Picking up from yesterday –
For me, I think the point(s) of these projects is to strengthen habits I’d like to get in to, and to expand my world view – learning/trying new things, meeting new people, and all that fun stuff.
As far as the habits I’m trying to strengthen, basically I’m trying to be a well-rounded person. For me, I basically think of that of a strong foundation of 4 pillars:
1) Creativity
2) Athleticism (Or at least just taking pretty good care of your body)
3) Service/Community (Engaging in helping to make the world around you better, volunteering, etc. (In the words of Michael Jackson, “Heal the world. Make it a better place…” I don’t necessarily mean it in the sense of being involved with your local community, but humankind in general (though that often can be helped through the local level).))
4) Smarts (“Intellectualism” sounded too stuffy. “Academia” made it sound like it’s all about school. But basically, I just mean learning more, being aware of the world around you (and hopefully at least semi-well-read), and able to form some thoughts/opinions/and all that jazz.)
If you think I missed anything in the pillars, please let me know! I always love to hear other opinions on this kind of stuff, and get more ideas.
Anyway, it seems I’m kind of going a pillar at a time. I think the half marathons definitely helped strengthen the athleticism – as I still run and have gone on to broaden what I do there (such as ultramarathons and obstacle courses).
And I believe (though time will tell) that this project helped strengthen the service/community pillar. As I mentioned yesterday, it didn’t feel like quite as much of one big project. So, I think that may have made it less of a habit-building year for me. But I still did it enough, that volunteering has made it’s way into my pretty regular rotation of things to do.
As far as how this will grow or change in the future (as the half marathoning grew into the other stuff), I’m really not sure right now.
As I mentioned in one of my halfway posts, it’s a real bummer when you don’t do anything. As I also mentioned, I loved doing new stuff. So I think I will probably focus on activities where either it really looks like I’m gonna get to help and/or I get to do something I haven’t done before (or haven’t done often).
I do think having a lot of responsibility is fun. And it might be fun to do a longer-term project where you have a real role (such as helping to plan an event). I don’t know that that will happen anything in the near future. But it’s something to think about!
Overall, I’d call this a good project. I’m happy I did it. And now I like to think I hopefully have two pretty strong pillars (of the four I mentioned). How to strengthen another one? Hmmmm, I’ve been thinking about that. So, let’s talk about it sometime!