Things I want to improve for 2006

[cjsmith]

1. foot health

First actions: make appointment with Dr. Kempeny, make appointment with that acupuncturist. Figure out where the time for all this is going to come from. It can't come from work.

2. cardio health

First actions: check out prices and times at the Y and at the local high school that has a pool. Already did the huge first step, the haircut.

3. better use of time

This means LESS TIME ON LJ. Seriously. WAY less. Need a plan for this. Block my access during certain chunks of time (a Greasemonkey script will do that)? Make a small read-every-day filter and a larger catch-up-on-people filter and then the extra for communities and feeds? Something. Advice welcome.

4. decluttering

First step: cancel several magazine subscriptions.

5. better diet

I ate broccoli yesterday. This shows how committed I am. Broccoli is poisonous. Broccoli is the spawn of the devil. Broccoli tastes like somebody didn't clean the kitchen drain strainer for two weeks and then served the results up on a plate.

6. writing

N words per day, no excuses? Or a goal of the form "write and submit this many short stories and edit that 2003 novel for submission"? Deciding soon would be good.

7. stretching

If I don't do my spine twists the pulling in my ribs wakes me up. No clue what that is, but I know stretching gets rid of it, so I'm a fool not to stretch.

8. finances

Time to look up whether I qualify to invest in a Roth IRA even if my company has a 401(k) plan, time to look over the past year's Quicken data to see where I can trim the excess, see whether my investments are right, etc etc.

9. flying

Finish the WVFC Piper Warrior checkout, get a Citabria checkout, start in on some acro, then move over to Attitude's Extra or Pitts.

OK, this list is too long now. Grump. Better pick which ones I care about most.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The grocery store provides well under half of my caloric intake. Work has free food. This requires focus. :-)

"The way to write a good song is to write 87 bad songs." I like the perspective offered by the excellent book The Artist's Way, which advocates writing three pages a day. OF ANYTHING.

I am surprised that I've gone this long without purchasing a copy of The Artist's Way. I really would like to read it. The 87 songs has an analog in prose fiction: "The first million words are crap." If I write a NaNovel every November, it'll be twenty years before I'm out of the "crap" range. I'd like to speed that up a bit!

Yoga classes are great for this too, I expect. That's certainly my primary flexibility-increaser, though to be fair, one of the primary forms of motivation to go to yoga class probably doesn't work for you.

Which motivation is that? I'm curious. :-) My primary demotivator for yoga is that much of it is done standing. I simply cannot do that. I do steal my twists from yoga, though.

The issue is simply how much money you made, I believe, not whether you have a 401(k).

That concurs with what I've found on the web so far. I hope that's the only limitation, because I sure could stand to save a bit more for retirement. Anything I can get into a qualified plan is excellent.

As for investing, I've put you on my "financial musings" filter, which has seen (I think) three posts total in its lifespan. It would be good to resurrect that!

[thatwesguy.livejournal.com]

I am surprised that I've gone this long without purchasing a copy of The Artist's Way. I really would like to read it.

Let me know if my sending you my copy is the only way you'll be motivated to read it.

Which motivation is that? I'm curious.

"Dude, the yoga babes are totally hot!"

Why bother to deny the motivating factor of beautiful, athletic, flexible women who are comfortable in their own skins? Among straight women, the appeal of Yoga Guys may be similar, but in my limited experience, yoga classes tend to comprise more women than men by a pretty wide margin.


As for investing, I've put you on my "financial musings" filter, which has seen (I think) three posts total in its lifespan. It would be good to resurrect that!

Let's do it!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the offer! I think this book is sufficiently often cited, and sufficiently likely to be of real value, that I've just put it in my shopping cart on Amazon. Another fourteen bucks (for Super Saver Shipping) and I'll check out.

I am chuckling about the yoga babes. I won't deny I appreciate seeing hot yoga guys (or hot yoga babes either). That's one disadvantage of doing yoga alone: no hotties in stretch clothing!

Financial: cool, post coming soon.