Further than most would have thought.

Write a letter to a loved one.

OK- this is good. I’m overdue writing a letter to the misses as is. I can double down on two badge sub-tasks at once with this one too.

I’m kind of liking the letter writing exercises. I think it’s important to convey feelings with a tangible thing that can be saved. I wrote my first condolence letter this week for a co-worker who had coincidentally lost his mother last week. I see now through the process of putting those words on paper how important it is to make the effort. I’m thankful that I’m doing the badge work at this time especially because while I may have gifted a card to him, I probably wouldn’t have added anything other than a signature to a card written by someone else.

I also see opportunities to write two seperate letters of encouragement to young men just starting out their lives and starting them on the right feet. Again, I woule never have considered a physical snail-mail letter before the badging requirement, but now I’m stoked to do so.

Wish me luck!

Today, pick a habit that you’d like to eliminate from your life. Think about the steps you’ll take to get rid of that negative habit, as well as hot to keep yourself accountable.

Ahhh, the old New Year’s Resolution when it’s not new years.

For this one, I think I’d like to cut down on procrastination. I have an awful habit of putting very important things off until either the last-minute, or until way past the due date. I’ve paid more in late fees than the average Blockbuster member.

Signing on to the strenuous Life program  (for the second time) is a big step in the right direction. A major part of the program right out the gate are activities that must be done in a timely manner. I’ve been down this road before, and the thing I’m changing up on this run is the use of scheduled reminders. It’s harder to say “Oh my, I forgot to work out!” when you have an electronic reminder to tell you to hit the half-rack.

Using an electric reminder sets you up for a different kind of problem set on down the line though. For one, taken to one sort of logical conclusion, you kind of become a marionette to an electronic device. Second, it doesn’t take much to just blow off the elaborate reminder system you’ve set up.

To help ease this reality a bit, I’m trying a couple of different approaches. I’m making an internal resolution (part of Franklin’s daily virtues) to myself to see this out. I’m making a serious promise to myself to complete what I’ve started. Also, I’m attacking some of the low hanging fruit first. This time, in addition to the weekly agons and check ins, I’m hitting the badges pretty hard. The approach I’m taking to badge work is, knock out a few of those that require a daily, short-term committment. Hence, journaling. The journaling challenge asks for a 31-day initial committment, and eight weeks of weekly journaling to complete. Shorter term, clearly defined, and easily fits the electrionic reminder strategy.

Penmanship- one of the shortest timewise to complete. Fifteen days of daily handwriting practice, and transcribing a few poems- easy-peasy.

Franklin’s daily virtue entries- read the AoM entries on virtue, and fill in the dots for thirteen weeks. A little longer window than the penmanship badge, but just as easy to complete.

My hope/strategy with the above efforts is that with the electronic reminders, I’ll form something like a daily habit of chipping away at larger projects, seeing them through completion. It’s a lot of daily bites that are more than managable, all of which lead to specific goals. With some luck, the quick attainment of some fairly innocuous badges will motivate me to make the daily routine a permanent fixture in my life. A concurrent stategy is choosing badge work that builds up to more badges. Thinking about vitrue daily may just make some of those virtuous habits permanent. Penmanship leads naturally to the letter writing badge work.

The crucial thing though is the establishment of a permanent daily-habit routine to help me knock out some of the larger, more important, real-life goals.

Wish me luck, Nina!

Decide on one positive habit you’d lke to implement in your life. Thether seemingly mundane (flossing) or perhaps life-altering (exercising), write out the steps you’ll take to get there.

OK- this one is fairly straght forward, though implementation can sometimes be tricky for the simplest of habits.

I think the main thing I’d like to get better at is my professional work. I’d like to be a go-to guy for both straght up knowledge, and networking. Simple enough, but how to execute?

First off, I need to institute a work plan to get me up to speed on my presentations. I might do it like this:

1. Print off all slide shows and thouroughly go over them, marking where there are out of date facts and where to researche updating the slides
2. Work on presenting the individual classes through run throughs with co-workers.
3. Create baseball cards for the major players in our region
4. Create a glossary of terms
5. Create a daily read list of news sites
6. sign up for online distro lists
7. Read read read
8. Do a self-evaluation after the new year.

Simple enough, right?

So the prompt for toady is:    Manliness has been defined in different ways in different times. What does manliness mean to you?

So, to be honest, I’ve had a problem with the word manliness from the get go. It conjures hairy, sweaty chests, those olde-tymie Eugene Sandow era barbells and everything else straddling the Victorian-Edwardian eras.

To me, a more proper term should be adulthood. This is partially in recognition of the fact that there’s nothing exclusively manly about the activities and philosophies of the AoM blog. Granted, Brett and the majority of the blog’s readers have a traditional view of what it should mean to be a man, and a man’s role in society. The thing is, from a facile perspective, there’s absolutely nothing here exclusively under  the purview of men.

Having said that, I appreciate what he, and the larger AoM community are doing.

A few years after I started reading the blog, and some of its lessons were starting to sink in, I happened on an article that addressed the specific role of men in society. I don’t remember the exact article title, but it examined the question of why a blog like AoM existed in the first place. After all, our fathers and grandfathers didn’t have one right?

Turns out, our paternal forefathers did have a means of passing knowledge to the younger generation. Thing is, it was an appendage of an entire culture that no longer exists. It was the culture of buffalo lodges and booster clubs. There were specific rites of passage that we generally do not use anymore to pass the knowledge from one generation to the next, and this is one of the main reasons AoM exists. It’s a means of imparting the valuable lessons that we formerly said made a man a man.

I think society has transformed to the point that discussions of “manliness” have lost their cache. I’m curious if there is any lesson Brett would impart to a son that he would withhold from a daughter. That answer would truly reveal how manly he is.

So to me, manliness is being an adult and taking responsibilities for your own life and actions. We don’t, or shouldn’t exclude women from these duties or roles anymore, and I’m not sure the utility in retaining the term. Is someone who lays about the house playing video games all day unmanly, or being a child?

So, I’ve restarted the Strenuous Life agon list from agon number one. I won’t spoilt it, but it’s one of the easy ones. I’m also working on getting a few of the badges knocked out while I’m in the mood to do those too. I’m starting out with some of the low-hangers, journaling being among one of the easiest. For the journaling badge, you complete a 31 day journaling routine based on writing prompts supplied by the AoM website. You journal daily using the prompts, and weekly for 8 weeks thereafter. Journaling or keeping a diary is just one of the many Strenuous Life challenges that overlap with my own personal goals, so here goes.

Prompt #1: Why do you want to journal? What would you like to get out of it?

I haven’t thought really thought of the long-term benefits of keeping a journal much. My brain is constantly swirling around, and I’m an inveterate list maker/keeper, and journaling seems a more organized way to keep track of thoughts and my state of mind at a given point in my life. I’m not sure If I’ll be the type of person to go back to journal entries and “get” anything from them. I don’t know if reflecting on something I’ve written months or years ago will cause me to change a behavior or the course of my life. I’m a “stock taker”, meaning that I regularly look at my life and evaluate where I’ve been, where I am, and where I may be going.

Maybe journaling will help bring focus or poignancy to me approach to life in ways that my list taking and reflecting does not. Now that I think of it, that should be an appropriate goal: to compare the effect of keeping a journal to the way I’ve always done it, which is personal reflection from memory, memory of feelings and events I’ve lived through as well as looking at the items I’ve crossed off of various lists I maintain.

One difference to look for is the impact of the written word, my own in this case, vs. the minor kick I get from transposing something from the to do column to the complete column. I’ll be looking for a deeper sense of accomplishment and achievement from journaling than from the lists. A deeper sense of who I am and my place in the world. I think also that I’ll have a greater sense of where my life is as I approach middle age and move through that phase of my life. I’m deeply appreciative of the life I have led and the opportunities I’ve been afforded. I hope then that maintaining a journal will help me to deepen that sense of gratitude to the universe that I am who I am and have been able to live as I have seen fit.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton