Lessons Learned in 2011

One of my goals for 2011 was to stay fit. My plan was to exercise everyday. I pretty much nailed that, I only missed 4 days. Twice I was so sick I couldn't do anything. Once was two days after I broke my finger (The day after I broke my finger I did exercise until I started bleeding so much I worried about getting blood stains on my clothes and thought about how the police tend to stop people who are running around covered in blood). By the third day my bleeding had slowed enough to do mild exercise. I whined about to my wife but she laughed and said, “Now you know what it is like to bleed for four days without dieing.”

One day I just was hit with seasonal depression as it had rained for what seemed like months and I didn't feel like doing anything.

I can't say that all my exercise sessions were athletic training, some days it was all I could do to spend 15 minutes of light weight training or go for a 20 minute mile long walk. But I did get some exercise in. A few times over the year I did start feeling like when I was an athlete, when I was doing 20 minutes of weight training followed by a 2 mile jog. But I couldn't keep that up.

So what is the lesson?

Persistence. By exercising every day, even if it was only for 15 minutes, I stayed in shape so when I felt inspired I could push myself that literal extra mile.

This year I'm going to apply that to my writing and write something new for at least half an hour every day. Like my exercise routine it won't do great every day. Yesterday I wrote 400 words of absolute crap that I'm just going to trash. It was a pain to write it as well. However I know just like with exercise those bad days do pay off.

By struggling to write 400 words of crap that I won't use, I know that next time I am inspired and the words just flow onto the page, I will be so used to writing that I won't feel like stopping at 1,000 words.

So my goal for this year is to keep exercising like I've been doing and write at least half an hour every day. Now I have to go and write... I'll be busy for the next half an hour.