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Dear Members of the Cult of Done,

I present to you a manifesto of done. This was written in collaboration with Kio Stark in 20 minutes because we only had 20 minutes to get it done.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

from Bre Pettis – The Cult of Done. Via Soleio.

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Two years ago, I ran the fastest mile race of my life. 4 minutes and 22 seconds.

At the beginning of my senior-year high school Track season, I set my sights on a 4:22 mile. My best time from the previous season was 4:30. I never took my eyes of the prize – I aimed for that 4:22 all season long, slowly improving my best time every few weeks.

• Mar 8, 2008 — 4 minutes and 31 seconds
• Mar 29, 2008 — 4 minutes and 26 seconds
• Apr 18, 2008 — 4 minutes and 24 seconds
• May 16, 2008 — 4 minutes and 22 seconds

I finally ran a 4:22 mile at the Sac-Joaquin Section Meet. It was the perfect way to finish up my high school running career, and I was quite pleased with myself.

A few days later, I gave a speech at the end-of-year Track banquet where I reflected on the last 3 years of my life as a runner. There, in front of my coaches, all my teammates and their parents, I proudly proclaimed that I was a lifelong runner.

It made me happy to know that I would be a runner for the rest of my life. What a great life! I gave all the credit to my excellent coaches (Rob Fairley and John Mansoor) who showed me how much fun running could be.

Fast forward to today.

I haven’t run consistently for pretty much the past two years (since the first quarter of Stanford). College makes running difficult: No consistent Track or Cross Country practice to attend, no teammates to encourage you to run, and no real consequences for not running. Plus, there are so many other interesting things to do. Time flies.

But, something snapped in me today. I’m determined to start running again — and to keep running. Forever.

Goal: Run daily

So, that’s the point of this blog post. I’m publicly declaring my intent to run daily. It doesn’t matter how many miles I run each day. What’s important is that I run daily. I will share my progress (or lack thereof) publicly. This should raise the stakes. If I fail, everyone will see it.

Now the pressure is on — I have to give this my best effort.

So, take a look at my public running log.

If you like what you see, share your encouragement in the comments. If you’re disappointed, share that too. Everything helps.

I’m determined to reach this goal.

Tonight, I listened to the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra play, and wow. What an amazing concert! It was called Distant Worlds: Music from FINAL FANTASY. All the music was composed by the Japanese video game composer Nobuo Uematsu and conducted by Grammy award-winner Arnie Roth.

This was my second time attending Distant Worlds (I also went last year), and it was even better than I remembered. Nobuo Uematsu was in attendance again, and as expected, the crowd gave him an extremely warm welcome. At the end of the concert, Uematsu got a 4-minute standing ovation from everyone in the Final Fantasy fan-filled hall.

Here’s my favorite song from their CD:

Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X)

Here was the evening’s setlist:

• Opening~Bombing Mission (FINAL FANTASY VII)
• Don’t be Afraid (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
• Memoro de la Stono (FINAL FANTASY XI)
• Medley 2002 (FINAL FANTASY I-III)
• Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII (FINAL FANTASY VII)
• Prima Vista Orchestra (FINAL FANTASY IX)
• Kiss Me Goodbye (FINAL FANTASY XII)
• Zanarkand (FINAL FANTASY X)
• FINAL FANTASY series: Main Theme
• The Man with the Machine Gun (FINAL FANTASY VIII)
• Theme of Love (FINAL FANTASY IV)
• JENOVA (FINAL FANTASY VII)
• Ronfaure (FINAL FANTASY XI)
• FINAL FANTASY XIII medley
• FINAL FANTASY XIV medley
• Opera “Maria and Draco” (FINAL FANTASY VI)
• Terra’s Theme (FINAL FANTASY VI)

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