Let me introduce myself: Neal. I'm thirteen years old, and I live in Massachusetts. Every once in a while, I'll post more about myself in the "Brutal Honesty" series of posts so that you can know more about who I am and how I think. I thought, however, that it'd be more prudent for me to write a post giving more insight into who I am/was as a one-time thing.
I was born in Manhattan on January 27, 1995 and moved to Massachusetts in December of that year. I've been living in Massachusetts ever since. I play basketball and soccer, but I'm not at all athletic. I'm not obese, but I am overweight by quite a bit. In earlier years, I was obsessed with gaming. I joined my (former) gaming clan, [A27], in 2006. I was one of the more active members until I left the clan on January 28, 2009, the day after my 14th birthday. Even though it seems unimportant, this is one key aspect of my life which I'd like to shed light on.
On January 27, 2009, I had a revelation that led me to change my life. It's hard to explain it in words, but essentially, I learned a concept: You can live without living life. That may sound ambiguous at first, but it means that many people are wasting their lives away and therefore each person should cherish their life. Take all opportunity, even when you don't feel like it; have no regrets. That revelation led me to think about my past (which I will elaborate on later). It also led me to a conclusion: I was living without living life. Therefore, I decided on a solution: retake my life.
In order to retake my life, I set a goal for myself. It is not my permanent goal, but the only way to move forward in life is to set a goal. Once you achieve your goal, you move to the next goal. I also set an "ultimate goal" which I can never attain.
My ultimate goal: perfection. No one can ever be perfect, but by setting that as my ultimate goal I am compelling myself to work hard in everything I do so that I can get closer to perfection. I used to be the kind of person who doesn't work hard at anything; I'd always slack. My favorite words to use were "I don't care," or "I don't give a shit." Now, however, I'm trying to gain a work ethic, which is why I picked perfection as my ultimate goal.
My current short-term goal: weight loss. I can't achieve any other goals I want with my weight; therefore, weight loss is the most important as of right now.
The main reason I'm overweight is because I eat too much and don't exercise enough (doh!). To solve this, I'm going to the gym every morning and eating less. Sadly, even that is not enough to do all I want to do in the timeframe I want it done in.
I set lofty goals so that I can struggle to achieve them. When I fail, I will not be discouraged; I must simply try harder to achieve them in the new timeframe. My goal is to lose thirty pounds of fat and gain fifteen pounds of muscle by September; the possibility of this happening is low. Therefore, I'll be satisfied if I lose at least fifteen pounds in fat (but I'm still going to push so I can do more).
I don't feel like saying anything more from now. More to come.
- N.R.
Hi Neal, from what I read on your blog you struck me as someone who is trying to define himself while acknowledging your shortcomings and on your way to grow past these.
ReplyDeleteSetting goals are the way to go, however, setting goals that could be achieved is the easier way to do it. Talking small steps and achieving these goals will lead you to achieving bigger once once you have the rhythm of it in you. Perfection is a lofty goal and even though we humans are everything but perfect we could achieve perfection in some of our works... Think Mozart or Dali for example.
Good luck and nice meeting you, and thanks for liking my photography :)