Better Than My Best

I accomplished a great deal today, both at work at and at home. I feel good and productive and relieved. At work, I finally did something I’ve been thinking about doing since the beginning of my time there: I cleaned up the Group Policy manager. For those who don’t know what that is, let me explain. In Windows Server, there’s something called a Group Policy manager, and what this does is manage all the policies that are applied to all of our computers in our domain. This can be as generic as defining how users log on to computers to the specifics of which icon appears on certain computer desktops. The more polices the computer has to process, the slower the startup time becomes. I was able to combine about 10 policies for just printers into one simple policy, and about the same for icons. I think I did this better than what was there, and I’m really happy about it.

The other thing I did today was break down my daily routine in my calendar. It was enlightening and gratifying. I’ve almost blocked out every minute of every day except for about 30 minutes in the evening. It’s kind of insane. I watch about 3 hour-long episodes of television a day, and that’s where I think I can start cutting back on a daily basis. I think from 3 to 2 a day will be a nice start. I think if I have more direction when it comes to my free time I’ll be more productive overall. I really never took advantage of those 30 minutes in the evening because I didn’t know what to do. Maybe now I can optimize my days a little bit. Kinda anal, but I’m okay with it.

I’m almost 40% through this self-imposed journey, and I don’t know how much I’ve actually done. Looking back, I guess I’ve done a lot, especially since before I basically did nothing, so the contrast there is pretty stark. I mean, I’m in the best shape of my life, I found and kept the best job of my life, I drove to freaking California and back with all my stuff and a bunch of furniture from IKEA. That last one is still kind of unbelievable to me. I’m also trying every day to be better, and that’s something I’m proud of, even if I don’t live up to my expectations. Maybe I’m hard on myself because I know I can be better. I know I can push myself harder, and I know I can succeed. It’s just a matter of actually doing it. Yes it’s hard, but that’s the point, right?

I’ll be done with Week 3 of Insanity Max: 30 tomorrow, and simply hearing Shaun T every day telling me to keep pushing is something I’ve grown to need. If I can’t do one more rep, I do three. I don’t give up, I don’t stop, I keep moving, and I keep doing better than my best. That’s the only way to live.

Lets do this.