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02 September 2008
What's your current/next self-improvement project?→[More:]Me, now that I have a Monday night volunteer project that conflicts with pilates class, I'm working on doing pilates at home. Last week's "class" was brutal!
I took up running in the mornings. It hurts my leg bones like nothing else but I look forward to not being a blob. My next project is two and half brutal months of four-hours-a-weekday language instruction followed by, if I can find one, a pilates class. That goes about as far as I can plan in the future.
Oh heavens, too many to mention, BUT I did find a yoga class that isn't at 5:30 am or during lunch, so after next week's move, I'll be going to that weekly.
Read "Les passions de l'âme" for the first time, I only read Descartes in school because I had to, and skipped Les passions. I try to force myself and read stuff that I don't find _that_ interesting to begin with not to limit my scope too much. Sometimes it's hard.
Ooh, this is not self-improvement, exactly, but all of a sudden I can read again! I mean, I can read a whole book, not just scraps from the internet and magazines. Yay!!! I've read two in one months, which used to be average or below average, but it's been years since I really could focus on a book. They were both awesome -- Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.
I've been running almost every day and plan on running in the 5K Race part of the Pittsburgh Mayor's Great Race on September 28. If I'm really ambitious/foolish, I'll enter in the 10K. I've never run a race before so I don't really know how I'll do.
Going to therapy to figure out why I'm so phobic about internet dating and/or just interacting with strangers in general.
And instead of working on this as much as I should, I'm resuming violin lessons for the first time in 3 years. Which is also a form of self improvement I guess, if an unproductive one.
Hm, I started a year long thing on my 39th birthday, mostly steps to clean up my life by my 40th. So far it's going well, two major hurdles jumped, only 8 more to go.
The overarching goal is to be myself - which sounds simple, but isn't. We lie to ourselves all the time; we bargain with God/Fate/Time/Whatever and get disappointed or encouraged, but we're still kidding ourselves on some level. We lie to others after that, believing that yes, we can, or no, we can't, mostly because we're afraid to do something different. We don't mean to, but it happens.
I forget who said it, but “Reaching maturity means you no longer need to be lied to.” So that's my self improvement project. To thine own self be true.
Finish reading 2666. I think it is the longest book I've ever read.
I want to finish my yoga classes at the place near work and then start going to the new gym I signed up for near my house and eat at home more.
Someday, a real boyfriend who doesn't move away would be nice.
And instead of working on this as much as I should, I'm resuming violin lessons for the first time in 3 years. Which is also a form of self improvement I guess, if an unproductive one.
Unproductive? I beg to differ. You might not make any more money if you get better at the violin, but getting better at a skill will make you happier, and depending on your level will open the way for nice sociable things like orchestras and quartets (tho maybe you do such things already). What could be more productive than that? Making music with people is one of the best things ever, in my view.
I'm getting some lessons too, and I plan to go to a sports class of some kind on a regular basis.
AltoL, you're absolutely right about the happier part; I have this unreasonable notion that I "should" ignore the things I like to do for myself in order to work on the other things, which is, actually, insane. It's productive for ME, and that's good! Must remember that...
(Alas, all the music groups I belong to and used to belong to do not have any single, straight, interesting, 40-ish men!! Perhaps this new wave of lessons will open some doors...)
My self-improvement endeavors center on improving my appearance. I'm shallow.
I'm already going to the gym at least twice a week. I'm still working with the trainer. I need more cardio and less eating. I mostly always do a cardio session after I work with the trainer, but I need to do cardio on the days I'm not weight training. I'll run/walk here and there, but it' sporadic these days. I'm always trying to lose some pounds. I'm giving it a half-hearted effort at the moment because I bought a bag of peanut M&M's at Blockbuster today.
First, I finally started to take my extreme lethargy seriously this year and went to a couple doctors to find out about that. Am finally taking medication that seems to be working. I haven't napped in days! And I've gotten up, not just before 2pm, but before noon a few days in a row. Pretty much a miracle.
Second, I've been buying and growing big excesses of vegetables and berries and have started freezing and canning for the winter. I am so looking forward to eating well this winter.
Third, buying a house means I now have a private backyard and a nice covered front porch. Being able to putz around or just sit outside among all the green is the best thing I think that has ever happened to me. It's meditating without even trying to meditate. My mind is grateful for having a yard.
(Alas, all the music groups I belong to and used to belong to do not have any single, straight, interesting, 40-ish men!! Perhaps this new wave of lessons will open some doors...)
I had been a member of one group for 6 years, when there arrived a new player, who at the time was a tall dark handsome (IMO) single 35-year-old, who is now a married (to me) 40-year-old... so in part I'm contributing to the problem, but I can't marry more than one of them!
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
