A Mark for Change

I had a wonderful Christmas break with my family up in Kansas.  It was freezing outside and snow fell heavy creating a thick white frosting that covered everything rather beautifully.  This kept me and my thin blood inside enjoying free food and LOST on DVD. (A mesmerizing show, as I found out).  I felt no guilt or sense of uselessness during this week of nearly comatose behavior, because I felt that my body and brain needed it, needed a power off period.  Eating, sleeping, watching LOST, and spending some solid time with my family; it was an incredibly refreshing burst of comfort.  Now that I have returned to Austin, I’m ready to get back into action: winter break is still providing precious time for me to get alot of things done that have been hanging over my head for long enough . . . wedding videos for one, Joe Stryker for another, and a script for my personal Spring Break project for yet another.  These might seem like frivolous things, but they are things that need to get done.

With this turn of the new year, there is the opportune, if not cliched, moment for reflection and goal setting, resolutions if you will.  A friend of mine didn’t like new year’s resolutions, saying that if she felt she needed to change something about herself she would set goals and apply them right away.  I couldn’t agree with her more.  But the new year seems to fall in line with a mark of change for me, so I’m running with it, these aren’t measurable goals, but just elements I would like to see in my life in the upcoming semester.

Spiritual

Finding time to read the Book of Mormon everyday, I determine this to be when I get home in the evenings and before I study.  If I wait till before I go to sleep I usually choose sleep over a few minutes of reading and if I do get to it, those few minutes aren’t those most valuable.  Also, writing in my journal everyday, short entries, after I read the Book of Mormon, this goal is following Pres. Eyring’s conference talk of “Remember, Remember”. Spiritual goals are ones that I constantly make and constantly fall short at, I can relate with the prosperous Nephites; when things are going great, its hard to remember who made it that way.

Mental

I need to read more.  I hadn’t read anything for myself for months.  Today I went to Wal-Mart to get my tires changed out at their service station, and I grabbed a Stephen King book off the shelf to help pass the time.  It felt energizing to crack open a new novel after such a long hiatus, and I figure reading outside of school will help out those synapses up there, and provide new life behind my writing.  I tried starting my script last week and I felt that I was dragging and forcing a story out of me, its much easier when the story is swelling up and bursting out of you, and just plain reading more will help that.

Physical

I’m not working this upcoming semester, and while my 16 credit hours (including a monstrous Japanese class) will consume most of my time, I feel that I will have a few free afternoons in the week to get to that free gym that my tuition pays for.  Hey, as long as I’m paying for it, I might as well use it.

The secret to all goals is persistence, and being consistent, which I have trouble with.  I am constantly setting goals, only to fall short on most of them. And there really isn’t a secret formula to get past that, just to do it, do it now, and if you miss a day, or a week, then you just pick it back up and do it again.