From Our House to Yours

Goals for 2009

For a few years now I’ve been contemplating some important steps that I know would be good for me but require some time and effort to really do well. The fact that I know these things will require a significant effort has caused me to keep putting them off. This is not necessarily bad:

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30, NIV)

But if I don’t ever do them, then of course I’ll miss out on all the benefits that I could gain from them, not to mention the ways that they could help me be of greater benefit to my family and others. Some of the things I’ve been wanting to do include:

• Having a consistent cardiovascular and anaerobic workout. Nothing fancy, but I plan on doing the exercise bike for 1/2 hour and then doing pushups and situps, increasing my reps regularly. The idea here is just to keep my body in decent shape, not become an olympic athlete. I’ve done this on and off, but lately illness and traveling has got in the way.
• Eating more purposefully, trying to plan out meals and purchase ingredients for the week in advance.
• Along with the last one, I’d like to starting some form of The Longevity Diet, also known as Calorie Restriction, CR, CRON, the 120 Year Diet, and other names. I first heard about this about five years ago, and have been interested in it ever since. More and more evidence demonstrates that reducing your calories while maintaining nutrition slows the aging process and increases your vital years. But doing it right requires that you get a bunch of medical tests and chart your progress on these “biomarkers” as you go. To get started right on this, I need to find a physician who is supportive of this diet and get these tests taken. I may still delay this while I work on other goals, as it will probably mean eating something different from the rest of the family.
• Studying scriptures and other inspirational texts on a daily basis. This is one of those things that we all know is good for us but often daily urgencies crowd it out. I’ve been better at this during other times in my life. Lately I’ve been doing this more in spurts than on a daily basis. Time to get back into it. I also think that it is important to study inspired texts from different faith traditions:

“For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written. For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it.” (2 Nephi 29:11-12, emphasis added)

“The great religious leaders of the world such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals…We believe that God has given and will give to all peoples sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation.” (First Presidency statement, Feb. 15, 1978)

“I want to say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in heaven, earth or hell, it belongs to our doctrine. We believe it; it is ours; we claim it.” (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, 2)

“One of the grand fundamental principles of Mormonism is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.” (Joseph Smith, An American Prophets Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith, 395)

“In these respects we differ from the Christian world, for our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 14:116)

“Latter-day Saints ought to devote at least as much reading time to the classics of other religions and cultures as they do to their own.” (Lowell Bennion, How Can I Help?, 112)

• I’ve always felt like there were some subjects that I didn’t study enough during my college years that would really help me in my job, especially calculus and statistics. I’d like to spend 1/2 hour per day going through these topics and practicing problems until I feel like I have a solid foundation. After I feel comfortable with a topic, I’ll move on to another one.
• I have been wanting to learn more languages, and after having gone through it already, I have a better idea of what it takes. Daily exposure is the key. I’d like to spend at least 1/2 hour per day studying another language.
• I’ve been fortunate enough to have developed musical talent on a few different instruments, but I never practice anymore. I’d like to spend an hour a day practicing my instruments, perhaps rotating between them or focusing on specific measurable goals, such as: practice simple tunes in all twelve keys until I can play by ear comfortably; learn the chord changes to 50 jazz standards until I can play them in all twelve keys; work through all the exercises in  Patterns for Jazz until I can play them at full speed. This practice will probably need to happen in the morning, since after school is family time.
• Turning off the TV and reading more books. This is both a good example for the children and a way to get more educated. I haven’t been that bad about watching TV already, but I think I can be even more selective. The kids and I really enjoy some PBS programs like the Newshour and Nova. I don’t feel bad about these, but I’ll try to avoid crap shows that never resolve and suck up your time. I’m so glad we have DVRs these days to make our viewing more productive. Speaking of reading more, I have been reading a great book lately called The Well-Trained Mind that has really opened my eyes to deficiencies in our educational system and even ways that I should supplement my own education. This book describes a classical home education that is so much better than what kids are learning in our public schools today.
• Defining more accurately what my commitment level is in certain areas of my life, placing constraints on myself to prevent these things from crowding out other important goals. For example:
  • Unless it is part of a special occasion (like a marathon Star Wars party or something), I will watch no more than one movie and four hours of TV per week (hopefully less than this).
  • For date night, we often cop out and stay at home because we didn’t plan ahead and get a baby sitter. For this reason, I will place the constraint on myself that only one date night per month can be spent at home.
  • Church activities and meetings (at least if you’re Mormon) often tend to become less and less productive as the number of them increases, and interfere with critical family time. I will commit to doing church service only one day per week besides Sunday and on Sunday I will spend no more than two additional hours in church service besides the regular three-hour block. I will also commit to no more than one overnight scout camp-out per month, which will substitute all other activities for the week it is scheduled on. This basically means I will spend Tuesday evenings serving as scoutmaster for the 11-year-olds and on Sunday I will attend ward choir practice and spend one additional hour either home teaching, preparing an occasional lesson, planning for scouts, or planning the ward music. If I am asked to attend additional meetings or activities, I will consider it, but most of the time I will say no and I won’t feel bad about it.

With all this in mind, I’ve created a target schedule for myself next year. Click on the Week tab below to see it. You’ll notice that there are some blank spots in there. I’ve left myself an additional hour in case my job changes and I no longer can work at home, for commuting time. I could use this additional hour to schedule some regular weekly activity, such as laundry or some other maintenance item, or for preparing meals. I have also left time on Saturday and Sunday for catching up on sleep or planning some other activity. I’ll try to report back on my progress as time goes by.

You’ll notice that this schedule starts pretty early—5am! I came the conclusion that I needed to get up earlier and go to bed earlier to make this work, because the time when Kami and the kids need me most is during the afternoon and evening, so planning this stuff then wouldn’t work. I also think I will be more productive if I start the day off studying rather than try to cram it in when I’m tired and about to go to bed. I did put reading at the end of the day. I find that it helps me to calm down and get tired right before I need to go to sleep.

UPDATE: After talking it over with Kami we changed it to 6am and moved some things to the evening instead of the morning. So far the schedule has gone pretty well the first week. Not quite fitting everything in every day but overall it’s worked well.

UPDATE: Apparently the calendar wasn’t shared properly so nobody could see it. It should be public now.