We've been reading "Think And Grow Rich" by Napolean Hill. We read out loud, a chapter a week, and then we discuss what it means to us, and how we can benefit from it. We just read Chapter 2 last week, and were about to read Chapter 3 tonight.
Chapter 2 is about getting specific with your goal. I know I definitely have mine, but I have more than just one. I've got a few I've realized, and I thought that it would be good to post them on here in an effort to "Burn my bridge" or "Throw my hat over the fence" or whatever you wanna call it. To me, it's my commitment, I'm in this all the way, and there's no going back, it's as they say in Chapter 2 time to "win or perish." So here I go.
1. Get my web based business off the ground. I've been thinking about this business for the past 3 years. I've done quite a bit of the formatting and design work for it (on paper) and I've written a bunch of the wording for the website so far. I really need to get in touch with a good programmer who does MySQL and builds websites. I need someone who knows about text messaging, and I need a good business lawyer to make sure I do this all right legally. But I am bound and determined to get this thing off the ground. I'm shooting for July 20th of this year to have a working website.
2. Learn how to play the piano. I grew up in a house that had a piano most of my life, and I've never had one piano lesson. I was even in Madrigals and Jazz Choir in high school, and I couldn't tell you if I was singing an F or and F#. I had no clue, I just knew that when the note was higher on the scale, I needed to sing higher, and I knew rhythm from playing drums in 9th grade. I've always wanted be able to play the piano. We have my step-son in piano lessons, and we bought him the beginner books to learn. He practices every day for 30 minutes, and I figure that if that's the way it's supposed to be done, then why not do it at the same time? I should be able to learn how to play the piano at least as quickly as him, right? I think I'm doing pretty well. I learned how to play a small part of Beethoven's 5th already. I don't know why, but I've always had the ridiculous idea that playing the piano should come instantly to me. In the ripe age of 36 I've realized that some things just take time and action by you to become a reality. It's perfect that I'm going for two pretty big goals at the same time. I'm going to be able to judge my progress in both and be able to see if I'm falling behind.
3. Get into the best shape of my life. I love to mountain bike. I went 3 times last year, and all three times I felt like I had my ass handed to me on a platter. I was getting smoked by my fellow riders, and I used to do pretty well on uphill, but not last year. This year, I'm devoted to get back to the fitness level I was at 7 years ago. I started swimming at the local rec center. I swam 2-3 times a week for the month of February, and I was increasing the number of laps I could swim in 30 minutes every time I went. I need to get another pass this month, but I should still be able to do some stuff at home. If any of you have a Bowflex that you haven't been using, let me know. I'm the kind of person who would exercise more often if the stuff was right in my own home rather than go to the gym. I'm going to start doing push-ups and sit-ups daily as well, that can't hurt.
4. Simplify my house. Alright, what that hell are you talking about, simplify your house? Well this is what that means. My garage is full of crap that I don't need. In fact, there is a lot of stuff in my home that I haven't used or even looked at in over a year. My house is full of clutter, and I used to believe that a clean room or desk or what have you, was the sign of a sick mind. In truth, I'm sure it helps keep your mind clear. I've been thinking that the clutter of the house is like a metaphor for the clutter in my brain. With reading this book, I'm getting focused on what I truly want, and I'm going for it. In order to do that, I have to eliminate outside distractions that prevent me from putting in the effort and taking the necessary actions. So I should also clear out any unnecessary clutter from my eyesight as well. I recently visited a friends house, and they took us on a tour of their huge house. The one thing I noticed throughout the tour was how clean the house was. There was virtually no clutter! Their bedroom looked like it was about to have a picture taken of it for some magazine insert. All of the kids rooms were impeccably clean. I'm sure it's a team effort in their house, but really it starts from the top down. I wouldn't want to bring anyone into my room except family at this point. We're not slobs, we just have a lot of clutter. I know a good portion of it is me, and I'm working on that. Spring cleaning is going to have a whole new meaning for me this year though. It's starting to warm up now, and my garage is calling me in my sleep to clean it out. Can you say yard sale? Target date for completion: garage 3/29/09; upstairs 4/30/09; downstairs 5/17/09; basement 5/31/09.
5. Start getting to bed at 11:00PM. I have realized that I am not getting enough sleep for the past few years. My excuse for this has been that I'm used to it now. My body is telling me otherwise. I'm not going to hold myself to this bedtime every night, but if I can manage to be in bed by eleven 4 nights a week my body will thank me for it. Eight hours of sleep has got to be better than the 5 1/2-6 1/2 I've been managing lately.
So there it is. My 5 commitments. I know it's pretty ambitious, but it's also very doable. I'll be sure to write updates on how it all goes. Any encouragement would be much appreciated.
I'll finish with this quote by Les Brown:
"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." Well, here are my first 5 steps to greatness, and now I can't say that I don't know what it is that I need to do either.
