Hello all and welcome to 2014 on the Cynical Sarcastic!
And no, contrary to a couple of emailed opinions, I have not completely quit the blogging and writing game to go play powerlifter.
Really, I swear!
Seriously however, in the spirit of the "new year" I think it's important to talk about something that's been on my mind a lot lately: namely examining my true priorities in life and getting this ship back on track, so to speak.
It's not that I've wandered away from writing in general, mind you, or that I got sick of the whole blogging game or even just grew tired of answering emails. The fact is that I did get overly bogged down in trying to keep too many projects alive at one time. The sad and simple fact of it all, I've come to understand, is that I actually am human after all! Seriously, I went to a doctor... I have proof!
After a fairly lengthy period of evaluating and re-evaluating and scrutinizing and over-thinking the whole damn thing, I've come to a couple of conclusions that I thought I'd share with those of you still dedicated and/or bored enough to still be reading what I have to say after all this time.
First and foremost: being exceptional requires sacrifice. Anyone can phone in their existence. There is an entire herd of humanity out there that is doing nothing more than hitting their 9 to 5 at precisely 9:01 and leaving at 4:55 and living in a slowly decaying swill of TV and fast food. It's easy and it's pretty much expected out of all of us. Being exceptional, however requires sacrifice. You have to be willing to give up some of that mundanity (pretty sure that's a word - if not I call it) to become great. My problem lately is I've had so little free time to myself to actually pursue the things I want to do that I've let them get completely out of focus.
Secondly: work must stay in perspective. You work to fund your life. That's it and that's all. Anything else is out of focus.
Third, and one that I have particular trouble with it would appear: your passions must get equal time on the average. I moved away from writing to focus more energy on training in the gym and the result was a lot of gains from the iron and a stagnant book that's fighting me tooth and nail as I try to finish it.
Fourth, and last I promise: the true definition of who you are will either be decided by you or by what you let everyone else decide for you. I want to be a husband, writer, and powerlifter and be more than moderately successful at all three. God help me when we get to add father to that list too, huh? I notice more and more how people seem to be discussing what's keeping them from doing something instead of what they've accomplished. I want very much to be the latter instead of the former.
So with all that being said, here's a couple of changes I'm going to be making. Effective today I'm shuttering my secondary blog "The Big Fellas Guide" and moving it over as part of the CS. Yes, that means that you'll have all my powerlifting brew-ha-ha scattered in and amongst the rest of the ranting and raving. Sorry but I've only got enough time to keep one house in order at the moment. As time goes on and things in that arena progress I may move it back to its own site but for now everything will be under one roof. You're also going to see a wider range of topics on the CS, more focusing on writing but also more on general day to day life. What you'll probably notice a bit of a reduction on are the flaming rants that were a fairly regular part of the blog. Call it maturity or just lack of sleep but lately things just don't piss me off as easily as they used to. Guess turning 40 has a few upsides after all.
Well, thanks again all for sticking with me and here's to a great 2014!
