I've been receiving Alana's emails and attempting to do the things she suggests. Thus far she really hasn't asked me to do much of anything that I haven't already been doing.

In yesterday's email she suggested that I should write up a list of all the people I admire in life, they can be anyone, family, friends, or famous people in history, etc.

I must confess, that this particular assignment caused me pause to think a bit. Normally, when asked who I admire in life, I often give a list of scientists. However, when I stop to think about it, it's not the actual individuals I admire, but rather the work they have done. In short, I admire intellectual curiousity and pursuits, as well as constructive and productive actions. I also admire creativity and artistic genius, which many people may not associate with scientists, but from my point of view scientists are extremely creative and artistic in their theories and mathematical explorations.

Today, Alana sent an email asking me to focus in on precisely what qualities these people have and to recognize these qualities in myself. Well, I had already beat her to the punch on recognizing the qualities, but there is something to be said for recognizing how much I focus on these particular qualities in myself. I believe that I clearly have many of these qualities, with the exception of perhaps using them productively.

I was also trying to think of people in my life that I admire who are not famous. Ironically, when I look around at people I actually know in person I can't think of too many that I actually admire. This is because most people I know in person dosn't seem to be very constructive in positive ways.

Then I thought about people on the Internet that I know and I began to realize that I actually know quite a few people on the Internet that I admire. And for similar reasons that I admire famous scientists (i.e. They are creative, intelligent, and productive)

Jeanniebean certainly comes to mind. She is a very creative, intelligent, and productive person in very positive ways. Plus she has a good sense of how to pick out a great-looking hat. That's something I need to work on myself.

So anyway, I can honestly say that Alana's recent emails of the last two days have indeed starting me thinking about my own creativity and productivity. Although, in truth, I have been quite creative and productive in the past couple months particularly. I just haven't been focusing on this with total awareness, exactly.

Still I think I was on this particular path even without Alana's suggestions. But I must confess, that her recent emails have helped me to focus on this particular issue a little more intensely. There are many things that I would like to accomplish in this life, and I am working toward those goals. But I confess that I often don't have the stamina to actually stick with things until they are done. Perhaps that's truly the single trait that I admire most in all my 'heroes' in life.

So if I want to admire myself to the same degree then I need to start becoming more productive.

And maybe buy a new hat.

That's it! I AM JEALOUS * * *