Exercising A Demon

Monday May 4th, 2009 - Lake Villa, IL

Anyone who knows me knows how much my grandfather meant to me growing up. His wisdom lives on in me every day and if it weren’t for him I really don’t think I’d be alive to enjoy a day like I had today. He invested a lot of time in me which is now paying off.

He told me the one true secret of success in life boiled down to a single word - balance. It’s one of the most difficult things to achieve in life because if one aspect is getting all of the attention another one is lying dormant. Then that one gets attention and still another is being neglected. Having a life in perfect balance is very rare and takes a maximum effort.

I doubt if anyone ever achieves it all the way through a life but in my opinion it’s better to end strong than to start strong and fizzle out. Maybe I’m saying that because my path is shaped that way but I see how difficult it is to just survive much less live a balanced life.

I’m having a hard enough time trying to live one balanced DAY. That in itself is a giant challenge but today was very good. This is a great time of year weather wise and I wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine a little. I’ve been trying to get healthy lately but I didn’t feel like doing it today. I tried to make every excuse imaginable to avoid taking my walk.

I thought of all kinds of good ones too but eventually I hauled my lazy lard ass down to the mall and took my lap like a man. If I do it right I’m soaked with sweat when I’m done and I forced myself to stay in there until I did it even though it was the last thing I wanted to do. I focused on my life and health and future and whatever I had to do to keep going.

My heart was pumping and thumping and I could feel the blood pounding through all of my body and after I finished I felt really proud of myself for not blowing it off. Had I had the big grabber and died right there I’d have been proud of myself for not wimping out.

It’s damn hard to do something that’s not pleasant in the short run but is the right thing to do in the long run. I not only felt great physically for doing it I was in a strong mindset as well. I went right home and started emailing my avails to bookers which I’ve been very much needing to do for a long time now. With every email I sent I felt myself feel better.

I sent out 14 personal emails to bookers I know and at least got the ball rolling. I read a little while and that put me in a good mood because I know I have been lacking in taking time to do that. I’ve got a stack of books I really do want to read but are collecting dust.

It wasn’t a perfect day but I felt like I did a lot of little things that really made me feel as if I was in control and not just sliding down a mud pit and letting things run amok. I felt a major feeling of accomplishment with all I did even though it really wasn’t all that much.

What ends up making it a lot is having days like this consistently where I get a little bit done on a lot of projects. Today was the right mix for whatever reason and I feel balanced because I made progress on several different things. Let’s see how far I can stretch it out.