Running log

Day	Distance	Terrain	Time
Monday	2.4m	Flat	35min
Wednesday	2.4m	Flat	30min
Thursday	2.4m	Flat	33min
Saturday	4.1m	Flat (Fiesta Island)	Unknown
Total	11.3m

It all starts with the snooze button

For more time than I can, or care to, remember, I’ve wanted to finally start making some changes in my life. Not the least of which was to stop procrastinating, tie up the million or so loose ends in my life, and lose a few pounds in the process. You know, simple goals.

If you read my personal blog, you’ve seen me post no less than three sets of New Year’s Resolutions. I also have a (usually) weekly post called the Friday Five which has an “Exercise” section where I list off the exercise I’ve been able to accomplish in a given week. In reality, both of those traditions have become little more than a running gag. In the end I’m still just as lazy and just as overweight and just as out of shape as I was when I started.

I needed a clean break from the past. I decided that the start of 2010 was going to be my year. Now there’s nothing special about 2010; no great epiphany on January 1st, no angels, no singing, and no sunbursts through the clouds. In fact, January 1st, 2010 was just like January 1st, 2009, and just like January 1st 2008, and ….

And there in lies the problem with New Year’s resolutions. Well, at least the problem for me. While logically it seems like there’s a nice clean break between years, and a perfect time to start anew, the reality is that January 1st is just like any other day on the calendar. And 2010 was on track to be just like any other year.

One of the blogs I subscribe to on Google Reader is The Art of Manliness. The site is about bringing back the ideals of the post WWII man, as well as a lot of self-improvement articles. I was flipping through my Google Reader and I came across an article entitled, “The 'Secret' to Becoming a Better Man in 2010”. Intrigued I read it. It makes a very simply point in a very eloquent manner – it’s all about discipline. The fact is you have time/ability to do anything; you just have to do it.

I started off with something very small – the snooze button. That may sound small to you, but to me it was huge. My love affair with the snooze button goes back a couple of decades. When I had to wake up early, the question from Karin wasn’t, “When do you want to get up?”, it was, “What time should we start the process?” When I was by myself, I’d hit snooze for a good hour or more.

If I could conquer the snooze button, then I could conquer anything.

I’m proud to say that with the exception of one slip-up, I’m snooze button free for about the last 3 weeks. And it’s fantastic. I have time for breakfast, a long shower, catching up on Facebook, the whole enchilada.

That has become the impetus to my improving other areas of my life; I’m tackling todo’s going back months, I’m replying to emails in record time, and I’m back exercising again.

And that’s the reasoning behind this blog. A very good friend of mine, Dave “Jumbo”, has walked this path before me and has been very generous with advice. One big piece of advice was to start some form of a journal or blog.

I wanted something separate from my normal Jersey’s Musings blog, as the Exercise section had become a joke. Thus the new blog. The focus here is not just on becoming physically fit, but mentally and emotionally fit as well.

What are you going to see here? That’s a great question. I’m honestly not sure yet myself. I plan on posting my workouts, articles I come across, and other miscellaneous thoughts. Frankly, I’m expecting this blog to be more self-centered than my personal one, if you can imagine such a thing. But I wanted to make this public, partly because I want some form of accountability, and partly because of the chance that someone might find something worthwhile or inspiring here.

It’ll be an interesting journey either way.