Do It

It's a new year. As always, I make the same resolutions of self-improvement: Get in better shape, play more guitar, write more, etc. I don't always follow through, but I try.

This year, I'm going to try a few different things. I'm hoping to lose 15-20 pounds because I stopped running a few weeks ago to stop damaging my injured heels, and I've been indulging in holiday snacks and beer on the regular. I need to do some kind of physical therapy to get back to running in the spring, but I haven't figured out exactly what yet.

I had been taking guitar lessons with a local guy for parts of the last two years and had to stop in September because my schedule was just too damn busy. Need to get back at it, but I'm going to try to do it on my own just because there's too much going on. I learned a bunch of riffs from songs over the last few years; I'd like to improve my technique.

I had lots of good ideas last year for blog posts that never materialized because I was too busy with other things: podcast, radio show, running column, coaching soccer, watching sports, going to concerts, spending time with my family, etc. Most of my blog posts were show notes posts about the podcast and radio show, or concert reviews. I want to produce more writing specifically for this blog. I was inspired by listening to an interview Marc Maron did on the WTF podcast with longtime Letterman staff writer/novelist Bill Scheft, specifically talking about his writing process. He mentioned a book called The Artist's Way that encouraged writers to do "morning pages," which basically involves starting each day by writing something; the site 750 Words explains the principle. I realize it's not going to be possible to do it every morning or even every day, but I want to write more essay-type posts about a variety of topics, so I'm going at the very least start some blog posts every morning, even if I need to finish them later. I've got ideas already, so there's no excuse not to do it other than laziness.

It's so easy to have ideas and not follow through on them. As recently as November, when National Novel Writing Month was going on, I signed up to try and do it again and didn't even get one day's worth of writing done. It's about being organized and efficient, but a lot of times it just involves kicking yourself in the butt and doing something. 

DO IT.