May Day

Happy May Day, people!

I’m using May Day (not to be confused with mayday) as a jumping off point to another chapter in my life. I’ve been wanting to be more aware of how I’m living and if I’m living how I want to live. What is my vision for how I live my life and what am I doing to make it so? Make sense?

Good to Great inspired me again. There’s a chapter called “Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith).” In this chapter, Collins recounts a personal interview with Admiral Jim Stockdale. Stockdale was the highest ranking officer in a prisoner-of-war camp during the Vietnam War. He was imprisoned for eight years.

The biggest A-HA I got from the chapter is this quote from Stockdale, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” I hear you, Admiral.

Since reading this chapter, I’ve been thinking about how I can do just that. How can I confront the facts of my most current reality while retaining faith that I (or my vision for myself) will prevail in the end? How do I begin to confront these most brutal of facts?

As it turns out, I had already started. For the past few years, I have been keeping a somewhat close tally on my finances using an Excel spreadsheet. I don’t track every bit of spending (that would be another level of awareness), but I know what’s happening with most every area of my financial world.

The quantitive stuff comes easy to me. It’s the qualitative picture that I need to confront more pointedly.

Am I happy? Sure. Do I have a good life? Sure. Yeah, so? Am I living how I want to live consistently? No. Do I have everything I want from an emotional, spiritual and intellectual level? No, sir. Am I living my purpose? Huh? Maybe sometimes. Am I as healthy as I want to be? Ummm, no.

Given all of this and more good info from Good to Great (a damn good book), I have come up with a Weekly Awareness Sheet that I will use every day during the month of May. (The sheet is my own creation.) That’s what I commit to doing right here and right now in order to confront the brutal facts of my current reality. I will look at the following:

+ Wake Up Time - when do I shag my ass out of bed?
+ Meditate/Pray - this is more of a checkbox reminder - “make sure you do this” kind of thing - maybe I’ll record what I do and when
+ Plan for the Day - a few brief words about my plan for the day
+ Breakfast - what do I eat and when?
+ Lunch - what do I eat and when?
+ Dinner - what do I eat and when?
+ Snacks - what do I eat and when? (as if you didn’t get this by now)
+ Friends/Family Contacted - who am I in touch with? - I want to be in more frequent contact with people
+ Physical Activity - what am I doing to be active? - I want to be more physically/”cardiovascularly” active
+ Daily Stretch Goal - one goal each day to stretch beyond my comfort level in one area of my life - did I reach it?
+ Gratitudes - for what am I grateful? - I want to be more aware of the blessings in my life
+ Bed Time - what time do I rack it for the night?

I like it. I know it’s not a comprehensive list, but it’s a good start. Is there anything else I should be noting? Seriously, I’m open to hearing some feedback. There will likely be changes to this list and process improvements along the way. For now, I need to run to Staples and grab a three-hole punch and a binder

Other May possibilities: Yesterday, I talked with a friend about giving up booze and going back to the “no sugar, no white flour” commitments for 90 days. I’m unclear about these in this moment, but I’m seriously contemplating them. FYI, both of these would be exercises in more consciousness rather than punishments.

In an effort to “get the craving out of my system,” I went to Sunset Grill and Tap in Allston, MA last night. The place has 112 beers on tap and 380 in bottles and cans. CRIKEY! It was a beer lover’s heaven. I had three beers and a few tiny samples over a couple of hours. Yum!

Stay tuned, people.

Much love,
Greg