I've been playing around with the rule of one (RoO) for almost a year now.  A great friend of mine came up with it as an organizational tool/motivator, and I've been refining my thoughts on it since then.  It is a very simple thing, but I'm going to drag this out and be as thorough as possible.  I've been planning on writing this entry for quite awhile, and may have even written about it last year.  But I wrote so little last year, and am making 2008 a much different year than 2007, so here it is (possibly) again.

Resolutions and goals often fail because we bite off more than we can chew.  Setting too high of a goal can be a deterrent to finishing it, or even starting it.  Let's say that you make a goal of reading thru the Bible in a year, which works out to roughly 5 chapters a day.  You keep up with it for the first week, or even month, but then you have a day with some unforeseen emergencies crop up, either at work or at home, and you literally don't have time.  Or you are just exhausted after a long day, and promise yourself that you'll catch up the next day.  Well, ten chapters the next day just doesn't happen, but you'll catch up eventually.  But as this continues, and Leviticus gets really boring to you, you give up in frustration.  Maybe next year you say.

Or maybe you have an exercise goal of let's say 30 minutes a day.  You start off strong, but then things keep happening.  Overtime at work, getting home too tired to do anything, getting sick for a spell.  So this daily goal, as it gets skipped more and more, quickly turns into a broken resolution.

One way to make a resolution stick it to make it easy to do every day.  Once you've done it consistently for a month or more, it is very likely to stick.  I'm not sure I believe the old adage, "it takes 6 weeks to make a habit, and a lifetime to break it."  I've broken both "rules" in less time, but there is some truth in it.

So I'm rambling a bit here, as usual, but here are the basics of the Rule of One.

• Make your goals extremely small.  Don't promise to read the Bible in a year, promise to read some of it daily, even if only a verse.  Don't promise to work out for 30 minutes a day, promise to do some form of exercise daily, even if it is only one push-up.
• Make your goals somewhat general.  Like in the above exercise goal, don't promise yourself 30 minutes on the treadmill.  You may be somewhere without a treadmill, or your's could break.  Keeping it general, to any form of exercise, gives you options, and increases the chance of you doing it daily.

I know that many of you are saying something like, "one verse, that's silly", or, "one push-up, that doesn't do any good."  Well, those observations are true, but here are some things to consider.

• Just because your stated or even printed goal is one verse, or one push-up, it doesn't mean that you are only going to do one.  Seriously now, not many people are going to open the Bible and read only one verse, or get down on the floor and do only one push-up.  I'm doing both goals this year, and always do at least double digit push-ups (ok, I'll be honest, even ten is a chore for this out-of-shape blogger, but with daily practice I hope to increase my numbers).  And so far, I'm on the 5 chapter a day average to get thru the Bible this year.  Many days are less, as low as a few verses, but so far, I've always caught up within a day or two.
• Having your goals easy to complete greatly encourages daily completion.  If my printed goal was 5 chapters a day, I would be much more likely to skip a day.  I work 12 hour days that sometimes turn into 16 or more, and it was often difficult to think about doing one of my resolutions of year's past when I knew I only have 4 or 5 hours to sleep once I get home.  Well, now that my goal is only one verse and one push-up, I always have time to do that.  Again, I've never done that few, but it nice to know that it is all I "have to do."
• The easier your goals are, the more likely you are to do them consistently for long stretches of days.  And the longer you fulfill a goal, the more likely that it becomes a permanent habit, without the need of writing or making goal/resolutions.
• Something is better than nothing.  If you set your goals too high, you are much more likely to skip it entirely.  A little bit is better than nothing.  One push-up may not sound like much, but at least it keeps it in your daily mindset, and most days you'll do many more than one.  One verse is better than nothing.  The Creator of the universe has chosen to communicate with us thru the Bible, and daily time with it is my number one goal this year, and every year.  My friend Michelle, who created this rule, has a massive filing problem.  She has literally thousands of papers at various places in her house that need filing.  She used to plan weekends to the task, but you all know how that goes.  You start a task, but it just seems so overwhelming that you use any excuse to move on to something else.  So she used the RoO to create a "file one piece of paper a day" rule for herself.  No matter how busy you are, you can probably find time to file one piece of paper.  And if you're going to bother to do one piece, you 're likely to do at least a handful or pile.

So anyway, there is my big new philosophy.  Very simple, and nothing that hasn't been talked about for years.  But I'm latching onto it this year with full force.  So far, I'm 35 for 35 in four daily goals (Bible, a non religious daily devotional, exercise bike, and push-ups).  Yep, the blogging goal is a bit behind.  I started this entry back on January 2nd, but am only finishing it on February 4th.  But I have a few private, draft entries, so I'll get caught up soon.

I'm really excited about "The Rule of One" this year. I'll detail that tomorrow or so, but right now, I'll just list my resolutions for the year. I'll comment and expand on them in future entries, here's just a list for some personal accountability and to have something written for the day. They are very similar to the same old resolutions I make every year, but I think this year is going to be different.

1 - Read the Bible

2 - Read something else daily

3 - Exercise daily

4 - Blog more

There we go, short and sweet. I started this entry on the first, but am finally detailing it a bit here on the 29th. I know it's early, but so far I'm 29 for 29 on the above. More on these later.

2007 was sort of a mediocre year for me.  I started the year a bit depressed, and basically stayed in a funk of sorts most of the year.  I spent a lot of time by myself, and much of that doing quite a bit of soul searching. 

I've never been big on change.  I've had the same job since college.  I wear clothes until they fall apart.  I eat the same foods all the time (and too much of them).  And I make the same "resolutions" and plans to "organize my life" all of the time.

Every December/January, I come up with the same ideas to "make myself a better person", a better Christian, a better son, brother, etc.  These plans usually focus on reading the Bible more, and stopping my OCD/hoarding behavior and getting my stuff cleaned out and organized.  And by every March or April, I've fallen hopelessly behind in those plans and give up until the next year.

But as 2007 wore on, I think I had a few ephinanies of sort.  I rented a storage site a few months ago, and moved much of my collections there.  I have latched onto a new "philosophy", the Rule of One, which I think is going to work wonders.  I'll expand on it in a later post.

One thing that became clear to me in the last month or so, was that I
was happier back in 05/06 when I writing more.  I barely touched this
blog in 2007.  I'm promising myself that 2008 will be better.  I've written a few notes/placeholder/private entries the past few weeks, but this is my first real entry of 2008.  I started this on New Year's Eve, but am actually writing the majority of it on January 26th.  More tomorrow?

Just had a bizarre coincidence right now. I'm watching a Christmas episode of Alice, Mel's Christmas Carol. The special guest star is the great Jack Gilford who I've always loved.

As he makes his first appearance, I click on the link to read about him and see how long ago he died.  And just as Mel says to his character, "you died 17 years ago", I see on IMDB that Jack Gilford died exactly 17 years ago.

It was the exact same second.

My good friend Cindy lost her beloved canine companion JB recently.  He was an amazing little dog.  I don't generally like small dogs all that much, but I did like JB.  I even let him sleep in my car one night.

 Below is her words from her email.  I'll add some pictures and some personal thoughts when I find them.

Born in Dallas Texas (GO COWBOYS!!), raised in TX, AR, VA and WA.  JB
lived an extremely eventful life....hobbies included swimming in ANY
body of water he found, chasing ALL animals (including dear, rabbits
-he really liked the rabbits-, cats, birds, squirrels, frogs and even
fish.  Fetching or just going after tennis balls, soccer balls,
footballs, golf balls and baseballs if you got those toys back was up
to JB and JB only.  He was known for hiding toys in random places only
to go back and find them later.
 
JB was a GREAT travel companion and followed me everywhere....as a pup
he adjusted well to the move to AR then the next year made the drive
from AR to VA with my dad and I as the co-pilot.  In VA he moved a
couple local moves then the big move came last April when JB went coast to coast.  He didn't get much time in WA state, winter was coming and JB loved the SNOW.
 
With a constantly wagging tail, JB has touched many lives.  As have
many lives touched JB's.  Many of you fed, watched after, dog sat (very
rarely did JB get to go to someone else's house to be watched, Denise
& family loved JB) and simply showed loved to him on numerous
occasions and for that we both are grateful.
 
Some of JB's fondest memories were scaring Chris & Allison
Ashinhurst in the Whitten drive way late at night, stealing Ashes
Whitten's toys right out of the pastors yard, hunting down basketballs
and removing them from Mt Aratat's property, fish hunting in the
Tuckwiller pond, jumping fences via woodpiles at the Week's, doing
disappearing acts (sometimes for days) one of the most recent on the
road trip to WA freaking out Chris C, frog catching with Wesley, being
kept in the latest bandana fashions by Stacey, entertaining Tuckwiller
& Leporati children, playing with his cousin dog Casey, cheering on
kids at baseball & soccer games, talking on the phone with Kim,
following John (his most recent landlord) all over the property and
running off just when it was time to come back, entertaining Vickie by
chasing rabbits all over the yard.  These are just a few of the lives
that touched JB's life.
 
Early Sunday morning JB ran off into the woods only to find that would
be his last time of doing that.  We aren't 100% percent sure of what
happened, however best we can come up with is JB was met by a coyote
and probably put up a great fight (some of you who knew JB well, knew
he was always up for a good fight).  He had a couple little puncture
wounds on his neck, but the most noticeable was he couldn't walk.  We
(me & my sisters family) babied and watched over him closely for
30+ hours and with no improvement I had to make one of the hardest
decisions I think I've ever had to make. 
 
JB will be buried in Chattaroy WA atop a hill looking down on Bear
Lake.  To my knowledge he never went to bear lake, but it might have
been kept a secret by John, Vickie & JB and we all know....JB would
have never told!
 
JB will be missed!
 
(thanks for letting me get this out, it was very therapeutic.  I am sad
and will definitely miss JB for a VERY long time!  Love you all, and if
you were a part of Job's life, that means you are/were a part of mine
as well.  Thank You)

Spread the word ye scurvy dogs and proud beauties!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

triskaidekaphobia tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh, noun:

A morbid fear of the number 13 or the date Friday the 13th.

I don't, really, but I did have a brief irrational bout of it this past Friday, as I flew home from my second vacation of the past 3 weeks.  I had known since I booked the trip that I was flying on Friday the 13th, and it did not bother me a bit.  I think I even joked about it once or twice, making horror movie music sounds as I did.  But then Friday, as I boarded this tiny little jet in Mobile, and sat down in my seat in row 14, I noticed that the row in front of me was numbered 12.  So this airline, as many hotels do with floors, skips row 13 to alleviate people's fear.  But I would hope that anybody on a hotel floor 14 realizes that they are really on the dreaded 13th floor, as I was aware that I was on the 13th row of the airplane.  And the only one in that row.  On Friday the 13th.  In a tiny, dilapidated plane with strange bent wing tips.

For the first time ever, I ordered a drink on a flight, three of them in fact.

Not really, I pretty much don't drink.  And expect for a brief thought or two at the beginning of the flight, I can assure you that I do not have triskaidekaphobia.  I do, however, have arachnophobia, but we'll save that for another day.

So do you have any irrational fears?

I have a mountain of things to write, including a full review of my first cruise.  But I am about to leave on another vacation, so will leave behind several half written private entries for later in the month.

For now, I have completed and made public yet another dream, this one involving friend #4.  Look down a bit to find the entry on June 8th for another bizarre tale, both forged by and causing somnolence.