An early start to New Years Resolutions 2009
Written December 7th 2009
December 7th 2008. It is just another Sunday for many around the world and just another Sunday for many Americans. I spent a couple of hours today in prayer and contemplation remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor that signaled the start of WW2 for many in America. A day of Infamy that we as Americans promised would never be forgotten. But of course we did forget. Pearl Harbor was not the first time we had been attacked and unfortunately it was not the last. September 11, 2001 is yet one more attack that we swear will never be forgotten yet just a few years later I fear it is already a faded jaded memory.
We here in America have been blessed to not have another major terrorist attack here on our soil. It can be argued whether it is just luck or if our fighting men and women have successfully engaged our enemies here and abroad. I have friends in the fight here and abroad so I know the answer. LOL Of course it is both.
I have determined that remembering is not enough. Watching and reading the news on the latest terrorist attacks around the world, their tactics and their levels of commitment and comparing that commitment to our leaders commitments has lead me to the decision to modify my lifestyle. I have always thought that we will be attacked again and I believe it now more than ever. With the election over I had to look at what the results mean for me personally and for my country. My thoughts were even more crystallized with the recent bloody attacks in India. I had been forming these thoughts since before Beslan and the multiple rapes and killings perpetrated on those school children. Years ago I realized that the causes and effects of international conflicts are often much more complex than the sound bites our media feed to us, more complex than the shallow agenda driven history books I read in classes. Living thru and participating in the cold war taught me to look thru the chatter and see the bigger picture. It is often frightening and depressing. Our conflicts around the world are more than a shooting war over territory or ego or oil. In my opinion this conflict is a spiritual war. Before I get in a fight I have to decide if it is worth it and to try to figure out what the fight is truly about. I went into the Army in 1981 when I thought we were going to war in Iran during the embassy staff kidnappings and hostage takings. We had a German terrorist group plant a bomb close enough to our barracks that had it gone off on top of the in-ground fuel tanks I would not be writing right now. I had a close friend that had to bag the personal effects of the Marines slaughtered in Beirut. The enemy is not new or unknown to me. What is new is that I now have a better understanding of what this fight is really about. A few years ago I decided that it is not enough to protect yourself from those that want to injure you. It is important to kill them before they kill us and I train and train with many that take the fight to the enemy and I pray for their continued success and the success of all the others on the bloody end of this fight. By not enough I meant that for me this fight has become a spiritual fight. I did not start out understanding this but realized it as I researched faith especially my own. I am no saint but have found strength and wisdom in my belief of God and will be working hard to further the discoveries and joys that are sure to come. The enemy wants to destroy us because our faith is different than their own. Instead of destroying my faith they have driven me to do more research and learning and have strengthened my faith to be stronger than ever before. I thank them even as I pray for their failure and termination.
I have been working on getting debt free for the last year and will be completely debt free by the end of February 2009 and will begin saving like mad to by a home (hopefully 2010-2011) doing the 100% down plan. It is easier to make calm decisions and it leads to better health if a person’s stress is reduced and one of the main stress inducers is debt and financial angst.
I have been doing martial arts for years and years. I have been in many conflicts and have no fear for my personal safety in most any kind of conflict but I am currently not prepared to end an attack by a steroid and drug enhanced terrorist at more than the closest distance. So I have changed the focus of my personal training from traditional self defense to now also include efficiently ending threats at a distance. This will mean training and once again carrying firearms something I have avoided for nearly 20 years.
I have had many different focuses in my life over the years but my health and fitness have not been top of the list. That is changing and my health and my fitness are now top of the list. This will mean many lifestyle changes as I retrain both my body and my mind. This will be a primary focus for 2009.
My New Years resolution for 2008 was to simplify my life. It has not been easy and many things were much tougher than I thought that they would be. I have changed my work habits so that now I only work between 50 and 60 hours a week. That might sound like a lot of hours to some but it is a major change from the 80-100 hours that regularly worked for the 17 or so years. I have moved from renting a little apartment in a crappy part of town to renting a small home with property in a whole different town near the water. Instead of thugs playing their music too loud I now have squirrels and birds competing to wake me. The toughest thing I had to do this year was to close my commercial martial arts school in Bellevue after teaching there for four years. I have changed from teaching in my commercial school 3-5 days a week to teaching out of my home one day a week. This simplifying has been worth it but extremely difficult and I have not made as much progress as I would have liked to have made so I will be continuing the process during 2009.
2009 the year I continue my journey in Christ.
2009 the year of starting to work on my health and fitness changing my lifestyle decisions to a focused healthy direction.
2009 the year I continue the process of simplifying my life.
2009 the year of getting completely out of debt (and never getting into debt again) and saving for a home.
2009 the year I once again train combative shooting skills including again getting my CCW.
2009 the year I continue the process of simplifying my life LOL no matter how difficult and non simple it is to do so.
Written December 7th 2009
December 7th 2008. It is just another Sunday for many around the world and just another Sunday for many Americans. I spent a couple of hours today in prayer and contemplation remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor that signaled the start of WW2 for many in America. A day of Infamy that we as Americans promised would never be forgotten. But of course we did forget. Pearl Harbor was not the first time we had been attacked and unfortunately it was not the last. September 11, 2001 is yet one more attack that we swear will never be forgotten yet just a few years later I fear it is already a faded jaded memory.
We here in America have been blessed to not have another major terrorist attack here on our soil. It can be argued whether it is just luck or if our fighting men and women have successfully engaged our enemies here and abroad. I have friends in the fight here and abroad so I know the answer. LOL Of course it is both.
I have determined that remembering is not enough. Watching and reading the news on the latest terrorist attacks around the world, their tactics and their levels of commitment and comparing that commitment to our leaders commitments has lead me to the decision to modify my lifestyle. I have always thought that we will be attacked again and I believe it now more than ever. With the election over I had to look at what the results mean for me personally and for my country. My thoughts were even more crystallized with the recent bloody attacks in India. I had been forming these thoughts since before Beslan and the multiple rapes and killings perpetrated on those school children. Years ago I realized that the causes and effects of international conflicts are often much more complex than the sound bites our media feed to us, more complex than the shallow agenda driven history books I read in classes. Living thru and participating in the cold war taught me to look thru the chatter and see the bigger picture. It is often frightening and depressing. Our conflicts around the world are more than a shooting war over territory or ego or oil. In my opinion this conflict is a spiritual war. Before I get in a fight I have to decide if it is worth it and to try to figure out what the fight is truly about. I went into the Army in 1981 when I thought we were going to war in Iran during the embassy staff kidnappings and hostage takings. We had a German terrorist group plant a bomb close enough to our barracks that had it gone off on top of the in-ground fuel tanks I would not be writing right now. I had a close friend that had to bag the personal effects of the Marines slaughtered in Beirut. The enemy is not new or unknown to me. What is new is that I now have a better understanding of what this fight is really about. A few years ago I decided that it is not enough to protect yourself from those that want to injure you. It is important to kill them before they kill us and I train and train with many that take the fight to the enemy and I pray for their continued success and the success of all the others on the bloody end of this fight. By not enough I meant that for me this fight has become a spiritual fight. I did not start out understanding this but realized it as I researched faith especially my own. I am no saint but have found strength and wisdom in my belief of God and will be working hard to further the discoveries and joys that are sure to come. The enemy wants to destroy us because our faith is different than their own. Instead of destroying my faith they have driven me to do more research and learning and have strengthened my faith to be stronger than ever before. I thank them even as I pray for their failure and termination.
I have been working on getting debt free for the last year and will be completely debt free by the end of February 2009 and will begin saving like mad to by a home (hopefully 2010-2011) doing the 100% down plan. It is easier to make calm decisions and it leads to better health if a person’s stress is reduced and one of the main stress inducers is debt and financial angst.
I have been doing martial arts for years and years. I have been in many conflicts and have no fear for my personal safety in most any kind of conflict but I am currently not prepared to end an attack by a steroid and drug enhanced terrorist at more than the closest distance. So I have changed the focus of my personal training from traditional self defense to now also include efficiently ending threats at a distance. This will mean training and once again carrying firearms something I have avoided for nearly 20 years.
I have had many different focuses in my life over the years but my health and fitness have not been top of the list. That is changing and my health and my fitness are now top of the list. This will mean many lifestyle changes as I retrain both my body and my mind. This will be a primary focus for 2009.
My New Years resolution for 2008 was to simplify my life. It has not been easy and many things were much tougher than I thought that they would be. I have changed my work habits so that now I only work between 50 and 60 hours a week. That might sound like a lot of hours to some but it is a major change from the 80-100 hours that regularly worked for the 17 or so years. I have moved from renting a little apartment in a crappy part of town to renting a small home with property in a whole different town near the water. Instead of thugs playing their music too loud I now have squirrels and birds competing to wake me. The toughest thing I had to do this year was to close my commercial martial arts school in Bellevue after teaching there for four years. I have changed from teaching in my commercial school 3-5 days a week to teaching out of my home one day a week. This simplifying has been worth it but extremely difficult and I have not made as much progress as I would have liked to have made so I will be continuing the process during 2009.
2009 the year I continue my journey in Christ.
2009 the year of starting to work on my health and fitness changing my lifestyle decisions to a focused healthy direction.
2009 the year I continue the process of simplifying my life.
2009 the year of getting completely out of debt (and never getting into debt again) and saving for a home.
2009 the year I once again train combative shooting skills including again getting my CCW.
2009 the year I continue the process of simplifying my life LOL no matter how difficult and non simple it is to do so.
