About

There is a business axiom that says that the Chinese character for crisis is made up of the characters for danger and opportunity.Chinese linguists dispute this, nonetheless I’m going to use this hackneyed and disproven idea as the central theme here. I turned 44 last month, and by most standard measures, that’s a pretty good time for the midlife crisis.

The traditional things for a 44-year-old to do in this case is to buy a shiny new two-seater, scope out an co-ed or two, and perhaps look at that hair weave. I guess that’s the danger part, turning oneself into an unhappy, lonely cliche. I’ve already owned a two-seater (perhaps not the one you tend to think of in this context), and it’s just not practical. I really do love my wife, have a happy home with interesting work and there’s no sign of balding yet. There’s nothing appealing about that path to me at all.

So I’ve decided to do the other part of this mythical chinese character: opportunity. Of late, I’ve become quite complacent: I haven’t been thinking creatively, I get upset over petty things, my waist was spreading, and I’ve become more an more comfortable with my perceived limitations. Really, maybe that complacency is the danger. The sports car stuff is easy to avoid.

So feeling like a house with a settling foundation, outdated kitchen, and drafty windows, I’ve decided it’s time for a renovation. In this space, I’m going to chronicle my personal renovation.

I’ve been on a fitness routine for about 3 months, and it’s that change, more than any other, that makes me feel like I can do a lot of this other stuff. It is the plumbing and the electrical, the settling foundation.

The heart of this process is to challenge many of the limitations I’ve come to accept over the years. There are so many things I wish I could do, but can’t: write well, sing, keep rhythm, dance. I’m not heading for American Idol, but I’d like to not have to lip sync “Happy Birthday”. I hate being absent minded, cluttered distracted, and sloppy, and I hate being poorly organized. I’m going to actively pursue solutions to those shortcomings.

Some of this will be auto-didactic, sometimes I will use technology, and sometimes I’ll hire professionals. Kick in the Fit made all the difference with my fitness routine, and I’m going to do some more work with them in February. I’ll highlight a lot of the services you can find here in Decatur Georgia to make these changes. Much of this will be silly, some will be serious, but I hope to make most of it fun for you, the reader, at least.

My patron saint in this process, my Virgil so to speak, will be Phil Connor, Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day.