My Best Me

I don't really have any idea how it started. I had the idea that I wanted to change a number of things in my life. Not just situational things, but habits that I had; shortcomings and/or simple behaviors that I didn't want to engage in anymore or that I did. It didn't really matter what they were, but it was this overwhelming list of things that needle away at the back of my head. These are things that I have always heard myself saying, "I should probably stop doing this." or "I should probably start doing that." Well, it was time to put it in motion.

The first thing I thought of was that I had to get out of the mindset that it all needed to happen at once. Not an easy thought considering my personality style. I'm not one that is easily given to pragmatism and patience. I was convinced it just wasn't going to happen overnight. I'm sure I heard it somewhere from somebody far more brilliant than I, but I resigned myself to the fact that it had to be done a piece at a time. How and when those incremental changes were going to happen had evaded me for a long time and it had always been overwhelming to think of how long that list might have to be, so I decided to break it down.

I decided to make one change per week. Once change that would be added to my life. It had to be something simple, like flossing more often, but it had to be more detailed, like flossing 3 times per week. (My wife is a dental assistant, so for those of you trying to convince yourself that you floss everyday, you probably aren't. :) ) It had to be enough that I couldn't just weasel my way out of it by some technicality and it had to be cumulative. Not just doing one thing for one week. Each new behavior or correction need to to continue on into the next week, adding to the next, and so on.

Finally, I am starting this plan with the idea that it is really designed to fix the small things; little bad habits and that sort of thing. It's not designed to dramatically change my life all at once and it's not designed to handle all of the big things. I won't be putting in things like "Resolve my relationship with my father." That's a different subject that requires a much more serious plan. The idea here is that I'm going to change little issues in little increments.

To start with, I had decided not to blog about this list. I didn't think it was terribly important that I record all of my thoughts about these little changes. As it has turned out, two things have necessitated this blog: 1 - I was having trouble remembering each thing on the list so I needed a place to keep them. 2 - I wanted a place where I could come back and review the list and to record my thoughts on why each item was added to the list. So, since I have started my list already, you'll see that I'm eight weeks in and the list is shaping up. Here is what I have so far.

1. See my chiropractor once a week at a minimum.
2. Eat breakfast every day.
3. Go to bed at 10pm every "school night".
4. Brush my teeth every night. (In addition to my daily morning brushing.)
5. Play my bass guitar 3 hours every week. 
6. Do business invoicing once per week at a minimum. 
7. No more sodas!
8. Every morning, out loud, be grateful for 3 things. Three different things, if you can.

See, not earth shattering, just small things that will hopefully add up to my best version of myself some day.

My plan is to continue to add one item per week for a whole year. At the end of the year, I hope to have established a list of new habits, minor corrections, and hopefully a profoundly simple method of gaining control of the smaller things in my life.... Then I can work on the next phase.