Friday 20 December 2013

5 Days to Christmas

First of all let's talk about progress. Ran into a couple of seniors that I haven seen in a while today at the gym and they said that I've grown bigger. Just changed up my routines per day so my body's still adjusting to the change and is worn out as hell. Body fat still pretty high and I'm guessing it's because I haven't ran in ages, but still within acceptable range. Once I start shredding i'll start hitting sprints again so that will tame it down. My weight has gone up to 67.3 kg , just about 2 kilos short of my goal and I'm still working to get it there before I cut down again.

I think I'm reaching the stage in life where I want to take charge of my own life and actually do things to reach my goals. Where I would've sat and wished upon a shooting star in the past, now I would plan out how I intend to reach anything I want. I've been going to school for the past two weeks during hols for consultations with my teacher to buck up on my schoolwork, and getting in a couple hours at the gym before grabbing lunch and heading back to spend time with the family/continue with schoolwork. I've gotten two jobs, a part time job at an ice cream place near my house to earn my fair bit of money, as well as with an engineering company to do some designs for them for relatively fast lump sums ($200 per drawing, anyone?). I intend to keep the ice cream job for the year or so, probably taking a break during my internship at an architectural firm, which will pay me a minimum of 500 per month, probably enough to get me buy. Goal is to get the money in my bank back to par as it was before, and even beyond if I can. I guess it's also a good way to teach myself to manage my time properly and control my own actions and it's consequences. I'd like to be able to stand on my own feet. Lifting is teaching me a thing or two about that as well, and maybe at this point I'll just pause to write down some things that it has instilled in me:

1. Always confront your fears. No matter how afraid you are or how small you feel, or if it's something you've never done before, attempt it with two feet in and learn from whatever outcome it brings. This can be applied to working too. If you've never applied for a job by yourself before, but you know you want or need to, do it. If you've never met a client before and have no idea how to deal with it, get some insight and go ahead with it. Everyone starts somewhere, and starting is a good step towards being good at something. 

2. You don't stop when you're tired, you stop when you're done. Perseverance is key. Sure you may take some time or even a lot of time to master something but the time will pass anyway so might as well make full use of the seconds you might otherwise waste. I learnt to use a schedule to do this, because I found that it works for me, where I complete what I have for the day be it late or early, in which case I have spare time to take a break or continue the next day's work. 

3. Push yourself beyond limits. Like they say, the circle in which are things you are comfortable with, and the circle in which are the things that make life worthwhile, do not overlap. Pushing yourself beyond your limits will often induce a lot of pain, but only through this pain will you grow. Because your body actually sees the need for itself to improve to deal with the pain next time, instead of something your body can already naturally cope with. Similarly, don't limit yourself with the possibilities of education. There is a checklist to follow, but if you can do more than that, do it. Prove to others, prove to yourself that you are better, that you are capable of independent exploration and not just some dog on a leash paid to impress.

4. Have a game plan. Before any routine, in order for it to be successful, I usually do quite a bit of planning beforehand. To ensure that all parts of the muscle group are being targeted, to ensure that smaller muscles do not fatigue by the middle of the routine, to know exactly what I want to achieve and how I aim to do it. When doing work, it's the same thing with the schedule. I tend to plan for failure, so I put breaks in between to make sure I have some time to catch up in case I'm unable to finish any required tasks on any day. I give myself sufficient time, so that if I were to finish my work early today, I have a choice to rest, or to do some work for tomorrow. If I do that, I'll be making use of the momentum and that also means I'll have less work to do tomorrow. If I rest however, I'll still be on track to complete my given assignment.

5. Your mind fails before your body does. Most of the time, it's my mind telling me that I'm tired that causes my body to slow down. It is my duty however, to train my mind to follow my commands. So when I say "one more", my body will automatically carry out the task without question. I think that having utter and complete control over your mind is a powerful skill, but a difficult one to acquire as well.

A classmate of mine will be having a BBQ party right before school starts and I'm looking forward to seeing her there. I've told myself at least thirty times in my head today that I don't like her but I still can't help looking forward to being around her and just hoping to talk like old friends again. I guess I miss the way it was then and my mind keeps replaying all these scenes and trying to make my miss people. Keeps replaying north point and bus 812 too for some reason, and I remember being completely wrecked and in pain, sitting on the metal dividers at the bus interchange at this point of time last year. Looks like I've come a long way and seems like I grew up so much in a year but I'm thankful this time passed by. A friend that I fell out with earlier this term did something odd the other day though, at the gym. I was sitting on the floor talking to a friend when she broke away from her canoe group to walk over, ruffle my hair, grab her water bottle and walk back. I thought we fell out? And this is exactly why I will never understand women.

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