Okay, as I embark on this journey towards self-employment and artistic expression, I have had to take the time to do some serious self-evaluation. I've come to the conclusion that I have three fairly significant problems that drain my time and energy, and handicap my ability to create.
1. Drinking:
I drink too much. I'm not, I don't think, what you'd call a full-blown alcoholic, but I am a pretty steady, consistent drinker of wine and beer. It's caused me to gain weight, lose valuable time, and spend a lot more money than I should on alcohol.
I don't expect to ever completely give up drinking. One of my favorite hobbies is wine and beer making. I'm hoping to learn how to moderate my drinking so that it becomes something I want to do occasionally, instead of a habit I have of having a few glasses of wine every night.
2. Exercise:
The flip-side of drinking too much, I exercise too little! This leaves me feeling slovenly and low energy. I used to be quite an athlete, but it is difficult for me to exercise when there is no "point" to it other than being healthy.
In high school I played three different sports - football, wrestling, and track and field, where I threw discus and shot-put. These sports kept me active in spite of my tendency towards sloth.
In college I took up surfing. Daily adventures in the ocean staved off the ill-effects of alcohol and marijuana consumption and this, combined with youth, kept me pretty fit.
After college I moved to the mountains and snowboarded for a season. My core has never been more solid than after snowboarding for several hours a day for months on end.
But then I moved to Los Angeles and became much more sedentary. Now I'm in the country, where I fool myself into believing that the work I do on our garden is enough, but I know it's not. I know because of the way I feel, and the amount I weigh.
I'm 51 years old, 52 in March, and the weight doesn't come off like it used to. I stand 6 feet tall and consistently weight between 220 and 230 pounds. I took a month of drinking this year and dropped 10 pounds almost overnight! So I know alcohol is an issue.
Cutting back on the drinking and increasing my exercise will definitely lead to more energy and creative output.
3. Social Media:
I spend far too much wasted time on social media. I like social media, and I think it can have value, but I don't think I'm using it well right now. I am planing on mapping out my weeks so that I have a dedicated amount of time I spend on social media, and use that time effectively to promote my own creations, instead of arguing with strangers over things I can't change anyway.
I'm sure there will be varying degrees of success and failure as I navigate this new situation. I plan on being kind to myself as I figure things out.
Thanks for reading!
check out my website at: madbob.com
(It's crude af right now, Wordpress is a complete mystery to me. I'm going to be spending time each week updating it with my various projects.)
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