Lava Button

Hello!

I’m going to play a little bit of the ol’ “The Delete Key is Lava” Game. It’s a good game and it suits my purpose of writing something, ‘cos when you play, you write something.

So, what was it I wanted to write again?

Ah yes, Living an Extraordinary Life.

Basically, I feel like making progress in my life, having a quantum leap forward in my productivity, confidence, fulfilment, happiness and connectedness. I want this. So, I am putting this in motion. This, apparently, then- is my manifesto.

The Manifesto of my Extraordinary Life.

I am making my goals and my journey public in the writing of this, because things feel more tangible to me when others are engaged; a personal triumph is much more transformative when it is shared.

I still find it challenging to be honest like this. Writing is a vulnerable art. In music, one can use the standard 4/4, major scale, I IV V, verse-chorus-verse template as a starting point and add weirdness and little flairs here and there and say “now how does that sound?” and lo and behold it sounds like something, and you can show people and see what they think, but the whole act of expression has been filtered through music theory and whatnot and it just isn’t as straightforward as using language directly to *tell people how you feel*.

That may have been stalling, but the rules of The Game state that it stays even if it is tangential to the actual Manifesto. What I was getting at is that honesty is still a challenge for me, and as such, I will not always be honest when I am writing this. HOWEVER, it is my *commitment* that I be honest. I just understand that commitments are rarely, if ever, met to a standard of perfection.

So, I suppose the first order of business in this Manifesto is my ongoing relationship with Honesty. It makes sense for this to be the first item as I am able to work on this quality in the very writing of the Manifesto by paying attention to the truth-value of what I write.

Put simply, I am challenged and excited by truth and honesty and in the keeping of this blog/manifesto/I’m-not-really-sure I will document the progress I make in being honest in my life.

Right, without any further ado, the next item on this list is productivity!

This is also fitting to be a higher-up item on my list because productivity is a damn important aspect of keeping this thing up and running. I am committed to keeping this Blogifesto regularly updated and I am committed to having substantial progress to report on between entries!

I don’t know exactly what to type next but even now I feel the urgency of productivity and am typing before I know exactly what to say! Acting *before* you are ready is, I think, a really important part of getting anything done, ever. If one waits until the moment is perfect, the thing is lost and never done.

In an ideal, abstract, hypothetical version of this blog, I would have plenty of practice in blog-keeping *before* I start the blog, so that I know it will be good. But, in reality, keeping this blog is, itself, the best practice. So, I apologise if this sucks at first. I will get better at this and I suspect I will re-haul things once I reach a certain standard. Then I will give myself a clean slate of sorts so as to entice new readers, starting them with my A-game, rather than having them wade through these earlier, crappier entries.

I digress! Such self-deprecation is not my style! Productivity is another aspect of my journey that I shall document in this here blog-type-thing. Let’s just call a spade a spade, this is a blog. Now we can move on.

Most other things fall neatly under the umbrellas of honesty and productivity, but specificity is not out of place in a life-document, so to name a few other points of interest I will be documenting my progress in:

Writing – This; Plays; Essays.

Composing – I have some compositions that I wish to develop and teach to a band and perform for you.

Singing – I will be singing in this band; and also The Hot Cakes; and also whatever else I can sink my larynx into.

Health! – There is an exclamation mark here because this is another big one. When one wishes to make progress in what they are doing (which is what this whole thing is all about) one should start with a base of good health. Exercise and nutrition gives you what you need to think clearly and access the energy required to Achieve Tasks! I am going to study Health and share what I find out and what I get.

Y’know, I’m going to take a lesson from Productivity here and wrap things up. In conclusion, please join me, if you are so inclined, on my journey. I will attempt to make it entertaining and relatable and relevant for others, exploring the more universal and philosophical ideas that bubble up from the results I set out to achieve.

            (One option you have if you do not feel engaged is to tell me why and I will see if I can make this more conversational or engaging or whatever it is that would make a difference.)

For now, Sayonara. Also, I totally cheated and pressed the delete key a bunch of times, instinctively. But I decided to just get on with it.

Cool, man.