jeklynhyde

The
Path to Progress

Posted by Jeklyn Hyde on 2021-05-03
Read Time: 5 minutes

Every once in a while it helps to reassess my life and start working toward pointing it in the right direction. I find it helpful to draw external inspiration and to list my intentions to help set and prioritize goals.

The Path to Progress

I've been doing a lot of personal reflection recently and trying to get myself onto a sustained path of healing and forward growth. I struggle with depression, ADHD, addiction, and issues with sleep (often to the point of exhaustion) and those things can do a lot to get in the way of the things that I am trying to accomplish, but I am determined to keep trying and striving toward my goals.

Image Date & Alt Text: 2021-03-15

A whiteboard with some magnets in the top-right corner showing the following text in a variety of colours:

NEW RULES

Did you - today?:
- Do something beneficial for yourself
- Practice Self-Care - Brush Your Teeth
- Take breaks
- Drink water

- Do something beneficial for your future
- Stretch & Exercise
- Make a little progress on a project
- Choose healthy foods & drinks
- Maintain proper sleep hygiene

My initial research phase is nearing completion. I spent a couple days digging into many online videos from various influential people. Lots of TED talks, many of which I've watched before. I fully intend to keep consuming inspirational or informative videos, but this is a good place to start. As I continue, part of that will be putting some of those videos  (or a playlist of them) on repeat to continue to hammer in the points that they are trying to convey and in the spirit of ~surrounding yourself with the kinds of people that you want to be~. A reminder every day that this is a choice I am making and each day it will require effort.

#TryIkigai #JayShetty #TomBilyeu #DavidGoggins #Sadhguru

The next real step (which I'm in the process of) is to spend some time to better understand myself. Assess my strengths and weaknesses, skillset, and motivational drive. What do I want to be different in my life and how can I help myself affect that change?

What could I be doing to make my best contribution and help other people?

I still have several side projects that I'd like to make progress on soon as well, so I'll need to get more organized, prioritize, and manage my time more effectively while still leaving room for exercise & exploration.

To Buy:

  • Kayak and associated accessories.

    • Paddle, life vest, roof rack.

  • Media storage solution.

    • A better place to keep my media collection to protect it from dust and damage.

  • Standing desk.

    • Since I'm likely to spend a large number of hours in front of these screens, it would be a very wise investment.

To Do:

  • Start back into website building and maintenance.

    • I'm taking the first steps of this by starting up this website.

    • Figure out how to host my own server from an Ubuntu machine.

  • Start maintaining a blog (and actually post things on a regular basis).

  • Create a will.

    • Look into more information about Advanced Directives.

  • Get back into the Stormtrooper armour build.

  • Take a picture & list inventory of all possessions.

    • This is in the list phase now as enough pictures have been taken and things have been moved about enough that I may start running into duplicate images / entries.

  • When the weather permits, get back into windsurfing.

  • When I have acquired the equipment, go kayaking.

  • Finish reading "The American Stream of History" volumes I & II.

  • Password management.

    • Fully set up a keeper and update it to include and maintain all accounts.

  • VR & Other Streaming.

    • Get into a regular pattern for streaming content?

To Be:

  • Fit and Flexible.

    • Aim to do something for fitness and flexibility every day, every other day, or as often as I can manage.

      • (Avoid falling out of exercise by setting too rigid of goals that cause the same pitfalls as the past).

    • Re-read "New Rules of Lifting for Women" and implement some of the workouts & diet information.

      • Get back into meal planning & calorie counting.

    • Re-read (or finish reading) "Convict Conditioning" and implement those workouts.

  • Able to do proper push-ups again.

  • Able to do proper pull-ups again.

  • Clean and healthy.

    • Get better at regular hygiene: Brush teeth, get to sleep on time, bathe (will be made more necessary with increased exercise).

    • Drink more water.

  • Energized & focused.

    • This might be the most difficult one but should hopefully improve with better sleep hygiene and increased exercise.

A very important part of any goal is to get back up when knocked off the path (~plays Chumbawumba's Tubthumping~). To know that people are imperfect, they make mistakes, they have off days. You have to be hard on yourself, but also forgiving. It does not help you reach your goals if you constantly feel like you are failing to meet your own mark. Particularly if that prevents you from getting back in the game when you experience a disruption, and even more-so if it prevents you from trying in the first place.

I get stuck in that trap a lot.

"I want to work out every single day."

~works out for a week straight, but gets knocked off on the last day and stops working out altogether because now the goal is failed~

That misses the whole point of working out which is to gain and maintain strength, flexibility, and balance.

There's plenty more to write, but that's enough for tonight.

Time to take this machine off auto-pilot and take care of what I need to get done.

Wish me luck : )

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