30 Days To A Better Man, Day 6 - Update Your Resume

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 6 - Update Your Resume

     This is both timely (considering my plans to look for new opportunities) and long overdue (hasn't really been updated since I applied for the job I have now about 3 years ago) . . .

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 5 - Cultivate Your Gratitude

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 5 - Cultivate Your Gratitude

     For this day of the challenge, I started a new Gratitude Journal as part of my regular journal. That should make it easier to keep up every day . . .

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 4 - Increase Your Testosterone

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 4 - Increase Your Testosterone

Choose three from this checklist (I am doing 4):

1. Get at least 8 hours of sleep tonight
2. Do not smoke at all today (if you don't normally smoke, this one cannot count as one of your 3!)
3. Do not eat anything with soy in it (read labels!)
4. Meditate for at least 10 minutes
6. Eat a serving of good fat (e.g. nuts, olives, olive oil, seeds, fish, avacadoes, etc.)
7. Eat a serving of animal protein
8. Eat a serving of cruciferous vegetables (e.g. broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, cabbage, brussels spouts, etc.) - not gonna happen
9. Have morning sex (if your partner is willing)

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 3 - Find A Mentor

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 3 0 Find A Mentor

     I cannot write much about this right now, but I shall be seeking mentorship in my current profession from a colleague for the remainder of the school year, and mentorship from certain associates about possible future career decisions for after this school year. This is not an easy thing for me to do.

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 2 - Shine Your Shoes

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 2 - Shine Your Shoes

     I'll do this task tonight when I get home - it'll be late (church Small Group Ministry meeting after work), but it'll be worth it for the exercise in good discipline alone, if not for the shinier shoes. I think I'll expand the task to include sorting my wardrobe a bit and getting rid of what needs to be discarded over the course of the month.

30 Days To A Better Man, Day 1 - Define Your Core Values

30 Days to a Better Man, Day 1 - Define Your Core Values

     March seems to be my month for this - attempting the "30 Days to a Better Man" challenge from The Art of Manliness. My life is challenging enough at the moment, but as the Roman New Year begins on March 1st, and it is near the beginning of spring and thus is a time symbolic of renewal, I feel the need to undertake the challenge yet again.

     The first task - day 1 - is to "define your core values." I have done this many times, and while I sometimes shift around my priorities within these core values, the values themselves remain the same. Some of them lack a single English word that encompasses all that I mean to say, so I have some that are split, like #3 Reason/Education.

      As my family and I stand at a crossroads right now, and we are struggling to define what our future should look like, and what Tanya and I want to do with the next phase of our lives, my values stand at the forefront of my decisions.

Here is the prioritized list:
1. Integrity - Without my personal sense of honor and integrity, any other values would be meaningless. Integrity must come first!
2. Family - Besides my sense of integrity, my family is the most important thing to me (what good would I be to my family without my integrity?). I have found that honoring the family is a delicate balancing act at times - like spending time away from one's family in order to support one's family. But my family - my wife Tanya, and my sons Andrew and Eli - are the core of my life.
3. Reason/Education - The life of the mind is of extremely high importance to me, and I honor with this value both the faculty of reason and the acquisition of material for reason to process (through education and learning). Right now I am considering an attempt to go back to school because this is something that has not been a formal part of my life for almost 15 years. I feel a powerful call to return to the hallowed halls of academia . . .
4. Philosophy/Spirituality - Nearly on par with reason and education is the care of the soul - I actually consider both to be different aspects of the same phenomenon, but there really is no way to express this properly in English. I have pursued philosophy (particularly Stoicism) over spirituality and religion for a long time because my profession as teacher has demanded neutrality from me in such matters. My religious beliefs (a form of the cultus deorum Romanorum) and valued spiritual teachings (such as those found in Unitarian Universalism) are of vital importance to me, and yet I have allowed them to be placed to one side for the purposes of my career, which I have come to feel is a mistake. I have always felt called to the clergy, and I am now considering the possibilities of seminary. These are the things that provide the human soul with its nourishment and comfort.
5. Discipline - A value on which I have always prided myself, and yet which has always been of uneven temper in my soul. I list this as the last core value in part because it is the one I feel needs the most work.

From "The Chancellor" by Reinhold Heidenstein (1553-1620), official Chistorian of the Polish King Stephen Bathory

     A quote from Reinhold Heidenstein (1553-1620), the official historian of the Polish King Stephen Bathory, in his essay Cancellarius sive de dignitate et officio cancellarii regni Poloniae ("The Chancellor; or concerning the dignity and duty of the chancellor of the king of Poland"):

     "Latina lingua tamquam communis omnium gentium Christianarum publico quasi consensu recepta fere ab omnibus est. Repertos tamen aliquando quosdam memini, qui sua etiam lingua ad reges nostros scriberent vicissimque agitatum ut nostra quoque sclavonica eis responderetur, ut cum illi dignitatis gravitatisque suae nimis retinentes viderentur, nos nostrae non omnino etiam neglegentes videremur. Sed maioris partis principum populorumque Christianorum, ut aliis in rebus, ita in hac quoque fortassis consensus spectandus Latinaque orationem utendum."

     "The Latin languages has been accepted by almost everyone as though by public consent as the common tongue of all the Christian peoples. I recall that at times there have been some who wrote to our kings even in their own language and that it was in turn proposed that they seemed too conscious of their own position and importance, we should not seem altogether negligent of our own. But in this, as in other matters, one should look to the agreement of the majority of the Christian rulers and peoples and use Latin."

How quickly things changed, and for the worse!