Re-commitment

Now that I have been home from New York for a few days, I've started my life over in some ways. I've explained it to people recently as getting back to my "real life" but really it is starting over. I decided to recommit myself to living a certain way. And it's not that I was living a bad life or that I was unhappy. On the contrary, the two months I spent in New York were quite happy and fulfilling and though last semester was full of tough classes and the like, generally speaking I was still doing pretty well.

But it was time for a change and I'm completely stoked about it.

For one thing, I'm abiding by my Four-Fold Mission more than I ever have before. For those who haven't heard me spout off these four points before, I'll give them to you now:

1) Happiness is a choice.
2) Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing.
3) The secrets of life are hidden behind the word cliche.
4) Don't forget to be awesome.

Very recently, Eli McCann, who writes the It Just Gets Stranger blog, had this to say of choices and happiness:

 "There is so much more joy in this life to be had if we decide to be happy rather than let our happiness depend upon the decisions of other people." 

So after reading that I was 100% certain that Eli is a total genius. (His blog has become one of my absolute favorite reads because of both his incredible sense of humor and knack for profundity.)

Beyond my re-commitment to those four points, I'm also taking on a new fitness regimen. Phrasing it like that sounds totally pretentious so let's just say I'll be working out a lot more. And by "a lot more" I mean every day but Sunday. This is where the second point of my four-fold mission really comes in. It's not painful to be who I am right now but changing physically is something I really want to do. I've written countless times about ShayCarl and his weight loss and how he's made an incredible life for himself. It's not that Shay wasn't happy before but once he really started losing weight, the change in his attitude toward life was astounding. I can run a couple miles and be fine but I'm capable of more than that. I know I am. I have little to no upper body strength. But I know I'm capable of more than that.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm running. Just two days ago I started the Couch-to-5K running plan. Like I said already, I can run two miles, but I figure I might as well give myself a strict schedule to follow to work up to something more. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I'm doing push-ups. Remember the time I started working toward doing 100 push-ups consecutively? I'm starting that plan again and this time I'll finish it. Last night I was talking to my friend Trent (of the Egg) about all this stuff I'm doing with my life and he brought up a good point about strength. He said it's not so important that I'm physically strong but that I feel strong. He's totally right. What I love about taking control of my life in this way is that I get to be both physically strong and, I guess, mentally strong.

The second to last thing I'm focusing on is cooking. This isn't really a thing I'm committing to again but rather something I'm just going to do again since I didn't get to cook at all in New York. Tonight I'll probably make a master list of ingredients I need to buy so I can start cooking all the Sorted Food recipes I put in a playlist.

And the final thing I'm working on is reading a bunch of typography and graphic design books. This is another thing that isn't a re-commitment but rather just a thing I can finally do now that I have the whole library at my disposal once again. I've already checked out four books on the aforementioned topics and read parts of two of them. It's the most interesting summer reading I've done in a long time. Typography is the coolest subject ever. I already love words so I figure it's a good idea to understand why people choose to make them look like they do.

Living life like I am now is very empowering, more so than I thought it would be. It's gearing up to be an absolutely fantastic summer. The weekends will be full of boating, camping, frisbee, reading, cooking, eating, movie-going and all sorts of other good stuff. Every night I've been back has been spent with my amazing friends and I know the rest of my summer nights will be just the same. From the first night I was back and Ben coming over at midnight to last night doing Taco Tuesday and seeing Monsters University with Badger & others, it's been wonderful. Tonight I'm supposed to see Phillip (also of the Egg) and get ice cream with Ben, and then tomorrow I'm getting dinner w/ Trent. Reuniting with all my friends makes me feel so alive.