Read More Books.

I've always considered myself to be a reader, but over the past two years or so, I've realized that, besides textbooks and assignments for school, the most in-depth items I typically ever read are articles on Thought Catalog or Huffington Post or someone's blog, or, in the alternative, magazines. Often what I actually read is so light and devoid of real content that it's basically nothing but junk food for the mind. Our culture of instant access to any information via the Internet makes it very possible to get our brains to the point where we can only digest so much information at a time. And it has to be quick, easily digested, and instantly gratifying. And I realized that something rather tragic was happening: I didn't really know how to READ anymore. How to sit down with a hard copy of a book of any kind and get lost in it.

And there were so many things I was missing because of it: the joy of staying up half the night because you just have to read "one more chapter." The smell and feel and solidness of a book in your hands. The fun of getting lost in a story, or, in the case of non-fiction books, the fun of learning 100 things you didn't know before.

Here's the thing: smart people read real stuff. Period. If you want to truly consider yourself an intelligent person, you need to read. If you're not a reader, your brain is probably begging you to become one. There's a wealth of knowledge you choose to forgo if you don't read, and that in itself is very sad. Also, if you fancy yourself a writer but don't read, you have NO raw material to work with. The more I read, the more I can experiment with imitating and mixing the writing styles of different authors I like. And the wider variety of books you read, the more you can take in the practical wisdom of a whole lot of people who have had life experiences you haven't had and be able to learn from them.

This past week, I got mad at myself about the whole "I don't really read anymore" situation. Ever since I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do was to sit down with a book and read to my heart's content, and I've all but lost the ability to focus long enough to do that. I believe that these are real structural changes that occur in the brain because of too much easy access to sound bites of information on the Internet--we lose the ability to focus on anything hard for a long period of time. And I'm determined to change all that. After I got done with class every day this past week, I read for about an hour before getting started on the rest of my work, and then some more before I went to bed. And it was SO satisfying, and was making me crave reading again. So I now have a whole stack of books from the public library to plow through over the next few weeks. And I'm getting more books put on hold for me to pick up later. The more you read, the more you want to read, and the more quickly you can undo the damage caused by months or years of not being a reader.

And I've decided to stop making my other classic excuse: I don't have time. Granted, some days I simply don't have time on that particular day for any non-school-related reading. But I can tell you that there's never a whole week that goes by in which I can't carve out some quality time for reading. You have time for more than you think. In the past three days, I've "had time" to do a ton of writing, to go to a music festival, to go out for dinner with a friend, to watch a lot of Netflix, to go to church, to take a long Sunday afternoon nap, and you get the idea. You do have time, you just have to find it. Or make it.

And it doesn't just have to be an actual book in your hands. Kindle works, if that's your thing. Audio books work. Whatever gets you absorbing material more substantive than Facebook and your favorite blog. Along those lines, I want to start listening to more substantive material too--like listening to sermons from my favorite pastors or TED talks when I go to the gym (pending my purchase of a real phone that has Internet access, something that, along with cable/ Instagram/ Twitter/ etc., I've never actually had).

So anyway, this is my plea to the average person: read more books!

Blog Fitness Challenge

First, a confession: I've been trying to get in shape for pretty much FOREVER. The thing is, I haven't really been trying all that hard--which is probably why I haven't succeeded yet. And tonight at the gym, I just got tired of it, and I decided it is time to do something about it.

I want to be able to go for long runs without having to stop and catch my breath soon after I begin. I want to be able to do half-marathons, play sports, do strength training, etc., without being held back anymore by my overall lack of physical fitness. I want to go to my high-intensity training class (which is like boot camp) and do every single exercise without an issue. And perhaps most of all, I want to actually get into a truly consistent and challenging exercise routine, and I want to do it now--because I don't want to realize a few years down the road that I've turned into a totally sedentary adult, because at that point it may almost be too late to change my habits. Looking further down the road, I want to be that 85-year-old that still plays tennis and still goes to the gym every morning (well, that may be kind of hard since I don't actually play tennis now, but you know what I mean: I want to be active and healthy no matter what age I am.) And I also know that physical fitness is probably the biggest factor--I really think even more so than diet and nutrition--in preventing conditions like heart disease and diabetes (and these conditions are much more likely to affect sedentary people whether they are at a healthy weight or not).

But the problem is that I always push exercise and caring for myself to the bottom of my priority list when life gets busy. You can always be too busy to work out if you want to be! And really, the busier I am, the more I need to exercise, because it is such a good stress-reliever for me.

That said, the challenge: I want to be more accountable about health, fitness, and my efforts to get in shape, especially in terms of stamina and endurance. One of the biggest specific goals I have in that area is to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes me to run one mile (last I checked, the best I can do is a slightly embarrassing more than 10 minutes. That's not anywhere near half-marathon-ready, and I really want to improve). So, I am planning to start running, and exercising in general, a whole lot more. I'm expecting that the more active I become, the more time I can shave off that run.

And for the accountability part? Every week, I'm going to time myself running a mile on the treadmill or the track. And every Friday, starting this one, I'm going to post my time on the blog. Having it out there for the world to see will hopefully motivate me a lot to make it the best I can do! So check back on Fridays and we'll see how I'm doing. :)

10 Ways to Improve Your Life Right Now

My sister and I are always looking for ways to meet our goals and make our daily lives better, more efficient, and more fulfilling. But sometimes I don't want to take weeks or months to make life improvements or see changes happen. So here are some easy (and cheap) things I do when I want to immediately make my life better/ get more motivated, without having to wait 6 months or a year for the next big "life goal" to come to fruition.

1. Go do the hardest workout you can handle. You'll feel energized and motivated for hours afterward.

2. Text a couple of friends you haven't seen in awhile and make plans to get together with them for lunch, coffee, or just hanging out. Just looking forward to some quality friend time makes any day better.

3. Do something, watch something, read something, or spend time with someone that makes you laugh.

4. Pray. Count your blessings.

5. Go to the library. Get at least one of the books that everyone you know is talking about, and for the next week, instead of watching TV or wasting time online, read it.

6. Clean, scrub, and scour everything in your house or apartment. File all your papers, take extra stuff to Goodwill, clean out the pantry, scrub the floors, do all your laundry, etc. While you're at it, clean out your vehicle too, especially if it tends to become your second home like mine does. When you're done, light some candles, turn on some relaxing music, and enjoy being in a clean, uncluttered environment.

7. This one's more for the ladies, but: give yourself a manicure, a pedicure, or a facial.

8.  Spend awhile writing reflections in a journal.

9. Do just one of the nagging tasks you've been putting off for far too long.

10. Take a couple hours off and go see a movie. Go to a museum. Take yourself out to lunch. Sometimes life gets so crazy and busy that we forget how to enjoy a little time alone.

Agendas

I'm realizing that it's the time of year when I don't just need a to-do list; I need an agenda. As in an hour-by-hour, do-this-at-this-particular-time agenda. We have the whole week of Thanksgiving off for break, and since I don't have classes on Friday, theoretically I could leave to go home and visit the family as early as Nov. 15th, the Thursday before. But I also have my brief and my case note due--both in hard copy--over the break (thank you, law school). So I have to have those things done and done well before I leave--I'm not going to rush through them just to jump-start my break, although that is definitely a temptation!

So anyway, here's my agenda for tomorrow:

• 7:30am: Get to school and print out all the sources I've used for my case note so I can check the hard copies to make sure all of my citations are accurate. Start checking citations.
• 8:30: Evidence class.
• 9:30: Work on case note.
• 10:50: Bioethics & law seminar.
• 11:50: Turn in timesheets for this pay period, have lunch, make Mexican cornbread for the evening's potluck, run a couple errands
• 2:20: Legal writing class.
• 3:30-5: Work study in the admissions office.
• 5-6: Go to the gym (I've realized that if I don't go before it gets dark, I don't go at all).
• 6:30: Christian Legal Society potluck dinner & socializing
• 9ish: Do a little cleaning, get ready for my interview Friday, and go to bed!

Top 10 Most Inspiring Quotes Ever

1) "God's voice speaks deeper than what hurts, brighter than what is dark, more enduring than what is lost, truer than what happened. "- Dave Powlison

2) "Yesterday's a fading sunset, tomorrow's a faint sunrise. Only today is there light enough to love and live. So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, swim more rivers, climb more mountains, count more stars. Laugh more and cry less. Go barefoot more often. Eat more ice cream. Ride more merry-go-rounds. Watch more sunsets. Life must be lived as we go along." -Robert J. Hastings

3) "Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible."

4) "My dear Jesus, my Savior, is so deeply written in my heart, that I feel confident that if my heart were to be cut in pieces, the name of Jesus would be found written on every piece." -Ignatius of Antioch

5) "The world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong in the broken places." -Ernest Hemingway

6) "Not even waste is inviolate. The day misspent, the love misplaced, has inside it the seed of redemption. Nothing is exempt from resurrection." -Kay Ryan

7) "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." -Alfred, Lord Tennyson

8) "Love God and do as you please." -St. Augustine

9) "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford

10) "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

These are all on my "life list" of quotes for when I needed some motivation and challenge . . . do any of these resonate with you? Do you all have favorite quotes to add?

What's Really Important to You

Today I read a pithy yet inspiring little quote: "Actions speak louder than goals." Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I am all about having a number of clear, written, specific goals. In fact, right now as I look through the files on my laptop, I see a life goals list, a summer 2012 goals list, a fall 2012 academic goals list, and a 2012 year goals list. That's a lot of goals. But as this quote reminded me, goals are completely useless if they aren't backed by action. You can make goals all you want to, but they don't amount to much if you never DO anything to make them happen. A goal without action is shallow idealism. I know some people (and I probably do this sometimes too) who talk all the time about goals they want to accomplish, but I never see them taking any concrete steps to bring their goals to fruition.

And then there are the excuses--I know you've probably used them a time or two, because we all have! "I'm too tired. I'm too busy. It's too hard." But the thing is, you WILL find the time, energy, and means to do the things that are truly important to you. In fact, if you want to know what's really important to you, don't bother pulling up your goals list. Just take a look at how you spend most of your time, what you think about the most, what keeps you up at night and wakes you up early in the morning, what you talk about and write about and ponder. Whatever it is, for good or bad, that's what's important to you. This can be kind of a sobering exercise--there are definitely days when the things I spent the most time and energy on were decidedly NOT what I want to consider important in my life. (Trust me, I would never want to say, "Oh yeah, today my life priorities were updating my Facebook status and reading Seventeen magazines.") But it's a good reality check as to what's really a priority.

So in sum: a goal is a good thing. It's definitely a start. But by itself, it's just not enough. Sometimes, one decisive action is worth ten goals.

If you want to accomplish something, you will make a way. If not, you will make an excuse.

Motivation

At the moment, I am trying to juggle preparing for a closing argument competition, writing an article for my school's news website which is due next week, doing my reading and outlining for all my classes, doing a big legal research and writing assignment on the Americans with Disabilities Act, looking for a summer job and submitting lots of applications, preparing for a legal research exam, attending a bunch of meetings and career workshops, and trying to still maintain a social life and have some time for myself. Like to sleep. Or do pleasure reading. Or go to the gym. Next week, to add to the fun, the spring Moot Court competition for 1L's will start (not the competition itself, but signups begin and I'll think we'll be receiving the problem then).

It is a very busy time of year, and there's always so much to do and a plethora of things to keep track of. People often say that when they are busiest, they find that they actually do better in school, in keeping up with friends, etc. This may seem counterintuitive, but I have a theory that I think explains it, at least for me. I feel like if I drop the ball in one area, it then becomes really easy to kind of give up and start being lazy and slacking off on everything. But, the reverse is also true: if I am really keeping up with my responsibilities in one area of my life, that tends to spill over into every other area of my life. It's kind of like the observation that when you have it together in something, you tend to kind of have it together in everything. I call this theory the "anti-compartmentalization of motivation," which really makes it sound more complicated than it is. The idea is that you can't compartmentalize motivation. It's very hard to get incredibly motivated in one area of your life without finding that motivation spilling over into a lot of other areas of your life. Have you ever wondered why, for example, going to the gym very consistently makes you want to also get all your school responsibilities under control too? It's because that motivation from having one area of your life--exercise and taking care of yourself--under control makes you want to take responsibility for other areas of your life too.

I try to take advantage of this theory during incredibly busy times like right now. By necessity, I've had to be incredibly motivated to prepare for the closing argument competition, because we just got the problem and the information on Monday and we have one week to prepare and basically memorize 10-minute arguments for both sides. There has been no time to waste, so every day this week I've been going to the library after class and preparing for that competition. That in turn has made me be really motivated to get on top of my classes, and so forth, so in spite of the busyness of this week, I've actually been meeting deadlines better and feeling more on top of things than I have in awhile. Maybe I need more crazy-busy weeks to help me get things done!

And now I need to stop blogging for the moment . . . and go read contracts . . . and meet with my career counselor to go over my resume . . . etc.!