Ever have kind of an "Aha!" moment?

I think I had mine yesterday and today. Mom was watching a show on TV about the Amish, in which the younger ones want to leave their community and drive a car, have electricity, and so on. They do challenging labor all day and use dated equipment, such as push mowers to mow their lawns.

Well, this got me thinking about my life. No, I'm not saying I want to be Amish, but my "Aha!" moment is that I'm just not challenged enough.

I used to say that my life was hard. Especially in school when I struggled and barely passed my classes. Well right now, I've got a remarkably easy, laid-back lifestyle. I'm trying to find a job, and hopefully I'll hear from the person in Fort Lauderdale who may hire me for Terracon. But right now, what do I do? I do a few chores, maybe go off and run an errand, and then spend the rest of my day playing Skyrim and messing around on the computer.

And you know, I really hate this, because quite simply I'm addicted to technology and convenience. I was watching Dr. Phil the other day and the episode was titled "the demise of guys". At first I thought it was kind of a sexist episode, but when I watched it, there was one part that really made sense. They were talking about a 23 year old kid who spends somewhere around 40 hours a week playing Call of Duty on his Xbox. There was a doctor/psychologist who said that this is an addiction because it's an escape from the real world. In video games, you control what's going on, your life is exciting, there's something happening every minute.

That really clicked for me, because I've been playing Skyrim so much lately, and have been slacking off while I wait for this e-mail about my job.

Well today I had to mail a package for Mom. I told her I'd go exercise today (there's a church I go to that has a recreation center where I either walk an indoor track or shoot hoops on the basketball court). I haven't been there since the trip to Winder, and today, I tried to talk myself out of going and just coming home after mailing the package, playing Skyrim or whatever.

I had to tell myself "No, you said you wanted to challenge yourself, so go exercise." And I did, I went and shot basketballs for about 20 minutes, and then came home and did a 20 minute Tae Bo DVD workout.

So my goal at this moment, while I'm waiting for this e-mail, is to get off the laptop and xbox and challenge myself every day to do something positive. Those days I sit around and do nothing, I feel incredibly guilty with myself, whereas days like today where I got some things done and haven't really touched the xbox, I feel great.