Welcome to 2020 and the new decade.

What has changed – nothing much? We woke up this morning, I walked Bennie, ate breakfast did some chores, did Bennie’s long walk, cleaned-up some of yesterday’s snow, went for a run, ate lunch, took a nap, puttered on the computer, walked Bennie…you get the picture.

Not a whole lot really changed. I ate the same things, slept in the same chair, walked Bennie on the same routes, etc. Am I a bit of a cynic…not really but at the same time I don’t wear rose-colored glasses all the time either.

Really, the turning of a page on a calendar does not make changes in the world as we know it. Even when so many of us say it is the time to start anew, make changes and all that other bullshit. Nothing changes until you and I make the choices that we need to do to make the changes that might or dare I say could make our lives better.

What changes are you actually making, versus just talking to the wind?

What changes did I actually make today?

I started a 366-day challenge where I read the day’s article from the Daily Stoic and then reflect on the writing. Today’s thought was about Controlling what I can control and letting go of what I can’t.

The Serenity Prayer was mentioned and it got me to thinking about different scenarios that happen around the house. Maybe if I look at those things along these lines, the situations would be less stressful for me. I did do some reflecting on things I could do differently using this thought process.

Do it now. I have a habit of procrastinating things every so often or according to the wife – too often. Today instead of putting off the little chores, I just went ahead and did them. You know things like carrying out the recyclables, shoveling off the deck, washing my running clothes, fixing the dryer-when the belt slipped off the pulley, tightening down the nuts on the toilet seat – that kind of things.

All those little chores that really do not take all that much time to just do, but the sheer number of them can get overwhelming if you let them add up over a week’s time.

Yeah, I might have even smiled a few times and said thank you too. Small things, but they did seem to have some unexpected positive results in return.

Running

I ran, but the roads out around the house were still a bit icy and a lot slushy. Not enjoyable for running, to say the least. So I headed to Augusta and figured if the roads were nasty there I could play on the treadmill for my miles. Luckily on Outer Civic Center Drive was mostly clear and very runnable, so I got to run outside on a pretty nice Winter’s day.

When I started running the temp was 42*F and by the time I returned from running up to Summerhaven Road, it had plummeted to 36* and the nice breeze had turned into a fairly stiff headwind. Not that it really mattered because I was more interested in getting in a 10K than how fast I was running.

It wasn’t anything spectacular and I was very happy with how I felt the entire way. I wore my NB Propel v1 and had the best run in them in a while. My feet didn’t bother at all, although they were pretty soaked through (the roads were still very wet), the Darn Tough merino wool socks kept the little tootsies warm as could be.

A good run.

I did manage to get my 2020 RunLog spreadsheet up and working, so that is ready to go for another year. I think I have it pretty much set up in a way that works for me and captures the data that I consider important.

What did I read today?

January 1st – The Daily Stoic Entry
Gwyneth
Time Goes By | Happy New Year 2020
20 Big Ideas that will change your world in 2020
Murrbrewster | An Inconvenience of Frogs – It made me chuckle and look outside the box for a minute
Musing | Happy New Year!
12 Unique Life Resolutions to Consider
Dressing for Winter Running
The Calm of Everything as it Should Be
What does my 80 year old father do to stay young?
Are You Normalizing Bad Behavior?
You Are Enough Right Now: Freedom and Self-improvement

Another pretty good day and if I seem a bit cynical at the start of the post, I was. Too often we have these great goals, resolutions or just ideas and all we do is either write them down or talk about them and then promptly forget about them.

Instead of simply forgetting about the direction I want to take in 2020, I wanted to add in concrete things that I did today to move towards that direction.

I gotta ask, what concrete things did you do today to move towards your goals, resolutions or ideas?

This is a question that I will keep coming back to over the coming months.

Originally posted on Aging & Retirement – My Thoughts, written by Harold L. Shaw, Jr.