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An Introduction
Hi there.
My name is Andy Hawkins. I turned 40 this year, passed the 250lb mark and I’m generally unhappy with my lot in life. Sound familiar?
Thing is, I’m not depressed by any of this. I know I need to change those things that I can, but I have decided not to let it get me down the way it used to.
Instead I have come up with a plan, a plan that I intend to share, not in some post revelation book deal, but while I do it. I will be posting what I do and most importantly I will let you know what works and what doesn’t.
My plans are all emcompassing and include;
Health (specifically the weight that I need to lose and exercise that I need to start doing)
Wealth (why it’s no longer all about the money)
Travel (my plan includes travelling near and far and more as a vocation than a vacation)
Low impact living (lifestyle changes I am making to generally reduce my impact on the planet and its resources)
Technology (I’m a geek, so there’s software and gadgets I use all the time that some of you wont have heard of)add to that the occasional philosophical indulgence piece and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what I want to share with people.
Now I’m not a preacher by any means so take from this what you will and leave the rest. You can disagree or agree its entirely up to you. I make no promises that the things I try that work for me will work for you, nor do I beleive that anything that doesn’t work me won’t work for somone. And that’s kinda the message behind my first post which will appear next week.
At this point my plan is to have a schedule of posting every Thursday with the first post being made December 3rd. In the meantime I will be setting up Twitter and RSS and all that other cool blog related stuff.
So welcome to my life and the changes that its bringing, grab a coffee, put your feet up and come along for the ride.
3 responses to “An Introduction”
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HI Andy,
I’m really impressed by your honesty and determination. I’m gearing up to create a parenting blog (developing my very own, new & exciting, one and only philosophy based on everything I’ve gone through as a single, Montessori-trained parent, with a little self-taught spirituality mixed in…) and I like the way it sounds like you’ve just taken the plunge with writing about your life and keep rolling with it.I’m getting hung up in feeling like I have to write 50 blog topics before I cough up the (very little) $ for hosting — but you’re inspiring me to just get out of my own way and start enjoying the process of writing like you are. I know blogging will be therapy in itself.
Looking forward to reading more of your work — I’m always happy to read about people who are transforming their lives with no one other than themselves.
Paula -
HI Paula and thank you for the lovely comment.
A wise man once pointed out that “planning isn’t doing” and that kind of changed my perception on a lot of things I was working on. See, I was working on them but never actually completing any of them. Like you, I was getting in my own way, so determined to hit the ground running that I never finished planning anything.
I find that since I have abandoned that practice that having the deadline and having the responsibility actually makes me do things rather than get stuck in planning mode.
As a result I don’t sit down and “plan” articles or posts anymore I just sit down and start writing them. At the moment I have a bunch of articles in my drafts folder, none of which I planned, all of which I just sat down and wrote. As time permits I will revisit those drafts, re-read them and which one suits my mood, then carry on and finish it before posting.
Good luck on your parenting blog and be sure to send me a link as soon as you have it so I can add it here for people to check out.
Andy
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I really appreciate your advice, Andy, thanks for your time.
Steve Pavlina’s site, (I’m sure you’ve heard of him!) another blog I follow along with a million other people, offers advice that leans a little more toward the other end of the spectrum in terms of planning, so it’s a good time to sort out which route is best for me. In terms of planning posts though, I totally agree with your idea of just sitting down and letting it pour out, kind of like Julie in “Julie & Julia” (the movie) (no duh!) So now I’m just going to go and try that.
Oh, and I also have to say I really like your blog’s theme with the “Simplification” focus. Brilliant. That’s what’s also taking time b/c I think blogs go over really well if it looks like everything ties in together.
Thanks for the offer to allow my link on your site! I’m getting closer…
L8R
Paula
Paula December 30th, 2009 at 18:07