January 2018 Report

Well, it’s that time of year, February 1st. The time when we officially give up on our New Year’s resolutions and try again next year. The time we give up the charade of “Christmas-time cheer.” The time when we stop complaining about how consumerist Christmas is, and start complaining about how consumerist the next holiday is. Just kidding! Get back to the gym! And be kind to each other! And stop complaining!

I’ve been journaling for the past 31 days, which is 30 more days than any of my previous attempts at journaling. I suspect it will continue, but no promises. Since I have all of this data recorded, I thought I’d share it for insight.

• December was a whirlwind, but I survived.
• I got to see my family who adore me, and are also adorable. What a treat to spend time with them!
• I moved again for the 3rd time that year. It reminds me of my nomadic days in college. I’m pleased that I’m still lean, flexible, and spartan enough to make my living accommodations accommodate me and not the other way around.

• Books
  • Zero to One by Peter Theil
  • Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• Movies
  • Disaster Artist
  • Battle of the Sexes
  • Manchester by the Sea
• Notable blog posts
  • The Third Kind of Expectation
  • Dispel your justification-monkey with a “HWA!”
  • You Aren’t In the Crowd, You Are the Crowd

• Blog posts published = 4
• Gym = went!
• Diet = eaten!
• Goals= AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
  • 15 assigned to January
  • 3 completed
  • 1 adjusted/completed

• Flew back to Detroit after vacation
• Flew to Baltimore for a week of first responder training (First Aid and fire fighting)
• Drove to Chicago to visit my amazing, wonderful, fun-to-be-around friends

• Fraud alert
  • I’m slowly, slowly, starting a business. I notice that I’m quick to shoot down professionals or people I don’t like as frauds because one of their actions doesn’t match one of their quotes (Tim Ferris, Elon Musk, Jon Stewart, etc.). Now that I’m jumping in the arena, I’m both terrified that someone will call me a fraud like I’ve been doing, and terrified of failure. I’m learning to keep my mouth and mind quiet. Whatever happens, happens. I’ll do the best I can, and stop commenting on other people’s work. If it’s not for me, it’s not for me.
• Goals
  • Writing down my goals is frightening because I’m now holding myself accountable. Most of them are benign, like, “clean room,” or “schedule mechanic visit,” and I still don’t manage to do them. Part of the problem is that I didn’t have a page in my journal for February goals, so I just wrote all of my goals on the January page. These goals didn’t get accomplished because of systemic reasons (lack of a good place to organize and prioritize them), not due to a lack of motivation.
  • I need to be more frugal with my goals! I need to accept that somethings just aren’t going to get done. The question isn’t, “Should I do this or not?” The question is, “Should I do this, instead of doing this other goal?” There’s an opportunity cost to accomplishing goals (not accomplishing other goals).

I’m still waiting on my Merchant Mariner Credential (it’s like a passport, but issued by the Coast Guard). As of today I’m on this step:

Once that’s said and done. I’ll get a call from my onboarding-coordinator saying there’s an opening on the ship. I suspect that will be at the end of February.

February! Just saying it makes me feel like I have a fresh start on life. Otherwise, it should be roughly the same as January.