Goals, views, and making time for everything.

I belong to a very good web site called SparkPeople. There is a new book out by its founder, Chris Downie, called "The Spark"; it's bright orange so you can't miss it. There is so much to do and learn, both in the book and on the web site. The good part is the web site is free, no strings. Check it out and please feel free to check out my Spark page.

At one point I discovered I spent too much time there, so I cut 'way back. However, cutting back had some fallout I hadn't anticipated: I lost track of tracking my nutrition and exercise, which in turn led to some minor backsliding (particularly on the exercise part).

Don't get me wrong; I am still exercising and eating healthfully, using lessons learned from The Spark, but I exercise a lot less than I should. I found the web site a good place to keep track of my exercise and nutrition, so I make time (about twenty minutes) each day to log my activity and food intake.

I'm writing this as a related blog entry to my most recent SparkPeople blog. I wanted to share some things about what I'm doing now with those who are not on the web site. The following things are important to me right now.

1) I am finally buckling down to my master's thesis. If I don't finish it by the end of the spring semester (this May) I will have to repeat courses... and I cannot afford that.

2) I am seriously evaluating my career from scratch. I am taking "find your ideal career" courses, talking to people, building my network, and looking for certification paths. At fifty I'm too old to waste my time on stuff I don't really like; there's so much to do for the next fifty or so years. This means a great commitment of personal time for a month or so, and then a moderate commitment of same for the rest of my career.

3) Speaking of things to do I am writing several books. Two are fictional, one is a humorous look at my family (and yes, they've all bought into it, but I'll wait until they've grown up to publish it), and two are about the two things most people won't discuss: one about religion and one about politics. I have experience with being published, though not for a long time now, and it's time to go back to that.

4) I've decided thirty-five years of "putzing around" is long enough; I want to contribute all I can to society rather than just skate along. I have talents, I should share them. My mother's been really contributing for over fifty years, politically and through volunteering; I've been doing it for a long time, but only in a haphazard sort of way. I'm not doing it for the recognition; I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do... but it does take time.

5) I need time to design our retirement home. I've got my SparkPeople dream house; doing it for real will be much tougher. Psychologically it'll be good for me too; my property is three miles from my favorite beach (a five-minute drive); where I live now it's an hour one-way. Since I work from home I need time outdoors badly; where I'm moving it's warmer than where I am now, so I can go outdoors more often.

6) And finally, saving the best for last, more family time. My kids got me hooked on World of Warcraft. Now I don't intend on playing during the week, and not for more than a couple of hours each weekend... but that's time I'm now spending doing other things. I can play along with my children and I do, so this is still family time, after a fashion (my wife has no desire to play this). To make up for that, we have a family game night during the week; then all four of us can play together. Plus we're back to eating as a family; for two years we just grabbed and went. It wasn't takeout, I cook a lot, but we didn't sit together; we all went our separate ways. No more.

So you see, I have a lot of stuff to do. I am making room for SparkPeople in my schedule because it's a wonderful web site and a great resource for healthful living, but I can no longer spend hours each week on it.

"There is no try. Only do, or do not." - Yoda