I had several business setbacks yesterday. One potential client told me to go pound sand, and another found a way to weasel themselves out of paying me a fairly significant commission. C’est la vie, as they say. Still hurts. But the point to telling you this is that although it really did get me down for most of the day, especially in the evening, I had no ambition to grab a beer, smoke a joint or down a bottle of wine. How interesting.

So there goes another day. This day, August 13th, 2008, day #18, is the same day everyone experienced on the planet. It’s like every person is a story, each being written so differently, on the same day. Our relationships are one person reading a page of another or helping to write it. Each day we edit, rewrite, read and hit return. Our stories. Our lives. We are so intertwined with each other, and yet, we can also be so disconnected. What’s really interesting is that one person’s experiences can help write another person’s story… for better or worse. As I move along my timeline, people who I have the absolute privilege of being close to affect my content dramatically. But also, so many I don’t know and will never meet nudge my thinking and contribute to my story… my tone… my story’s ending.

I like to think of all the people who have traveled these roads before me, as books, finished, bound in a beautiful hard cover, sitting in a grand library somewhere. Imagine that, if everyone’s story, all their great moments and tragedies, accomplishments and dreams, written down for everyone to read. I hate the thought that a farmer in Tibet in the year 1022 will never have his story told. Although insignificant our individual lives may be in the grand scheme of things, as a body of work, we are profound and powerful.

And so I offer to you, the reader, who I may never know, the hope that my journey has given you pause in some small way. My hope is that I have contributed to your story. Maybe a sentence. A comma. A nudge. And one day in the future, someone reads the words from that day and may be moved in some new direction. And the story continues.

Three more days on my journey to somewhere.

Day #19 coming up.

Carriage return.

It is interesting to me that as the days roll along I feel myself getting use to a very different routine.

Once upon a time (11 days ago) I had to have a glass of wine or two just to make the evening complete. To be clear having one or two isn’t a problem, but for me it often escalated, just for fun. It became a habit. So did the hangovers.

Now, although the urges are still there, the magnetism isn’t as strong.

Tonight is a good example.

I was thirsty. And in my refrigerator sits a lonely beer. Very cold. Available. No one would have known. I even thought that to myself, that no one has to know. I was actually considering, for a few seconds as I leaned over in the refrigerator, ready to grab that beer, of cheating. But then I thought I’d have to write about it on this blog and it would have reduced the whole meaning of this campaign. I would have failed.

But I didn’t, and grabbed a root beer instead. That was perfectly satisfying.

So with 10 days left, I continue to resist the temptation of all my vices.

And with that, I leave with little to offer except this: tomorrow is day #1 for all of us, so whatever you’d like to change in your life, start there, and you will.

As this project rolls along I am reminded how little goals can be the foundation for bigger goals. I like to write my goals down in long, detailed lists. Since I am a confirmed dreamer, I am an expert at listing things to do and then when I do nothing on the list (which is my typical MO), I re-list them in a different order for the next week.

An example of this is my 2008 New Years Resolution list… I thought through all the things I wanted to do, and this time with great urgency. I will lose weight, reduce my debt and publish my writing. And this time I swore it would be different! Until I went into my filing cabinet to see what I had written for 2007 and 2006. Yep, the exact same things. No doubt I was high on some very good herb and a bottle of wine. All three years.

So here we are, day #4 of 21… and still staying the course. I kept my list very short for today. Don’t drink, smoke a joint, or ingest any other form of illegal recreation. So far, so good.

One benefit I thought of today is how much money I am saving. By now, I am certain two bottles of wine would have been sacrificed. Savings: $20. OK, so I buy cheap wine.