Prologue

Over the years, I’ve worked harder and harder to find meaning in life. But the more I've looked, the more I’ve wondered if I was going about my search the wrong way.

I've been looking for meaning through experience, but I think now that I've always had it backwards. Life will never be defined by extravagant experience, but about finding extravagance in common experience. So for 2009, I'm going to focus less on living large, and focus more on living well. Each month I'll start a new month-long project (like trying to run 3 miles faster than George Bush), to find uncommon results from common experience. Each project will involve daily activity, so every day of 2009 you can check my progress on the monthly projects and see what I discover.

None of these projects will cost much—in fact, I think most will be free. So if you're looking for a year uncommonly rich, you can join me. There's no membership required, just participate and comment if you want. Either way, get ready for a year I hope is unlike any other.

Epilogue

I stumbled across the finish line, but I manage to complete 8 of the month-long projects successfully. Blogging is now over at Wonderfam!

It's September, and September was a …

A Month of Accomplishment (about)

~ or ~

Forcing myself to finish something (about)

06
06

Progress is great, except when it illuminates how far you really are from the end

Written by Nathan on June 6, 2009 at 7:45 pm from Uncategorized.

In 6 days I’ve learned two things about serving. In hindsight both lessons were self-evident at all times, but that’s the thing with lessons – until you’ve learned them, no matter how simple they are you need them.

First, serving someone isn’t a set of actions, it’s an attitude. That’s much more difficult, because attitude adjustment require constant work and are tiring. A series of actions, no matter how many or even how difficult are going to be easier than re-calibrating my worldview in an instant.

Second, my wife is far better at serving me than I am at serving her. This too, was painfully self-evident before. But in just a week I’ve noticed more and more how from when I wake until when I rise, she’s looking out for me. I, on the other hand, too often start my day wondering if I can get 5 more minutes of sleep. If I can reform my (bad) habits even in the slightest bit this month, then I’ll be incredibly happy when this project is said and done. (Though I really hope it’s never fully done.)

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