A new beginning

Introduction
Today I am sitting down to begin my work on the Hope Challenge. If you haven't heard of it, check it out here. Basically, the Hope Challenge is a chance to reflect on who you are, and who you want to be, and to start mapping a path between the two. We focus on three main facets that I refer to as flesh, force and spirit. For clarity I will refer to them here as body, mind and spirit. By focusing on these areas, and journaling the progress, we can endeavor to make ourselves better, and more complete, individuals. Today I will lay out my basic goals, and then the real work will begin.

Inspiration
For me, this challenge comes at an auspicious time. Over the last year, quite literally, my life has gone through dramatic changes. I started a new job, moved to a new state, and asked my wife for a divorce. Any one of these alone can be quite overwhelming, but I have gone for the trifecta. This has put my life into a state of "loosely controlled chaos" that I have not truly experienced before. Now that things are beginning to settle down, I am ready to reintroduce good habits into my life and to get back on track.

Body
With everything going on in my life, diet and exercise have gone to the back burner. I am now 200.2 pounds lightly dressed. Given my height of 5'7", that's a BMI of 31.42, according to the Wii. I've also been eating out a lot this year. Partially due to the great selection of restaurants, partially because I've been wanting to get out of the house. Finally, I haven't been getting any routine exercise. I do walk a lot more here in the city, but I haven't done any strength training or real cardio. Just now I tested myself and could only do 10 push-ups. In an effort to get back on track, I am setting the following goals:

• Decrease weight by 10% to 180 pounds
• Increase push-up count to 50

To reach these goals, I am assigning myself the following tasks:

• Prepare dinners at home at least 4 times per week
• Brown bag lunch at least 3 times per week
• Exercise for at least 20 minutes, at least 4 times per week
• Do pushups everyday, each week doing at least two more per day than the week before

Mind
In general, I have continued to work to keep my mind sharp. Work has been new and challenging, and I play Sudoku and FreeCell every day. My failing is that my focus has been almost exclusively on logic and numbers. I need to expand myself in the areas of language and art. To work on these, I propose the following goals:

• Read for pleasure routinely
• Write more routinely
• Practice art routinely

To reach these goals, I am assigning myself the following tasks:

• Read a chapter in a book at least 5 times per week
• Write a short journal entry at least 5 times per week
• Do something artistic every week (sketch, play guitar, etc.)

Spirit
Although I routinely maintain a level of spirituality in all my actions, I have not been actively working on mediation or participating in a formal religious group. My goals for this area are:

• Mediate routinely
• Participate in organized religion routinely

To reach these goals, I am assigning myself the following tasks:

• Actively meditate (short or long form), conducting work, at least 2 times per week
• Identify and attend a local church at least once a month

Final thoughts
To keep track of my progress, I will be journaling on paper daily. In addition, I will post a follow-up entry on this blog every week. By the end of the challenge in June, I should have completed each of these goals. Looking back at my list, I see that the goals got more vague as I proceeded. I suspect that this is due to the increasing separation from the physical, rather than simple laziness on my part. Wish me luck as I begin the work of hope.