Introduction
I recently released a video where I briefly covered how my 2024 went and what I wanted to accomplish going into the new year. All of what I said in that video is true, but I wanted to make a blog post that really goes into what I want to accomplish, why I want to do it, and methods I can see myself taking. This is all for my own personal accountability, and isn’t to be taken as a guide. This also isn’t to be taken as promise either, as I can’t tell what the future holds for me. This is more of a staple and/or a reminder that I can plan appropriately for when I need to, so when I do feel lost I have something to look back to this year.
I am going to structure reach of these 5 goals as follows:
- Reasoning (理由)
- Preparation (準備)
I was originally writing this out in a Google Doc (yes, I still use it for some things), and I realized how much better this would be as a blog post instead. So here we are! These are 4 things I really want to work on going into 2024 :p
Be more disconnected
Reasoning
For those unaware, I have had a lot of physical health issues throughout the last 3 months that are only now fading away (thank god). This caused me to reset a lot of the previous progress that I had made with my productivity and mental health throughout these months/years. I would rely more on technological crutches and other means of entertainment in order to make the time I spent being “lazy” feel not as bad. Obviously this goes without saying that I wasn’t actually being lazy. I was healing and resting from battling with sickness, but I wanted to find some way to stimulate my brain that studying did and couldn’t at the time do. So with that being said, I want to take some steps back to be less online.
Preparation
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To get a hold of my time again, I have gone back to using my Qin Phone F21 Pro. This in of itself deserves a whole other blog post/write up, but tl;dr the main issue I had with it got fixed so I’m back to it. I also had problems setting proper to-do lists for the day. I am still in the process of moving my authentication and emails over to the phone, but this is all to get away from my iPhone.
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Speaking of my iPhone, since I was sick for a hot minute, I re-installed a lot of apps again. Now this might sound crazy, but I am going to stick with having some of them installed. There are some features on Instagram that make communication easier with people, so I am keeping that. Everything else goes though, since I have no reason to have them installed. That includes YouTube and Reddit (my two worst time-wasters).
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I am going to start meditation. I did it once and I felt really good after it, so I have no idea why I never did it again. Maybe I got lost in this fast-paced world, but nevertheless I’ll get back into it. I used to do it by listening to a metric fuck ton of Alan Watts lectures I had installed, and just closing my eyes and listening to what he was saying. I’d also close my eyes and listen to my own breaths, but since I essentially plagued my brain with distraction and stimulation over these past months I haven’t been as successful with it as I’d like. Getting this down pat again will really help me stay disconnected.
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I have a reading goal of 50 books for 2024, and those 50 books aren’t going to read themselves LMAO.
Reset my learning process
Reasoning
Due to my sickness and relapsing into a lot of bad habits, my learning process has been messed up. I used to be really good at being mindful and trusting the inner methods, but before the end of the summer I had a big falling out with someone which led to be isolating myself from friends. I went to a lot of therapy, but only halfway through the summer. I became a lot more negative, cynical, and judgemental. I would jokingly make self-deprecating jokes and “get mad” to get a reaction out of people while playing games. But that self-manifested into my real life, and only got worse during these past 3 months. I fell victim to myself again and it’s created this huge barricade in my mental learning process.
Preparation
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I am going to re-read The Inner Game of Tennis, and take notes on it again. The only reason I’m choosing this book is due to its size and relatively easy-to-understand language. It’s pretty short and I recommend it to anyone who’s willing to learn more about themselves. This book was what originally got me back into reading.
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Journalling has proven to be a very valuable skill. Since I stopped journalling, I found my awareness and compassion of myself and my action to decrease a lot, and I coped with it by telling myself “I’ll do it later” or “Now’s not the time” which can snowball over time (and it did). Through journalling, I find my overall mindfulness to go up, and self-compassion grows.
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This is the hardest part of this process, but it’s being less hard on myself.
Take better notes
Reasoning
I have been taking notes on and off for some years now, and I honestly don’t have an effective note-taking method. I have tried a lot of different mediums of note-taking but not any specific methods. I have looked at Zettelkasten in the past but it wasn’t for me, and I never actually put it into action. Either way, I want to create some sort of good knowledge-base/wiki that I can use to refer back to when furthering my studies.
Preparation
There’s a book that someone in my local smash scene recommended (shoutout to Guy Dino SSBM Toronto sexyman) on discord so I’ll go ahead and read that. I will also be more proactive with how I take notes and refer back to them by blocking all distracting sites during study periods and utilizing Anki more. I found a way to use Anki to make cards wherever I am on my PC (global hotkey type beat) and I played around with it during last term. I will go back to using that again.
Take my health seriously
Reasoning
During my alone-time summer, I spent a lot of time thinking and fortifying my mental health. But something very important I neglected was my physical health and well-being. I have really bad seasonal allergies which definitely makes my quality of life lesser. There are lots of foods that I can’t eat because they cause severe irritation and swelling to my throat – not enough to be fatal but enough to cause a false allergic reaction. This is called OAS (Oral Allergy Syndrome). Because of this, I have been too scared to eat a lot of foods in fear of having a false allergic reaction that ruins my day. I’ve become weaker, I’ve eaten less and started eating more food from outside. I don’t want to live like this anymore.
I also got really sick after getting a concussion at the beginning of October which completely threw all my life and previous planning into the trash. It caused a lot of other health complications which I am still dealing with which could have been sorted out earlier had I seen a professional right after it happened. It’s made living very uncomfortable and is a big reason for why I go to the washroom so much during my streams.
I was going to mention running in this post, but I have a problem with my nose where whenever I inhale through it for some small period of time consistently I start to get headaches. This could be due to multiple different factors that I have to go to the doctors for. But until then, extended running is off the table
(but long walks continue >:3)
Preparation
This will probably be the longest part because I really need to improve here LMAO.
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Meal planning is going to be absolutely vital in this. I have been afraid of cooking for a long time, but I can’t live like this forever. I will conquer my fear of cooking and start planning my meals. This means that I will be able to eat foods that I can actually enjoy (without discomfort) and live an overall healthier life. I will commit to cooking at least once a week starting from when this goes up.
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I will start doing daily 15 minute stretches. I think this goes without saying but sitting in front of a computer in a chair all day isn’t good for anyone’s health. I go to the gym with my friends from time to time but it’s nothing consistent. I have some weights in my room that I never touch. I want to start with something basic and easy to get into, so doing stretches seems pretty ideal for that first hurtle. I do live in discomfort a lot of the time, and this is due to my joints being pretty shit due to my lifestyle. Stretching will help fix that.
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This is probably going to sound kind of cringe, but I used to do 10-15 pushups a day just to get exercise in. I stopped doing it around the time I got concussed and haven’t gone back, so doing light pushups like before will hopefully prove to be valuable in the future. Any sort of exercise is good for me at this point.