Checksum Arcanius

Inspired by Chris Vincent’s recent post “Practical self-improvement,” I have decided to make public some of the plans I have to improve myself to remain a healthy and well-rounded individual. This is in the well–founded hope that making such a thing public will ultimately help me live up to the commitment. I have learned about myself that I am much better with commitments to others than I am with commitments to myself; and while this is a commitment to myself, making it public in a sense makes it a commitment to all of you also. Well, here goes:

1. I will go to bed – without my laptop – by midnight, every night that I am at home
   My eventual goal is to wake up before it becomes light outside. However, I realize that this is a way off, and these resolutions are to remain practical. Besides, going to sleep after it becomes light outside must be dealt with first. By adding in the “at home” clause, I will still allow myself to, for example, hang out with friends well past midnight as the occasion may arise. However, there are no good reasons for me to stay up past midnight in my day-to-day life.
2. I will read at least one page from a book every day
   I find it really sad how little I read, especially since when I do read, I tend to enjoy it so much. I figure that reading at least one page is a reasonable goal that will get me started. Hopefully, and I think it likely, I’ll get going and read well more than just one page.
3. I will exercise daily
   Another activity that, like Chris, I put off entirely too much. Again, keeping things practical, the plan is simply a daily regimen of at least push-ups, sit-ups, and something aerobic.
4. I will limit Counter-Stike to one hour a day
   I enojoy Counter-Strike quite a bit, but I find that I’ll get into a playing rut where I’m not really having fun, but rather I’m playing out of habit. This not only wastes copious amount of time and hurts my chances at my first goal (above), but it also turns out to be not so much fun afterwards. Limiting my playing time should address both problems.
5. I will overcome my irrational fears by consciously forcing myself to face them
   There are plenty of legitimate things to be wary of, but irrational fears are the foundation of so much that wrong with humantiy, and as much as possible, I don’t want to be a part of this unfortunate reality. So I will overcome my irrational fears by putting myself into situations where I am forced to deal with them, learning at the emotional level that there is indeed nothing to fear.
   UPDATE: this one has been striken at the beginning of day #2 because it is out of line from the others. It is not specific enough to adequately report on, nor is it daily, as the others are. Furthermore, I actually already do this from time to time, I don’t need the help of this support structure.

I think these four items will be a good start to improving myself in very real, yet quite practical ways. I hope to add to these slowly as time goes on and I achieve some level of mastery over the weaknesses these goals are intended to overome.

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