Goals for 50: No Wasted Days

One of my goals for my next trip around the Sun is to make the most of every day. I’m getting older so my days are getting numbered so let’s not waste any. That being said, a relaxing day is not a wasted day; everyone needs time to recharge or just rest their head. But there’s a difference between relaxing and simply being inactive. I need to stop wasting hours scrolling on Instagram, aimlessly surfing the web, or staring at shows/movies that I’ve seen before. I’ve been inactive for way too much of this year and I really need to become more productive. I have a thousand projects that I’ve meant to do, dozens of scripts in various stages of development (and no, I’m not giving up on that dream just because I’m old now), and just basic hygene issues that I let slide. I seriously considered doing a morning post of “Today’s Underwear” just to keep me honest about changing my drawers every day.

Like with the 500 New Things challenge, the No Wasted Days goal is an old idea that I’ve failed at time and again. I think one year I called it The Year of Living Actually. But it’s a sound goal and one I shouldn’t abandon just because I too often surrender to my debilitating laziness.

Another goal that I need to make good on to help this one is locking in when I’m working. One of the issues with remote work in reality TV while being single and childless is that you can work whenever so there’s less pressure to really get things done on any given day. Obviously, there are deadlines but on a random day, I can say, “Well, why don’t I just take a break for 20 minutes” and that break will inevitably become an hour of doing nothing at all (again, being inactive rather than relaxing or being productive) and now suddenly I’m going to be up late or working on the weekend to finish up what I was supposed to be doing. I will say, after almost 30 years in reality TV, it is getting harder to focus on the inanity of the genre but it’s how I pay my bills and, to be honest, I have no other skills so it HAS to be the way I pay my bills - I literally can’t imagine what kind of job I’d pivot into if I needed to find a new income source - so I should recommit myself to being focused for the 8 - 10 hours of the workday.

On that note, I also have to remember to go outside every day. That might sounds sillier than the underwear one but my last show was a mess and combined with an addiction to MLB The Show, I probably averaged leaving my apartment only three days a week this year. It’s not healthy -physically or mentally.

OK. That’s enough for this morning. Off to take care of another goal - getting into a good workout routine. Right now, I’m just doing a very basic, simple workout to get back into the flow of things but this weekend I’m going to put together an actual* workout to follow.

* By actual, I mean something I threw together after looking at a variety of workout sites. It’s probably not a workout any actual health professional would recommend but I need to just get myself into passable shape before I attempt to make good on a real workout regimen. Baby steps!

One Last Try

OK, as I close out the final days of my 40s, I’m going to give the blog one last chance. And if I’m going to give the blog one more go, I might as well restart my favorite challenge 500 New Things! I started it this year but my last job really sucked the life out of me. The problem with working from home is that you can really get in a rut. Add in that i was dealing with East and West coast co-workers and I found myself working long hours; for the year, I’m probably averaging leaving my apartment 3 times a week. I can’t blame work entirely, my addiction to MLB The Show also ate up a lot of time. But I’ve kicked that habit and am ready to take back 2026!

One change to the New Things challenge is that I think I’m going to wipe my slate clean. Everything is new! Not only does this make it easier for me to get to 500 but I also think it will be fun to revisit old movies and, with so many restaurants/bars closing in LA, I will get to go back to some of my favorite haunts and help support them. So it’s more of a 500 Things challenge but that’s not as catchy as 500 New Things so I’ll keep the old name.

The 40s have been such a wasteland that I don’t think I’m going to do anything special for my birthday but I am going to try to go out for more dinners with people this year. That’s probably better than a party anywhere. I’m LA, you invite 50 people to party, 30 say they can make it, half of those people cancel the week or day of the party, and a few just don’t show up so you’re left with 10 people. And honestly, if 50 people did show up, you usually only really get a chance to spend quality time with 10 of them so it doesn’t really make a difference. In short, parties are for young folks.

My goal right now is to do some sort of diary-esque entry like this every morning and then I have a few other ideas for posts - compiling some of my favorite stories and retiring the stories that I’ve told too often over the last few decades. Maybe a weekly post about my favorite news stories of the year. We’ll eee how it goes. I’m keeping the bland, basic set-ip of the blog but hope to find some new tweaks as the year goes on.

I can’t imagine more than 10 people will read this but this go around is more about keeping me honest and challenging myself to show some follow through that I’ve lacked for, well, my entire life.