If I lose 50 pounds (22 kg or 3.5 Stones), then I’ll allow myself to buy a rather expensive record player with a backup to PC feature.

I’m at 35, so I think it’s reasonable.

I made the decision that I was going to quit smoking, and at the time my favorite thing to do was playing guitar.

So I told myself that until I had not smoked a cigarette for an entire year, I would not play guitar again.

And I kept that promise, even though my asshole brain kept giving me dreams like:

I was at a bar with some friends, and we were all playing pool. One of my friends that smoked still hands me her cigarette and says, “Hey, I know you don’t smoke. Hold this for a moment. I’ve got to go to the ladies room.”

So I’m holding the cigarette, and then my other friends are like, “Dude, it’s your shot.”

So I needed both of my hands.

I put the cigarette in my mouth and I take the shot, and when I’m taking the shot I inhaled the cigarette, only for a nanosecond later to realize what I had just done.

I got to spend the rest of my dream freaking out about the fact that I had just wasted months and months and months of not getting to play the guitar, all for one tiny little accidental second.

I would wake up in a cold sweat of misery and so fucking grateful that it had been a dream.

But I made it the full year without smoking and without playing guitar, and when I finally picked up a guitar again, I had somehow auto-magically learned the ability to sing and play guitar at the same time, which is something I could not do the year prior.

I started using the ‘5 minute rule.’

If I see something that needs doing, and it will take less than five minutes, I do it right away. Instead of wasting time thinking about doing it, I save time.

It got me in the habit of picking up stuff. More, it got me to plan ahead.