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.
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