2018 Goals

Focusing on a goal can help when you're experiencing pain.  Knowing that there's somewhere you'd like to be, somewhere that is bigger and different than now, can put the current moment in perspective.  Here are my goals for 2018.

199.5

I began 2018 at the weight of 245.8.  This was slightly inflated because I’d had pizza and beers the night before, but it’s not off by much.  It certainly isn’t in-accurate.  This is way too much weight for my body, and I can feel the effects.  My joints hurt a little.  My exercise is not seamless.  I need to get my body weight down, which will help all other areas of fitness. By year’s end, I will be under 205, and see 199.5 at least once on the scale.  The scale, for me, is a good way to mark progress because the number does not lie.  

Sex & Algebra Will Meet the World

I began a novel in 2004.  I was sitting at the desk in my classroom, and this sentence came to me, seemingly out of nowhere.  I wrote it down.  I was so proud.  It is still my favorite sentence that I’ve ever written.  I honored the sentence.  9 years later, I finished a 120,000 word novel, which is title Sex and Algebra.  I remember the second I finished the novel in 2011.  Three of us were hanging out, and I was thinking about the ‘next’ scene.  Then there was no next scene.  The rest was up to the reader’s imagination.  Telling my part of the story was finished, and it was now left to the reader.  I walked in the kitchen and was like, “Guys.  I just finished.”  I spent the next two years (2011-13) editing the book, and have been trying to get someone to publish it.  I’ve queried 40+ agents, but suck at selling my work.  I bumble more than spark.  I’ve barely had a bite.  This year, the book will meet the world, and the world will meet the book.  If I must, I will self publish. 

10,000 Listens - Beyond the Classroom

I’ve half-assed a lot of things in my life.  I’m pretty good at making excuses, and pretty good at rationalizing.  These skills make it fairly easy to try at half speed.  Often, I'm left with this feeling that I could have done better.  Beyond the Classroom, for me, is sort of the culmination of these things.  I had an idea, couldn’t get it off the ground for a while, but stuck with it.  Each step of the process- the artwork, the recording settings, the equipment, exporting content, file size and conversion, website development, and submission - had some obstacle.  Each obstacle was its own opportunity to give up.  Yet I persisted.  Having a publishing schedule meant having deadlines.  Mostly talking solo meant having to create a bunch of content.  But I’ve found that the more I’ve been recording, the more I’m love doing it.  I think I’m starting to churn our some good content, and think the content needs to be heard.  We should be encouraged.  We can pursue our dreams. That’s what B.Y.C. is about.  If the show helps one person, then it was successful; especially if the one person is younger, in need of encouragement, and the content helps them not give up on their dream.  That would be enough.  I left 'younger' in the sentence, but my bigger point is that age doesn't matter.  Pursuing passion does.  Even though numbers don’t matter, numbers matter.  I want to step my game up, take it to a new level.  I want 10,000 listens of B.Y.C. by year’s end.