The Undiscovered Country

Making Hard Decisions . . .

often means giving up something.

I've been stressed of late mostly because I have so much to do and not much time to do it. Therefore I needed to go through my never-ending to-do list and eliminate the ones that I could afford to give up.

I started with the God's Way group. It's been fairly quiet except for people signing up -- about one a week. It shows there's still interest in it, which thrills me. Unfortunately I don't spend enough time here to give it the attention it needs.

I'm not shutting it down, though. That wouldn't be right. I'm hoping someone will offer to take over the group for me. If no one steps up in about two weeks, then I'll be forced to remove the group and all the items.

Another stress I've given up -- food.

Well, not entirely. That would be silly. I've gone on diet, or more accurately, changed my food-intake habits. I'm hoping to make good enough nutritional decisions so what I eat and don't eat becomes a habit I can enjoy and not simply live with or worse, endure. It's a simple diet, really. I'm cutting out "empty" carbohydrates mostly found in breads, pastas and of course, all sweets.
Consider it the Atkins Diet that doesn't go as far as Atkins. That's not to say I won't indulge in the occasional ice cream sandwich. That would also be silly.

A few weeks ago I purchased (and drained a good portion of my savings account) a plane ticket for the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Conference in Indianapolis. My goal for that is to lose 15 lbs by September 17. That's 5 lbs a month, just over 1 lb a week. Easily doable. If I lose more, all the better. Admittedly it's a decision based entirely on vanity. I want to look in the mirror again and be able to say honestly, "not bad." To say, "I'm gorgeous!" is going a little too far .

And one more stresser, or time waster in this case, I'm still trying to convince myself to give up. Television and movies (I love Netflix!). Talk about a waste of time! How easy is it to waste an hour or two over something that accomplishes nothing except increase my desire to be lazy?

My main goal with giving all this up (and therefore not stress about it anymore) is to allow me more time to pursue my old, dear passion of writing. I miss it (finally). I hope to create another habit of writing every day, whether it be something interesting going on in my life, a short story, a script or a novel. As long as I'm writing.

After all, writing is a practice just like playing an instrument or dancing. The longer I spend away from practice the rustier I'll get. Plus it's a good excuse to be at least physically lazy.