Brilliant Corners

I should have posted this yesterday, on my actual birthday, but I was too occupied with work and then with my new toy.

I didn't make any real new year's resolutions this year, so instead I'm making a list on my birthday on what I intend to do this coming year:

1. Quit smoking once and for all, dammit (starting now)
2. Draw more often in my sketchbook, and post some of my favs here on this site
3. Take more photos, and post more to Flickr
4. Ride my bike more, and if I can't go for a ride, so some other exercise
5. Write more which includes giving NaNoWriMo another shot this year
6. Start up that project I've been stalling on for a year
7. Post more to this weblog

In a years time, I'll take a look back and see how I've done. Also, how is it that I'm turning 36 already? Where have all those years gone? :)

I can't tell you how many weblog posts on motivation that I've read, filed away, and then completely ignored any advice they may have had. Just today I came across "Overcoming a Loss of Motivation" at Pick the Brain:

How many times have you started a new activity (such as a personal project or exercise routine) with a burst of enthusiasm, only to see that initial momentum evaporate? This often leads to depression and causes us to give up prematurely.

Well, how about this: how many times have I been lazy and never even reached the point of starting something new? Too many times, believe me. There is some decent advice at that site, but I often think that there's no hope for me. Well, maybe that's being a little over-dramatic. Perhaps it's just that there isn't any advice out there that truly applies to me, and my quirks.

I think that part of my problem is that I too often get tied up in the implementation of what I'm supposed to do. For one example, while I was reading Getting Things Done I spent more time thinking about how I would approach its organization principles instead of actually Getting Things Done. I eventually just gave up on that process, and I'm still without any decent organization on my tasks. It seems I'd rather waste time surfing about the net than actually hunker down and start--much less finish--some new project.

One of the best motivational quotes I've come across in all the books and articles and weblog posts I've read on the subject, is this one from William Zinsser in his book On Writing Well:

Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.

It doesn't get any more direct than that. And to start things off, I just now bought the domain name for the "Web 2.0" application to beat them all. Well, probably not. But I think it'll rock.

I knew this would happen. I relaunch this site, post a single entry, and then neglect it for several weeks. So, to try and kick start things here, I signed up for the CSS Reboot Spring 2006 event, hoping that if I give the site a decent facelift, that maybe I'll post again. We'll see.