Self-improvement, part II

  1. Write a letter to my future self: could be very scary -- this is one I'm not going to do at this time, but may reconsider.
  2. Get out of the comfort zone: the social thing has to be the most important zone for me; I'm comfortable in a routine that avoids people and insulates me against contact and real friends. I need to spend less time with college students and more time with classmates and perhaps pipers
  3. Put someone up to a challenge -- perhaps a weight loss challenge with Dorian, or some cycling challenge with Martinez.
  4. Identify your blind spots -- following the discussion in the first post, a brief list of things that annoy me:
    1. Children in public, especially unsupervised, while parents are oblivious in their own worlds
    2. litter
    3. obese people eating to eat
    4. public profanity
    5. lateness
    6. ... this isn't working; these are just gripes, and I don't think this is showing much about my blind spots
  5. Ask for feedback -- will. I will ask students for feedback this week and will ... well, don't know who else to ask feedback from. I guess I need feedback on that paper on Hickeringill from Brandi at LSC.
  6. Stay focused with to-do lists -- this I do regularly; the lists are generally short, except for letter-writing. This, then, goes back to #2, above -- perhaps my comfort zone that needs addressing is writing to people I feel guilty about not writing to.
  7. Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) -- I think a PhD meets this category
  8. Acknowledge your flaws:
    1. Insecurity about all relationships
    2. Lazy -- prefer to veg than do the minimal requirements
  9. Get into action: working more on physical activity, and have an aggressive reading schedule for this summer.
  10. Learn from those who inspire you -- Lindahl and Zebroski are examples of great professionalism. Don't have many others who inspire me.

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