Hello readers. Let me take a minute to thank all of my friends, family and fellow booksellers for their words of encouragement after reading my blog post yesterday on the first 21-Day challenge. I received a steady stream of comments, emails and phone calls all day, and promise to respond to each and every one of them. I was struck by how many people shared similar situations and breakups that they had been through, and how they were able to deal with the aftermath and depression. For me, writing has always been one of the best (and cheapest) forms of therapy.
I got out of bed today more excited than usual, as I was able to pin my first gold star on the Betty White calendar I hung in my armoire. (There is really no symbolism behind the Betty White calendar. I simply acquired several hundred brand new 2011 calendars at a recent Borders buyout and this one just makes me laugh.) Actually, I didn't have gold star stickers this morning, so I simply X-d out the date with a sharpie and then decided to use a 75 cent garage sale sticker, an idea I had while chatting with my friend Hilda. Who prices something at 75 cents at a garage sale anyways? It's either a quarter, fifty cents or a dollar, although I suppose a halfway decent vegetable tray might be aptly bargained down to three quarters.
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| Betty White was a fox in her day. |
I spent another hour or so during the day arranging the stacks of books in my former TV stand armoire to reflect some of my recent and recurring directions in reading taste. A stack for spiritual books. A stack for fiction and poetry. A stack for self-improvement. A stack for business and finance. A stack for health and fitness. A stack for writing books. A stack for books about books (my personal favorite, as redundant as it may sound). A stack of coffee table books on building libraries. A stack of books on games and outdoor play structures for children. Summer is coming soon.
This is now, by far, the most chaotic shelving system I have going on in the entire house. I hope to include a video tour of my home library in a future post to give you a little bit of an idea of exactly what I mean by this. For now, the system works, and it certainly more colorful to look at from the comfort of my cozy bed than a grey Sony television.
In addition to the top two large shelves (the clothes hanging pole has been removed and the middle shelf set into place), there is some stray shelving below which I use for my "currently reading" selections, a shelf for cards and thank-you notes, a shelf for pads, notebooks and writing utensils and the bottom shelf for other calendars, stickers, push pins and miscellaneous junk. This is all nearly an arms length away. Why would I want to go all the way next door to the writing room to retrieve these instruments when I can now keep them in my bedroom?
I plan on giving away a bunch of free calendars in the coming weeks for anyone else who wants to start their own 21-Day challenge. The idea is simple. Pick something you used to love doing, or have always wanted to do, but have never seemed to find the time to do. Start doing it again, or for the first time. Commit to doing the activity 21 days out of the month, allowing yourself a few days for life to happen, a night or two to stay out late with friends, a night or two to watch a classic movie or go to the theatre, and a night or two to do absolutely nothing. You get the idea. I have decided to keep track of my progress on a calendar, so that I can look back at the end of the year and see what I've accomplished.
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| On your back with your racks as the stacks are your load |
By the end of 2011, I hope to have made significant growth as an individual in several key areas:
-Intellectual Growth: the Reading & Writing Challenge is the Cornerstone of my project. Other challenges in this department include the web design and piano challenges.
-Physical Health: I plan on incorporating a P90X challenge, a walk the dog challenge and a caffeine and sugar elimination challenge.
-Spiritual Growth: 21 Days of Prayer and Meditation, 21 Days of Bible Study and 21 Days of Meetings are all on tap.
As you can see, I'm setting the bar pretty low with some of these, as the challenges don't all have to be painful. But yes, finding time in my busy schedule to walk my rat terrier Maddie has become a bit of a challenge for me lately. If anyone has a right to claim they are down in the dumps, it's poor little Maddie, because her dad's been lacking in his responsibilities as a dog owner!
Other challenges include a Golf Challenge, a No Microwave Challenge, a DIY Challenge, a Dancing Challenge and perhaps even a Vacation Challenge. Yes, allowing myself to rest properly is not always easy. Being a small business owner means your mind is constantly running, long after my friends with 8 to 5's could care less about what happened at the office that day. The whole series of challenges should take me well into 2012.
Well, it's 1:30AM and I'm off to put in a good hour or so of nighttime reading. Last night I read the Firsts (Book Collectors Magazine) September 1996 issue on Collecting Tim O'Brien, a well written entry by legendary bookseller Ken Lopez. Check out the incredible offerings on his website; it represents just about everything I'd like to become as a professional bookseller.
After that I skimmed through the first 128 pages of Dan Robey's The Power of Positive Habits, which will serve as an excellent guideline for some healthy habits to cultivate during this entire process. I then commenced my Tim O'Brien marathon with his most recent novel, July, July, written in 2002.
Finally, it was brought to my attention that I have a tendency to dive headfirst into projects like this one, just as I have done with relationships, only to have my enthusiasm fade over time. Let this serve as both a fair warning and motivation for the follow-through necessary to complete each challenge and come out on the other side a more fulfilled individual.
The first individual who can correctly name the artist and song from which the lyric below the second photo caption appears will get first pick of the free calendars:)
2 comments:
Forgot to mention Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. EXCELLENT choice. May be the best book on writing ever, though Anne LaMott's Bird by Bird is pretty great too. You are so much like me doing so much at one time I had to laugh. I think those of us who are wired that way can do much of it. Those who aren't would never take it on. So charge forward!
Agreed, it's one of my all-time favorite books, along with "Bird by Bird." Great minds think alike Tess.
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