Music for The Journey

As a means of assisting myself mentally, and motivating myself emotionally, I almost always have some kind of music playing aorund me. For this most recent trip toward my most recent goals, I compiled a playlist of 100 songs for 100 days. the first song on the list was the tune I used to close the previous post, the finale from Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George.

The last phrase there is one of the things that truly captures my imagination at moments like these.

"White - a blank page or canvas - his favorite; so many possibilities."

To kick things in gear after that I picked two songs that express the desire to get moving and get things done. Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream, the title tune from his most recent album, a song about a person holding hope in his heart and a hammer (or some other implement of construction and contemplation) in his hand.

I follow that with the Elvis mashup A Little Less Conversation, a rather ironic song to place in the mix considering the fact that almost everything I do gets talked to death before, during, and after the action. Nonetheless, the tune works for me as a reminder that talking (or blogging) isn't enough. The preparation isn't the race, the cooking isn't the meal. The road itself, the journey itself, may indeed be the destination, but even under that scenario one needs to be on the road; not sitting on the couch, or at the desk, contemplating the journey.

The song also happens to be the foundation of my favorite Nike commercial.

40 Days In... 40 Days Out

Forty days back, looking at 100 days to my 55th birthday, I set in motion a new plan.

I even included a soundtrack that I called 100 songs for 100 days (I'll post the playlist later.... hell maybe I'll even set it up on iTunes).

Today marks Day 40 of that 100 Day cycle and while I'm still listening to the music for multiple hours of the day while I work, and I'm still working on bits and pieces of the plan, the plan has suffered a bit as well.

But no more.

With 60 Days to go... I am actually left with 8 weeks of 5 day segments in which to conveniently form a routine that can even include breaks (and I have definitely discovered that BREAKS in these series are as vital as focused periods of effort... duh).

For the next three days I am preparing to launch a last 40 day plan on the way to my birthday on August 25.

The plan is going to be unique in that unlike my previous efforts (most of them documented here) I am keeping the structure of the program to Monday - Friday with ALL weekends between now and August 25th reserved for rest, reflection, relaxation, and revitalization. I am going to be working on goals I have set in seven areas (stolen from a talk by Jack Canfield). Those areas are:


Work
Relationship
Money
Physicality
Fun
Personal
Legacy

I'm not going to detail the three goals I have established in each of these areas (at least not right now) but I will do some reporting on the process. Some of these goals are quite long term, some are more mid-range (with target dates approximately a year away) and others are set for 60 days hence with my birthday as the target.

I am also following the advice of some other folks I've spent time with, read, and listened to and laying in a series of things I am going to STOP doing. The most significant of those to be revealed in more detail as we get closr to the date where it takes effect.

The primary point of this entire experiment is not really any different from what I was thinking when I first started this blog ten months ago. When I arrive at my immediate goal of this next 40 Days to Life plan I will bring the whole year long experiment to a close and will, shortly thereafter, take down the blog.

This is it... My 40 Day Swan Song.

Those who know me well, will not be terribly surprised that it begins with Sondheim.