Taking Time to Write a Trivial Blog Post Instead of Taking Time to Write a Momentous Inspirational Speech

A few weeks ago, I was asked to give the alumnus talk at the annual communion breakfast for seniors at my old high school, Devon Prep. What an honor, right? Definitely. I couldn't have been more flattered. But unfortunately now that the date is looming dangerously near (it's this Sunday, November 20), that honor is now also doubling as an unappreciated source of stress. Understandably.

So why am I writing this blog post instead of working on a speech that definitely needs to be written? Great question. And I think the answer is that I need to have a direction before I can really make any progress writing it. Which, in the spirit of Exploring Life, is definitely an expandable topic to life in general. The fact that I need to have direction before I can really delve into my hopefully-inspirational SPEECH really is a reflection of the fact that I need to have direction before I can really delve into my hopefully-fulfilling LIFE.

And this is exactly what I can write about, and it is exactly why I am instead writing this blog post.

But I'm not done. Let's think about this a little longer, before I go run off and start working on this speech. I think I owe this blog a little love since it's been underappreciated for what, almost 2 weeks? I feel like this happened last time. In fact, if you read the first line of that last post, you'll discover that in fact, it did. Seems like 13 days is the magic number when it comes to the amount of time between Chris' few-and-far-between blog posts.

What would Chris write about? Well, considering that finding fulfillment, seeking life satisfaction and pursuing my passions seems to be a recurring theme in my life (hey, it's pretty much what my current job entails), why don't I write about that? I mean, hey, it's something most people, if not everyone, can relate to, and I think it would be very fitting for Devon Prep seniors about to graduate and go over to different colleges in the pursuit of a successful life.

Speaking of living a successful life, perhaps that warrants definition of what a "successful life" actually is. There's no shortage of definitions of success in our society--being successful means being rich, it means being attractive, it means being popular, it means being respected.

I am by no means qualified to tell anyone what being successful actually means. In fact, NO ONE is qualified to tell you that. That's something each one of us has a responsibility to determine--and choose--for ourselves.

But how many of us actually consciously make that choice? How many of us actually spend any significant amount of time thinking about what "success" really looks like to us? I would argue most of us spend more time thinking about how we're going to achieve that success... much more time, anyway, than we spend thinking about the success we're actually trying to achieve.

I want to caution anyone reading this, however, from thinking that success is something easily and quickly defined. While yes, the last few things I've asserted imply that pursuing power and money and fame and wealth etc etc is far from a noble cause, I want to stress that you shouldn't automatically write them off. Nor should you automatically write them in. The point is that you should think about it. Critically. How many of us spend our lives in pursuit of success that others have defined for us? I don't want to spend my life that way, but that's just me.

Bringing it back to the idea of needing direction. I think we all need direction, it's just that for many of us, that direction is automatically set for us. We aren't the pilots in our planes; we're the engines. We're working to get towards our destination, wherever or whatever that may be. But I think it's important to give some serious thought about that direction, lest you commit your life to get somewhere only to discover that it wasn't really where you actually wanted to get in the first place.

There's a book in my office titled, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else." Or something like that. I love the title, but the title's all I have to go off of as I haven't yet found the time to delve into reading the actual book.

There's another book in my office (actually I think it's in my bag) titled, "What Should I Do With My Life?" What a great question. And one that everyone has had answer at some point or another. Please notice that the title isn't "What Do I Want to Do With My Life" but rather "What Should I Do With My Life." I think (and the author asserts) that it is an important distinction, because life isn't all about what YOU want. It's about many things, your desires among them. Life is also about the needs of the world. It's also about what you are good at. And that is the basic premise of the retreat that I run at Loyola. Your vocation lies at the intersection of your brightest joys, your greatest gifts and the world's deep hunger.

Anywho, I think I'm getting a little off topic. That's a little spiel about RoadTrip (the retreat I run), but really this blog isn't about RoadTrip. It's somewhat about vocational discernment (the Jesuits' name of figuring out what you are being called to do and how you are being called to live).

This post is really about direction. Actually--okay--it's really about the hopefully-inspirational speech I really should be writing instead. The speech whose theme I am thinking will be direction.

Unfortunately, looking at the time, I don't believe I'll be able to really delve into that speech tonight. Because it's already past 9am, I'm still at the Barnes and Noble in Towson, have to pack up and get back to my car in the parking lot outside, drive 20 minutes back to my house, get ready for bed, get a decent night's sleep and hopefully wake up at 5am to run around downtown Baltimore with the Back on My Feet crew at Christopher's Place. And then go to the FAC and run whatever else I need to run to make my total mileage tomorrow morning at least 8 miles.

So I guess I'll continue this at a later date...

Or maybe I'll just work on that speech.

Weekly Challenge: Get At Least 8 Hours of Sleep Each Night

Can you believe it...

It's almost been two weeks since I wrote anything on here! You see, this always happens when I blog, and it's precisely why when I first made this blog, I added the caveat that I will post only when I feel like it. Because there invariably are times when I go almost a full two weeks--or two months--without even signing in. Terrible. But admitting it will happen helps me to feel a little less guilty. To some extent.

Anywho, part of the reason I haven't posted in a while is because last week, I adhered to a new regimen--I challenged myself to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. I discovered that it actually was quite a challenge, and I had to make sacrifices in other parts of my life in order to accommodate this new lifestyle change. I couldn't stay up as late, I rarely used an alarm, and I did NOT make it to the gym in the morning as often. Actually, I don't think I made it to the gym in the morning AT ALL last week!

In the past, I held firm to the convenient belief that I functioned optimally if I got exactly 6.5 hours of sleep each night. Then, after a week or so, I would treat myself to a thoroughly satisfying sleep binge. This conviction was further reinforced by the fact that whenever I got more than 8 hours of sleep, I awoke feeling groggy and lethargic. So why would I waste time sleeping when it could be spent doing other things... especially since that extra sleep seemed to make me LESS lively?

Most people know that studies advocating the importance of 8 hours of sleep a night are quite the ubiquity, and after this past week, I am totally sold. Not only did I sleep more soundly than I've slept in a while, but I awoke feeling invigorated and alert. And as an unexpected but welcome side effect, I dreamt every single night. And I never dream!

Really makes me wonder if there is a correlation between length of sleep and dream vividness, because my sister would hibernate for what seemed like 14 hours a night (and sometimes it didn't seem like 14 hours... it WAS 14 hours) and then would proceed to spend the next hour and a half recounting to the rest of our family every minute detail of the complex and elaborate dream she just had. So, I think I will label this discovery a veritable revelation.

As I mentioned earlier (and in the title of this post), my challenge was to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. This is part of this new thing I'm doing which for lack of a better, more creative term, I'll call a "Weekly Challenge." Basically, it entails doing something new or trying a new lifestyle for a week. The week before last was when I delved into pescetarianism. Last week was getting 8 hours of sleep a night. This week? Well, I guess I'll consider this week a hiatus week, primarily because I simply forgot to commit to a new challenge. Oops!

The idea of the Weekly Challenge is inspired by a number of sources, including the following two TED talks:

Try Something New for 30 Days

Weekday Vegetarian

The Weekly Challenge concept is pretty awesome because it allows me to live differently with relative impunity. The weekly pescetarian thing? Like Graham Hill says in the latter of the two above TED talks... the concept of my last hamburger is just too daunting a prospect to be even remotely appealing. So I get to "try on" pescetarianism for a week, and if you read the post two posts ago, you know that I really enjoyed it. Ended up having some of the best tofu I've ever had! And actually, at dinner tonight my pescetarian tendencies resulted in an absolutely delicious potato burger thingamajig. I honestly just don't remember what was in it and I definitely don't remember what it was called, but it was just amazing. And, consequently, probably more nutritious than the beef burger I would have normally ordered.

Yes, I know, it's a pretty pedestrian way of determining the relative nutrition value of different menu items, but in the absence of any real nutritional understanding, I adhere to the following formula:

red meat < poultry < fish < vegetables

Hey, it's a start, right?

So the Weekly Challenge is something that I've completed successfully twice at this point, and I look forward to many more Weekly Challenges in the weeks to come. Some ideas I've brainstormed include:

- drink at least 64 oz of water a day

- don't buy anything new

- actually manage to adhere to my schedule

- don't eat out (might not be possible, actually)

- journal every evening

- write a thank you card each day

- say hi to strangers

- call up a friend to catch up everyday

- be early for everything

- exercise every day

- speak negatively, never

- meditate every morning

- eat according to the food pyramid

- try one new thing everyday

So excited. The Weekly Challenge gives me the motivation and accountability to sample a new lifestyle each week... tell me that isn't such a perfect ambition for someone who keeps a blog called "Go Explore Life."