I'm no Luddite, but...

For the past 10 days, I’ve been focused on practicing AND composing! I haven’t been online much, simply because I’ve imposed a new standard for myself: I can only access email after practicing for 1 hour, and I’m limited to no more than 30 minutes; I can only log into social networking websites after 2 hours of practice (again, a 30 minute limit); I can only go to the gym and to yoga if I practice 5 hours on any given day. As a reflection of my not meeting that goal, I haven’t been online at all in several days and have only been to the gym and to yoga once in the past week! However, the musical progress is good and I’m excited that I now have tremendous incentive (more than pure discipline) to get in the practice and creative time. I’ve found that I easily become distracted (addicted, some might say) to responding to email and chatting online, and that it’s much easier to work out at the gym than to exert the mental effort to practice and/or create. But long term, practicing and writing are the better choice. I’m rather disciplined anyway, but I felt the need to ratchet it up a few notches.

Today is the last day of my 21-day No Complaining challenge! I did it! Ok, I confess, there may have been times that I complained and simply didn’t catch myself. But, as far as conscious complaining goes, I managed to get through the 21 days! I’m keeping the habit, and if I notice that I’m slipping back into a complaint mode, I’ll resume the challenge again. It just feels so much better to be focused on the positive. Ah…