Everyone knows the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions - and the tradition of giving up on them by February. Wouldn’t it be nice to make a resolution and know that, next December, you’ll be able to look back on how much progress you’ve made? Well, brighten your spirits - because you can.

• Don’t allow yourself to ignore it. The quickest and easiest way to ensure failure is to allow your resolution to become an afterthought, lost in the jungle of everyday stress. Find a way to include your resolution in a daily routine or schedule. Common goals such as weight loss are easy - exercise for one hour every morning at 7:00, for example. For other, more abstract goals, you may need to set aside some time to plan or think about them. Use post-it notes liberally; put them in places where you’ll see them if you feel the urge to waste time (on your TV’s remote control, for example). You could even make a poster to place near your bed, so you can’t help but see it as soon as you wake up.
• Be held accountable. If you’re reporting your successes (and lack thereof) to someone else, you’re more motivated to do your best.
• Start a blog. Openly writing about your goals to the entire world is a great way to keep yourself in check. (You can read more about my goals for 2007 in The Resolution.) Any failures will be broadcast to millions of people… or at least a few dozen. One caveat, though: You absolutely must be open and honest. Lying in a blog is essentially like lying to yourself and having everyone else read your mind.
• Find a partner - or even a full group. It’s easiest to work through the ups and downs of working for something for twelve months when someone else is right beside you doing the same thing.
• Don’t make resolutions. Instead, set an area of focus. For example, along with my “20 hours” resolution, I’ve chosen to focus on a few specific areas:
  • Finances. Yes, “college student” is usually synonymous with “poor”, but I’d like to acheive financial independence (as much as possible) from my parents by the end of the year.
  • Physical fitness. Exercise has been proven to be a key factor in improving mental fitness and energy levels as well as strengthening the body. Over the years, I’ve been a bit too lazy/busy to work on this area.
  • Relationships. I’m not in one, so let’s find that (un)lucky woman, shall we? (No personal ads, please.)

  Other areas you could focus on include your family, friendships, career, spirituality… anytime you’ve said, “I wish I could do __________ better,” there’s probably an area for it. By focusing on an area instead of a specific goal, you allow yourself the flexibility to change those goals.

• Don’t expect immediate perfection. This should be fairly obvious, but major life changes don’t (usually) happen overnight. This is where the tips on accountability will come in handy; oftentimes, you’ll need some extra motivation to get over a “plateau” in your growth. If you ever feel like giving up exercise to watch TV, just look at that post-it on the remote.

Happy New Year!

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This entry was originally written as a Facebook “note” on October 23, 2006. With my own permission, I have reproduced it here. Enjoy.

So instead of studying for a midterm which I’m taking in approximately 15 hours, I’m rambling about the meaning of life and pointless stuff like that. What else is new?

Let’s take a look at what the Average American™ might experience in his or her lifetime:

-The Average American child is raised by Average American parents and attends an Average American public school where he or she learns very much about rules and regulations and very little about anything pertaining to how the world actually operates (i.e. it’s not what you know, but who you know - and in Above-Average America, who you can pay off).

-The Average American teenager is taught by Average American educators and parents not to experiment with drugs and alcohol. The Average American teenager experiments anyway simply because it’s what “everyone else” does. The Average American educators and parents also experimented when they were teenagers, but Average Americans don’t talk about that.

-The Average American college student cares very much about alcohol and very little about the state of the world outside of Average America. The Average American student learns more outside of class than inside it, yet somehow manages to graduate anyway. The Average American graduate earns a piece of paper which proves to Average American employers that he or she has jumped through the hoops required for an Average American (i.e. overworked and underpaid) job.

Cynical enough for you?

As someone who would consider himself to be a non-Average American, I find this system absurd. I came from a small town high school which was basically known for two things - its girls’ basketball program and its teen pregnancy rate.

I was fortunate enough to be an “honor student” enrolled in “honors classes”, so I wasn’t exposed to as much ugliness as some of my friends, but what I did see was often sickening. During my Senior year, I took an Electronics course… I have never learned less about electronics in my entire life. In doing a house wiring project, the teacher seemed more concerned about the coloring of my wires than whether I actually had the wiring correct - probably because he wasn’t skilled enough to discern it otherwise. Not to mention that, on most days, class only lasted half as long as it was supposed to; the last half of the class was “break time”. It reminded me of Kindergarten.

At GHS, discipline was simple - the teacher/administrator was always right. If you were in the hallway during class, you were automatically a suspect. It didn’t matter if you were called by a counselor or whatnot. If you were the poor shaggy kid who got hit in the face by the captain of the football team (who just happened to have a rich daddy), and you retaliated… I think you see what I’m getting at. If you looked “suspicious” or someone thought you “posed a threat”, guess what? You were suspended, possibly with no questions asked. Just ask one of my friends who had to see a shrink before he could return.

Sometimes, my friends and I would refer to this high school as a prison. In retrospect, that’s exactly what it was, and I wouldn’t be surprised if yours was the same way.

But enough about high school. What about college? I left the previously mentioned craphole in hopes of something new, a place where I would experience true freedom. That’s exactly what I got… sort of.

This freedom came with a price, a price that I’m not sure I was ready to pay at that time - nor am I sure I’m ready to pay even now. No, I’m not talking about the $40,000+ a year; I’m talking about the price of my time - every last drop of it. As awful as my high school was in comparison to Wash U, one thing I wish I could recover was the time and ability I had to explore topics of interest which the school didn’t offer. As you can probably guess, technology was a major interest of mine. Though GHS had only a very limited computer curriculum (and it wasn’t even a curriculum itself; it was lumped into “Business”), the classes I took were just enough to whet my appetite to the point where I would come home and install and test new software on the family computer (much to the chagrin of my parents). I can’t say that about History. Were it not for those experiences, I’d probably be majoring in Psychology.

I can hear you saying, “But Scott, now you have so many more resources to work with! What’s stopping you from devoting even more of your time to interests?” The answer: Classes!

It’s not that I don’t like Computer Engineering, because for the most part, I do. Unless you’re talking about the workload. When I’m finishing with a ridiculous programming lab on the Friday night of Fall Break when I should be relaxing after an extremely rough MONTH, the last thing on my mind is, “Ooooh, I want to rewrite this C++ program in COBOL!” Or, for you non-geeks, “Ooooh, I want to read War and Peace in Swahili!” No, no, no, no, and most definitely no. In short, part of the reason I can’t delve into my interests further is because I’m simply too burnt out by them. (The other part, of course, is lack of time… but I figure now is a bad time to argue that since I’ve just spent close to an hour writing this ginormous note.)

The Purpose of Education: Education is a tool developed by the Above-Average Americans to brainwash Average Americans into doing their work for them.

I don’t want to be an Average American.

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

You don’t need to be a Christian to appreciate the significance of this passage. Judaism teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Atheistic humanism teaches us that if we love other people, they are more likely to love us in return (thus making survival easier). Love is beneficial to the world as a whole.

Saddam Hussein wrote a letter to Iraqis before his death. The message? Don’t hate. “I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” he wrote. Ironic though it is that Hussein, of all people, would preach a message of non-hatred, he made a valid point. Unfortunately, he didn’t take it far enough.

Too many of us substitute love for “non-hate” - they aren’t the same. Imagine that you see a homeless man playing a saxophone on an urban street. (If you live in a large city, this may be an everyday occurrence.) His case lies open, holding some scattered coins and a few dollar bills. You fiddle around with the extra change in your pocket as you pass near. What’s your reaction?

A) Kick the beggar and steal his money.
B) Walk on by, avoiding eye contact with the man.
C) Stop to listen for a moment and toss in some change.
D) Give the man enough money to eat for a year, help him work on his resume and take him to an employment agency.

I hope you didn’t choose A, which would obviously be an act of hatred! The most common reactions, by far, are B and C - neutrality. Everyone feels sorry for those living in poverty, but few people actually take the time to do anything about it. The most loving choice would be D; this response is closest to what Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Jesus Christ would have done.

Sound impractical? You may be right; even the United States government seems to take a “non-hate” approach toward poverty. Ever try to talk a Congressman into voting to reduce his $165,200 annual salary to help the poor folks? Good luck. But look again at those verses; nowhere does it mention anything about love being easy, or about love being simple, or even about love being common! (The USA’s 40% divorce rate suggests that people don’t really follow that “love never ends” thing anymore.) The next time you tell someone that you love them, make sure you really mean it.

Unconditional love is not a feeling that comes naturally to us; it’s rare enough to have genuine love for one person, much less every person… but that’s what we should strive for. (I, for one, have a lot of work to do!)

We all have the power to love. Let’s use it.

The Polyphasic Sleep intro has been posted for your perusal. You may find it by looking under “Pages” on the right sidebar (or by clicking here if you’re lazy).

It’s unfinished as of yet, but it should give you a good primer on what to expect. Yes, I’m going to try it… if you haven’t figured that out yet.

For this post, I have the great pleasure of being able to choose two seemingly contradicting categories - Sleep Deprivation and Productivity.

There’s a lot to comment on, but I’ve chosen to keep this post short and focus on what will be one of the driving points of this website. It stems from a New Year’s resolution (yes, I know it’s early); a simple, intriguing, yet downright dangerous little gem of a goal - Four hours. Four hours per day. Four hours of non-productive time-wasting nonsense, and not a minute more.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “… Four hours? That’s it? So in an eight-hour work day, you’re allowed to screw around for half of it?” Not quite. You see, there’s a catch. This four hours of “screwing around” includes sleep.

Go back and read that again carefully if you didn’t understand it the first time. Four hours. Including sleep.

70% of my readers have just headed for the hills. For the other 30%, don’t panic - yet. I have a fairly broad definition of “productivity” compared to, say, your boss. Have you ever tried taking a break from work to practice your guitar? Unless you work in a music store, your boss is unlikely to appreciate this impromptu open mic. But music is a talent which is loved and appreciated by people everywhere. By practicing it, you’re preparing yourself to deliver a useful product, whether or not you ever get paid for it.

In short, I define productivity - for this purpose - as any non-necessary activity which produces a helpful product, develops a useful skill or attribute, or does either of these for someone else.

Obviously, gray areas exist. What about just hanging out with friends? While a social life might not be considered “productive”, you can’t just forget about it… right? Yes and no. Hanging out and building memories with friends you’re not going to see once they leave for college or get married? Definitely productive. Hanging out with the same friends you hang out with every day because there’s nothing better to do? Maybe, but not so much. Getting drunk with your friends so you won’t remember the night anyway? Non-productive. (Yes, I consider memories a helpful product.) Remember that you can - and should - do things which are both enjoyable and productive.

If you’re anything like most sane, apparently logical people, you’re probably wondering, “But how are you going to manage this while depriving yourself of sleep?” This is where the teaser comes… polyphasic sleep. If you can’t wait, look it up. Regardless, this won’t be the last mentioning of it on the site.

My resolution is this: By the end of 2007, I will spend at least 20 hours of each day, every day, doing productive activities. And I invite you to join me.

Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen; it’s going to be a bumpy ride!