Entry
Two Hundred Two.
Saturday, 2017.01.07, 1:00 PM CST.
At
45/Resolutions for 2017.
Current Mood: Strangely optimistic...
actually looking forward to a lot.
Current Scent: X-Centric by Alfred Dunhill.
Well,
in my last journal entry,
I mentioned my "three words" for 2017 - "Boost,"
"Charm," and "Give," inspired by Chris
Brogan's tradition of coming up with three words to guide him every
year.
 However,
I also came up with a set of genuine new year's resolutions, and I want
to go over those along and also write a little bit about the milestone
that I rencently reached... age 45.
Very
early last month, I turned forty-five years old. I don't usually
openly discuss my age, because most people don't usually think that
I look as old as I am, and I generally don't feel as old as I guess
I'm "supposed" to feel at "my age."
But,
forty-five hit me harder than most ages. I knew that once I reached
45, I would be closer to 50 than I'd ever again be to 40. That
was a pretty rough reality, especially since I can remember many things
from my twenties as if they happened only a few weeks ago.
Now,
I know that a lot of you reading this have already reached 45 and that
some of you probably have moved quite a few years past that age.
I'm not looking for sympathy for the grief of reaching 45... it's just
a very interesting age. I have two young sons, the older of whom
is only a fifth of my age at the time of this writing. How very
fascinating it must feel to be nine years old in this wonderful and
yet very frightening world. It can be exhausting having a four-year-old
and a nine-year-old, but it's also exhilirating in a strange way.
In
any case, I'm 45 now... and I'm trying to deal with it. I'm not
ready for a walker and some Metamucil just yet.
For
those who might be interested, here they are...
My
New Year's Resolutions for 2017:
1.
I will pay more attention to those who would serve to help build me
up and less attention to those who would serve to tear me down.
That
seems like an obvious one, but it really isn't. Not everyone I
count as a "friend" helps me feel like a better person.
2.
I will associate more often with those who are successful.
This
doesn't mean that if you're my friend and you're not doing well, I'm
going to shun you or quit talking to you. What this means is that
I will make an earnest attempt to associate more than I used to with
other local professionals, entrepreneurs, and creatives who are experiencing
success and making a difference.
3.
I will spend less time messing around on social media.
This
is going to be hard, because I loooooooooove my Facebook. I will
still continue to post on the DJ
Badger page as well as the Awesome
Retro DJ Service page. However, I'm going to make a very strong
effort to stop checking Facebook every few minutes just to see "what's
up." I've gotten to a point at which I keep my phone beside
me all the time and if I don't check Facebook for more than a half-hour
or so, I keep wondering if I am missing anything major. This will
stop. I'll still be checking Facebook and interacting plenty from
my personal account as well, but not as much.
4.
I'm going to get together with friends more often.
This
means that I'll be putting together informal get-togethers to play games
like "Cards Against Humanity" and "God Hates Charades"
with my friends. I'll start going to social functions that I didn't
organize more often, as well. And this brings me to number 5...
5.
I will support my fellow DJs more.
I
know that I organize my own events far more often than I attend events
at which I'm not performing. There are plenty of great DJs and
event organizers (including but not limited to Jessy James, Axis, Vixx,
Robbo, Lynn K, Xylo Sesame, Speedbump, Falkirk, Dilution, Mike Castle,
and Sam Propst) in Tulsa whose events I need to frequent more often.
I'm hoping to do so. I cannot expect the scene to support my events
if I'm not supporting other events in the scene. I'm sorry that
I haven't been so great about it in the past.
6.
I will be more giving and support those who are less fortunate.
I
mentioned this in that last journal entry.
I'm not rich - nowhere near what I would consider rich, at least on
a financial basis - but I have been fortunate enough to find myself
more successful than ever over the last couple of years. I need
to be more generous. That doesn't mean that I'm going to be going
around handing checks to my friends or anything like that, but it does
mean that if you're my friend and you're hungry, you can let me know
and hopefully I'll be able to get you something to eat. If I invite
you out for dinner or some drinks and you can't do it because you don't
have the funds, I'll do what I can to make sure that you're taken care
of. I've done what I can in the past to avoid being an absolute
selfish prick, but I know that I could have been more giving.
I'm going to try to improve on that this year, and I also plan to give
more to charities such as Share
Our Strength (nokidhungry.org).
7.
I'm going to play with my kids more.
They
won't be this young forever.
8.
I'm going to play more Atari 2600.
I
haven't set aside enough time for silly things like that in previous
years. I'm working on that.
9.
I will write more.
It's
no big secret that I've been working on a novel, very slowly, over the
course of the last few years. I need to speed that up and see
what I can get done, because I really would love to have something ready
to publish by the end of the year.
10.
I will read more.
I've
also gotten back into the habit of reading more often. My wife
bought me a Kindle Fire, and I've been buying "books" on that
thing like mad. I still love physical books, don't get me wrong...
but there's something very satisfying about finding a $25.00 book that
I've wanted for months for $1.99 as a download. (Yes, I realize
that I could do the same thing with music. Sorry... when it comes
to my vinyl obsession, I try my best to remain decidedly old-school.)
11.
I will learn more.
It
might surprise you to know that most of the stuff I buy for my Kindle
is non-fiction. I tend to purchase a lot more business-related
and self-improvement/motivational books than anything else. Do
I think that I have a lot to learn from the likes of the aforementioned
Chris Brogan and Seth
Godin? Of course I do. (This, obviously, ties in with
resolution #2 above.)
12.
I will value my health more.
This
includes my mental health as well as my physical health. I'm trying
my hardest to find ways to be happier, calmer, and more confident about
life, and as far as the physical stuff goes, I've started going back
to Sky Fitness
on a regular basis, and I've invested in a couple more home fitness
programs ("Cize" and "Insanity") to keep me busy
even when I can't make it to the gym.
13.
Memento Mori.
That's
a latin phrase which essentially means "Remember that you have
to die." As I think I've written here before, I have lived
with the philosophy of "Nobody gets out of this alive" for
quite some time. This is the only life that we've all got, so
any day spent not doing at least something awesome is a day
wasted on mediocrity.
14.
I'm going to have more adventures.
It's
a generic phrase, but that's the best way that I can cap this list off.
I will indeed have more adventures, of one sort or another, this year.
That's
it! There's the list. It's a lot longer than usual, and
realistically, I am concerned that there's no way I'll be able to achieve
all of these goals... but there they are. We'll see how things
go.
Are
there also at least a few things that I'm not telling you? Of
course there are.
Thank
you to everyone, as usual, for your support. More later.
Badger
Forty-five
years and one day old, December 2016.
Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
#mythreewords
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