Happy Birthday to Me!

So yeah, 6/23 was my birthday. I had a great time at the game with the fellas and Cheyenne. I came home and I feel like a new man. So here's my list of goals for the next year with some commentary.

2006-2007 Goals: The 25th Year on Earth

1. Join a Gym: We've come a long way since our worst point weight wise, but if we want to keep moving forward, the only plan can be to get it together and start working out. I actually have the desire to do so because I'm motivated.

2. Move Out, but not too soon: Yes, living at home has been wonderful and things between my parents and I are really good right now, but eventually if I want to have a life of my own (read: women) I need to move out to my own place, probably with a roommate.

3. Financial Freedom: Dad is nearly totally paid off, leaving only the car payment and insurance as major bills for me. I can deal with that, but picking up a little overtime at work isn't a bad idea. Having an actual savings would be nice instead of living from paycheck to paycheck. Perhaps expenses could somehow be cut down upon?

4. Be prepared for romance: It's been a strange journey. I've never really had most of the things that people my age have had, but I think we're getting close to the point where I have it figured out.

5. Show less fear: Instead of being afraid of what will happen, find out! More than likely, as with many of the other things I've spent so much time worrying about in my life, the images in my head are much worse than even the worst case scenario in reality.

6. Continue Improving Self-Discipline: I've gotten there with my eating habits, but I need to continue to make strides. Working out, eating even healthier, and showing a little sexual discipline should help me improve even more.

7. Read more: I want to be more well-read. Not only does it make you an interesting person when you have more information swimming around in your head, but it also will improve your vocabulary as well and your everyday conversations. Casual reading is fine for the most part but maybe learning some skills like palm-reading or rune-reading or whatever would be nice as conversation starters and for establishing value to people.

8. Continue doing well in school. The discipline that had been lacking for so long showed up this semester. Hopefully we can do it again in the fall.

9. Remember to take a step back when things are looking extra bleak or extra great. It's easy to get caught up in the extremes and do things that you shouldn't. Centering yourself by talking to friends or whomever to gain perspective is an excellent way to make sure that everything stays "ok."

10. Physical Appearance. Touched on by the joining of a gym and self-discipline, I want to get my weight below 225 lbs before next June while simultaneously adding muscle mass and making myself look like a 25 yr old man that women want to be with. We can get there, so why don't we at this point. Just keep turning corners and eventually we'll get out of the maze. Also, I need to start tanning, and once financial freedom has been achieved, buy some new clothes with the help of my female friends that I trust for advice.

11. Make life an adventure. Not only does it make things more interesting for myself, but it will help attract females to my life. Even the most mundane things can be adventures if you do them right (and with the right people).

12. Speaking of new people, I need to make some more new friends. My current crop of friends, while loyal and good people that I would never stop being friends with, is pretty much set into their roles. Try and move forward into new groups of friends that present challenges and also find me to be a challenge.

13. Learn some new skills. Touched on by reading above, learning an instrument (bass guitar anyone?), taking vocal lessons for both voice and singing, and just overall improving myself as a person would be excellent ways to spend my time instead of masturbating to online porn, LOL.

14. Be the best friend I can be. I'm a good person the majority of the time. While that may not have been true before, now I can say with confidence that I do things for the good of other people often. I need to be the best friend I can be and accept the situations that I cannot change but do my best to help those in need.

15. Be a good son. While I live at home, perhaps I could keep things a little cleaner in my daily life. They let me live here, so instead of taking advantage of that, why not try and at least keep my corner of the house clean. Try and help my dad whenever possible because who knows how much time we have left together.

16. Pick a direction. I am actually limitless with what I can do now that I'm in the process of freeing myself from the bounds that have held me down for so long, my addictions, etc. I need to pick a path and actually try it instead of just thinking about it in regards to a career.

17. Do my best at work. I'm an excellent pharmacy tech and I need to keep being one because it's a fine job while I go through school and the chances of meeting someone awesome there are pretty good thanks to the high percentage of interesting, beautiful, funny people on the premises.

18. Don't lose touch with the old. Remember what got me to this point and how bad things once were before changes started to happen. We don't want to go back to that place and to do so we need to make widescale changes. Fight the daily depression and move forward with our goals. Don't give up on old friendships that may have disintegrated thanks to my own faults. They can still be salvaged and are often rewarding.

19. Pay attention to detail. The smallest things are the things that people notice. For example, the fact that my car has an mp3 player and heated seats are much more important to me than what is underneath the hood. That's very similar to how people react towards other people that they meet on a daily basis.

20. Cut out the negative influence in my life. Unfortunately, this means giving up some friendships that have been important to me in varying stages of my life, but these people live lifestyles that I simply cannot live, and most importantly, don't want to live. It's just too easy to fall back into bad habits when surrounded by them and people that glorify that lifestyle.

21. Stay positive. We've come a long way, and even though we do have a long way to go, we need to remember that we're infinitely better off than we were just a couple short years ago.

22. Let go of the past. Plenty of bad things have happened in the past, but we've learned from them and we need to keep them as just that: learning experiences. Funny as it sounds, would I really want to change anything now that I know where it's getting me? No.

23. Don't worry so much about the future. Let's try living for the moment. It's insanely more attractive and it also helps to keep us with a firm grasp on reality. That being said...

24. Don't be afraid to dream. Having long-term goals is something that is both necessary and enjoyable. Meeting a long-term goal is even better.

25. Stop Whining so much. Yes, life isn't always fair. In fact, it rarely is. Don't perceive everything as a slight, and stop acting with imperfect information. It will make things much easier as we move forward.

Songs of the Second:
Tonic - You Wanted More
Better Than Ezra - Desperately Wanting
AFI - Love Like Winter
Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark