the feeling of thawing

A short post is in order. I've made some solid progress in a few of my main pursuits.

• Made my Kiva donation for January. Now some folks in Cambodia will have clean drinking water. Nothing wrong with that.
• Put a few more miles in on the treadmill, at a higher speed. 480 left to go.
• Been studying Japanese a bit more, aiming at a minimum of 30 minutes, every day. Also, stopped at a Japanese language faculty member's office to talk about my self-study project. He lent me a textbook to use, in addition to online courses.
• I've found two places I'd like to volunteer for a few hours every month, but still haven't contacted them.
• I really need to initiate the martial arts blog, and gathering a few folks to start regular practice. I've been practicing solo, which is a less appealing, but less demanding, compromise. Having a heavy bag in my basement now helps.
• The biggest step I've made in recent weeks is toward writing an article for publication. I wrote a research proposal and ran it by a sociology professor I know (who is an eminent scholar in her field). She loved the proposal, and encouraged me to get going on my research, even suggesting that I should try to get it published in some academic journals. I'm excited and nervous about her encouraging feedback. She clearly expects me to write something stellar. Pressure is on.

All in all, I'm happy with my progress. The two targets I've set for myself that now look most daunting are the attic-cleaning (sell/donate/trash 5 boxes by April) and the blog launch/subscription goal. Neither looks too challenging, but the deadlines do. Either feat would be easy in isolation, but I think it will be difficult to manage them while continuing with all these other projects. BALANCE will be the name of the game.

This blog is helping me. In moments of distraction, I can quickly think back to my "master plan", and identify something productive that I could be doing. I'd love to hear some advice or feedback in the comments. Has Collective Impact done anything for you yet? Do you think of it as a tool? As a think tank? How could it be more useful?