Pick your thing.  Show up.  Stick with it.

Book club was the company of friends.  Dancing was the company of friends.  Riding up 17th street for the first time just wasn’t that bad.  Putting that together, even the casual lunch at Yerba Buena and reading on the Embarcadero at Red’s…  It all felt good.  It felt almost…like home.

There was a book we discussed a lot about on a group trip to Israel in 1997.  It was called Alex Building a Life.  The story is a potent and tragic one of an American who died fighting for the IDF, told through his letters, describing how he made a big change and did in fact build a new life.  That image of constructing oneself has always stuck with me.

What strikes me is that today was the result of deliberate choices and time.  It’s taken a LONG time for me to really enjoy dance here, for instance.  But those are both necessary ingredients—pick a hobby, give it time.  Join a group, give it time.  Exercise, give it time.  Soon enough, the rewards will vastly outweigh the time required for maintenance.

It’s 27 days into the new year, which is just enough time for a resolution to start sticking.  I’ve been in San Francisco just shy of five months, and things now feel pretty good.  Five months is time enough for an ambition to be a reality.

Show up.  Stick with it.  Things will come together.  This time it won’t be luck.

Shifting location is a way to reinvent the way you spend your time.  And we all need to think about reinventing our days.  Location’s just one part of it.

I’m sitting a block from my house, at Cafe Reverie just now (that’s a photo from my iPhone, where I’m taken where I’m seated).  I’ve never been much a fan of FourSquare, but I just became Mayor here, overtaking Craig Newmark.  Some things you just can’t do everywhere.

But that’s just a geeky detail, and it’s easy to get caught up in the techie side of San Francisco.  In reality, a city is what you make of it.  I’m extremely happy right now, but it’s not just because it’s SF.  It’s because I hate dissonance and I’ve found a way to do more things here that jive with who I am, right now.

I think everyone ought to find their place, their lifestyle.

There came a point some time ago where I wanted to be anywhere outside of where I lived.  Plenty of trips let me to the environmental things that contributed to the best days for me—parks, co-workers, natural light, people who understood my passions, dance, Spanish & Japanese food, etc.  I also knew I wanted to make the biggest possible impact with my work.

What about you—what environmental factors contribute to your happiness?  Have you ever considered it?

When my sister moved to NYC it was like someone flipped a light switch—all of a sudden she was at home.  I watched the same with my closest friend from my college when he moved to a big city.

Some of those who read this blog are married with a couple kids in school.  But most of you are like me—primarily tied to a place by your work and local network.  And if you’re a lot like me, you probably haven’t re-evaluated your location (in the micro- or macro- perspective) in a long time.

So yes, three weeks in, I’m more than content with my move here.  I’m not going to lie—there are some very specific business opportunities that have only been possible due to my location.  But as a whole, it’s really about re-considering how and where I spend my time.  Completely redoing it in a place where it’s possible to make certain kinds of decisions.

I hope you’ll consider what’s possible where you are.  Whether in the same place or on the other side of the globe, there’s a lot of opportunity to be closer to the real you in a 24 hour day.