Day 28: Finally in this three-day journey, we’ll consider the “tools” necessary to make your life a masterpiece. Decide which tools you need to attain, if there are any others that are needed, and how you’ll go about acquiring these tools.

So, first up: Mentor.

Nope. Never had one, and don’t see how one would be much use. I’m too much of a hard head to take much advise, or at least I used to be. I like to think I used the lives of others to guide my own life, frequently trying to avoid others’ mistakes. I think its worked to an extent, but who knows what other mistakes I’ve made by not listening to anyone.

A Mastermind Group–

I have no idea what this is or how to join. It sounds sort of like a guild, so maybe a professional organization of some sort.

Journal/Pocket Notebook–

This is a kick ass idea. I sort of do it now, but need to solidify it as a daily habit. My dad won’t buy a shirt unless it has a breast pocket built in for notebooks.

Online Tools–

Have a few- need to get some more.

The Most Important Tool of All–

Discipline. Don’t have it. Need to develop some.

Day 27: The place where we live has a tremendous impact on our lives. Take a look at the eight factors that should be considered when choosing where to live. Are you living in the right place, or should you consider a move?

Professional Opportunities- can’t beat this location for current work situation. I hope this lasts, but recognize it can be short term.

Aesthetics- This is just so-so, even though I love the little corner of our own neighborhood. It is the best in the neighborhood, and gets the best change of foliage of any corner we have. Plus I have a bonus copse of trees of my own.

Recreational Opportunities- Great if I would take advantage of them.

Climate and Geography- Little on the hot/humid side for me in the summers, but we’re now in Autumn, so it’s bearable for a while again.

Available Mates- Check

Proximity to Family and Friends- This one is the long pole in the tent. 10 hours at least to Kentucky, and further afield for anyone else.

Environment for Child Rearing- N/A

The Cost of Living- High, but for the time being, worth it as long as I stay in current job.

Day 26: For three days, we’ll work from AoM’s “Craft the Life You Want” series. Today, work on crafting a life plan. It can be a long process, so if you’re short on time, start by defining your various roles as a man, and your ultimate purpose and goals within those roles.

Ugh. I hate these.

Roles: Husband, veteran, son, brother, uncle, U.S. citizen, not much more than that.

Goals:

In the next year, lose 30 lbs. – continue exercise program already started. Get serious about cutting down on the sugar.

Travel more on the East Coast- Make travel list

Complete at least 25 badges by my one year mark on TSL.

Continue to mentor nephew

Complete at least one model in the next year.

Memento mori. “Remember that you will die.” Meditate on this, and write out your thoughts. Does death scare you? Does it motivate you?

Ha!

The phrase I prefer is Learn to die. I saw it inscribed over the mantel in one of Jan Steen’s interiors. It was in Latin, but I’m unsure of the author or the context. My personal interpretation is you must approach death by getting exhausted at living. Squeeze every bit of life from your years before it occurs to you to be fearful. Of course, you never fully forget the truth of your mortality, but you outpace it step by step. There may be fear, there may be anxiety, but you must keep moving. Moving physically, feeling the years in pain and aches and slowness. Moving mentally. Learning. Experiencing. Growing. If you slow down, you have too much time to think. Too much time to fear.

Don’t avoid it. Face it head on. You will die. You will die, and there is nothing to be done. Learn how to dance around that fact until the end. Don’t rush towards it, don’t run from it, just keep moving.

It does not frighten me, but I don’t want to hurry the process along in any way. I want to embrace living, have joy, have serenity, have ease, but not for it to be easy.

Make a list of things that distract you. It could be your smartphone, or even something that’s actually beneficial, but eats up more time than you’d like. What could you do to better manage these distractions in your life?

OK- another one designed to stimulate your thoughts and actions towards making changes in your life. Hmmmmm. Well, teh internetz, duh. I’m distracted more by my open web pages than anything else in this life at this present time. You didn’t see that, but I just left this entry to scan facebook and look at a bunch of 1970s toys. It’s that bad. The Internet is the big one, but that’s not to say I don’t have a pile of other distractions a mile wide and high.

I think there’s a multitude of tools and techniques to help, but the thing I’ve found that helps best is just making the decision to change your behavior. Get out of the house, get moving, make plans and stick to them. In a big way, these help for those days that get completely eaten up by internet surfing. The one I haven’t solved yet is how to avoid distractions while doing just plain work, or trying to do something internet related without minor (and occasional major) interruptions. See, I just played a video game for 35 minutes.

Anyway, think I’ll look into some of the time-saving apps that block certain activities for a set time. Maybe try and distract myself with mumbly-peg or whittling if that fails.

Imagine you’ve been provided with a livable income for the rest of your life. You have no need to work, but aren’t rolling in money either. How would you spend your time? Your answer will say a lot about you and what your passion may be.

This is a good one too, and fairly easy to answer. We had this discussion more than a decade ago, and at least for me, I’d live in various cities. Yep. Move from city to city as the spirit moved me. Mostly European cities, maybe an occasional beachfront paradise for the missus. Point being, you live somewhere long enough to get bored with it, and move on. Take in the museums, local food and culture and go out to another place that’s just as fine. There are enough services now where you can do this on the cheap. Rent an entire apartment for months at a time for very low rates. Just think of North Italy, South France, Berlin, and so on and on and on. You could take language classes everywhere you stay, be somewhat like a local.

Focusing on big goals can overwhelm us into inaction. Think on the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen – simply getting 1% better each day. What’s something really small you can start doing every day that will create a compounding effect in your life?

So, this one I think I really like, and I think I’ve kind of done this with a few projects throughout my life. I think now though that I’ll apply it in a more deliberate manner. I’ve got so many things to apply too already. First and foremost is my writing. I’ll use it at work on my articles. It’s great for workouts too, and I may in corporate it when I get back into weight training again. I was thinking about applying it to some new skills such as the archery stuff, and maybe the calligraphy when I’m able to take it back up again.

KAIZU!!!!!

 

Think about the period of your life for which you have the greatest nostalgia. Once you identify that time period, think of why you’re so nostalgic about it. What elements could you revive in your life now?

Weird coincidence, but I’m kind of taking the greatest hits of my entire life. To wit: I’ve already talked about how I’ve resurrected the model making. That’s a positive. I’m revisiting much of the music I listened to during that period of music formation, which for me was around 9-10 to 16-17 or so. Plus, I’m still discovering new music all the time, so natch!

So, I’ve not really a nostalgic person. I’m pretty realistic about where I came from, and where I am now. I carry the best of my life with me, and would not want to revisit any period of my past really. My first tour of Germany was great, but I wouldn’t want to go back and relive the past. I was young, lived in a great location, was making money with minimal responsibility, but that was then, and I moved on from it. College was great. Again, still young, not making any money, but I was truly ready for the college experience. I was ready for the classroom and being a student. Being the first in my family to get a full education. But I graduated, went back in the Army, and started a new phase of my life. I moved on. I still read a lot, and I do not consider my education “complete”, but I don’t need to relive that period of my life.

I’ve never really understood the impulse to revisit or relive a period of your life. It just seems like an immature fantasy. The catch is, of course, what people that want that fantasy usually don’t say is taking the knowledge and experience back in time with you to your younger age. Foolishness of foolishness.

Reflect on your romantic relationship, and identify one area you’d like to improve. If you don’t have a romantic partner in your life, identify past failures you’d like to improve on. If you’ve never been in a relationship, describe your ideal one.

Good god, to think of anyone participating in this project who has never had a serious relationship. That means a full grown adult who has an extra 200 bucks lying around who has never had a girlfriend. That money would be better spent elsewhere. I suppose that’s a big reason why Bret started this whole project. He saw so many men who are not having the lives they want for whatever reason. Well, that’s a different situation…

For me, I could improve on all fronts. I’m getting better at some little things, but I’ve always been a guy to miss a lot of big picture stuff. Believe me. Here we are, coming up on one more birthday, and I’m clueless as what to get her. There’s your start point, Mark. Figure out what she wants, and do/give it. Simple enough until the planning starts. Here’s a totally fixable part of my relationship that in theory should be easy to fix: gifting. Not just finding the “perfect gift”, but getting something at all. I’ve missed too many birthdays, anniversaries, Christmases over the years. Yeah, that’s not good. So this one area would be a great place to start.

Maybe better planning further out will be the place to start. It’s not just the paying attention to what she says, though that’s important too. She’s not a material girl as much as one who appreciates the thinking that goes into a birthday getaway or dinner. I’ve just got to start earlier and follow through. It’s as simple as making reservations in most cases. Shit- I’ve really been messing this up.

Identify one project you’d like to complete with your hands, whether chore or craft. Detail the steps, the resources, and the help you’ll need to complete the project. Then, set about doing it!

OK- this one is one I’ve been thinking on more lately since I started this project. I’ve never been talented with my hands. Every concrete project I try to do ends up looking like Homer Simpson made it. It all goes back to that worthless leatherworking class from 7th grade. My final project just looked like a formless lump of flesh. No pattern, nothing to indicate it was supposed to be a… coaster? My record rack for woodworking class never made it past the pile of cut scraps. I still passed the class though.

So, I’ve never had any knack for making anything that looks like anything. I’d like to change that though. The calligraphy I think I”ll come back to as some point. I like some of the projects in the books I bought, I just have to learn to do it all left-handed and such. That’s a project for much later though.

I love the idea of metalworking since Sam made all those knives for me. I know he’s a master craftsman, and I on my best day will never be able to match his skill, but just once, I’d like to hammer hot steel and make a real knife. Something practical, not some nonsense fantasy blade with no real purpose. That one too is iffy in execution. I’m not likely to be around Sam very often in the immediate future.

The other iron in the fire so to speak, is modeling. I’ve gone out now and bought several model tanks, my first since about age 12 or so. Through The Miracle Of Youtube, I can see exactly how to weather and age them. I’m not sure the state of the art in the mid-80s, but I suppose there has been considerable advancement in technique and tools since then. Some of the examples I’ve seen are just eye-popping. There are stipple techniques to simulate worn camouflage, thick earth tone compounds to simulate mud, and a variety of remarkable detailing from rust to vehicle wear and tear that make them look like the real thing.

For starters, I’ve already taken the most important steps. I’ve carved out a little corner of the wife’s studio for my workbench, and she bought me a fine magnifying glass/light to see up close details. The next step is to acquire a nice spray brush for paint details, and some higher-quality paints specifically for military models. Testers has been surpassed by the Japanese companies. (It doesn’t seem to be nearly as popular in the States as overseas in Japan and Russia). Then, hit the Youtube channels hard, and start  out with some basic weathering techniques. From what I’ve seen so far, you can pick them up and add to/improve as you see fit. You’re never really “done” until you’re happy with the results. I see this as a project to build skills up over time, to make gradual improvements, baby steps, what have you, towards more realistic paint and weathering.