Things of which I aspire

So here it is, the third and last installment of Things I Love, Things I Hate, and Things of Which I Aspire. Having completed this first round of exercises for my journal, I see there is a lot for me to look forward to. It was kind of nice to see all these positive things written out on paper . . . it seems to make it more official in some way. I’m pleased to know that the things I love and the things of which I aspire far outnumber the things I hate.

As expected, renewing my vows to keeping a daily journal has been really fulfilling (in many ways) and even in only 3 weeks of daily note keeping, I’ve gone to new places of knowing. I’m also happy to report that several of the items on this very list are now goals and tasks that are in the works. So far, I’m writing well over 1000 words a day and while I haven’t hit that 20 hours of reading per week, I’m feeling pretty good as a writer and won’t give up on the reading part of the program (I just need to target the time better and maybe get up a bit earlier in the morning). Do you keep a journal? What are your aspirations and how do you plan on making them come true?

Happiness is not a right. It must be pursued.

Things I Hate

In keeping with my daily journaling experience, I began with a small exercise of listing Things I Love, Things I Hate, and Things of Which I Aspire to. I found this, while an extremely simple exercise, to be quite enlightening because the point of my journal is not to impress anyone. It’s a private place, solely for me (and I guess upon occasion, for you.)  My search was for answers that were honest and when I was writing about things I love, I discovered that I was listing some things because I felt I was ‘suppose’ to love them. Deleting those false items from the list and replacing them with things I really loved was freeing and insightful. It took me to a new place of knowing.

Things I Love

This was an interesting little exercise. I decided I needed to go to a happy place and so gave myself the exercise of writing down all the things I love. The exercise was interesting because the list is honest and gave me space to really think about things that make my heart sing rather then the things I’m obligated to love. This list does indeed make me happy. So here they are. Things I love, in no particular order:

Gävlebocken

I had spent several hours in front of my computer watching the cursor flash against the empty Word document. I finally reach out to my beau in desperation, “I’m freaking out. I seem to have lost the ability to form even the smallest creative thought,” I said to him.

“Hmmm… you have a block,” he says. “Let’s see if we can figure something out to help you.”

“Ok, but at this point, I’m not even sure I can spell.”

“You just want too much. You need to think more simple,” he says. “Why don’t you write about the Gävle goat? Every year they try to burn that Christmas goat down.”

“Which goat?” I ask with eyebrows raised.

My beau lives in Göteborg, so here it is . . . a simple Christmas tale direct from the land of Sweden.

Saying Goodbye to TV

Perhaps I’ve been reading too many business marketing and motivational books.  Seth Godin, and The Red Lemon Club have provided me with advice on how to be more productive and extraordinary. Taking them at their word, I’ve decided to conduct an experiment as part of my approach at living a bigger life of art and design. I’m ditching TV.

This measure is requiring a certain amount of bravery on my part. While I don’t watch that much TV anyway, there are certain times when I really truly just want to relax in front of the tube and let it take me away.  It’s candy for my brain.  Regardless, this week I’ll be calling up my satellite provider and canceling my account.

It’s not just a matter of wanting to be more productive… if I wanted to be more productive, I could always elect to just not turn the thing on. But, my Directtv bill is approximately $90/month and I find that ridiculous. I don’t receive the premium channels such as Showtime or HBO.  Nope, that $90/month goes for perhaps 4 channels I watch regularly and a whole bunch of other channels I rarely use.  I’ve called Directtv and eliminated some channels in attempt at making the monthly bill less like extortion, but that only brought my bill down by about $15 and eliminated Ovation TV, which I loved.  So with the support of my kids, off it goes and here are the benefits we’re hoping to gain:

1. More productivity and a enhanced lifestyle
2. I can either save that $90 or use it toward attending a social event.  That’s $1,080/year and that’s some significant vacation money!!
3. Less stress… I find that often the background noise of TV causes stress for me.  Quiet is good. Music is good. Bombs blowing up, repeated bad news, loud TV commercials…BAD.
4. I can enjoy television and programs without the monthly bill.  I can rent DVDs from the library. Watch Hulu.  ABC provides many of their regular programs online at abc.go.com. I can read the news online or in print.  These things are all “On Demand”.

I think that with the economy being such as it is, and with the inflated prices Comcast, Directtv and others are demanding, television will eventually go the way of the dinosaur.  Why should we pay $90+ when we can get what we need for less and On Demand.  My mission, my attempt, is to take back control.  Come on, join me.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.