My accomplishments come with an asterisk

Here’s a list of some recent personal accomplishments:

• I stopped drinking alcohol, not that I drank often, but I haven’t felt the need or desire.

• I’ve been going to the gym consistently for several weeks and feel like myself again physically.

• Because I’ve learned how important good storytelling is, I’ve stumbled across some amazing storytellers who inspire me daily.

• I decided that instead of picking up my phone or tablet in the morning, I would pick up my laptop and write something.

• I turned almost all of my creative energy toward The Hungry to make it the best service it can become.

• I am also adding services to the menu on The Hungry this week because it’s long overdue.

• I posted my first YouTube video in 3 months.

Now, the other truth:

• I stopped drinking, and I’m working out more because I was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. I’m not ready to give up on my life, so I’m doing all I can to improve.

• As part of my exercise plan, I took this past week off from the gym to recover. I had the worst week, mentally and emotionally, because endorphins are just as powerful of a drug as alcohol.

• I replaced the endorphins with dopamine from spending too much time on my devices and playing video games.

• I haven’t been inspired to make art even a little. I'm almost repulsed by it when I see it in my Instagram feed, and I don’t know why.

• The Hungry is not earning or growing as I hoped; frankly, I’m not making enough money. I’m adding services to help others and get more cash flow into the business.

• I downgraded my Beehiiv account because I haven’t focused on it enough, and it’s not generating any revenue. Instead, I’ll focus on sharing personal content here more often.

Often the negative inspires the positive, and instead of dwelling on the shit that happens, I’m trying to make fertilizer out of the problems and grow something good from it.

If you’re a Hungry reader, maybe you’ve seen me sharing about Blake of Today. He’s a brilliant storyteller who shares snippets from daily life with a voice-over of a nostalgic idea or musing about fatherhood.

I want to be more like Blake, not necessarily telling stories like him but using language as art, and the only way I know to get better at this is to do it more often.

If Malcolm Gladwell is correct, it takes 10,000 hours to become a master. I roughly estimate that I’m somewhere around 3,000 hours invested including the 30 minutes it took to finish this post.