Charging Through Life

I just looked at my spending account online. I got paid exactly one week ago yesterday and since then I have spent $97.83 on meals out! That's nearly $100 in just one week on bad food out! And I didn't even count the couple of times I went to the grocery store to pick things up for the house. Must I remind myself of item #2 on the "10 for X" list?

And while I am scolding myself for spending $100 in just one week on crappy food that wasn't healthy - I'll also go ahead and point out to myself that I've not been keeping to my new scheduled routine for most of this past month! I've done a few new things: woken up earlier, fixed breakfast at home, and been cleaning up the house a little more. But the big items on my new daily routine list - meditating, exercising, fixing lunches from home - are the things I've not been doing. What the Hell, Sam! You're not getting 2010 off to a very good start here!

Now I'm not going to make excuses 'cause that's just lame. But I am going to examine what has caused my failure to adhere to the plan thus far.

1. Ill. For the last two weeks I've been fighting a bacteria in my system and the medicine I'm on has made me lethargic with headaches and the runs (ewwww). It's not been a fun couple of weeks health-wise.
2. Stressed. I've been letting my frustrations over work dictate my mood. The stress, at times, can be consuming and I find myself displacing that stress onto other unrelated issues which turn into their own self-indused stresses. There were times where all I could do was pace in my apartment or watch TV to mentally escape. The bitch of it is, if I could just motivate myself to exercise a little, or sit and meditate, much of that built-up stress would be released. This is an example of a negative in life which is allowed to compound like a snowball down a hill.
3. Depressed/Unmotivated. Both of the previous issues have lead to a lot of inaction on my monthly goal. Plus I've identified a measurable amount of depression that I've been dealing with; my friends have pointed that out to me too. And all of this leads to complete lack of self-improvement because I'm sitting on my ass. I've repeated the sentiment, "I'll start next week," more than once the past couple of weeks, but have yet to actually get going.

This week Dame Oprah interviewed Princess Glambert. I really like this guy! Each time I see Adam Lambert in an interview I am struck by his authenticity. For all his theatricality (and let's not get into the ridiculously over-blown controversy surrounding his TV kiss -- thank you tight-ass conservative America ass-holes) Lambert is unbelievably grounded and very real! And his album is great.

So he was discussing with Ms. O how it was that he came to the Idol competition. He was a theater fag doing "Wicked" in Los Angeles and said that he was "bored" of that work and, "kinda' asked for something to happen."


There are two very important concepts that Lady Glambert and Lady O are discussing here:

1. Envisioning what you want your life to be and putting that out into The Universe.
2. Taking action.

Everyone, everywhere has a daily routine. Routines are just.... routine. So you may think it's silly for a 33-year-old man to be focussing time and effort to change and improve his daily routine. But here's the thing: because I'm single, have no kids, and don't answer to anyone but myself, I can be extremely complacent in my routine. If there's something I don't want to do in a day I just don't do it. And there in-lies the problem.

So, using the 10 for X list as a guide, I've put together a list of things to accomplish each day with approximate times to follow. My whiteboard at home has a complete daily schedule with times listed; but this is just my ideal schedule; I'm not going to get hung up on a schedule, just the tasks.

The biggest change is in my new morning routine is a wake-up time. I've been getting up without an alarm for years now but it doesn't happen until time to get dressed for work. I've never been a morning person - just ask my Mom. But, as I get older, I find that morning hours are prime to getting things knocked out before the chaos of the day. And evening hours can become quickly filled with other tasks that aren't scheduled or anticipated. So the biggest part of this new schedule for me will be when I wake up in the morning: between 5 & 5:30 A.M (yikes!)

Mornings:

• Morning exercise (1 hr): can be yoga, running, core work, stretching, etc.
• Morning meditation (20 min)
• Breakfast from home
• Clean: pick up the kitchen & living room, make the bed
• Fix lunch @ home to take for the day

This modified daily routine is more about maintaining discipline in my life than anything else. It's about doing the little things all the time. Because when you take care of the little things in your life every day you end up spending just a little amount of time on them instead of waiting until they are big problems in your life that require a lot of effort.

Improving my discipline on these small tasks are a foundation for growth throughout the entire year. Without a foundation of discipline you can change nothing.