New Year 2008 — Resolved — A new beginning

New beginnings are a recurring theme in films. One of my favorites is Quoyle in Shipping News. As they survey Quoyle Point, after a storm blew the green house away, Quoyle says, “If a piece of knotted string can unleash the wind, and if a drowned man can awaken, then I believe a broken man can heal.”

For a few years, I have been rediscovering myself, and the world around me – rebuilding – a bit like Quoyle did, after Agnis Hamm persuaded him to move to Newfoundland.

New Year is the time to pause and take stock of the present, the past, and the future. New Year 2008 is my time to take stock of me today, of where I’ve been, and as Agnis Hamm declared, to make a future.

This year, I need to do three things: 1) I need to refresh my best patterns, 2) I need to pursue a goal of building an effective web presence, and 3) I need to work on a problem, which is my sleep pattern.

Refresh: Best Patterns

Good patterns are not easy to establish. And they are all too easy to fall out of.

I’ve been in and out of some really good patterns. I need to find the best of these patterns, and persuade them to come home. And convince them to stay home – “aye, there’s the rub.”

The patterns I’ve known, and that I need to keep or return to, include: a stable, helpful, daily routine; eating sensibly (to gently reduce my weight); stretching & exercising; journaling.

Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits, is partial to urging his readers to simplify – their selves, their lives, their worlds. Even eliminate. This isn’t easy advice to someone who collectes books, videos, and CDs – to name only the most numerous collections.

And I’ve done this simplifying before – at times – so I know it’s possible. If I look around me carefully, and think a little creatively, I can find more changes that could dramatically improve my effectiveness.

The opportunities to reap enormous benefits are there. I have to look – and find them. And then I have to make the changes – and reap the rewards.

Goal: Web Presence

I’ve been working on my writing skills. I’ve been striving to build on the skills I have, and to develop them into something more effective and powerful.

When Leo Babauta led me to explore the blogosphere, I started thinking about writing a blog. When I started thinking about writing more than one blog, Lorelle, of Lorelle on WordPress, cautioned me to be wary of more than one. But Miss Marple said that good advice is almost certain to be ignored. And I did. I started three blogs.

Reflexively, my writing supports my blogging – and vice versa.

My goal is to build my web presence, and within that, to include: three blogs (this is one); a Linked In profile, for professional networking; and a Flickr page, for photo sharing.

Along with my Flickr page, I need to learn to use my camera. A little of that is learning to use the camera itself – a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3. But the camera is so well designed, and so filled with features, that it isn’t difficult to learn – or to use.

The most important thing I need to learn (or to re-learn) is to have my camera with me, almost always. The camera is compact enough to do that fairly easily. And I need to get back into seeing – and snapping – and sharing.

I’m well under way to my goal. I just need to keep going.

Problem Solving: Sleep

Sleep hasn’t been much of a problem for me. However, if I get excited about something – some discovery, some project, some problem – I might stay awake. But I could always make up for it before too long.

Recently, sleep has become more of an issue for me. And, like blogging and writing, reflexively, sleep can affect my health – and vice versa.

Here, I need to focus my best problem solving skills and tools. And I need to fashion my daily routine to include sufficient sleep. And perhaps I need to practice what limited skill I have with the teachings of Messrs. Bandler and Grinder – which they learned, at least in part, from Milton Erickson.

When I can: Freedom

In March of 2007, Mike Elgan wrote an article called “Freedom from the office – the Bedoin way.” The article is about using modern wireless technology, intelligently, so you can work from anywhere. And the technology is sufficiently mainstream that it can be done for a pretty reasonable price.

This isn’t a resolution, really. But when I can, I’d like to move in the direction of having this capability. It will require hardware that I don’t have. But it can be done.

Resolved: For this blog

So how does all of this have anything to do with this blog, apart from sharing?

Resolved: for this blog, it is my objective, for the foreseeable future, to write and post an article one or two times a week.

And So

You know, I have some work to do. I’d better get going. See you later.