Resolution 1 Part 1: Fewer things

Sorry for the delay in posting this one. School and rugby started back up and I've spent the last two weeks trying to remember how to learn and regretting every piece of junk food I shoved in my face hole over the holidays. 

So let's get to this year's resolutions. I’m breaking the first one into two parts. Here’s the first half

I like books. I really do. I love reading. I've got a wish list saved on Amazon of all the books I want to get around to read. They’re the one thing I can almost always justify spending money on. They sit on my shelf and I look over at them as I’m playing PlayStation and they make me feel smart. And I think that’s a problem. 

It’s not just books though. It’s things in general. I like having them. I like surrounding myself with stuff. I like having all three of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies even though I haven’t watched any of them in months. I have an old softball mitt that hasn't caught a softball in over a decade. I keep it around because… I might need it? Really? No one wants me on their corporate cup softball team. Why do I have all this stuff? It’s like I’m nesting.

I listened to a podcast the other day about this guy who’s a professional adventurer. He spends his time kayaking around Greenland or longboarding across Australia. He talked about how just about everything he owns has to fit into his backpack. He just doesn't have room in his life for a whole lot of extra stuff. 

I remember coming away from that thinking, “Man, I want that kind of life.” I want to be able to go have awesome experiences like that. And I’m kinda thinking that my stuff, this nesting instinct that I have prevents me from getting that. Sometimes I feel like Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of the Hobbit, all comfy in my hobbit hole but forgetting that real life, the stuff that really matters is outside. 

This isn’t meant to be a rant against having things. I still like things and I still plan on getting more. I just want to see if I can change my perspective on them. Do I really need all the stuff I’m acquiring? Do I really need to get all the Avenger tie-in movies? Is that really going to make me happy? Am I going to be an old man talking to my grandkids saying, “I spent my late 20’s collecting all the Marvel universe movies.”? God, I hope not. I want something more than that. We’ll get to what I think that might be next time. 

Peace

But first a little back story

Alright before I get into my resolutions and how I'm trying to live them out, here's a little back story.

It started back this fall. I play on a men's rugby club, and up to this point I've always been pretty "ok". I went to practice. I played as hard as hard as I could. I'm just not that good. Over the last few years I kinda ended up falling into the role of team smart ass. A role I was good at. I was always the first with a smart comment. I was the one usually talking trash on the sidelines. I would have made a great scrum half (That's rugby humor. I don't feel like explaining it.)

Rugby just wasn't a priority to me. I liked it and I tried hard, but for whatever reason (probably because I'm just not that good) I didn't commit to it.

At some point a midway through the season. I got the opportunity to change that. It was a home game and a girl who I had a huge crush on was going to be there. She ended up coming right as the game started. Now the pressure was on. I had someone to impress. I ended up playing my ass off. It's like I found another gear that I didn't know was there. I ended up playing one of the best games of my life. We won and it was amazing. For once I felt like I could actually take some of the responsibility for that victory.

Now that girl is my girlfriend, (probably in no small part to how I look in rugby shorts) and I walked away from that game thinking what if I played that way all the time? What if I really committed to this team for the rest of the semester? So I did. I broke my nose the next week at practice, but I kept at it. After the last game of the semester the coach told me, "Great leadership out there." It was one of the best compliments I've ever gotten.

For some reason this attitude of asking myself "What would happen if I gave myself to this (insert something important here)?" began to touch on other areas. I started doing better in school, and I finished the semester with some of the best grades I've ever earned. I got a new job that's laying the ground work for a rewarding career. All because I asked myself, "What if I really dug in here? Where could this take me?"

I read somewhere that you spend the first quarter of your life learning how to duck responsibility. I'm really good at that. But now I'm starting to see what great things could happen if I do the opposite and start to take responsibility for my life.

And here I'm at the beginning of a new year and I want to keep that momentum going. And that's where these resolutions come from. I hope you can hang out for the journey. It's looking to be a good one.

Peace

New Years Resolutions

Hey everyone, you’re reading this and I appreciate that. I really do. Thank you so much. You're the best. Let's get coffee.

It's a new year and resolutions are all over the place. I've never been a big fan of them. I have a hard enough time remembering to brush my teeth and most resolutions usually get tossed by the wayside before February gets here anyways. But this year's going to be different. I'm going to make my attempts at them public. That way if it all goes bad we'll all at least get a good laugh over them.

I realize that the best resolutions are supposed the be the ones that are objective and concrete with hard measurable goals. I also realize that what I have are really vague and fuzzy. So maybe these are going to be more like rough guidelines or suggestions that are open to interpretation. As we go we’ll get into some specifics as to why I've picked these and how I’m trying to give them legs. But for now here they are.

1. Spend less money on things and have more experiences
2. Give more
3. Read more
4. Build relationships that make you more awesome.
5. Fail more
6. Try to live everyday like its the 2nd time
7. Let the people you care about know that you love them
8. Remind yourself that it’s all water

There’s no order to them. I don’t know if any of them are any more important than any of the others. Maybe as we go through them that’ll change. Maybe we'll kick a few out or add some more. Who knows? I hope you stick around and find out. 

Peace