Saafir

get an apartment and make it beautiful

Pathways

• Find an aparment
• Pay deposit
• Call them to talk about move-in day and paying first month
• Take clothes to cleaners
• Wash all my dirty clothes
• Call electric company and turn on power
• Clean room and car: organize stuff in preparation for move
• Get mail forwarded (this time, call all my creditors and my magazines and change my address)
• Ask about painting (?)
• Talk to Lisa or Jackie about the returned check, give them a money order for the proper amount
• Call Bro. Isa and get him to help me move on Friday morning
• Sketch out some concepts for designing the space
• Borrow a stack of Kim’s ReadyMade magazines
• Find some books and magazines at B&N and Half Price for design inspiration
• Put in my request to transfer to Fort Worth

• Paint four walls
• Buy fabric for drapes
• Finish staining rifle boxes
• Buy six more plants
• Have a housewarming party
• Open a bank account to pay rent, electricity, and water

Distant

Very Distant

Agency

Yay! I finally got an apartment. Good for me. Now, I just need to put my shit in order and move in. I can do it, as long as I have a plan and stick to it reasonably well. A great apartment is within my reach. I’m smart and creative, and my apartment will soon reflect both these traits. Many people who are less smart and creative have gotten and kept apartments before. I have gotten and kept apartments before now…it’s not rocket science. It’s up to me to get a nice one that’s up to my standards. A little diligence and work will be all it takes at this point.

make beautiful music: as infectious as Micheal Jackson with Quincy Jones, as elegiac as Eric Dolphy, as quirky and funky as Prince, as ebullient as Ella, as doggedly passionate as Coltrane;

Pathways

• Make a schedule every Thursday. Call Munir and report on progress from the previous week
• Send myself a reminder every couple of days from 43 Things. When I get it, make a note of how many days I’ve practiced in the previous two days
• Use my notes on strength when I write my plan
• Work up to twenty to thirty hours per week in October, November, and December
• Learn three Ray Charles Songs
• finish the first Hal Leonard Guitar Method book
• Call Kenny and set up my first show at the Inn at the end of November

• Continue a practice schedule of ten to fifteen hours a week when I’m in school
• Pay my teacher and renew my contract for lessons
• Write a quarterly plan. Revise every three months
• Finish the Set Your Voice Free program in the next six months: do the voice exercises almost every day, learn to mimic three to six artists that I love
• Build my repertoire to twenty songs
• Do my first show at the Inn: Saafir has the Blues

• found the Funk Muffins: a collective of funk, jazz, Afro-beat and soul musicians who throw very good parties (2 years)
• finish the entire Hal Leonard guitar method (1 year)
• collect 20,000 excellent songs (Jazz, Funk, Soul, Electronica, Avant-Garde, Folk, Blues, and Rock) (6 mo – 1 year)

• become a killer jazz guitarist and singer
• learn to play classical and Flamenco guitar
• learn to play the piano and the drums
• record a dozen albums
• make beautiful music: as infectious as Micheal Jackson with Quincy Jones, as elegiac as Eric Dolphy, as quirky and funky as Prince, as ebullient as Ella, as doggedly passionate as Coltrane!

Agency

I’m responsible for my future as a musician! I can choose to work diligently and passionately, or I can put in a half-assed effort. I can become an expert technician over the next twenty years, or I can settle for remaining an amateur my entire life. The path to expertise is too fun to leave to chance. I can’t allow my lack of conscientiousness to steal beautiful music from the world! All I have to do is set up systems that allow me to put in consistent effort. A lot of ass-power, and the rest is magic!

buy and read every title in “The New Lifetime Reading Plan” : Read dozens of major works of literature, poetry, and philosophy over the next forty years.

Pathways

• Read two chapters of the Bible
• Finish the Old Testament

• Update my list
• Read one book per month
• Build my reading list into my college education through undergraduate and graduate school

• read Plato, Shakespeare, Freud, Dickens, Aristotle, James Joyce, Karl Marx, Melville, Flaubert

• read the list again with my students
• read dozens of major works of literature, poetry, and philosophy over the next forty years.
• Fill my mind with the best ideas of the past two millenia. Become a well-read person.

Agency

My life is passing whether I’m reading the greats or not! Think of the intellectual excitement of grappling with these great works of art! No one is going to force me to do it, but I’ll surely regret it if I don’t.

dress better than Miles Davis, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, and Jimi Hendrix: wear clothes worthy of the Sartorialist

Pathways

• clean my closet in preparation to move
• Dry clean my jackets and pants
• Get Arletta to alter my pants and shirt
• Spend $100.00 at Rue 21
• Buy a pair of brown shoes
• Go to Half-Priced books and buy a half-dozen fashion magazines: comb through them for interesting looks
• Subscribe to GQ and Esquire magazine

• Create a “look-book” of fashion ideas
• Collect a few hundred photographs of my fashion icons, assemble them into a virtual gallery of looks, juxtapose my own fashion creations with the ones I discover
• Find like-minded creative people, and find inspiration in their creative ideas
• Spend some time every month in thrift shops and clothing stores. Go to (gag!)Northpark mall and check out the latest looks at Barney’s, Nordstrom, etc.
• Compile a list of shops and tailors in the area
• Buy a decent suit

• Buy four great suits ($3,000)
• Buy a dozen pairs of great shoes ($1,000)
• Buy a decent watch ($400-$1200)
• Learn about the history of men’s fashion

• develop an excellent wardrobe, worthy of the Sartorialist

Agency

I get up every morning and put clothes on. It’s up to me to be thoughtful about what clothes I wear. Building a decent wardrobe doesn’t require huge amounts of money or startling creativity, just a little thought and planning.

next goals to plan:

learn one topic well enough that I can teach it at the graduate level: get a Ph.D in cognitive neuroscience

do my happy hour every day for two weeks

learn how to give a woman orgasms

flourish

read the entire Bible

problems that are bothering me and solutions for them:

paying Cleo

Pathways

• Call him and get his account information
• Set a timer and do it.
• Set up either a bill pay with Bank of America, or with Paypal (paying as I go with a calendar reminder is probably the better strategy)
• Pay him a bit less than two-hundred every other paycheck…$50 or $100

Agency

It’s easier than it seems. It would make me feel a lot better about myself. It’s the right thing to do. It would take a half-hour maximum.

playing to my strengths at work

Pathways

• Write my “strong week” plan for this week and e-mail it to Nancy
• Print out my strength notes and put them in a folder
• Make a to-do list for each day, come in a half-hour early to write my list and do something from it (11:00 on Sunday to finish my plan)
• Come in an hour early each day and work on my strengths path until I’ve built up some momentum

Agency

I come to work, put in my six or eight hours, then leave anyway. I’d be a lot happier and more valuable to the company if I took my strengths path seriously. Nobody is going to do it for me. If I don’t take responsibility, it won’t happen. I’ll miss a fantastic opportunity to grow and flourish.

keeping from being overwhelmed by this exercise!

Pathways

• Remove the guilt…it’s MY exercise and it doesn’t do me any good if it makes me feel bad when I do it!
• Set my alarm twenty minutes early…do it first thing in the morning
• Use pen and paper if need be. It would remove one barrier from doing the exercise.
• Finish my twenty minutes with a list of pathways I can take today (three things that only take fifteen minutes to do.) Do them?

Agency

Bravo! You’ve done more days than you would have if you hadn’t of had this goal. That is something to celebrate. Keep this up and there’s no telling how much you’ll have accomplished this month!

getting back into school

Pathways

• do UTA application (30 minutes) ($50.00)
• file FAFSA (1 hour) on my next day off (Monday)
• schedule an adviser appointment with Psych and Biology
• Dive in!

Agency

I’m responsible for my education and my future. I should keep my Apple job, but I’ll have to limit it to fifteen hours per week. I should go gung ho in the next few months to prepare my shows, because I won’t have a lot of time when the school year starts to work on my music.

organizing my finances so that they don’t stress me out

enrolling in school, securing financial aid, finishing my undergraduate degree, and getting into a good grad program in cognitive nueroscience

finding a roommate

keeping my moods under control

losing fifteen pounds and gaining some muscle

fixing my credit

fixing my teeth

fixing my legal situation

The Questions

1. I can always manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough. 3
2. If someone opposes me, I can find the means and ways to get what I want. 3
3. It is easy for me to stick to my aims and accomplish my goals. 2
4. I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events. 3
5. Thanks to my resourcefulness, I know how to handle unforeseen situations. 3
6. I can solve most problems if I invest the necessary effort. 2
7. I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on my coping abilities. 2
8. When I am confronted with a problem, I can usually find several solutions. 3
9. If I am in trouble, I can usually think of a solution. 4
10. I can usually handle whatever comes my way. 2

1 = Not at all true 2 = Hardly true 3 = Moderately true 4 = Exactly true

Today’s Score

27/40

Pathways for Increasing Efficacy

1. Do a 1/2 hour pathways and agency exercise, every day for two weeks
   
   
2. Stick to my practice schedule today and tomorrow
   
   
3. Call three bill-related places. Do disputations if necessary.
   
   

Goals this Week

1. Practice for at least eighteen hours this week

2. Do one new Hal Leonard lesson

3. Do voice exercises for thirty minutes a day, three days this week

4. Add at least 10 albums to my collection.

5. Add at least 20 books to my reading list

6. Do the music flashcard game four out of seven days this week.

Practice Schedule

Thursday, October 8th
^{4:30am – 9:30am  done}

Planning and Other Work
Write a plan for this week’s practice. done ; write a list of strengths-based goals for consideration; done ; do Flashcard game for 20 minutes

Voice
do voice exercises; practice Ray Charles songs; practice “All of You”

Friday, October 9th
^{4:00pm until 9:00pm (one hour)  didn’t do (cancelled work)}

Voice
Do voice exercises for 30 minutes; bring filing case of songs to the Inn; try at least one new song; have Micheal record Hard Times at the correct tempo. Record all the songs I sing and listen to them.

Saturday, October 10th
^{7:00pm until 10:00pm  didn’t do, worked at Inn}

Planning and Other Work
Add 10 books to my book list; do flash card game for at least 10 minutes

Guitar
Practice C major scale in 1st and 2nd position and on single strings. Do position 1, no open strings fretting exercise. (30 min) Work on new lesson. (30 min)

Voice
Do voice exercises. Practice All of You (30 minutes)

Sunday, October 11th
^{day off  done, plus 30 min guitar}

Planning and other activities
Listen to my singing playlist; do 10 minutes of the Flash Card game

Monday, October 12th
^{11:00am until 4:00pm}

Guitar
Use a metronome! Practice strumming chord progressions from Yupo. (30 min) Do position 1, no open strings fretting exercise. (30 min) Practice C major scale (position 1, 2, and single string) (30 min). Practice playing chords and melody for Aura Lee, and Ode to Joy. (30 minutes) Read and play through 4 lessons (be sure to name notes as I play them.) (30 min) Practice playing and singing I Got A Woman (30 min).

Voice
Do One-Octave exercise and One-and-a-half-Octave exercise. (30 min) Listen to exercises in Vocal Techniques book (30 min) Practice Hard Times, Angel Eyes, All of You, and I’m Glad There is You. (30 min) Listen through Swingin’ Easy. Practice mimicking Vaughan’s vibrato. (30 min)

Tuesday, October 13th
^{11:00am until 3:00pm}

Wednesday, October 14th
^{day off}

Planning and other activities
Listen to my singing playlist; do 10 minutes of the Flash Card game