2013...Intentions

A facebook friend posted this gem the other day and I figured I could use it as a jumping off point for discussing my intentions for this year. Gonna let it sink in for a day and then I will discuss each section one entry at a time I think.

40 WAYS TO BETTER HEALTH IN 2013 -
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants, and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time for meditation and reflection
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2012.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for at least 7 hours.

Personality:
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day —- and while you walk, smile.
11. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don’t over do; keep your limits.
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously; no one else does.
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Community:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70&under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right things.
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. Forgiveness heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, don’t take it for granted – embrace life.
39. Your inner most is always happy. So, be happy and ENJOY LIFE!

Last but not least:
40. Grow your relationship with God

Ugh....that last one is awkward and definitely deserves its own post...can't wait for that.

I just finished scheduling my week. Now that I have a tablet I would really like to get the most out of the google system. All of this technology at my fingertips should help me to accomplish many of my goals for the year that deal with personal growth. Managing my time better will certainly go a long way towards getting that done.

"how I broke my snooze habit:
I placed my alarm clock on other end of bedroom, far out of reach. I also changed it from a beeping tone to a very annoying music station and turned the volume way up. This way I could not just smash snooze and roll over and I certainly couldn't just ignore it because it was playing shitty music at an unbearably loud volume. The only way to make it stop was to get out of bed and walk 10 feet to the alarm clock. 
I think I actually broke the habit pretty in about 10 days, but I kept it across the room for another month or two just to reinforce to my body that once I'm up, I'm up.
after a couple months, I moved the alarm back bedside and just continued to get up when the alarm went off.
also, I agree with others that if you set your alarm for the time you actually must wake up, rather than 10-20 mins beforehand, you will stop enabling yourself to snooze."

Yeah I think I addressed this. I actually can get up several times to hit snooze even though the obnoxious alarm is in the bathroom and stumbling into the shower or even splashing cold water on my face should be the plan. Seems pretty simple in theory and I just need to man up and stop snoozing. I set the alarm that early because I have things I would like to do in the morning that will result in a better start to the day. Setting it for right before I need to leave is not an option here if I want to improve.

"Random thought: your writing needs to be WAY more concise. You could say the same thing with half the space"

When I am trying to write well...like for a technical writing assignment...or a work email or something...I can do this fairly easily but I take time to think about what I am saying. That's not what I am looking for here. This is supposed to be reflective therapy. A reflection of what is going my head in regards to what has happened during my day and in the world around me. Until I get used to doing it on a daily basis and the process is refined I will be pretty verbose. I understand where you are coming from though and I appreciate the comment.

"i agree with allen, man. the only way to start any of those things is just to do them. where does your free time go so that you can't just spend an hour working on that crap? i think blogging everyday might be a stretch. maybe try for a weekly update? so you can see how much you've progressed over the week. day-to-day might not yield enough positive results to keep you motivated.

also, it IS nice that bing's being so nice. im hoping that maybe if he keeps it up, he'll become sincere about it, instead of ironic."

I agree 100%. Just need to man up. I will not succeed in life accepting the amount of laziness and lack of motivation I have had up to this point. I am very lucky to be where I am at and I need to take advantage of the situation instead of just doing enough to get by and hoping everything falls the way I want it to. If I can't manage my day well enough to allow time for this blog everyday then whats the point. As it starts I think I need to do it everyday to create the habit and ensure I am doing my best to change my ways. Eventually I could see doing it weekly as once everything is going the way I would like it to there may be less to blog about. I enjoy Bing being nice as well. Whether it is ironic or not it is a nice change of pace from the normal TMZ attitude. I look forward to it continuing.

Here's to hoping.