizarre - feel free to ask about it in the comments. Could lead to some really lively conversations, but step one is admitting the problem and being honest so there will be some weird stuff on there.
• I have no idea where this blog is going. Yes, it's about fixing my life, and if even one reader fixes their life because of it, or just improves their life, or if one person even thinks about self improvement, great. But this blog is kind of an odd experiment, so no promises about where it is or isn't going. I just don't know.
• Personal can get uncomfortable. Just a fair warning.
  
• Some situational information I just can't share. I'm going to be as open and honest as possible, and maybe putting myself out there with something like this that I'm kind of uncomfortable with is that first step to re-gaining the lost confidence and swagger

One last point that is important enough for me to hold by itself. This blog, and the entire idea behind it, is from me deciding, simply deciding, back in December of 2009 that 2010 was going to be MY year, no matter how certain events turn out for better or worse. I'm coming back, I'm going to own it, going to dominate it, and it's all going to happen because I decided it would.

Call it metaphysical, call it fringe quantum physics (if this sounds confusing, take a look at the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" the title will be all in mathematical symbols and this movie is stunning even if I don't completely agree with some of the more controversial claims or interpretations - it's still worth seeing), call it destiny. Call it overly optimistic raving lunacy.

All of those descriptions have a point, but I honestly believe that reaching a breaking point where I simply decided to change my life forever is enough to do just that. So call it what you will, but I'm already beginning to see it this year, and future blog posts will show what has already happened, where I started from, and where I'm going bit by bit.

So thanks for reading guys. I put myself out there, went against every single old instinct screaming at me to NOT share this on Facebook so others could see, and so now I'm out there and vulnerable. But it feels good. It feels like the first step to being back.