Getting Focused

I wanted to throw out some thoughts from the day. Twice, in completely different contexts, I heard the message, "don't get distracted"/"stay focused." There were other motifs surrounding that theme, but that was the gist of it both times. And the point both speakers were trying to make was to stay focused on what's actually important. Because let's be honest, we can all get laser-focused on the wrong thing and totally miss the point.

So what's that important thing? What do we stay focused on?

With very simple things, like skill acquisition, the focal point is whatever the purpose of the skill is. Not just performing like you would for a talent show -- performing with an understanding of each facet and the overarching context of why you are doing that skill in that particular way. Anyone can take a picture, but a photographer has the understanding to make it something excellent. Anybody can learn to shoot a basketball into a hoop, but true skill means you also know how to get around the opponent's defense and set up your team for continued successes. The focus is not just the skill itself, it's whatever the point of the skill is: art, athletic victory, music, etc.

Let's expand beyond the relatively simple. Skills and hobbies are great, but they are themselves subject to an even bigger focal point. Why are you taking pictures? Why are you playing basketball? Why do you play music? How you define that ultimate focus is up to you, but it will determine how you perceive everything in your life. It is the True North that you will be (and already are) navigating by.

For me, my True North, my focal point, is the kingdom of God. This means that Jesus is my King, and that I am one of his subjects, and I follow my King's orders and reflect who he is to those around me. The ultimate focus of my skills and hobbies are (ideally) centered on that. Maybe not always in a directly obvious way, but the "vibe" of how I do things and why I do them should always reflect that focus.

Tangent Time...
I know monarch language is a little out there for some of my readers, so think of it this way: Every nation has a "vibe" to it, if you will, and that vibe is set by its governing power and the response of its people to that governing power. Tyrannical dictator and frightened people? Scary vibes, not great for tourism, people escape if they can. Warlord who won a rigged election, with rebel factions in the populace? Danger and civil unrest vibes, no travel zone, lots of refugees. Group of bickering politicians ruling over populace with no greater enemy than themselves? Self-centered vibes, great for tourism and money-spending, people mostly settle for the way things are.

Then imagine this: A unified voice in leadership, with impossible wisdom to both exact justice and extend mercy, indescribable love for his people, unmatched power to protect his kingdom (and its citizens) from all who would harm it/them, and literally all the wealth (both material and immaterial) in all of creation to offer his citizens. His people know they're valued and loved and safe, and they show that to each other, and invite others in to experience it, too.

My Point Is
My point is that life has a point. All life does, not just mine. But since I can only speak about my experience of that, I'll reel it back in to first person. My focus for life is being a Kingdom Citizen. There are a lot of ways to get distracted while I'm about that purpose, because let's be honest, life is messy and it's really much easier to just focus on myself. But if I keep my eyes on the real goal, it colors how I view the messiness and even the tedium of boring everyday stuff. It's usually not easy, but if you're able to look at and through the thing in front of you to what lies beyond, it makes a world of difference. I think it's important to not ignore what's going on in front of you and around you, but if you allow yourself to focus only on them, you'll often find yourself going miles off course.

It's worth clarifying that losing focus and getting off track is never the end of the journey. Just because you drove for hundreds of miles to the west or slowed to a crawl doesn't mean you can't start going north again. It just means you'll have spent a lot of time and emotional and mental resources going the wrong way. It happens.

I tend to get pretty heady when I have time to think, and I had a lot of that today. Writing this post close to bedtime probably hasn't helped my coherency. Maybe some of this made sense to you and challenged you to stop getting distracted and renew your focus. Maybe it all only makes sense in my own head! But on the chance it helps someone else, I wanted to share my thoughts. I'd also like to share this encouragement: You can always renew your focus, no matter how distracted you got. And if you are my brother or sister in Christ, no matter what got you distracted and off course, no matter how long you wandered for, you can always come home.

20 Things for 2020

Catchy vision-casting post, engage.

While I may not be much of one for New Year's Resolutions, I do like to think ahead and fantasize about what might be accomplished in the coming year. Because coming up with 20 things was challenging, I decided to divide up my thinking across the 8 dimensions of wellness.

https://cpr.bu.edu/living-well/eight-dimensions-of-wellness/

1. Ask for help more.
   
2. Get a travel card. I want to go abroad, and racking up travel points is a great way to make that happen.
3. Read what I have. Definitely guilty of buying more books when I still have almost an entire shelf of unread books. Maybe this will be the year I read those books, instead of buying more.
4. Stay consistent with paying off student loans. It's a marathon, and slowing down just drags out the misery.
   
5. Make friends here. This looks to be a year of settling down somewhat, which means it's time to put down a few roots and make some friendships outside the workplace.
6. Host a game or movie night. Something I've wanted to do for a while, and just haven't done. (Not solo, anyway.)
   
7. Pray more. I've never done this consistently. But it makes a difference in me when I do it, so I'd like to actually, you know, do it.
8. Read my Bible more. And listen to what it's saying.
   
9. Get faster at documentation. I have a few ideas for how to speed up my process, they just require a little prep work. (Obviously the repetition goes a long way, but even faster would be even better.)
10. Get to work. Find something I truly care about in the profession, and put actual effort into making it better.
    
11. Cook more. I'd love to add 10 new recipes to my repertoire this year, so I can keep myself alive and in decent health.
12. Drink more water. It's not that I don't like water, I just really really struggle to make myself drink it regularly.
13. Explore nearby. There are some amazing sights around here, and I'd like to actually go see them at some point. Plus it gets me outside.
    
14. Take more pictures. I've got this great camera that I hardly ever use.
15. Learn how to take good DSLR pictures, manually. That fancy camera takes even better pictures when I set the parameters myself! Just gotta learn/remember how to do that...
16. Find a sewing class. Online or in-person, I am so tired of spending 90% of my time trying to figure out how to interpret patterns or instructions, and then making them happen.
17. Grow edible food this Spring/Summer. I've grown things before, but they weren't very good. Not gonna stop me from trying again, though!
    
18. Organize my craft closet. It's like a bomb went off...
19. Put up my wall art. They're just gathering dust, while my walls look so boring.
20. Display my knickknacks. We've all got them. Little trinkets that we collect from experiences, friendships, and hobbies. They may take up space, but they help me feel grounded.

Do you see anything that's been on your mind to do this year? If not, what's something else you're hoping to accomplish in the next 12 months?

Do or Do Not

So, I've been trying to resume this blog for years, clearly to no avail. I wanted to have something worth saying to make writing a post worthwhile, but also wanted to be good at writing posts so I could say it well.

Guess what the problem with that is? You have to write posts to get good at writing posts. Mind blowing revelation.

Anyway, I'm here to write a post! And here's what I want to say (and no, it's not one of the many things I actually really want to talk about, I'll get to those later).

I. Hate. New Year's Resolutions.

There, I said it. That's what I wanted to say. You're welcome, for that bit of personal information about me that you never asked for. This is the magic of blogging, people!

...Okay, there's actually a little more to it than that. (Fooled ya!) I do hate New Year's Resolutions, because they never work out and it's just a lot of unnecessary effort to change something that I should probably just change. Kind of like the title of this blog post, "Do or Do Not" (there is no try). I get that sometimes making a change requires planning. And telling other people about it helps to hold yourself accountable. I'm just not motivated by those things - if I don't want to do it, then I'm just not going to.

That said, there is something I actually want to do, and because I actually want to do it, maybe posting about it will help keep me relatively accountable to myself. (Not because of you fine people, #sorrynotsorry, but because I can keep somewhat of a log of my progress.)

I want to be able to sit seiza for 2 minutes by May, with no increase in familiar leg pains afterward. For those of you who don't know, seiza is just the Japanese word for sitting down with your legs folded underneath you, basically sitting with the tops of your ankles against the floor. I have excellent range of motion going the OTHER way, and I can squat all the way down with my heels never coming up. But that pointed-foot motion is very difficult for me, for a variety of reasons.

Now, it's not a huge deal that I literally cannot sit this way right now. I don't really ever need to, except for a martial arts class I do during the week, and I just sit however I comfortably can for that. It is a symptom of a larger issue, though, that does interfere with my general ability to move in the ways that I want to. And now I'm signing up for a thing in May that I would love to be able to sit seiza for. Again, I don't need to, but I want to.

So that's my goal that happens to coincide with the onset of 2020. I want to be able to sit on top of my ankles without it hurting. Which means I need to do some specific stretching and some strengthening to back it up. Honestly, I dread it (long story), but it's such a simple thing to be able to do, and I just want to know that I can. So, I'm just going to do it. Maybe with whining and some trepidation at times, but I'm going to do it.

(But I'm also a notorious quitter, so feel free to ask about it and help me out.)

Do you do New Year's Resolutions? Tell me in the Comments!


Update: So, I made kind of a list of things I'd like to get done this year. You can call them resolutions. They're over here. (It's a good thing I like waffles, because I do a lot of it. Maybe another goal should be to stick to one thing??)

Women and Self Defense

This is the first of what I hope will be a short series of posts concerning women's self-defense. I've been in the mindset of self-defense for over a decade, and in recent years have been more focused on women getting the knowledge and training they need.

As with basically everything in life, I stand on the backs of giants. I will try to give credit where credit is due as consistently as possible, so you can track down sources for more information if you want to. Of course, I'll present my own thoughts, too (otherwise I wouldn't have a blog), and you're more than welcome to track ME down and ask further questions! That is, incidentally, what the comment section is for; but I can also be reached on Facebook.

Nothing presented here is, or will ever be, a substitute for a good instructor and practice. Hopefully, the knowledge presented will help you start thinking about ways you can defend yourself, but it cannot take the place of face-to-face instruction, practice, and scenarios.

Without further ado, I polled my friends for what they'd like to hear about, and here's what they came back with. This will serve as a basic outline of how the series will go:

• Small stature, but staying safe
• Pros and cons of mace
• Handgun advice
• Poll: Who do women prefer to teach them self-defense: men or women?
• Personal: My own attitudes toward women's self-defense, and why

Be on the lookout for the first installment in the next few days! And if you have more things you'd like to hear about, PLEASE let me know. What you want to read is what I want to write!!