This is the second installment about turning inward with my life’s ambitions as suggested by a comment from a recent post. The first post in this series was about wrapping my mind around the concept of inward ambition. This post is about just how to personally do that. Since this series is more than a short-term thing, future posts, however many there are, will be about how I am making progress toward this noble goal.

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Focusing on what gives me pleasure is certainly a challenge. The first place I need to look to accomplish that is my hobbies.

My primary hobby is having hobbies. Some of those things like woodworking, and gardening have because of circumstances, come and gone, but I still have a myriad of others up for consideration. Here are some areas that I might enjoy spending more time on.

• Blogging is probably number one on that list. I have been doing it for fifteen years now. What I blog about has changed significantly over this period of time. It is now more of a personal journal blog than it used to be. I tell you stories about my life and how I feel about the world. I do hope that my readers get some “lessons learned” from my words, but in reality it now very inwardly looking. I will talk about that, more in the next post on this subject.
  
• Traveling around America has been a lifelong thing for me. That is certainly an inward ambition. But, I am likely reaching the end of this one. I don’t know how much longer I can safely put in the miles traveling across America. Besides that, I am suffering from the “Been There, Done That” Syndrome.
  
• Photography, at least since I graduated from college so many years ago and could finally afford a decent camera, photography has always been a great pleasure. It seems like a continuous thing to learn how to use some of the latest tools in this field. That certainly keeps my artsy side consoled, at least to some degree.
  
• Better Computer Tools – Since I almost demand that everything in my life has to be organized and planned, I am forever looking for tools to help me with that. It gives me pleasure to look for things that I can use to make my computer life easier.

Looking at all of this from a higher level, I kind of believe that I am, as usual, stuck between two worlds. It’s approaching two years since my wife’s death, but I seem to be unable to move on. I will never forget her, but I gotta get out of the limbo state and embrace a world where I am on my own, and the sole decider of what I want for the rest of my life. Just recognizing that fact is a big step to possibly making it happen. If I am always looking back, I will never be able to realize when I have actually discovered something that will give me pleasure going forward.

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With all this in mind, I will make it a daily task to spend more time looking forward, instead of dwelling on the past. Of course, I have an app that will help me with that in my new journaling tool.

I have always been an avid journal keeper. Going forward I will end each new journal entry with some reflections of the day as shown here. I think that is a good way to show me how much progress I am making for this new life endeavor.