Friday Five

It is a new year, we couldn't stop it from coming, time marches on, blah blah blah... but to be honest with you, I could not wait to move on from 2011. Ready for bigger and better things in '012!  To kick off this year, and to kick off the "Friday Five" i thought it would be appropriate to give out the well kept, most guarded secrets for living your best in 2012....

at least, that was the plan....

I started out strong, sat down at my desk and wrote out the 'secrets to life' that my parents and grandparents and even my great grandparents have been spouting off since before I was born.  Don't get me wrong, it is all truly wonderful advice!  The stuff of legends and it has been time tested so I know it works....

That was not the problem, I got my top five down on paper in ten minutes (my college professors must be so proud).

Then I moved over to the computer to put my (borrowed) thoughts on here for all to see, and I discovered that I had another decision to make.

How do I present this all important list to the masses?  How do I convey the heartfelt meaning behind my words? How do I impress the importance of what we need to do to live a better and more fullfilling life?AHHHHH! Overwhelming, I know...

I could:
1. Write a numbered list.  So straightforward, so easily read.  It labels each idea as to its level of importance, and ranks them accordingly.  It is the most readible of lists, there is no confusion involved.  I mean, the word  "FIVE" in the title of this post seems to point to the fact that there will be five items and they will be numbered. Yet, numbering is slightly boring and predictable.  So writing a numbered list was out.

• A bullet list on the other hand is a fine option.  It is elegant.  It sets the ideas apart from the margin of the page.  The list looks important and impressive.  However, it also reminded me of every single resume that I have written in the past fifteen years and upon second glance is much too formal of a style for the wisdom I hope to convey. Scratch bullets off the list as well.

 (A fine third option was to punctuate my words with pictures illustrating the meaning behind the idea)
Ex: Stop, slow down and enjoy your life...(OK, that wasn't one of my top five, but look how nicely it goes with the picture!)

Fourthly, I harkend back to my classroom days, sitting in accounting (bored) thinking that the only interesting piece of information in my textbook was the colorful Pie Chart!  I could get my information across in a vibrant manner and assign the level of importance to each idea based on the size of the slice of Pie!  But, alas, the Pie Chart is not an easy graphic to design and began to take up too much of my time, so was quickly discarded.

Finally, after exhausting all my other options, my fifth and final  idea struck me....an alphabetical list! I could define each idea with one word and place them alphabetically into the blog.  The result might look much like a dictionary but has readability and interest.

Idea five: verb/action- go play outside, also, to exist out of doors
 
Whew, that was exhausting getting to this point, I had to run through FIVE ideas in order to decide how best to present the Friday FIVE...

anybody catching on yet...
I certainly hope so, because if you didn't catch on to my little ruse you are going to be very confused by the fact that this is me signing off!
Have a wonderful Friday everyone.