Day 43 - What's Next?

I spent Saturday and Sunday resting, playing, spending time with my daughter and her hubby, seeing a great play, going to church and staring off at the waters of the bay. Mostly I have rested and thought. The last six weeks have given me much to reflect on and I am trying to find a better way of incorporating that necessary reflection into the daily schedule.

So... What was accomplished in the 40 Days?

• I have improved my meditation practice with at least once a day sitting… Striving for twice a day, but not there yet

• Have begun a more solid reading and journaling routine. Every day reading and reflection

• Have finally begun a true rest and recuperation routine for weekends, removing myself almost completely from the internet dance for two days a week

• Established, and have mostly kept up with a plan to regulate email intake/obsession to three times a day… It is my new goal to reduce this to twice daily

• By organizing my financial and business records I have increased my follow through and income

• To that end I succeeded in covering my rent and bills before they were due

• I have begun paying back some old debts

• I have begun a new running routine, though it did not reach the level I had targeted

• I have begun studying French

• I have improved my diet, though again, more needs to be done to reach my actual goal

• I have begun new medical followup, including having necessary blood tests, and finding a new doctor

• I have been more personally awake and aware and intentional about my daily business, personal, and interpersonal dealings


I did not:

• Complete any of the several writing projects I had targeted for completion

• Seek out a new agent

• Reach my target weekly income

• Complete incorporation, budget and investment materials for new business development

• Start saving or giving to the extent I had targeted

• Start playing guitar again

• Apply for my passport

• Get new health insurance

• Surf


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From both my own sense of what the last six weeks have felt like, and from looking at the list of tasks I pulled off, started, and didn’t even get to, it seems like this last 40 days has been a sort of ground laying process.

As with building a house… The basics have now been laid out. Most of the architecture has been completed, the framing is mostly there and the foundation has been poured (though I’m not sure that it’s quite dry).

There is, however, no there there.

What I feel is necessary now is to return to the tasks I did not accomplish… study why and why not, evaluate the extent to which they are still valuable and whether there are things I want to either remove or add.

THEN… I want to start again.

What I have not fully decided is when to start again and how to alter the plan. At this point the process feels like the first steps of a small child. It is only by continuing those steps that I feel I will gain the real momentum that I have been seeking over the last six weeks. I must build upon what I just finished. I do not want to start all over again...I want to continue.

It isn’t time to stop… It’s time to keep going.

In the words of one of my all-time favorite television characters - President Bartlett on The West Wing - "What's next?"