First, let us recap Round 1:
I paid no rent by living in a shed for a month (sleeping half the nights at my friend's place), housesitting for a month and a half, and then I ended up living at my parents house. I ate out a lot, meaning I didn't eat very healthily and spent more money than I needed to. Despite going to two of their pasta-feeds, I didn't workout with the triathlon team once, however I did get way more proficient at bouldering and I also won a mini amazing race by outrunning the other teams ($400 North Face prize package, what up!) and I even did my first 5k ever this fall! I ended up wasting hours sitting in public armchairs without being too productive. I managed to get B's in all of my classes despite various procrastination/didnotreadthetext/didn'tdotheassignment occassions (which goes to show the importance and benefit of going to all of your classes, especially if homework isn't your strong-suit). I also managed to find a passion in sustainability - landing myself co-chairship of an environmental group (Campus Beyond Coal) and possibly also a sustainability-focused job. I successfully used a BOGO coupon with a stranger without having to pay a cent for a burrito. I got interviewed for MPR, though apparently they didn't use my voice in the one minute story. And among other things, I probably spent most of my time surfing the web, often for non-academically-productive purposes.
Now, Round 2 is just around the corner.
You might recall the five pillars of my ideal lifestyle: being frugal, sustainable, adventurous, active, and minimalistic. I want to add another two pillars: healthiness and education. From a healthy body, to a healthy soul, to a healthy community, and world. And behind all seven of these pillars there ought to be a base, which in this case will be productivity and motivation.
I intend to improve my efforts in the original five pillars. In order to be frugal, I think I will most likely be renting a room (closet) for $50 dollars a month. The room is essentially my arm's span in both its width and length, so like the shed it will really only be for sleeping - though this time in a warm, secure place that has access to a kitchen and bathroom. To be sustainable, among hundreds of ideas, I will try to buy more local and organic foods and I will continue my bus and bike usage. I hope to intertwine being adventurous and active by biking and running to new, unexplored places as I train for a triathlon this summer. I also hope to do this by getting into mountain biking, trail running, and skiing on the weekends - to at least some degree.
As far as being healthy, well, I want to eat healthy by covering all of the food groups well everyday. I also hope that my training will keep me in good shape. As for my education? I'm currently signed up for 19 credits, divvied into seven classes. I'm willing to drop one class but I'm going to try the whole load with the goal of getting A-'s in at least half of the classes and no lower than a B in any of them.
Now, who knows how far I'll get into these dreams and hopes. So, although it's good to think about what I want to do, sometimes it's also good to think about what I don't want to do. For this entire semester, I do no want to eat any McDonald's, Burger King, or Dairy Queen. I do not want to wait until a few hours before they are due to write papers. I do not want to turn in any essay late. I do not want to spend more than a thousand dollars throughout the entire semester (textbooks not included, seeing as those will cost around $400 - and I want most of my money to go towards food, wholesome food). I do not want to use a credit card (debt card?). I do not want to spend anywhere around four hours a day on the internet/computer. I do not want to be a physically or mentally lazy bum.
I love the idea of productivity, of creating change, of creating new things, creating events where you bring people together, of creating tangibles... To me it's insane that you can create an idea of something like a business or a game night or what have you! And then, make it happen! Hah, I just love creating, and unfortunately I'm lazy and so I rarely follow through on a lot of things. I always pull out the Legos and get excited about creating new things from my imagination, but then as I sit there doing the work I get bored and tired of it. Well, that happened a lot in the past, and as I look at where my niche in this world might be I get excited, but I know there is a lot of hard work ahead of me, and I want to be productive and motivated to get done the work that should get done.
So I have set a few smaller, short-term goals for this last week of winter break:
This last week I swam twice to begin training - next week I will swim three times. I also will run 2-3 times (aside from the almost daily broomball playing), and get on a bike at least once.
This next week I will finish my year-old recycling paper.
This week I will go skiing at least once.
This week I will start saving up money, and stop spending wastefully (which includes making sure I don't get my dad's car towed, woops...).
This week I will not eat out once, I mean really, I live at my parent's house, they have food.
This week I will fix my tricycle.
And finally, this week, I will clean my room.
I might not be trained for Round 2, but was I trained for the challenges in Round 1? I had never lived in a shed before, I had never taken any philosophy classes before taking the four writing-intensive philosophy classes that I took (oh yeah, none of next semester's classes will be writing-intenstive!), and I had never done a race. I'm excited, and as I always am before the start of a new semester, I'm motivated. This semester will be different, my life has more meaning and purpose then it probably ever has had in the past. So, even if I lose some motivation as the semester carries on, I'm making the commitment now to persevere. Bring it Round 2!
Good luck on creating challenges and following through on your own wishes y'all. Cheers and a happy new year!
