On my fancy Treo 700 I have a little plugin that shows my daily todo list and calendar entries below my programs. I have to do this because otherwise I never really notice the things I write there, and thus don’t do them. I use the todo list a lot, but the calendar is basically empty.
Today I looked down and saw something unusual. “Are you totally ripped? Bet.”
No, I’m not.
Flash back a year ago. Hayden and I are sitting at Magnolia. I’ve been eating healthy, ending the 24 year reign on my body which white flour and sugar had enjoyed. I no longer order the “Ty Special” at Magnolia because it’s not healthy (ask for it). I’ve been working out. I don’t have a girlfriend.
Hayden and I have an illustrious history of large bets to motivate each other. I’ll save those stories for another day. I offer to bet him that within a year I’ll be the most ripped person he knows. He wants to bet because I lost the last bet, but knows better. I want him to bet because then I know I’ll do it.
I offer to make it totally subjective. If he thinks I’m the most ripped person, I win. If not, he wins. New friends don’t count.
We finally agree to make a gentleman’s bet and I put it in my Treo.
Now, a year later I look at it. I’ve failed. Although my body fat hovers around 8-9%, my weight is under 140 pounds. I’m not jacked at all – I’m skinny. I worked out religiously for several months and was over 150 pounds at one point, still with 9% body fat. People noticed that I was more muscular. Then I went polyphasic and raw and stopped working out. I haven’t picked it back up in all that time – it’s a lot easier to keep working out than it is to start again.
I IM Hayden to tell him about the bet. He’ll be amused that it wasn’t totally forgotten.
“Wow. Time flies.” he says.
It does fly. But it’s packed. I think back over the past twelve months, and a lot has happened. I quit gambling, I went polyphasic, I went back to normal, I went raw, I went back, I kept eating healthy, I got my first “real” job, I made some cool songs, I got a new place, My parents are getting divorced, I got some pet fish that I really love, I started this site, I started Tynan’s Angels, I bought my trademark sequin hat, I made a bunch of new friends, I got rid of Windows and moved to Linux, and I rapped on stage for the first time. That’s a lot of stuff. Most days seem to be pretty calm, but arching over them are huge changes in my life.
It’s exciting. I love change. Honestly, I’m probably addicted to it.
When I first got into the pickup artist thing I went to a seminar in Chicago. I didn’t know anyone there, so I was set up with a roommate. His name was Brian, known as LittleBigDick in the community. “LBD” if you’re around children or old people. I remember as we ate sloppy joes in the airport before leaving he told me about something he does. Every year he writes down what he accomplished that year. I told him I liked the idea and that I’d do it too.
And now, years later, I’ve finally done it. Those aren’t all the things I’ve done, of course, but they’re all little milestones in my life. Little occurances and coincidences that happen on a daily basis that snowball into changes that shape who I am.
All this leads up to a question – what will happen in the next 12 months? I can think of a few things – I’ll move into my new place, I’ll get rid of my computers, I’ll start working out again once I move, etc. Those are definite. I’ll probably (finally) make my first million, Tynan’s Angels will become huge, as will another project or two I’m working on, maybe I’ll get another girlfriend, maybe I’ll go to Africa, and surely I’ll learn some new skills. But that leaves a lot of blanks. What’s amazing to me is that I would have NEVER predicted or even conceived of half of the things on my list (raw, polyphasic, angels, job, gambling). And now as I think of what might happen, there are things I’ll write about in 12 months that I never could have imagined happening.
I wonder what they’ll be.
Leave a Reply