Ok, I talked last week about rebuilding myself.  Time to add some specifcs.

I came up with this simple formula to use as a guide to the new me, because everyone knows geeks respond to math.  At the surface, it seems a bit...off.  But I'll explain.

Mathematically, it should really be 1 + 2 - (-3) = 6, which of course simplifies to 1 + 2 + 3 = 6, but that's not as catchy.  And catchy is what I'm hoping will make me catch on.

The simple breakdown is this:  Each week, realize a net personal gain of 6 (units?).  Do this by adding:

1 new long-term thing to learn/experience/grow with per week.  Justice is doing this with development books, 1 a week.  I'm taking a broader swipe at it.  Not because I don't think I can't read 1 book a week, but because there is more to it than that.  I want to get involved on a deeper level, each 1 thing becoming a long-term growth investment in myself, rather than a short-term capital gains opportunity.  Last week's +1 was joining a gym.  Long term investment.  This week's +1 is diving into linux, by way of Ubuntu.  More on that later, once the torrent installer downloads.

2 new good habits/things/actions.  This is intentionally vague, because if I were to say "add 2 good habits" or "add 2 healthy foods" or something of that nature, it leaves me with a finite set of additions.  So some of the +2s could really be +1s on other weeks.  Or they could be 1 time enriching activities.  Point is, add 2 good things to you each week.  Last week was "eat 2 servings of fresh vegetables per day" (doing well with this, up from an average of...oh...I don't know....zero) and "Go to bed before midnight, wake up at 6 and fix my sleep routine".  Not doing as well with this, but the idea is that it's on my mind, and is a continuing effort.

3 remove 3 bad things.  Like the +2, this is a little vague, but it gives me room to play with both BIG bad things (like quit smoking) and smaller bad things (like give up High Fructose Corn Syrup).  These are also, by nature, ongoing pursuits.  The third for the week (the two mentioned are this week's top two) is "cut video game time".  I haven't put a number on this to quantify it, because the way I want to approach it is to work on the +1 category, or work, or something else, when I would normally be playing video games, to cut them back to "leisure" status from the current "second job" status.

Along with the formula approach, which, when you think about it, is just a way to set manageable weekly goals and guidelines, is a general theory about living a better life.  I find that people, or at least me, tend to make broad sweeping goals, all-encompassing ideas about what needs to happen, sometime in the future, the nature of which make it very easy to back out.  Here's my thought.  You better yourself one decision at a time.  This is a very zen approach when you consider it.  Each decision you make in the moment is the one you have to live with.  Don't think way ahead about grand fitness or weight or learning goals.  Don't beat yourself up for missing a workout last Tuesday or that candy bar you ate this morning.  Approach each decision point as a single, self-contained entity, and make the right choice.  This makes it much easier to have willpower.

Examples:

Quitting smoking.  Out of cigarettes.  Driving to work.  Shell station on the corner.  Make the decision not to stop.  Now you don't even have to make the decision to not buy cigarettes, and to not smoke them.  Those decisions are irrelevant right now.

Eating healthier.  At the restaraunt for lunch.  Looking at the menu.  Decide to have a salad.  Or the fresh catch.  Skip the burger.  You aren't thinking about dinner.  You aren't thinking about your goal of a beach body by summer.  You are thinking, righ this instance, what should I eat?  This makes it a lot easier (for me anyway) to make the healthy choice.

I Break it down into small chunks, then I can use the 1+2-3 as guidelines to make my micro-decisions.  I have to do this to work out in the morning.  I have to make the decision to get out of bed.  One of the +2s was an early to bed, early to rise thing, so I use that to weigh my choices against, and get up.  I have to make the decision to go to the gym.  But the gym decision is really a workflow of subdecisions.  Decide to get dressed instead of get back in bed after taking a piss.   Decide to walk out the door rather than watch sportscenter.  Once you're out the door, getting in the car is easy.  Decide to make a left turn toward the gym instead of a right toward McDonald's and the office.  I didn't have to will myself to get up and work out, I merely decided to do the following:  Get Dressed.  Walk Out Door.  Turn Left.  The decisions in between make themselves.

I don't know, maybe this sounds weird.  I think it's solid, and I'm going with it.  It's like programming.  Break difficult problems into small chunks.  Delegate, delegate, delegate until you have completed the functionality a chunk at a time.  It's easier that way.  Why not with the human reboot project?

Will keep you (me) posted on the 1+2-3 each week.

This week:

+1 = Ubuntu Linux

+2 = Organize work area (home and office); replace more red meat with fish

-3 = Stop smoking.  Stop High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Less all-consuming-videogaming.