How Hour

Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, Self-control, Steadfastness, Godliness, Brotherly Affection, Love

The list of qualities above comes from 2 Peter Chapter 1, and really sum up the qualities I want for myself.

After reading that, I recalled the peer-ranking system at the Naval Academy and how we secretly gave each person one word of feedback. Someone might be "Industrious" or "Arrogant". Sometimes I got "abrasive" or "confrontational". I can work on the above qualities and pray for them. Maybe in the future those will be the words that most describe me and my life. 

A review on the week and how things are going with my developing habits and goals:

• Listening to audiobooks or sermons in the car has definitely helped me calm down. Having a verse to look at reminding me to breathe and pray is helpful too. I've started to see a little bit of a change in my attitude and outlook while driving.


• Constant prayer has been improving, but isn't natural and isn't occurring all the time yet. But it is getting better. I am turning to Christ at points of anxiety, temptation, and gloominess.


• Leaving early on purpose has also changed my outlook and attitude while driving.


• Planning the next day: While I don't adhere to the schedule all the time, it helps to review what I have to do, when, and then to try to think up when I can fit other things around those mandatory items. I plan to work-out and have a quiet time, instead of just waking up and going through my day, hoping to find the perfect time to do a workout on a whim. It takes these things out of my head as obligations, and gets them into a schedule. This way I can also focus better on what I'm doing, assured my good habits will be fulfilled in their due time.


• Reading well : I've been enjoying going through "A Foreign Policy of Freedom" and reviewing my notes and the interesting passages therein. Going through key points a second time really helps to ingrain the information and concepts in my mind. This is going well, and I will keep doing it!


• Working out each day has been tough to start, but I'm always glad after it's done.


• I couldn't fall asleep last night! I ended up giving myself some extra sleep this morning (about an hour and a half). I'm not sure whether the cause was working out too late, drinking herbal tea too late, or just having too much on my mind. I was very tired, but couldn't sleep.


• Planning the week: I haven't started this yet. I put down some mandatory events, but haven't done my work-out planning, my meal-planning, or fellowship time. This, I'll take care of today. 

How Hour 3/23/2009

I already have today planned out. I already broke today's plan. I'm back on track though.

"How Hour" is when I set aside time to reflect on my purpose and desires and then ask “how?” for attaining each one. I had come to a point in life where there was a constant list of things I wanted to become, habits I wanted to make or break, and goals I wanted to achieve, but never stopped to ask ‘HOW?’

 

By setting aside time, I look in the immediate and long-term, consider my desires, and consider what I need to do to materialize them. Sometimes I’ll sit and write a list of all those desires. Sometimes I’ll just write about the obstacles in getting to one of them.

 

“How Hour” has been the most profitable time spent during my day for the last year, when I’ve been able to have one. It is a goal and habit in itself and doesn’t come naturally.

 

Lately I’ve been asking “how?” outside of my normal how hours. The habit-setting, review, and effort has been outstanding and is achieving the same objective. My intent is to make habit setting, self-review, and asking “how?” a total mind-set and outlook on life, instead of just 45 minutes spent each morning. I want to keep journaling on wordpress.com my goals, results, and failures.

 

Today, I have a few short term goals:

• Pray before completing any task on my to-do list, before and after. This is sortof like saying “grace”. This is meant to get me in the mindset of turning and submitting to God before going through with a decision. Appealing to Christ shows I know that ultimately He is in control, and I (hopefully) am doing my best to serve and glorify Him.


• Leave 15 minutes earlier than usual for any appointment or meeting. This is to let me change my mindset from one of being rushed, to one of being able to drive safely and slowly, unwind, and breathe before getting there. It’s also supposed to help in not swearing.


• Everything on my To-Do list.

 

I have my day scheduled, my to-do list ready, and am on track to get some work done. 

Review: Smoking

Did you smoke? I haven't smoked at all this week, because I haven't really felt the urge to. My life is pretty darn stress-free. I'm not facing any pressing challenges, I'm not anxious. It's really a nice breezy state of mind for me. 

Are you still "trying" to break this habit? Yes. Just because I had a good week doesn't mean I can take my mind away from being "on the lookout" in anticipating temptation. Tomorrow I'm going for a long drive, which is traditionally some of my favorite smoking time. I might be tempted to buy some cigs or dip just out of boredom. Right now, I make a decision NOT TO BUY ANY TOBACCO PRODUCTS DURING THE CAR TRIP TOMORROW. I'm not a smoker. 

I haven't been making quitting smoking a nightly prayer. This is because I don't have these goals written down to look at often. I think that's something I'll do right now. 

Disclaimer: In my original post here i mentioned that I'm not a "dirty person" and therefor don't smoke. I think that is a pretty lousy attitude toward smoking which I inherited from a girl I used to date. People who smoke aren't dirty people. Smoking, is smelly and gross. But I definitely should have distinguished between a repulsive act and the smoker's dignity. I do stuff people may find repulsive.. often. I hope that doesn't mean i'm a "dirty" person.

End of Week Review

It's time for my end-of-week review. There are a few topics I need to survey:

1. Investing/Trades - Look at each trade. Judge whether it was smart or not based on reasoning, and then based on what happened next. Comment on that reasoning (if there was some) and establish guidelines for the future. 


2. Habit-forming - A few days ago I wrote about habits--good, and bad-- that I wanted to work on. I need to look back over the week and review my progress toward those goals. This will cover the habits that aren't covered in their own section, like:
   
   
   
   • Drinking
   
   
   • Swearing
   
   
   • In & Out of bed at the right times.
   
   
   • Time spent on the internet. 
   
   
   
   


3. Work-outs - Overview of the week as a whole in working out.  Also includes general fitness: diet, hygiene, etc.


4. Not Smoking - self explanatory.


5. Drinking


6. Reading


7. Wasting Time on internet


8. Other crap i don't have time to write about.