Archive for August, 2008

August 24th, 2008

5 Weeks of Bliss is Over…

Well my five weeks of vacation is pretty much over. I start work with my new company tomorrow. I am kind of excited, but wish I had more vacation with tons of money in the bank and do more of what I was doing from being off. That will have to wait and will have to get used to working and performing my passion activities whenever I have free time. I do not have any regrets from my time off and felt that I let things happen as natural as possible and noticed that some activities that I do like to do have to be forced. I believe that was one of my biggest realization with my time away from the ‘9-5′.

Why force is needed when wanting to do

There are many things that we as people want and don’t want to do. As with the majority of the world we do things from go to work, pay our bills, wake up when we are not fully rested, or whatever else. However, when we want to write, play a sport, take dance lessons, or exercise it is a hassle. When I first started working out I couldn’t stand my body being in pain and the commitment of time required to get my body into shape. I would skip days and wouldn’t work out on a regular routine. As I slowly saw results with my body I kept at it and now feel like shit if I don’t workout at my designated times during the week. Now it is getting to the point that I am addicted to working out and do get a sense of relief and gratification.

The principle of forcing myself to do something has to be a part of my life and especially with passions I think that I want to do. How am I going to really know if I like something if I don’t give it an honest try? I won’t and it will be foolish of me to keep thinking that I love to do something if I do the activity once or twice. So that is what I am going to do for passions that are on my mind. I will start this with writing. My goal for this week will be to write for 1-2 hours for 6 days. My blogging will not count for this exercise and will either be writing about what is in my head or my short story that is almost complete or my new idea for my novel.

August 18th, 2008

Book Review: Tuesday with Morrie

This past week I finished reading a great book about life and death and how we can live a meaningful life. The book, Tuesday with Morrie, is about a college professor dying while his old student spends the last months with him. They talk about old times, life’s greatest learnings, and how we all can face death. The book is a quick read, but you will be stopping and thinking of the things that Morrie says and getting a better understanding of what life is really all about.

We all know that we are going to die, but don’t really feel we are going to until we are on our last breath or through a late loved one. After reading this book and discussing with my girlfriend of why she gave it to me I truly feel a closeness to her in a spiritual and humanitarian way and that I am going to change some of the things that I live my life for now and go after and do what is important to me and to others in my circle and friends that I meet along the way.

Here are a couple of quotes that touched and inspire me:

“Well, the truth is, if you really listen to that bird on your shoulder, if you accept that you can die at any time- then you might not be as ambitious as you are.”

August 11th, 2008

Hell Week for Workout

Ever since I have been off from changing jobs I have been working out like a mad man. I have slightly cut my meals because my metabolism is crazy fast. It is so fast that after eating a big bowl of cereal I am hungry again 30 minutes later. I have picked up a past time of sleeping for a couple of hours during the day to help me not crave food as much.

The Workout Regimen

These past 3 weeks my workouts have consisted of a full body workout 2 times per week, performing 2 2.5 miles hitt runs, and another 2-3 30 minute swimming in the apartment pool. I don’t weigh myself, but will after once the break is done, however I am guessing I am losing between 1-2 lbs. Hell Week though I will up the whole experience which will consist of 2 full body workouts, 5 times per week on the bike for 30 minutes, 3 times per week for swimming, 2 times for hitt runs and while doing 3 core exercises and working on biceps and triceps by doing chinups and dips. My goal is to lose 5 lbs of fat and be well on my way to be at a weight of 185 lbs and be ripped. I will show a couple of pictures of the equipment that I am using and what I look like also once the “go crazy workout session” is done.

The Cardio is What I Need

August 8th, 2008

Interview with Automotive Journalist

Yesterday I had a phone conversation for 5-10 minutes with a Houston base automotive journalist. I was quite surprised that he agreed to talk to me and very humble that he took a couple of minutes to give me some insight on his career that I want so badly to be a part of.

He explained to me that there are so many different routes to become an automotive journalist and that no one way is better than the other. He gave me ideas to help me get my name out there and after some time I already understood everything that he was telling me.

The Bottom Line

When the conversation was over I knew what I had to do to become an automotive journalist. It is kind of funny because before the conversation I already knew what I had to do and now it is so visible. The whole situation goes back to how bad do I want to be an automotive journalist? I have to be the one to test all avenues to see where I can make some head way. The thing that frustrates me about automotive journalist is that there isn’t a direct path to getting there, however that very same reason gives me excitement and joy because it is up to me to become the automotive journalist.

August 1st, 2008

Lessons Learned While “Trying” to Sleep…

Tossing and turning. Heard everything that was going on while I was sleeping. People calling, people texting, thinking of the endless things that I put on my “very important” to do list.

I learned so much while trying to get much needed rest this afternoon. I couldn’t finish a movie because I was tired due to doing a 3 mile hitt run, 30 mins of cardio in the apartment pool and also my roommate was kind of loud talking to his friend. Nontheless I turned off the XBOX 360 and the television, got up and went to my bed to rest. I didn’t rest much, but the whole experience was what I needed to analysis myself and see myself for who I was in my eyes.

I wrote about this very thing a couple of months ago how I have no problem getting my workouts done and leaving other things by the way side. Today is a perfect example of that; I did my cardio and ran a couple of errands, came back to the apartment and relaxed afterwards. Today I planned to organize my day planner, put up all of my clothes, read Invisible Man, clean up rest room, move book shelf around, cut my hair, and get some unwanted paper and junk out of the room. At least I have wrote a blog post, but other than the cardio I haven’t done shit. That is all my fault. I am the blamer of myself and have to fix all of these problems sooner rather than later.

There was this one quote by Randy Pausch, the famous Last Lecture professor, said that really stuck to me. It goes something like this, “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”

Why this Quote?