More

Read more.  Write more.  Golf more.

Last January, I promised myself I would complete that trifecta of soul management during the year.  The first I completed - the other two I did not have much luck with.

It turns out that reading more can be done by expanding your reading list to the point where you need an extra hour a day just to skim the headlines - the world is a busy place.  In today's world, generating a select news-feed is relatively easy.  The hard part is filtering the hundreds of headlines down to the few that actually matter.  It helps to follow a few key influencers like Bill Marriott, Richard Branson, and Bill Gates. There are also a great number of garbage, fluff, duplicate posts that can be ignored - I am amazed at what passed for journalism in 2016.

Catching up on news headlines to stay current is only one part though.  Sadly, most news is written for a grade 10 reading level at best and I find myself sometimes struggling to get past poor grammar and horrible sentence structure.  Exercising the brain requires a well written novel or technical journal.  Thankfully, there seems to be an endless supply available still.

I have a stack of books and other publications on my desk now that represent my "to read" pile so to keep myself honest, I'll review them here after I have completed them.  The stack already includes interesting titles like The First 90 Days and An Astronaut's Guide to Life.

Writing is more complicated.  With all that reading, it is hard to write anything in an unbiased manner.  Two novels in various states of creation, random short story projects, and a couple of blogging commitments have spread my efforts thin.  Must F O C U S ....

The funny thing about writing is that the more you do it, the easier it is.  Like 10,000 monkeys, if I type enough words, eventually something useful will fall out of it all.  The magic is in the editing.

Golf was a complete write off.  Who has time?  I will really need to make an effort to get out and walk 9 holes at least once a month this season.  If I recall correctly, the last time I did that it was quite relaxing.  I am not a scorekeeper and that annoys some people I have golfed with in the past.  All those numbers just get in the way of a great walk on a nice day.

So how does your reading list look? Is there an interesting book waiting on the bookshelf just dying to be read?

When was the last time you wrote anything more complex than a shopping list?  Start small - write a thank you letter to someone who deserves one.  Or jot down a few paragraphs that describe your day.  Before you know it, there is a full journal in your hands and you are searching for a new Moleskine to crack open.

See you on the golf course.

Time for a refresh

The first week of January has always been a "reset" time for me.  While it can be argued that January 1st is just an arbitrary date on the timeline and should not be considered some magic time to cast personal resolutions for change, the changing of the calendar is a great excuse to pause, take stock and reset.

I always take some time in the first week of January to assess where I am, where I need to be, and what it will take to get there.  Maybe I should do that more often.  Maybe that will be something I do this year.  It reminds me of the Vorlon five questions from the amazing series Babylon 5 from the late 1990's.  

Who are you? Really, who ARE you?  Beyond your name and address, past your occupations and title, what are the things that make you, you?  

Where are you going? Not physically, but metaphorically - where are you heading to in your life and career?  What are the decisions and actions active in your life now leading you to?

Where have you been? Contemplate the situations and experiences that have compounded to make you the person you are today.

Who do you follow? The people you admire, emulate, aspire to be can say much about you. 

Whom do you lead? Even if you don't consider yourself a "leader", there may be people who look up to you, admire you, and try to emulate you.  Be aware of of your actions and be aware of those who may see you as a leader even if you don't.

I kick off 2017 with a revamp of my websites, new social presence and a renewed effort to create awesomeness.  I'll be doing my best to divide my blog efforts to separate technology posts from the political rants as well.   I plan to focus a whole lot more on helping kids adopt technology which is something I did a great deal of in the past, but have been quite lax in recent years.

Whether you make New Years resolutions or not, take the time this week to assess where you are in life and where you want to be.  If you don't like what you see, make an effort to change it.

Be awesome, change the world.