Xanga Barf aka things recently learned from mistakes

1. Stacey, when you're sleepy, what you need is sleep. Not food. When you're sleepy, you can't tell if your fatigue is from low blood sugar or low brain oxygen. Chances are, it has nothing to do with blood sugar level. So before you put things into your mouth, think: Am I deprived of sleep right now? If you are, either go take a thirty-minute nap or suck it up til mealtime because food will only make you more tired. If you neglect to ask yourself that, you will eat without gaining any satisfaction and then knock out right afterwards anyway.
   
   
2. Why going to bed very early is beneficial and important: Going to bed early means becoming fully rested early. And becoming fully rested early means naturally waking up early, which will enable you to stretch and greet the morning as the birds outside start to chirp. Most importantly, you'll be starting the day on purpose. Now, if you go to bed late, you might still wake up at the same time, but only because you've been forced to. When you're forced to start the day like that, everything changes. Your entire day and evening and everything that you do during that time will be forced. You don't want to be forced. You won't want to do anything or enjoy anything.
   
   
3. On procrastination: I knew that procrastination was a bad habit of mine and that it hindered me throughout high school. The problem was, I never thought that I could fix it. I always accepted it as a part of human nature. As terrible as this might sound, I always thought that since nearly everybody had the habit, it'd be okay and possibly even beneficial for me to go on everybody else's speed or slower.
   
   But now I see exactly what procrastination does. I've already discussed how putting off certain big opportunities can come bite you in the butt. But even procrastinating on the tiniest things in life will hunt you down. Procrastination will keep you from finishing not just one thing well, but also everything else in life. When you know that you are putting off something, even if it may be just writing a personal letter or cleaning the bathroom, you can't get much else done. You free up a big part of the day to do that task but keep pushing it back, continually saying, "Half an hour later," so you get absolutely nothing done.
   
   There's no such thing as too early, just like there's no such thing as too good or too difficult. When you think it, do it. You know how free you feel when you finally get past the deadline and the last-minute scramble. The thing is, it makes no sense to wait that long to feel so free. You could have gotten it out of the way way back when and gotten many other things done as well. And how good does it feel to get something finished? Sure, whenever a task is finished, another one reveals itself from right behind it. It's neverending. All the more reason to get things done like -snap snap-. Like a get-high-off-getting-stuff-done marathon. Did I just say that...?
   
   
4. On productivity: You can't work 24/7. That's why weekends exist and why you sleep every night. When you know you are having a break day, don't try to do work. Don't even think about work. Don't forget about the second half of "Work hard, play hard." And notice how they are separate. Having fun doing work is a different story, but you have to pick one task and focus on what you're doing. When you've woken up with the purpose to work, don't let random distractions interfere. When you've woken up with the purpose to play, swat off those random worries and to-do's that creep up to you. Because on some mornings, you have to wake up with the purpose to play freakin' hard, whether it be for a part of the day or for all.
   
   

I'm also sure that I had a number five, and possibly a six, but they evaporated because I've had too much bottled up in my brain. Whatever, I'm sure they'll come back soon if they're worthy.

So four things:

Before I eat, I will always ask myself if I'm hungry. Early bedtime is a top priority of mine. When I think it, I do it. I set aside time for play and focus on it, because I already focused on work.


I'm getting really good at pep-talking myself. I've never posted something like this before, probably because I've never thought like this before. For some reason it feels like maybe it should be kept private, but I can't actually think of a reason. So there. Maybe it'll interest someone other than me.

Why am I like this? Why do I do this? I'm so excited for what He has in store for my future, and I want to be as ready as I can be. In the recent past I've gotten to know many people who are amazing in different ways. I've even rediscovered the people in my family that I thought I knew so well. I think I've finally found the word for the year.


Thursday, 15 May 2008

9 - change
10 - bliss
11 - growth
12 - ?


... Inspiration, kiddo.