Starting over…
Nothing new or surprising given the January “New year’s resolutions” timeframe, but I’ve been spending the last few weeks since returning home from my holiday stint in PA reorganizing my life.
It’s all stuff I’ve done before, and that worked before, which always makes me wonder what happened… why did it stop?
The most important thing is I’ll be debt-free in February. I know my recent weight gain was linked to money or, more importantly, stress. Two summers ago, I started looking for work, and there were jobs, but I just couldn’t land one, since I was overqualified for all of them. I knew that and it was kind of the point, but it wasn’t happening. Because I saw so many jobs posted that I could do, I wasn’t panicked about finding work.
As a result, I waited until my finances were like “Dude, it’s time” to get one. And then no one would hire me. Many of them saying things like “You could do this job with your eyes closed,” and “You’d be bored with a job this easy.” Nice to hear, but as the jobs weren’t happening, the finances started spiraling quickly (since I’d waited so long), which started the stress, and the eating.
In any event, it took a period of aggressive paydown, but the debt will be gone soon.
I’ve started reexamining everything in an effort to put what I supposedly value first. My life seems to have a lot of diametrically opposed issues there, with the easy fix always winning over the long-term struggles, whether it be going to the theater instead of finishing my novel, having a nice meal instead of monitoring my diet, and on down the line.
So, upon my return, I started getting up earlier. My normal wake-up time for my commute is 6 a.m., so that was the starting point. the first day I got up at 6, then 5:30, then 5, and I’ve been waking up now at 4 a.m. for nearly a week. I’m nearly at the point where I can be creative at that time, at which point 4 to 6 a.m. will be my writing window.
The other stuff is more of what you’d expect. The gym is six days a week (like popular dieties in Jewish fiction, I take Sundays off). I’ve cooked a lot of my own meals, and cut way back on eating out.
The only missing component that has yet to be folded into the plan is to start reading more fiction again. That begins any day now.
At some point this year, not soon, I want to start dating and all that. I even set up something of a date for July, although that has a lot of contingencies, such as the amazing guy still being available then. He lives out of town, which is the only way to put something off for such a period. July gives me time to have a finished fourth draft of novel and a better draft of my body. If someone snatches him up by then, I’ll still visit his town and most likely see him, just in a different way.
My job is a contract which, by law, could possibly end in mid-March. So, it’s important to lay the groundwork so we don’t have a repeat performance of last time. I plan to be looking for work before this contract ends, though, hopefully transitioning directly into something else.
Like I said, I’m not doing anything over the top, or new. Just what I’ve determined is necessary to knock out as many goals as possible as soon as possible.
I’ll try not to avoid this blog for as long in 2009, as well.
OK, 9 a.m. now, time to start work. Today was a commute day, and I’m already at my desk.
