EngelFish.Net

The Mindfulist posed the question recently, “If today were your last, what would you do right now? What would go straight to first place on your to do list?” Thinking about my answer made me consider the questions “Who would you spend your last day with, and what does that answer tell you?”

People talk about prominent sports figures “getting back to basics”, and the concept seems to ring true, either from practical experience or common sense. You should be able to do the same thing with your personal life. The question is, what exactly are the basics of your personal life? What is it you get back to and practice? Do you practice living in the moment, or planning for the future. Focusing on hard work, or playing. Taking care of yourself first, or helping others? The question makes me think back to Psych 101 and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Find what level you’re on, and what would be appropriate for meeting those needs. Then again, I may be intellectualizing/overthinking it. What advice would you give to someone who is trying to simplify their life and “get back to basics”. And do you live by your own advice?

Life is rarely, if ever, clean and simple. But simplicity is a good goal. I think it is fairly common for most folks to stop every once in a while and realize how crazy they have allowed their life and schedule to become. We often keep saying yes to new commitments at work, at home, and in our relationships, even if we don’t have the resources (time, energy, money) to effectively meet those commitments. My todo lists (yes plural), have 691 things, of which 245 are supposed to be done “In the Short Term”. That is a little bit past the line where ridiculous starts. This Saturday I am sitting down for 2 hours and going through those lists. I will start by moving everything to a temporary list, and then really consider the importance, the immediacy, the impact and the investment required for each item. Some things will go on the “need to do soon” list and some will be “need to do TODAY”, but I will be moving as many as I can to a “Someday/Maybe” list, which I can then choose to ignore with abandon. If my list of things to accomplish today is only one or two tasks long, then I stand a chance. If it has 25 things, I will likely procrastinate instead of facing that wall of unfinishable dreck. It was recently pointed out to me by a pretty objective person that I might be a weeee bit A.D.D. (insert eye rolls from my friends and family here). I might as well be pragmatic and figure out how to work around my “oh look, there’s a distraction” tendencies. So… my goal is to pick only 3 things list items each week, and focus on accomplishing just those 3. If I keep it up for 230 weeks, my todo list will be empty.

This is only a test.  If this had been a real post to engelfish.net, there would be juicy content here.  As it is, this is only a bunch of gibberish designed to test the newly installed “automatic subscriber-notification-of-a-new-post-to-the-blog email” software.  If you’re not subscribed via email (which you can do on my site) then you won’t get an email.  If you are subscribed, then you will get an email letting you know that a new post is out there.  Thanks for putting up with this drivel.  I know it’s tedious, but so is most of the intarwebs.

I only just realized that it’s been almost a month since my last post.  Slap my hand and send me to the “time out” chair.  Is there such a think as Blogomucil?  Because I am *far* from regular about my posting.  Regardless, let’s see if I can update on most of the things which happened this June.

I spent quite a few days working with Scott Dingman.  He’s a terrific commercial photographer, with 20+ years behind the camera.  I’ve been trying to keep my mouth shut and my eyes/ears open, and hopefully learn a thing or two about how to be a professional.  I know one thing for sure, I’ve learned that making a living with a camera is even more complex than I’d thought… which is saying something.  I’m indebted to Scott for so frequently hiring me for assisting jobs.  Without those opportunities, I would be making far slower progress than I am.

Speaking of slow progress, this year’s NYC Marathon is not going to include me.  Our annual running club was snubbed this year, with only 1 person, Dan, getting accepted.  We’re still going, of course, but most of us will be play the “support crew” role.  Not having the marathon to motivate me, I’m not doing as well with running as I should be.  Although Kim, David, & I make a spit-pact to work on our goals (one of the many reasons they’re laughing so hard in the photo), I have yet to really start working on my running.  There’s always tomorrow.

Another thing that is best done regularly, is cutting the grass.  That, unfortuneately, is proving a bit difficult for me.  When the inherited-with-the-house lawnmower came out of the crawlspace this spring, it was on strike.  After disassembling it and trying to reverse engineer the problem, I realized I had no clue what I was doing.  Luckily a friend of ours, Stan, is a whiz with small engines and came to my birthday party.  It took him under 60 seconds to diagnose the problem, which turned out to be a $0.75 part.  It arrived in the mail the other day, and I’m planning on rebuilding the mower before this weekend.  I hate to take away the employment of the neighborhood lawnmowing kid, but some things just gotta’ get done.

Two weekends ago was the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure here in Raleigh.  Too keep our streak up, Taryn and I both participated.  I’d like to say we ran it, but that would be stretching the truth like cheap spandex.  We enjoyed a brisk walking pace, and finished feeling pretty good.  As every year, I was amazed by the turnout.  About 28,000 participants turned out.  My first year running the NYC Marathon (2000) had 35,000 runners, and Raleigh is a damn sight smaller than NYC.

Additional June events included  seeing a few movies (The Happening, Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk).  I thought all three were were great, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer movie season.  I’ve also caught up on a few films via Netflix (The Signal, Cast Away, The Gangs of New York, and City of God).  This past Saturday we helped Mary & Cristina move, which was fun since most of the Flickr Raleigh Social Group showed up to help.  We also attended a gallery night at Rebus where our friends Abby, Rob, and Tom had work showing.  All things considered, it was a pretty good month… if a bit on the hot side.