Here's what I said to myself at the beginning of January:

"It's time to get serious."

It's taken me a month but I am finally in that "serious-state-of-mind."

"Goals: Work on What Came Before everyday...Minimum 2 hours."

Didn't meet this goal, but I THOUGHT about this goal every day. And I wrote many of those days, some for longer than two hours. I kept in touch. I made significant progress, and I am now in that "serious-state-of-mind!"

Here's an analogy from my fabulous exercise buddy, Estelle. She wants me to do side plank lifts. I'm not sure if that's what she calls them, but she asks me to lie (lay?) on my side, feet and legs stacked. Using my arm that's on the floor as a lever, I'm to lift my body up from my feet, all my core muscles tightened, and without the aide of my other arm or hand. This creates a nice effect when it works, one of those long low triangles that look like doorstops.

This is hard to do (I know, Jim, you can probably whip off a hundred of these with your eyes closed), but they are very challenging to me. When Estelle tells me that's what's next, I moan and groan and remind her that we COULD be on our way to a nice fat-free lunch instead. But she persists. What she tells me is this, "Even if you cannot lift your body off the ground at all, think about lifting. Concentrate. Focus the muscles. See the muscles lifting you up." Here's the point. After practicing doing this for a while, making a little progress at a time, I CAN LIFT MY BODY FAIRLY HIGH NOW for TWELVE reps. On BOTH sides each.

I won't explain the analogy because, you know, you get it, right?