Deliverable

Goals for the week:

Sleep
Get up by 7 a.m. or earlier on Mon (done!) | Fri | (got up around 9:20 on Friday)
Get up by 9 a.m. or earlier on Tues | Wed | Thurs | done!
Get up by 8 a.m. or earlier on Sun (didn’t do)

Music
Call on Monday to schedule a voice lesson for Wednesday this week | done!
Have a voice lesson | done!
Play guitar for 30 minutes on Mon | Thurs | Sun | done!
Sing for 30 minutes on Mon | Wed | Thurs | Sun | done!

Acting
Attend dance class on Thursday if no work *modified*
Attend Floor Barre class on Sunday morning, 11:00 am (didn’t do)
L&O on Tuesday | Friday | done!
See “The Pillowman” | done!
Purchase Backstage on Thursday | done!

Housekeeping
Wash clothes on Sunday (morning if possible, evening if necessary) – (didn’t d0)

Exercise

Fill the Well
Go on an artist date early Sunday afternoon. (I absolutely must do this!) – (didn’t do)

Personal
Hang w/ W.L. for his birthday on Monday night | done!
Cool groovlicious time w/ M. | done!

Reminder to self: Only write down things here that you are absolutely committed to achieving. You can always add more goals at any time during the week. This gets you thinking in smaller chunks and building on successes.

I’ve been talking about writing my book for what seems like ages. Not content to just use the methods of others in my teaching I’ve been piecing together my own method since I’ve been in NYC. Students have come and gone and still my book is not complete… not published.

I know intellectually that up till now this has been a good thing. It is one of those works that waits for the right time to be born., the right moment to come to fruition. I also know that I must finish this damn book. I absolutely cannot teach another year without a text to teach from. I’m arrogant enough to believe that the text I must teach from is my own. So be it.

Where does this leave me? I MUST FINISH THE DAMN BOOK BEFORE I START MY TEACHING AGAIN THE 3RD WEEK OF September!

Ok, so how do I do this? What is “The Book”. That’s helpful to know, right? If you want to finish something by a certain date then you should at the very least know what it is that you want to finish. As I’ve begun writing this down I know more clearly that I actually have two books.

Book one: My GBD-**** stuff (showing them how this can be used not only to read music, but to play chords and arpeggios in any key/ Intervals: Why they’re so important / Scales stuff / R-Grams stuff. This needs to be put into a format that can stand alone. Independent of any technical “trombone stuff”. A general music book that can be used by all instruments. Might include an online link to the beginnning songs for their clef.

Book two: Using GBD-**** to teach kids to read music / Using R-Grams to teach them to read rhythms / Presenting this in a format that includes the technical stuff of how to play the instrument and the songs that they’ll start playing.

I think that my next step then is to outline each book here. I’ll do that in two separate posts.

So, what am I “putting out there”?

I have a concise text to teach from when I begin the third week of September.

• This text will include all of my beginning songs laid in “Redux/Song/R-Gram” format
• All beginning songs will be posted online on my teaching website.

More to follow. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

I’m cooking my dinner now and realizing that it’s going to be one of those days where I really wish I could sit down to eat and watch TV. It’s one of my “comfort foods” I guess. Having an off day? Zone out to the TV. Not a good thing I know. Just wanted to write about it so that I could better deal with it.

Better go before I burn the food! : )

–Update–
Finished my dinner. Didn’t watch TV. Am currently still breathing. Put on a bit of one of my Tony Robbins .mp3’s as I ate.

“Distraction does not create a life of significance.” –Tony Robbins

I also eat way too quickly for my own good. Need to work on that. The barbeque beef with yellow rice, black beans, and steamed squash was quite tasty, though.

I got up this morning at 7 a.m. as planned. I probably got to sleep by about 12:30 a.m. last night. 6 1/2 hours of sleep. Not perfect, but respectable. I had a very fulfilling day yesterday. All good things. Yet here it is almost 2:30 and I’ve not done a damn thing with my day. Ok, that’s not completely accurate. I have played guitar today. I have eaten the cereal and made the bed and put away the clean clothes that I washed yesterday but hadn’t put away yet. I still feel as though I’ve frittered away my morning and early afternoon. I keep putting off the “going to look for work” thing. I dread it. It feels like defeat and is pretty depressing. (I guess I somehow keep hoping for a miracle or something else to come up or that I won’t have to do this…).

I know that there is a reason for this day. I know that there is a reason that I frittered away my morning/early afternoon. I know that down the road somewhere I’ll see that I did something today that I was meant to do. I’ll do something this afternoon that is incredibly valuable for my journey. There is a reason for today’s “inactivity” even if I can’t necessarily see it right now. Just have to make the most of rest of my day.

I completed almost all of my tasks for this past week. The only thing I didn’t do was sing on Wednesday. Sunday morning wasn’t as productive as I would have liked, but I still did get up at 8 a.m. as I’d planned. (Which meant that I went to bed by 1 a.m. the night before as planned as well…). Though I frittered the morning away, I was completely committed to going on an artists date, and managed to get out the door by 2 p.m. (The artist date was super cool.) I revised my laundry plans and completed it this evening. Just finished playing guitar for 30 minutes and singing for 30 minutes.

I like the idea of Sunday being my day to recharge and use as I please. I must give myself this type of day once a week.

In order to be successful you must do the things successful people do and think the way successful people think.

An example: Some people are successful at washing the dishes after every meal. It may give them pause… they may not like to do it… but somehow they get themselves to take the action necessary ito wash those dishes night after night. Maybe it’s never been an issue for them because they just love washing dishes. I’m willing to bet though that there are successful dish washers out there who loathe doing the dishes, yet do them anyway. That’s the thinking that counts. That’s the thinking that creates the actions that make them successful.

It seems self evident. It seems simple. The things that we need… the “great truths” are always there before us. The mind must be prepared to accept them.

Incidentally this all occurred to me while washing the dishes. Go figure.

Give me a specific believable achievable monthly income amount to strive for over the next 4 months. Something that excites me and inspires me to work towards.

I need someplace to begin. Sending it out into the universe.

T.V. has been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. A kind of security blanket. I watched loads of T.V. growing up. I’d come home from school and start with General Hospital (shameful to admit, I know…) and watch straight on thru to The Muppet Show. I have a lot of good T.V. memories. Shows that I loved. (The Muppet Show was one of them… Space 1999… The Kroft Superstar Hour…).

It’s with alot of trepidation that I start this next challenge:

My one caveat:

• I can watch a DVD if it is something I’ve rented from Netflix. I see the Netflix DVD’s as research, especially if it’s something classic.

I’m tempted to give up even the DVD’s in order to get the full effect of this, but I think I should allow myself those. We’ll see how it goes.

It’s time to let go of television. It’s become too much of a burden at this point. I become like the vegetable when I watch it. It’s comforting. It’s numbing. It’s got to go if I’m to move forward.

In preparation for this post I did a Google search and came up with a few sights that will hopefully help me:

Here’s a list of activies that one of the sites recommended as fun substitutes for watching television:

making a friendship bracelet, climbing a tree, attending a local play or sporting event, writing a letter, solving puzzles, crosswords or word searches, taking a walk, a swim, or a bicycle ride, inventing your own game and teaching others how to play, visiting a library, museum or zoo, listening to music, fixing something that is broken, planting a tree, cooking a meal with friends, making costumes out of paper bags, learning about the wildlife in your neighbourhood, writing a play, taking pictures and making a scrapbook, looking at the stars, going skating or roller-blading, learning a card trick, and reading a really good book.

I think the site must have been more geared towards kids, though I guess making costumes out of paper bags could indeed be entertaining.

I’m just going to pretend that I’m able to keep with this. I’ll make an X on my calendar for every day that I go to bed without watching T.V.

Ok, I know it’s cheesy but I’ve decided to take the Kellogs Fiber Challenge. The idea is that you’re supposed to eat a bowl of Frosted Mini wheats every morning for 2 weeks: “One bowl. Two Weeks. See if you feel the difference.”

This is in line with my goal to eat breakfast every morning, so what the hell. I’ve decided to make it 3 weeks instead of two in order to make eating breakfast a habit.

I can’t really think of any exceptions to this challenge. Eating breakfast every day seems like a no brainer. I’ll just have to make the time. I’ll put a black dot on my calendar for everyday that I eat a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats (or similar fiber-rich cereal… I have to allow for the fact that I may be tired of Frosted Mini Wheats at some point.)

It supposedly takes 3 weeks to form a habit. Fine. I need to eat healthier. Cooking and eating at home saves a hell of a lot of money. Problem: I have basically one or two recipes that I can successfully manage. I also tend to not cook because of the time involved and the inevitable clean up that is necessary.

Solution? I have a Turbo Cooker (yes a turbo cooker) that my mom gave me. (It was a gift to her as well…). I’ve used it successfully a couple of times, but have never really put it through the paces. Enter my “Cooking Challenge”. I went through the enclosed recipe cards and have chosen 7 or 8 that seem tasty. The incredients are all pretty basic. I made a list of what I’ll need to keep on hand. My goal is to cook at home for 3 weeks straight. Here it is laid out with a couple of exeptions/caveats:

3 Week Cooking Challenge
I will cook at home for the next 3 weeks with the following exceptions:

• Special dinners out with M. are considered an exception to the challenge.
• Days where I am out all day working or running errands and am unable to get home to cook are considered an exception to the challenge.

My thinking is that the “one pot” nature of the Turbo Cooker will make clean up easier. Laying out and deciding on 7 or so dishes that look tasty should also make it easier to maintain for the 3 week stretch.

Things that I need to watch out for:

• I need to really plan my day so that I have time to cook/eat/clean. This might mean that on days where I have an appointment around 6 p.m. (like I do tonight with my dance class) I would eat my main meal in the middle of the day, then have the leftovers for dinner.
• I’ll need to keep soup and sandwhich material on hand.
• I need to plan out my grocery shopping. Most of the ingredients needed are pretty basic and I can get them at the closest grocery. There are a couple items that I’d like to get at Fairway and I need to plan this out.

So there it is. I have fear about making such a bold commitment to something like this. Really what it is is my fear of this being just another thing that I’ve tried to do and been unable to stay with for the long term. I need to remember that this is something that I’m going to do for three weeks. I’ll then assess the process at that time. I need to put this out there and then just “act as if” I know what the hell I’m doing.