Just Do It.

I just watched Julie and Julia. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I had read so many reviews that praised the Meryl Streep portion of the movie, and panned the Amy Adams portion. Ms. Streep is an amazing woman, who I truly believe is one of the two greatest actresses to ever live on this planet. But I enjoyed the modern part of the story just as much, if not more.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand why, though. I'm 38 years old, and have no clue what I'm doing with my life. I'm happy. I've got great friends, a wonderful and supportive family, pets that I love, and I truly enjoy who I am as a person. But I'm unemployed, with no idea what to do for a job, a career, with my life.

I decided while watching the movie that I was going to start blogging. I have avoided it for the most part. The way I avoid all of the things in my life that would probably make me a better person. That would help me in some way. There's always an excuse.

There's a part in the movie where she imposes a deadline of a year, because she knows that she never finishes anything. I joked to the friend that I was watching the movie with that no one who always fails to finish things realizes that they have that problem. That's not entirely true, though. Plenty of us realize the problems that we have in our lives. We just lack the strength to change them.

I'm trying. Really I am. I want to be better. I want to do better. I started working out again this past week, and feel great. For the last year and a half, my life has been nothing but excuses. I'll get to it tomorrow, the day after, next week, next month. Last week I just got on the treadmill. Started slow, and slowly built up a little. I'm nowhere near where I was two years ago when I was doing this all the time. But I'm going to get there.

On the side of the cabinet, where my home theater system sits, there is a very old Nike sticker. One of the earliest "Just Do It" stickers. It's all late-80's neon day-glo colors. I realized that whether or not you care for Nike, that slogan is one of the greatest ever invented. Just disassociate it from the product for a minute, and apply it to your life. Just do it.

We all have reasons that we could choose not to do it. Whatever "it" is. Change jobs; eat better; work out; treat those around us better; leave the emotionally abusive boyfriend/girlfriend; write more; talk more; care more; do the laundry; clean the house; learn a new skill. It doesn't matter what it is, we spend more time bitching about it than we would spend just doing it.

So I will just do it. I will strive every day to complain less, make fewer excuses, and do more. I will write more, starting with this blog. I will cook more. I will play more. I will work out. I will play better poker. I will not be afraid to fail.

This blog won't be read by very many people. I'm not planning to advertise it on my other pages for a while. I just need it as a place to get my thoughts down. But if, at some point down the road, you find yourself here... Thank you. If you're here, you're a friend of mine. Thank you for being my friend. It truly means the world to me.

Finally, if you need more of a reason to get off your ass, this guy says it far better than I ever could.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdd31Q9PqA