{"id":15517,"date":"2011-12-29T07:46:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T14:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=15517"},"modified":"2011-12-29T07:46:07","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T14:46:07","slug":"at-freetheanimal-com-master-something-difficult-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15517\/at-freetheanimal-com-master-something-difficult-in-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"At FreeTheAnimal.com: Master something difficult in 2012."},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend Richard Nikoley runs a popular paleo-living weblog called FreeTheAnimal.com<\/a>. In anticipation of New Year’s Day and all its resolutions, I have a guest post up there on how to make 2012 a game-changing year in your life:<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Tis the season for New Year’s Resolutions, and that’s a good thing. Join that book club. Remodel that kitchen. Lose that unwanted weight. But you can make this a landmark year of your life with just one resolution:<\/p>\n

Resolve to master something difficult in 2012.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no shame in knowing how to say, “¿Dónde está el baño?,”<\/em> but you are fluent in a foreign language when you can read and admire its poetry, when you get the jokes, when you can twist that language into clever witticisms. That’s mastery.<\/p>\n

We are victims of Art Appreciation and Film Studies classes, glib-and-lazy time-wasters in which we learned nothing but how to pretend to know something. But there is no class called Geometry Appreciation. In the maths, you can either do the work or you can’t. This year you can pick up where you left off in math and push yourself as far as you can go.<\/p>\n

And tell the truth: Every time you see a musician performing — popular music or classical — don’t you wish you could do that, too? The good news is, you can. All it takes is commitment and effort — and time.<\/p>\n

Mastering a demanding new skill will take a while. The desire for instant results is how all New Year’s Resolutions get abandoned. But to learn a serious discipline will require your time every day — an hour or more a day of serious, dedicated effort. I like the idea of working every<\/em> day, since, if you take no breaks from the work, you won’t have to resist the temptation to extend a break by one day and then another and another.<\/p>\n

But the benefits to be realized are huge — far beyond anything you might be expecting. In Art Appreciation class, everyone participates in the group discussions, there are no right or wrong answers and the class is graded on the curve. That Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Richard Nikoley runs a popular paleo-living weblog called FreeTheAnimal.com. In anticipation of New Year’s Day and all its resolutions, I have a guest post up there on how to make 2012 a game-changing year in your life: ‘Tis the season for New Year’s Resolutions, and that’s a good thing. Join that book club. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-flourishing","7":"category-group-therapy","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16409,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16409\/want-to-be-a-better-more-perfect-version-of-yourself-master-something-difficult-this-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":15517,"position":0},"title":"Want to be a better, more-perfect version of yourself? Master something difficult this year.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"You weren\u2019t just cheated of an education when you were young, you were cheated out of the full awareness of your own humanity.Mait J\u00fcriado \/ Foter.com \/ CC BY-NC-SAI always love to read about the outrageously nefarious bad guys who are doing all the things we hate. Doesn't matter who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10738,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10738\/making-new-years-resolutions-is-easy-its-keeping-them-thats-hard-how-people-are-getting-year-round-results-from-their-year-end-goals\/","url_meta":{"origin":15517,"position":1},"title":"Making New Year’s resolutions is easy. It’s keeping them that’s hard. How people are getting year ’round results from their year-end goals.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From The Wall Street Journal comes more than resolutions. More, even, than sheer resolve. A set of specific tactics and techniques to fulfill your New Year's resolutions enduringly.It is no secret that the odds against keeping a New Year's resolution are steep. Only about 19% of people who make them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":828,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/828\/my-3-blogging-resolutions-for-2007-bloodhound-blog-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":15517,"position":2},"title":"My 3 Blogging Resolutions for 2007 (Bloodhound Blog Edition)","author":"Dan Green","date":"December 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I am not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions for a lot of reasons. Mostly, it's because when I identify a part of my life that I want to change, I don't wait until January 1 to change it. I do it right away. So, it's December 31. Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6395,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6395\/happy-new-ah-to-hell-with-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":15517,"position":3},"title":"Happy New… ah, to hell with it.","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"January 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Please, allow me to be the very first to wish you a Happy New Year!\u00a0 What's that?\u00a0 Not the first huh; the second?\u00a0 The tenth?\u00a0 Well just forget it then.\u00a0 Truth be told \"Happy New Year\" is kind of silly isn't it?\u00a0 I mean, it's just an imaginary line drawn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":830,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/830\/real-estate-resolutions-cough-less-earn-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":15517,"position":4},"title":"Real estate resolutions: Cough less, earn more . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When I get sick, I get really sick. I've had full-blown pneumonia twice in recent years. I have always been able to blast through illness, but, sometime after my arms got too short to read without glasses, that privilege was revoked. In consequence, when I get a respiratory infection now,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10754,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10754\/and-theres-a-hand-my-trusty-friend-and-give-us-a-hand-o-thine-and-well-take-a-right-good-will-draught-for-auld-lang-syne\/","url_meta":{"origin":15517,"position":5},"title":"And there’s a hand my trusty friend ! And give us a hand o’ thine ! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.","author":"Teri Lussier","date":"December 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"2009 beat me up. Oh sure, I've been beat up in other years, but this is different because I'm not able to look back and say, \"Well, thank god that's over,\" and move on, because it's not over. The body blows that 2009 delivered are coming along with us into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15518,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15517\/revisions\/15518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}