34 things I will do before I turn 34.

I look at my daughter. She is so full of life. So curious. So free. She has a million things to experience. We just celebrated her first birthday. It was great day. I can't believe how much she is picking up, and how many new things she will observe over the next year. 

Me? I'm not getting any younger. The clock is ticking. There is so much I want to accomplish. However, there are also so many responsibilities I have. My career, my wife, my child, my dog, and my house just to name a few. I need to balance both. 

So on the way up to a friends wedding, my wife and I each compiled a list of 34 things we wish to accomplish before we turn 34. Here is mine. Hopefully by posting this, I will be held accountable to my goals. I know that my previous bucket list has sort of fallen by the wayside, although I did achieve some of those goals. I think this time is different. Every day I am getting stronger, smarter, and more organized.

1. Get my blood work and improve my numbers (year over year)

2. Run a spartan sprint. (Already signed up).

3. Lose 10 lbs

4. Lose 20 lbs.

5. Lose 30 lbs.

6. Build a pull up rack and/or training wall.

7. Run a 1/2 marathon or another marathon.

8. Take my family to see my daughters great-grandparent out of state.

9.  Go to six flags fright fest.

10. Go to a Chicago hockey game

11. Pay off health bills (scheduled 2/14)

12. Pay off credit card. 

13. Go ice skating.

14. Run a spartan beast. For the trifecta.

15. Not be late to appointments.

16. Launch a crowd funding campaign.

17. Finish science scenes season 1

18. Update webcomic with no more than 10 delays through the year.

19. Get 5000 blog views

20. Get 10000 blog views.

21. Get garage door fixed.

22. Finish house painting

23. Set budget so we can pay off debt within year and so we have travel money for summer.

24. Build a computer for animations and video/photo editing.

25. Go on a weekend camping and hiking trip trip.

26. Build a muppet style puppet.

27. Rejoin my master's swimming team.

28. Go on a Chicago ghost tour.

29. Visit House on the Rock.

30. Go on a WI brewery tour with the wife.

31. increase my dress tie apparel.

32. One date a month with the wife.

33. Complete 100 push up challenge.

34. Go to a comic convention.

Excuses,excuses.

Alright. I admit I haven't posted on here in too long. I mean its been over a month. Where have I been? Well here are my lame attempts at excuses.

First, remember how I talked about the Super Spartan back in my previous post? Well, it turns out that some where in the order of 5%-10% of the participants developed a pretty severe system allergic reaction type rash. I was one of the lucky ones that won said rash in addition to medal. I don't hold it against the company that puts on these events. Rashes are one of the risks we take running through the woods and swimming through dirty water. Oh well. In fact, rash and all, I enjoyed it so much that I signed up for the Spartan Sprint in Wi. 

Speaking of Wi... After said race my family took a seven hour trip to my family's lake house to spend some time with the fam. I spent a week up there sleeping (lots of antihistamines), itching, and trying to pack as much family time in as possible. I didn't have the time or energy to post.

After I returned from the cabin, I spent another week on meds rid myself of the rash. The steroids keep me jittery during the day, and the antihistamines made me drowsy at night. Neither mental state was conducive to blogging. 

After that we decided we put off some home improvements to the house; trying to complete lots of painting and minor repairs in before we celebrated my daughters birthday. Oh, and we managed to fit in another weekend trip to Wi to celebrate the wedding of a close friend of mine. 

That brings us to this week... I started my full time job as a science teacher for the school year on Tuesday. My nerves were shot and my energy levels completely drained. 

So finally, it's Thursday night after my first week of school, and I am back to blogging. I can't guarentee the frequency of posts I was providing at the beginning of summer, but my goal is to put up at least three posts a week.

So those were my excuses for my absence. And you know what? They were excuses. I could have posted more frequently, meds or no meds, vacations or not. I should have. I just need to work harder and/or smarter. Plenty of people keep blogs on the side. I know I can too. I just need to find the right balance. I know I will. I am building a cathedral.

Personal Insight at the Super Spartan.

Today I ran the Super Spartan race, and it was tough. The race was about 8 and a half miles with over 15 obstacles.  I made it through though (with the addition of soreness and nicks and cuts all over my body). It was a great fun experience, and I need to make sure that I sign up for next years race and make sure I am in even better shape to run it.

In fact, that ties in directly with the insight that I gained from running the race. If you don't know much about these mud races; they are competitions over very rough terrain with the added challenge of obstacles and lots and lots of muddy water. One of the obstacles of this years Super Spartan obstacles was a sand bag carry. I had to carry a 30 lb sand bag about 100 yards down a steep ravine and then back up the same ravine. It wasn't the hardest challenge but it was hard on me. I threw down the bag, and at that point I realized...

... that sandbag is the exact amount of extra weight I am carrying above my "healthy" weight. This means that I am basically carrying a thirty pound sand bag with me... every hour of every day. Every hour of every night.

It amazes me that I had such a rough time carrying that bag about 200 yards, and I felt such a relief to drop it off. I can only imagine how good it will feel again to drop the 30 lbs of weight I am carrying and get back down to my feel good weight.

This feeling is a great motivator. If you have weight to lose, try this. Try to carry an object that weighs the amount of weight you need to lose for a few hundred yards. Really think about how it is making you feel. The physical act of carrying the weight will stick in your head. I know for me, until the memory fades, it will keep me on track for my diet and exercise
routine.

Thanks for reading. See you soon. Build those cathedrals.

-P

Personal Update - Dreams on their way, and family time.

It's been a crazy week. I've been running around like crazy for almost two weeks. I do not want to get into particulars, as I do not want to fall into excuses for lack of updates.

But I do have positive news. I have made a major stride towards my goals. My website is up and running. You can visit it here: sciencescenes.com.

Everything looks pretty good. I am very proud of the work I put into it, but I still need to generate content. I have scripted the first dozen or so webcomics and am ready to start illustrating them, but I have hit a wall. I just cannot get motivated to push through. After a couple of days of asking myself why, I have determined it is one of the big two excuses... I'm scared. Time to set a goal. I will have my webcomic up and running by Monday July 22nd. Plan on it. On that day I will have a link here for the first Science Scenes comic. My first science scenes blog post is also in the planning stages. I should have that finished before the weekend.

Other than that, I have been working a lot around the house. I finally got the garage all organized and updated. I still want to turn one area into a little workshop, but that is for the future. I have also been spending time with my brothers and my daughter. My uncle-in-law and I worked on putting together one of those playsets for my daughter. It turned out great!

That's all for short term goals and planning. Hopefully I will be back again tomorrow. In the meanwhile, keep on building cathedrals.

See you soon.
-P

Personal Update - Where in the world am I?

Hi all.

Just a quick check in. I will not be able to blog post for another day or two likely. I am currently working on getting my website figured out and launched. Look for an announcement by the end of the week.

I am doing okay with all my other goals. No worries there.

See you soon.
-P

Lifehacks (Mindhacks) - What is the cost of doing nothing? Hint: it's not nothing.

Over the weekend I was listening to Tim Pychyl's iProcastinate Podcast, and for a very short time during this podcast Dr. Pychyl and his guest talked about a way to improve follow through on goals.

We human beings are terrible at predicting the future. It's one of the reasons large long term goals are rarely completed. We overestimate our future abilities and mood. We put off what should be done now in preparation for the future. This procrastination causes disappointments in ourselves, and can lead to a vicious downward spiral.

I often do not wish to get things done now. I would much rather put it off later. For large goals it makes sense to write the goals down. Research shows writing your goals down and reviewing them will lead positive outcomes.

However, here is a hint on how to improve the odds of finishing your goals.
 Hopefully by performing this excersice you will give a boost to your willpower, overcome procrastination, and accomplish great things.

When you do not wish to follow through with an action, ask yourself two questions. Question 1: What is the positive outcome of me performing this activity? Question 2: What is the cost of doing nothing?

By asking yourself these questions we can begin to see past our human nature and see some of the true costs of not following through. Here are some examples.

I don't wish to go for my training run today.
1.) However, if I do run, I will feel better after (I never feel worse). I will feel happy that I accomplished something today. My fitness will improve. Future runs will be easier.
2.) The cost of not running are my fitness will not improve. I will be more likely to skip the next workout. I will not have base miles to perform up to my expectations in my next race.

If I want to give in and drink that soda.
1.) If I don't drink the soda, I will be proud of myself. I will be able to add another day of going soda free. The cravings of soda will decrease each day.
2.) If I give in, I will likely give in again. The cravings will return and I could backslide.

You can go on and on for every activity. You can come up with many pros and cons of performing the activity. By thinking about these two questions you become more likley to accomplish your goals. Better yet write down these pros and cons and put them in a place you can review them often.

 Your will strenghten your will to get better. It's not fail safe, and you will fail, but with practice it will get easier.

Hope this helps. See you tomorrow.

-P

Stuck in a rut? - Volunteer.

When I first graduated college, I was a little lost. I had left the structure and safety of graduate school, where I was surrounded by similarly aged people who held similar interests to me. Once I entered "the real world" I lost a lot of that. Sure, my coworkers were awesome people, but it just wasn't the same.

I had joined Team in Training and met some good people through the program, but an injury prevented me from continuing with the program. For a while I was at a loss. I wasn't meeting people who held similar passions with me. I followed the typical work-home-sleep routine. I had my friends on the weekends, but they were now scattered across the country and some had started the very busy family life. So, they were often away. It could be lonely at times.

One day at lunch, the topic of how to meet new people in your adult life came up. One of my coworkers suggested that I try volunteering somewhere. She had a friend who started volunteering at the Shedd Aquarium and was loving it.

During the conversation, I remembered one of my favorite places as a child, The Field Museum. My late-uncle used to our large brood of cousins there for our weekends. Just the thought of the place brought back sweet nostalgia of exploring the maze-like halls filled with dinosaur bones and exotic creatures and cultures. I think I submitted my application to volunteer that day .

Volunteering fulfilled me in many ways. I felt like a kid again; memorizing dinosaur stats and learning and sharing stories of discovery and science. I met some great people, some who have became life-long friends.

When my old career was up in the air due to a rocky econonmy, volunteering kept me stable. The type of volunteer work I do involves the sharing of information, and led me to my new career in education. By giving myself as a volunteer, I was able to gain so much more. Bankrate.com even included me in an article about using volunteering as a career stepping stone.

So if you feel like your life is at a standstill... try volunteering. Contact institutions who are in line with your passions and skills and see if they could use a hand. You will learn new skills, rekindle old excitements, and meet like-minded people. Give it a try. Whats the worst that could happen?

See you all tomorrow.
-P

Personal Update and a Little Sarcastic Motivation

It's been a busy couple of days. I am still getting the schedule for the summer together and finding a strategy that will continue to work during the school year. My list of blog posts to write has grown over the past couple of days, and I have taken to writing them down in my iPad which I carry around with me at all times.

I haven't had time to fully write them yet. Yesterday we made a 4 hour round trip to celebrate my wive's nephew's birthday and today we took a trip to my mother's to visit with my grandparents who are in town. So I haven't been on top of my blogging or social media.

But, I still want to get a post in, and there are many other aspects of my life that are going well. For example, I was able to run for 50 minutes straight this morning. This is pretty specatacular because it is the first time I ran that long in over two years. I am feeling stronger, faster, better and more motivated.

Speaking of motivation, as I was brainstorming ideas for blog posts I remembered an episode of Weird Things podcast where they were talking about an article from the Onion that had been making the rounds of acedemia. I remember listening to the episode back in April on one of my runs (that were actually more walking than running at the time), and I immediately went home and looked up the article.

Here it is. It's the most motivational piece of writing I have read in a long time. It's spot on to how I felt about life at the time, and somewhat still explains why I am doing a lot of the activities I am doing right now.

I don't want my passions to take second stage to the motions of life. I want my passions to drive me. I want to look back on my life at the end, and have many more memories of "That was awesome!" than "I wish I would have...".

In a way, this silly Onion article put me on the path of doing the blog, purchasing web domains, and working on various other projects. Read the article, and if it motivates you take action. Learn, Try, Grow, Do.

See you tomorrow.
-P

Personal Update

I have a list of topics to write about, but I thought I'd save them for a later day. Today was the 'Hawks Stanley Cup Ralley and I've been on daddy duty all day. So Instead, it's time for another personal update.

I'm doing pretty well on my 21 days of happiness challenge. I've been journaling my gratitude and my 24 hour successes and reached out to friends I haven't talked to in a while. 

My 30 day of organization challenge has fallen apart, and I took two days catching up on reading while fighting the weather to get the outdoor chores done. I guess that would make it a partial fail. I am getting back on task with organizing. Tomorrow night I am going to tackle the book shelves and filing.

I've been keeping up with the Nerd Fitness challenge. My soda intake started to peak again, but I haven't had one since yesterday, and for the few days before yesterday I kept the amount of soda intake relatively low.

I have been running four days a week in preparation for the Spartan coming up. I do need to increase the body weight workouts. I am feeling stronger and faster... and unfortunately more tired and sore. I'm not as young as I used to be. Tomorrow is another long run. I am hoping to increase my run time to 50 minutes.

And that about wraps it up for today. See you all tomorrow.

-P

How to be successful? Be a big baby: 5 things to learn from infants.

Okay, I am not suggesting you beg and whine to get your way. Nobody likes that. What I am saying though is that there is a lot to learn from infants. I've been on daddy duty quite a bit for the past few days and here are something's that I observed from watching my daughter.

1. Don't be afraid to try something new everyday. Never stop learning.

The world is new to a baby. They are always looking for something new to touch, see, smell, and of course, taste. By not fearing novelty, you open up a whole world of growth and experiences. Don't be scared.

2. When you learn a skill that you like, do it over and over and over and over again until you master it.

My daughter is learning to stand and walk. She will pull her self up on everything and is using anything that slides on the floor as a walker. 

3. When you fail at the new skill, take it in stride. Laugh it off and try again.

As a new walker, my daughter is constantly falling. When she does fall, she looks around startled smiles to herself and gets up again. On the rare times her fall causes pain, you know what she does? She gets pissed, and stands up again tears and all. Life and skills should be the same way. When you start something new you are going to stink at it for a while. You are going to make mistakes. Don't let it  get you down. Laugh it off, or get angry, and try it again.

4. When the tears get to be too much; when you are crabby and snapping, and the mistakes keep coming; take a nap.

Lots of studies show, we need our rest. When you are no fun to be around, when you make mistake after mistake, take a break from it. Meditate. Relax. You might be lacking sleep. Take a nap. Get your Eric to eight hours. You might think you are productive by burning the midnight oil, but if you do it too often you ability to get things done suffers greatly.

5. You can't do everything yourself. Ask for help.

Babies can't crawl up high. They don't have the strength to twist off lids. They can't open doors. They need you to help them do things. You do too. No matter how good you are... no matter how much you've studied, or trained you cannot do everything. You will need help. And that's okay.

So it's okay to be a little bit like baby. See you tomorrow.

-P