40 Goals while 40

4/18 Update – Goal 4 Complete After getting very close on multiple occasions, I finally cracked through on the 4x4x4 Rubik’s Cube!   At one point, I completed it in 406 seconds.   Now that’s frustrating.   However, after a few more days of practice, it finally came together with a time of 5:09.   309 seconds – not bad.   Now to just maintain the skills.   In other news, with the spring weather finally starting to arrive, many of the goals are starting to make some progress.   There’s still a lot that need to get moving, but hopefully this will start soon. Physical             #5 – 1,075 miles – Over 1,000 miles.   This week should be pretty light since the time trial is just 8 days away!   Getting nervous!             #6 – 3,225.   I fell a bit behind again as I missed a day, but I’ll just have to catch up l...

So I took a week off the updates while on Spring Break.   It was a wonderful week started out at the Outer Banks (fun!) and finished with some good, old-fashioned, hanging out at the house.   We didn’t get as much done as I would have hoped, but it was a really nice week.             As for the goals, nothing really was overwhelming.   I am finalizing the preparations for the 40k time trial in a few weeks and we visited another donut shop.   The Rubik’s Cube seems to continue to be a puzzle.   I’ve gotten to where I can solve it, but the 400 seconds is going to require a bit of luck.   It’ll happen, but finding pairs in the second step is quite a challenge.             In an unfortunate note, my streak of not getting plastic bags while shopping was broken.   I went to Target late on evening and, when I wasn’t paying attention, I left ...

Hard though it is to believe, it's only been two months since I embarked on this journey.  3 goals are complete, and one will not be reached.  Some of the others are on track, there are more than a few that need some help to get on pace. This week was not a great week for moving the goals forward, but did include a wonderful date night with Amy to go and see the Hurricanes.  The game itself was semi-entertaining, though with so many empty seats, it really wasn't exciting.  Still it was nice to get out and it provided the bonus of being near a TV when Loyola was playing! Beyond that, just a good week reading with the boys.  Next week is Spring Break!  One note worth mentioning, this week included more sleep than previous weeks.  It's an active effort after listening to "Why We Sleep" (Amazing book if you missed the suggestion before) to get more sleep.  So far, I feel better and hope to continue the trend. Physical    ...

              I passed 40 hours of improv for the year.   I didn’t realize how fast this would happen!   Since we’re less than a quarter of the year complete, now I’m wondering if I could have 40 hours there where I’m in the performance.   I’m currently at 15 hours so if we stay on pace, this too could happen.             Other news for the week included a big week of cycling (113 miles) despite a few days of traveling.   Spring seems to finally be pushing winter aside so hopefully the outdoor goals will start to move here.             I also have another book recommendation, at least for nerds of my age.   Ready Player One was a really fun book with all sorts of 80s references.   It makes you think about the future world – I hope we don’t go to where the story suggests we will, b...

            Thanks to a heavy load of work travel, I didn’t make progress on many goals this week.  It’s unfortunate I didn’t have anything around bird counting though as I was fortunate enough to be in a car driving while hundreds of thousands of snow geese were migrating north.  It was an awe inspiring scene and a wonderful reminder of what this world has on offer.             The other big news for the week is a goal that I decided not to put on the list.   At one point, I was going to include driving 4,000 miles in a car with alternative fuel.   The idea was to drive me to get a different car that wasn’t so fuel inefficient as the minivan and use it as often as possible.   I ultimately scratched the goal, but it looks like it will happen anyway as I purchased a Leaf this week.   Fun times!                Physical...

            I’m a day late in my posting, but it was totally worth it.  This morning I had a very early flight out of Omaha and got to see the sun come up on a perfectly clear sky, my 40 th sunrise of the year (yes, it’s only been 42 days since my birthday – this is my life).  Looking out the window, the sky panned from red, to orange, yellow, green, and a midnight blue before turning to the darkness out to the west.  With the small towns below, it was a magical image.  A good reminder that whatever may happen in life, the sun will come up and we are all small.     I tried a picture, but it clearly doesn't do it justice.              This week was a pretty blah week for goal attainment, but I guess that’s going to happen.   We had an unexpected visit from my nieces over the weekend and so we spent time with them.      ...

2/28 Weekly Update             Just over a month has gone by since I embarked on the quest to complete the 40 goals.   We may still be at 1 goal complete, but there are a great many that are making progress.    Perhaps more importantly since this is what the goals were about, I feel like my habits are changing.   On multiple evenings, just as I was about to plop down on the bed, I remembered that my pushups weren’t done and knocked them out before going to bed.   The behaviors are changing and hopefully this will lead to accomplishment.      It may just be the Spring weather, it may be the longer days, but one way or another, I'm growing very optimistic about both the goals and life in general.  It's a lot of fun frankly.     Skimming through the goals, I really need to get onto the thank you list.  I've got a lot of people to thank, I just need to start doing. ...