"Lines"

Day 499

“Lines”

 “Deadline” is an ominous term.  There is a line. If that line is not crossed by a designated time, death will occur.  My current job is propelled, primarily, by deadlines. Certain meetings must happen by particular times and assorted papers must have various signatures according to designated timetables and such.  Therefore I do a lot of backwards counting.  This meeting must be held on the 21^st and I must give 10-days-notice and two opportunities for them to attend so I count backwards from the 21^st 10, 10, and 3.  I set a reminder in my Outlook calendar to have the invitation letter mailed on the 29^th. (Yes, I do have a rich and stimulating relationship with Outlook.)  This all tends to make my motivation for action a bit “reactionary.” The “deadline” dictates how, when and where my energy is spent.  And there is no reward or extra bonus points or any attaboys whatsoever for being early-only death if you’re late.

My current job is also propelled by “baselines.” I work in special education.  We develop “Individual Education Plans” for students with a variety of disabilities. We target educational areas that need particular work and identify strategies to move the student along.  But the very first thing we do is “establish a baseline.”  We find out what the student can do right now and plan accordingly.  For instance, if an 8^th grade student should be in Pre-Algebra and is working on “order of operations” in class, but doesn’t know any of his multiplication or division facts,  there is no way that student will be successful in that class.  The General Education teacher may just think the student isn’t “getting it” when in-fact, the student isn’t even on the launching pad to “get-it.”  We evaluate the student. Discover he has a deficit in Math Calculations.  Find out where he’s at with his multiplication facts and give him specialized and often small-group instruction in that area.

I have set my ‘deadline” as January 1^st 2013 for whatever it is I want (which I’m not sure exactly what that is yet) and I’ve counted backwards 500 days the get whatever it is I want to happen…to happen.

My next step will be to “establish my baseline.” I need to find out where I’m at.  Some of it will be easy; weight, heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol level, sugar levels.  But I’m wanting a deeper analysis.  Where am I in my heart?  Where is my soul, my emotions, a lot of that stuff I (as most typical men do) tend to ignore and avoid.

So yes, I’m getting a comprehensive physical and going on a diet. And yes, I’m going to be working out regularly.  These are the simple things.  It is the more complicated things I have some trepidation about.

chris