Gut Check

If it is not measured, then it is not improved. Just over six months ago I began this blog and, more importantly, this endeavor. I find it important to look back on the goal that was set and measure progress to gauge where I really am now. To quote myself from January 1st this year...

1. I will add to this blog once per week for the entire year.
2. I will quit smoking, immediately.
3. I will restart and complete my P90x program by April 1st, 2013.
4. 2013 will be the first and debt-purging year of my 3 year plan to own a home on/near a lake.
5. Most importantly, I will learn to be happy alone before my next emotional journey.

...and where I am now:

1. I am a little light on adding to this blog weekly but while the frequency is less, I feel the content is sufficient. In the name of not settling, I intend to address and force myself to address this pace.

2. Surprisingly, quitting smoking has been the easiest of these tasks and it has been over six months since I have had a cigarette.


3. While I did not finish this program officially I do, however, fit into the same size jeans I wore in high school for the first time in over a decade. I have also picked up running as a hobby again and completed the first 5k race I have ever ran. Again, I missed the mark, am happy with the results yet remain unsatisfied as a whole and will continue to focus on health and physical strength.

4. Steady gains here. I have eliminated just over 1/3rd of the debt necessary to call myself "debt free". To date, this is the largest stride I've made in this effort in the last several years.

5. Oh how I could dwell for a day and a half in the sweet misery of this endeavor. More to come on this with a later blog post.

This post brings no fancy words or descriptive metaphors. This post fulfills a very basic need to document where I am today. So often we set goals for ourselves and then they fall by the wayside because of boredom or the lack of developing habits. 

The main reason then that I began this blog was to announce to my friends and family that I was making a change towards health and also a promise to myself to emotionally reconcile the severing of a relationship, the embrace of a divorce and to gain an appreciation of solitude. I have completed nothing but have accomplished much and yet I stand today with a hunger and lack of satisfaction.