Reaffirmations

As a man who frequently dreams of reinvention, but rarely comes close to doing much about it, I think it might be time to abuse my blog to help reaffirm my goals. Things have slipped a little admittedly part due to my glut of holidays this winter season, one snowboard trip to Les Arcs during which my beloved snowboard, Fat Bob, gave up on being trodden on and busted, making me realise how hard it actually is to find a decent sized wide snowboard for hire (or even purchase) in a French alpine resort. And more recently, a trip to Romania with Mimi to hunt vampires, overtake horse and carts in our rental car and eat lots of meat and pickled things. Oh yeah, and I'm off boarding again in a couple of weeks - poor me :)

So having burnt out all my holiday in winter 2008, I need to reaffirm what to do with the rest of my time. Back in June 2007 I wrote this post which listed five major projects. Firstly was to lose weight, which to a degree I have done. But anyone who clicks through or watches the Traineo image on the right will have noted a static number. I assure you I am still updating this, but cannot seem so shift weight at my currently lifestyle. So it's time to refine that project with two more affirmations:

#1: I will go to the gym twice a week during a normal working week. No exceptions. This is on top of any third activity I do (currently Yoga)

#2: Cut down drinking and unhealthy food by drinking more pints of water when out (half of the "addiction" is having a pint in hand, you see) and trying harder to plan more meals / making more homemade lunches (which is something Mimi and I are both focusing on)

I also stated back in June that I would write more. Well, blogging is always a good background practice for that. I've just completed a creative writing course that didn't teach much technique but did get me writing. So hopefully I can keep some velocity up with that - I started writing up my travels in Romania, so hopefully I can blog some of that later on. So let's try an affirmation of:

#3: I will write more, either about Romania, or another short topic, and blog it. Before the end of April, ideally.

Also, a new affirmation from a comedy course I finally took last December

#4: Perform one stand up comedy gig this year

What else from June ? Coding... well that isn't happening out of hours, but that's not a bad thing with everything else I'd rather focus on. Instead I will make an affirmation to apply it within work - but that will come up as part of my work objectives (currently under review) so I'll leave that off this list. Another thing was finances... well, I am making steady progress in tracking finances, but may of signed up for one too many accounts and cards on the way, and forgotten a few too many passwords for the online accounts. So one extra affirmation to get myself ready for a new financial year and ISA allowance is:

#5: Ensure I have a full picture of all accounts, ISAs and general savings by the end of the financial year.

oh yeah, and...

#6: Sort out final bills from my old house share within the next two weeks (sorry Jon :)

And finally there was talk of learning. My basic German came in some use in Romania when the English let me down, and Mimi and I's French helped support what gaps the German had. So it would be nice to bolster these language skills where required, but in truth without a specific holiday destination requiring them, language learning can be fast forgotten. So I can replace learning with just a resolution to keep in control of things, get on the front foot and take control of things.

But... hold on... what about FUN !?!?!! One more affirmation for me then:

#7: I will find time to play computer games and / or read books at least one hour a week.

oh go on, one more:

#8: I will try and organise at least one board gaming session with friends every month.

Much better !!! Hopefully all this self assurance hasn't been too dull for the reader. Some far more exciting news coming for the next post...

Back from the future (+11 GMT)

I'm back from Australia, but must admit the "wonderment" of being on the other side of the world didn't come through as it did with the round the world travels. Mostly this is probably due to us not actually leaving the city of Melbourne - most of the trip was devoted to seeing friends and Mimi's family, and where it wasn't, it was devoted to sitting about doing blissful, sweet nothing (well, playing games on my new PSP, which pretty much equates to the same thing).

It was great meeting the aunts, uncles and cousins who up until know had been merely a character in a couple of anecdotes. It was also particularly nice to meet up with old workmates and friends from my last time over there. And finally it was great to play a lot of Guitar Hero and drink plenty of Aussie beer. I also got a chance to play through all of Half-life : Portal, which I now declare to be the best game made for the PC since, I dunno, Doom ?

So now back at work and pushing through some new years resolutions type stuff. Trying to push back hard on the weight and fitness again - last year got me almost two stone lighter, but those were the two easy stones I think ! Really hoping to battle my way down to 17 stone the start of this year. Fortunatley, my exercise regime has evolved now, such that I have cycling to work (2-3 times a week), the gym (trying for twice a week, but...), yoga on Tuesdays and practice runs at the weekend when Jon and I are both available. Hopefully by the time the 10K run in May comes around, I'll be in a good place.

Along with the yoga, I signed up for a brief creative writing course. Hopefully out of this I can develop a few writing ideas I've had rattling around for a while, and at least "give it a go". The only failure is not trying ;) Simliarly, a stand-up comedy course I finally took is beckoning me to trying out a stand up gig just the once. Not sure I'm advertising that one just yet though.

Reflection is my real word of the day

Feel like a lot of change and projects are flowing around in my life at the moment, and wanted to take a few minutes to capture where I am at with each. And also mark any progress on them, once I can stop spending ALL my spare time on facebook - if your not signed up then your rapidly becoming part of the minority, as even technophobic friends appear there every day. It's becoming big. It may even become an e-mail killer for some groups. Come see. Anyway, on with the life projects:

Project #1: Lose weight

Well, this is going to be a big one if I am to ultimately aim for the "recommended" weight of around 15 stone. So step 1 is... lose weight ! By which I mean just track SOME weight being lost over the next few weeks, ensuring I've got SOME healthy habits in place to achieve that. I am also keeping a track of everything I eat and drink to help spot where things are going badly in my diet - it also works as a source of guilt as I fill it in as well ! I also have an upcoming 3.5 mile run I am training for, which helps toward the "keeping active" part required for any weight loss program. Ran 5km in the gym last night - very knackering but rewarding !

Project #2: Write

Nothing as grand as writing a novel, but I do enjoy writing, if not for the reflection it brings, as well as a chance to try out words from my word-of-the-day update, which I quite like, although I wouldn't go as far to say that I venerate it. This is ticking along nicely - I have this blog, and another Java / software blog I am trying to keep writing too. Finding this other blog is left as an exercise for the reader for now :)

Project #3: Code

Should be easy - it's my job. But there is coding and then there is Coding. Depending on the role, some task only allow a limited use of coding skills - indeed banking is often a job where the bulk of the work is business analysis and the actual coding can take second place. So I continue to have my side-project of "virtual vampire", and other opportunities are floating out there too. Haven't done much coding on VV for a while though... bad Ben :(

Project #4: Finances

An ongoing project now nearing some degree of completion. This was basically the thought that in general if I want more financial stability, I can either spend time working harder to earn more money, but equally I could spend time managing the money I do have better. The recommendation here has to be Money Saving Expert, a neutral website by Martin Lewis for managing your money better. So I have moved any spare coins into ISAs, better savings accounts and soon will move to a new current account paying twice as much interest as the old one. All these little things add up, and will help me build up a nice nest egg to throw at a mortgage when I am ready for such a thing. Also tracking my spending using some software is good for the guilt mirror effect (similar to Project #1 !).

Project #5: Learn

Did a training course recently at work on some basics of finance that had been long overdue in my career. With the test looming next week, I am discovering the joy of proper learning again. I equally enjoyed learning Spanish over a year ago, and want to keep that feeling going. Getting some basic Greek in my head could help for a trip to Greece this year. Professional certification courses also help with strengthening my CV and developer skills. Guess I need to think more about this one - first things first, I've got a finance test to revise for :)

So that's my life, split in project form. Of course it's not that clear cut in reality, but it's the beginning of a set of goals. Reflection is good for nailing down the "why" behind a lot of what I am doing, and this "why" should help me hammer out some life goals. And these don't have to be active goals as such, even passive goals can help with making decisions, which is basically where I see my weakness. In ways I've drifted a long time without firm goals, and that's a shame, as I think everything is much brighter and more interesting when you've got something to work towards.

Did I mention facebook ? Join us ;)