New Year, New Start

It's amazing to me that I haven't written a single blog post in over a year. Not a single one in all of 2012. I can't even count how many pictures I took of different things with the intention of blogging about them. Then I would remember I hadn't posted in forever and it would seem as if the craft, entree, travel, etc was not significant enough to be the first entry in so long...

So here I am - starting over...I can't even remember all the grand plans I had for my blog. I'm trying to decide if I want to go back through my old posts and resurrect and/or continue my old plan or just come up with a new one. Or, do a little of both...

What I'd like to start with is setting out my reading plan (or at least part of it). I'm sure I am not alone in having numerous self-help books. In fact, I have at least a whole shelf full of a wide variety of self-improvement books. The topics range from parenting and fitness to emotional eating and happiness. Some of these books are relatively new and some have been gathering dust for 10 years. It's time to do something with them.

I've already started reading two of them. One is Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck. The other is No Excuses: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy. I figure, trying to discover what I really want to do in this life and learning how to recover my self-discipline (assuming I ever had any to start with) are a good way to start off the new year. 

Ideally, I will read a couple chapters and summarize my thoughts here. The books also have "exercises" within and at the end of the chapters. I'll be doing the exercises in a notebook and will again, ideally summarize them here on the blog. Hopefully, I'll get something out of the books. At the very least thinking about what I've read and discussing it will hopefully help me learn something new - if not about myself then maybe about the world. Best of all, I'll clear out a bookshelf.

My plan right now is to read at least one self-improvement type book a month. I also have at least 100 other books I've been carting around move after move so hopefully, I'll get some of those read as well.

Here's to a new year and a new start!