Complex Numbers

Nothing Really Sucks

Happy Sunday! Take the time in your blog today to reflect on your week. Share one thing you accomplished this week and one thing you hope to accomplish next week.

Accomplishments are overrated. At this point, my greatest accomplishment is "I'm still alive." I hope to accomplish this again next week.

I wasn't always this way, you know. Like most everyone, I had big plans when I was young. Own a company, travel, be able to retire comfortably, own a house, live with cats, write, become a rock star...

Rarely did I stop and think how these goals were contradictory. When one owns a company, one rarely has the time to travel or write. If one travels, one is spending money that could fuel retirement. At least it's possible to own a house and put cats in it.

Thing is, though... I accomplished all of these goals. Well, except for the rock star one. That one I gave up on. Turns out lack of talent is still a barrier to that; who knew?

So, I quit making goals. Well, sort of. I continue to lose weight. That's something, I suppose. And I do have the nebulous and impossible desire to visit every microbrewery in America. Nebulous because it's a goal without a real plan; it's not like I can visit over 6000 breweries while driving. Impossible because, every week, on average, we gain two breweries and lose one. Hell, California alone has over 10% of them; it's all the way on the other coast, and even if I visited two a day it would take me nearly a year just for that state. Maybe it'll finally secede and then it won't technically have breweries in my country.

Still, it's something to shoot for. Just not this week.

This week, then, will be more of the same. Keep myself distracted so I don't eat. Go to the gym. Get some writing done - this blogging activity and other stuff. Oh, and I have a contest to judge; that's going to take a good chunk of my time.

Here's the other thing about goals and plans that I realized a while back: Every time you decide to make a change in your life, you have to give up something. Maybe you want to give up something; that's okay. But say, for instance, I decided I wanted to date again. Then I'd have to give up video game time. I'm not willing to give up video game time; ergo, I don't date.

At some point, I reached a place in my life where I said, "Okay. That's it. That's enough." And it really is enough. Not that I don't want to continue to grow or change, but at this point, nothing really sucks, so why fuck with it?

I mean, "everything is awesome" might be better than "nothing really sucks," but at the same time, "nothing really sucks" beats "life is crap." And making the wrong life decisions ends up in "life is crap."

By the way, the bit about having to give up something to make a change in your life? It works the other way around, too. That is, if you want to give something up - say, smoking or Facebook - you can't really just, you know, give it up. Whatever that activity is, it took time and energy. That time and energy can't be destroyed; it can only be redirected. "I will munch on baby carrots" works much better than "I will quit smoking." "I will read actual books" can lead to less time on Facebook. That sort of thing.

So, nothing sucks. And I intend to keep it that way as long as I can.