Cleaned out the closet and identified a couple of bags of old clothes that need ditching. Plan is to leave them out for any of the charities who send bags around from time to time. Paper and mail, and electronics need doing. Solid if unspectacular start - the hard work here starts now I think.
Day 12 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Create Your Bucket List --- Currently working through my bucket list - aptly (if I say so myself) tagged 40 things by 40 seeing the 40th birthday is the next major birthday on the horizon - and no I am not 35 yet.. Closed out a few things already some of which include making CEng, losing 20kg and taking a boat ride down the Chicago river. A few stand out as sore points on which I have made zero progress whatsoever on - visiting the children I sponsor via WorldVision and reading every book that has been awarded the Man Booker prize being prime examples. ...
In ship shape…. As far as I can tell…
Day 10 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Memorize ‘if’ --- Two upsides to exercising the memory stood out from the prompt - improved writing and a more interesting personality. Unfortunately, I am blaming my mental fatigue from the last month of swotting exams for my less than stellar performance on this challenge. The plan - if I can call it that - is to keep plodding away at it till the end of the month. If I succeed, and I work up the courage, I just might place a recording of the poem from memory on here.. ...
Another one which was on the plan for 2014 in any case - middling performance not withstanding. The app of choice is DayOne - on my Mac, iPad and iPhone. The choice of time is first thing in the morning, hopefully that will help set the tone for the day and help kick off the day introspectively. Fingers crossed, the next few weeks will tell how this latest iteration goes.
Day 7 of the Better Man in 30 days Challenge - Reconnect with an Old Friend --- The challenge was to reconnect with an old friend, by letter, email or phone (not Twitter). Cheated (slightly) as I did my reconnection over iMessage. A tad more in keeping with the spirit of reconnecting than a letter given the back and forth of instant messaging I think.. Or not.. Claiming this as done though, regardless. :)
Day 6 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Update Your Resume --- Another apt prompt - given I’ve been feeling like I could use a job change for a while, and I have only just received pass notification from another exam in April. Another day, another review which shows I am headed in the right direction but am still missing some critical research skills… That PhD can’t be put off for much longer at this rate :(
Day 5 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge – Cultivate Your Gratitude --- Quite a few things to be thankful for, in no particular order: Friends who consistently come through. Needing to make a significant wire transfer earlier this week, a quick call to a couple of old chums resulted in a speedy resolution. Top lads C and O. Family - warts and all. And mine, myself included, do have warts! J whose patience with my stuttering, complicated self is a refreshing breath of air; Work - and the opportunities it has presented over the last ten years and counting. A certain stint somewhere in my past still keeps opening doors. Grateful. The internet and how easily it provides solutions - stumbled on an excel tutorial on spark-lines which might have saved a side project I am working on. Not one of the things I miss about those heady Eket days it must be said. (Not so) Little children, particularly F, my friend O’s precocious daughter. Hanging with her gives me hope for the future. I am not too damaged to make a half decent dad. Success in one more exam, no lengthy post nominals to append to my name unfortunately but small steps in the right direction I think. Health - no new major scares (as far as I know). Great work conversations - currently talking an old work friend through a weighty decision. That she and I are still in contact nearly five years after we last worked together is so much more reassuring given my current work situation. And Nandos – ’nuff said.
Day 4 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Increase your testosterone --- The ‘symptoms’ pretty much describe me at the moment, even though I like to think the drivers are slightly different for me, given I am chasing a lot of things at the moment. In an ideal world, #9 would have been the perfect shoo, but real life dictates, and I went with actions 6, 7, 8. Lunch was a Boots salad bowl whilst dinner was grilled chicken topped up with almonds as a snack. ...
Day 3 of the Better Man in 30 days Challenge - Find a Mentor — In thinking through today’s challenge, I realised there is a shed load of historical mentors I had to acknowledge - the Artful dodger (so nicknamed by his own father no less) whose MO always seemed to be to stay just on the right side of the law at all times (he was the inspiration to go into engineering), OO, the social studies teacher who intervened when yours truly was nabbed trying to pilfer a book from the secondary school library, Dr K at the Steel plant where I interned in 2000 who sowed the seeds of an appreciation for materials in me and DEL and MMK who held my hand as I took my first shaky steps as a rust geek back between 2003 and 2008. All that is part of why mentoring and mentorship are core values I intend to hold on to dearly both as a giver and a recipient. ...