Fortunately for me, and fortunately for you three, we are coming to the end of bjournal for bjournal's sake. Project Two in two nights. I've done some thinking today, and more importantly have heard the weather people's voices of doom about the Maritimes this weekend. I think the message I'm getting is "You probably don't want to start biking to work or jogging outside each night." That might be supposition, but supposing is a position I like. I think the next project will be a reading one, with no guilt about it. I have a new side goal, and that is to make sure that when I finish the list, there will be a near equal amount of humanities, academics and athletic projects. Obviously, I can't go exactly equal, or I'd have 99 projects. OOOOOOH, maybe the 100th project could be a combination of all three. Astronaut training. Yeah. Or something I'd be allowed to do.
I have decided to let the project list grow organically, as good ideas hit me, or are thrown at me (and I want to thank my friends who threw so many great ideas at me before I got started). If this works the way I want it to, this time next year I'll have a number of new things I know and can do. That might make it easier to choose new projects. Also, I'd hate to have to tear things down from the list if I find something better. I've decided to shoot for no more than a handful of new ideas a week, put them on, and get back to the project at hand.
I had a thought about this project today, and the thought has been growing right up to this sentence. I wanted to give some advice today, some piece of wisdom, some way to help another person do their own One Thousand Days. The full grown thought is this.
Don't. Don't get to the point in your life where you have to create a schedule to make yourself a better, more active person. Just do stuff. Read stuff. Learn stuff. Stuff is pretty awesome. If you are younger than me, you have more time to get out there. I have heard a few people tell me they thought this was a good idea, and each person who said this made me think "This woman/man doesn't need Remedial Life. She/He has a ton of skills already." It resonated with them because they like people who carpe their diems, and we all of us tend to like those who share mindsets. But I don't share their mindsets. I am dragging myself kicking and screaming towards human competence.
If you are my age or older and you truly don't think you've done anything with your spare time, then maybe, MAYBE, give this a try. You don't have to wait to the thousand mark, and if it's passed by already, who cares? There's a scene in an episode of South Park that I really like. The parents go to fantastical lengths to scare their children into avoiding marijuana, which eventually blow up in their faces. One of the main character's dad finally says something like, "Marijuana probably isn't as bad as people say, but it makes you feel okay about being bored and doing nothing. And that's when you should be out learning a new hobby or sport or something."* I don't have Marijuana as an excuse. I like doing nothing. And I think it is even more important that I use my spare time to get some new hobbies.
Tomorrow, the Exit Interview.
- Mike
* Just to be clear, I know the names of the characters, and I deliberately didn't say the quote as true to the episode as I know I could have. Like I said, I spent a lot of time sitting on my butt.
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