Hi Good Peoples!
I thought that I would use Sundays as a means to update the blog with my progress on my 2010 Goals and Resolutions. Sundays mark the end of my Marathon training week and they happen to be a slow traffic day in the blogosphere so, no harm in me being self-absorbed for a day.
The one goal that I wanted to make sure I absolutely got off on the right for was my Marathon training. The last thing I want to do is be caught ten miles away from the finish line having to walk on a 26.2 mile race.
So, suffice it to say, week one is in the books and I got all my training in. I’ve been keeping a Twitter-esque account of my training and other goals over at my site, My Radical Transparency.
My second major goal for 2010 is to complete and publish my first full length print book. Week One was spent mostly defining scope, and that will continue into weeks two and three of this year. I’ve started writing some pieces which are posted on the You, Simplified website as part of my decision to practice in Radical Transparency which is, quite simply, making all of my important work and decisions public as I create them. That means the entire craptacular first draft goes online for everyone to see, gratis.
I’ve found the prospect of creating a two hundred page or so book on Minimalist and Simple Living to be a bit scary. I can write blog articles with ease, anywhere from one thousand to two thousand words. But a 60,000 word manuscript seems too daunting for where I’m at as a writer right now.
So, I’ve decided to take the medium that I’m comfortable with, the blog article, and create thirty three separate articles that are cohesive like chapters and compile them in a book. Why thirty-three? Because I have baby triplets and three’s apparently my lucky number.
So that’s what I’m talking about in regards to planning. I’ll be coming up with the subjects and outlines for the thirty-three chapters over the next month and change and putting them into broader categories that will be sections of the book. This is the plan right now…subject to change with notice in the land of Radical Transparency.
I’ve set a goal to eat more vegetarian, about 70%, with half that, about 35% being raw food. I’m happy to say that I’ve been going real good with this. My two major steps are that my breakfasts and lunches at work are always vegetarian (lacto-ovo, meaning eggs and milk products are cool). I also have been juicing like a mad man. Nearly every day this year I’ve juiced once per day the following cocktail:
- 2 Apples (either granny smith or empire)
- 2 Carrots
- 2 Celery stalks, minus the leaves
I juice them up in my Breville juicer with two ice cubes and it’s pure, tasty heaven.
We’ve even had a couple of dinners that were vegetarian. I’ll share those recipes another time as my wife is really a terrific cook and I am very lucky to have her.
As far as my Education Syllabus goes, I am very happy that I decided to start the year with Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Work Week. In the spirit of full disclosure, when I tried to read this book in 2008, I hated it. I stopped somewhere in the third chapter, convinced that the author was completely out of touch with corporate america. Some of my criticisms still stand…Ferriss has very little experience as an employee, but really the exercises in the expanded edition are very eye-opening.
I’m going to share a few of the exercises and my responses in some upcoming posts. The book is very much worth the cost and then some.
So, my focus so far has really been to get these plates spinning. Some of the other goals I haven’t touched yet. For example, I want to compete in some triathlons later in the third quarter of this year. I’m a horrible swimmer and I know that I will have to put a lot of work in between now and then, but I haven’t hit the pool yet. I am trying to get down to the community college pool this week, near work, and sign up for a membership to their pool. That’s really my goal for this week.
My financial goal to pay off the house is probably the most difficult goal I have this year. It means paying nearly five times per month more than I do now on the mortgage. Basically, I have to find more money somewhere, and that’s the key to reaching that goal. As it goes for January, I’ve already fallen further behind. I was only able to make a double payment this month.
However, I have resolutions to spend no money on clothing, books or music. This was somewhat difficult in week one, with all the after Christmas sales, but I stayed away from the stores and passed with flying colors.
And week one with living all of 2010 with 100 Items, I already found a pair of pants I forgot about…my favorite casual olive pants, so I’ll have to sacrifice something I haven’t used yet if I want to get them in.
That’s really all for the recap this week. Thanks so much for reading and providing encouragement.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Charlie, still enjoying reading your blogs… but I think you should change the name of this blog to ‘You, Organized’…or ‘You, Accomplishing’…what do you think? ~matt
Charley
Congrats on the first week of training. I have been running more and always wanted to run a marathon. Trained for the Honolulu 2001 – but injured my knee (after I had bought tickets)…I just need to pick another and started getting serious. We still had a great trip to Hawaii and I did the Mayor’s 6K walk instead.
I have been a vegetarian for 10 years now. Can hardly believe it has been that long. I really believe I am healthier because of it.
I need to start juicing – maybe 2010 will be the year I get started!
Hey Buddy!
How’s the new baby?
I admit that the scope is a bit wider so far than mere life simplification. I look upon Minimalism and Life simplification as tools to clear out the unimportant so that I have the opportunities to concentrate on the things that bring me happiness. We spend a lot of time playing and caring for the triplets. You know as well as I, once you have children, your priorities change. But some desires are still there, such as expressing myself in writing. If I wasn’t doing it publicly on a blog, I’d be buried in my Moleskine daily, just as I have for the last decade and a half.
My sophisticated marketing team (the triplets) are taking your suggestions under advisement. Initial reactions were a lot of crying and pooping so I’m not entirely optimistic about their decision.
Many blessings to you and your family, Matt.
- Charley
Hi David,
I’ve had this Breville juicer for three years now, largely sitting unused in the basement, still in the box. What kept me away from it was my experiences with the Juiceman juicer a decade ago, and what a pain in the ass it was to clean the thing. The Breville is so good at extracting juice that the pulp is very dry and just falls out as I dump it onto my frozen garden. Yes, there are parts, but cleanup takes me a minute now.
Good luck and thank you very much for commenting.
- Charley
Hi Greg, thanks for your comment.
I think what is keeping me from going full vegetarian is the fact that I’ve placed a higher priority on the convenience of having my wife prepare dinner for me while I am at work. She’s taking a temporary hiatus from her career to raise our triplets to school age at home.
She is an excellent cook, far superior to any skills I possess. While she’s amenable to cooking one or two vegetarian meals a week, she’s not ready to take that step with me yet (or perhaps ever). I admire those of you who have.
One of my life dreams is to be able to compete in Iron Man Hawaii. Given everything else in my life right now, this is way on the backburner. First, my many efforts to learn to swim have met with shyt-acular results. Two years ago, I took some lessons and the college-aged teacher actually laughed at me because I was moving backwards during a kicking drill.
While humiliating, I’ve pushed through that and laboriously teach myself, as well as soliciting coaching advice from a more patient co-worker of mine.
I also “ran” a marathon two years ago…meaning that I conked out at the 15 mile mark and had to walk the final 11 miles. They closed the track during that time and I got lost on the side streets several times, since there was nary a runner in sight.
oking at the results the next day, I saw that I was the 7th last runner, out of thousands, to finish the race. I injured my hip badly enough during the race that I was unable to run for six months.
So…I was actually in pretty good shape then, and am starting off much worse off than I did in 2008 in regards to training. But I’ve learned some lessons, chiefly that it’s critical to do at least your long runs outside. Treadmill training doesn’t cut it.
Thanks again for your comment,
- Charley
Your swimming sounds like mine…my daughter teaches swimming and when I returned to the pool – after many many years. She stopped me and said, “Dad, you are embarrassing me!” She gave me some pointers, I watched some instructional videos on YouTube and it helped…but I still feel like there is more thrashing than gliding! *sigh* Now I have a “swimmer’s shoulder”, so no swimming until that goes away. For now I will pound the pavement.
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