It's not what you start, but what you finish that counts. It's not what you set in motion, but what you follow through with that hits the target. One of the most valuable lessons I learned in my youth was to always finish what you start. Especially when it is not easy to do so. The hard is what makes reaching the top so sweet. And once on top there will always be another hill to climb. The climbing doesn't end until the last grain of sand drops, and frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. There simply is nothing like bringing in a herd!

Learn to do one thing, always finish what you start. This is the hard highway to strength of body and soul. So here I sit staring at a list I've been compiling of all the things that I have left uncompleted this year. Projects that I actually got started on, and projects that I want to start. Useless clutter I've let collect saying to myself "when I get more time" I will get rid of this stuff. I've been waiting for all the leaves to fall off the trees before I begin to rake them. Trees have been bare for two weeks now and my yard is still full of leaves. There is a pile of books waiting patiently for me to read them. You get the point. My end of year bucket list of stuff to get done before the new year is huge! Much too big to get it all done in the next couple of days. How did I let this happen?

It happened the same way that I woke up one day to find I was a 230 pound chocolate looking Pillsbury dough boy happened. Little by little, letting things slip for too long. The truth of Proverbs 24:30-34 coming on me like an armed bandit once again. A little folding of the hands to rest, a little putting off until later, and my end of the year bucket list has grown too deep to be easily emptied. 

During today's daily grind I thought about how to best solve and prevent this from happening again. Here's what I cam up with:

1. Deep Clean Saturday. For the next year I'm going to set aside 8 hours every 1st Saturday of every month for deep cleaning and de-cluttering. The less that accumulates the less time it will take. Hopefully by the end of next year it will take half that time.

2. Project 10 Spot. I have been using 10 minute exercise blocks with great success. Now I'm going to apply the same principle to completing my projects. I'm looking at three 10 Spots throughout the day. Ten minutes on a project that will take less than 3 months (short term). Ten minutes on a medium range project that will take less than 6 months, and 10 minutes on a long term project that will take more than a year. Ten minutes doesn't sound like much, but six days a week will be one hour each week, four hours each month. That is much better than the zero I am currently racking up on most of these things. 

I need to set some priorities on which projects to work first, but right now it is time to get those leaves out of the back yard and on the curbside for pick-up. And after that comes the big garage de-clutter. Don't know if I will get to that today, but I do know it's time to get busy.

Daily Grind Saturday December 29, 2012

Today's grind called for the X-man workout in my garage. I finished the second gaint set and wondered if I would be able to finish the complete 10 sets. 

Warm-up

--Standing Drills #1

--Ropa Dope 10 Spot

--Indian Clubs 10 Spot

Giant Set

--X-Man Bands O Resistance 100 reps

--Kettlebell Snatch 16kg 100 reps with left and 100 reps right 

Total Workout Time: 1 hour, 36 minutes 

Workout Quality: A2. Got it done, feel good about bring this week's herd in.