Weekly journal: 2023-01-01

As part of my year of connection, I’m going to experiment with a weekly journal here to connect with myself. You’ll probably be bored if you read this.

Last week

Let’s start with a vowel check:

• A – Have I practiced abstinence this week? Yes, from social media and Hacker News and YouTube. But definitely not from junk foods. In my defense, it was the week of Christmas. But wow, the carbs have been flying and I feel generally dookie from my diet.
• E – Have I exercised well this week? Only one 6 mile run, and I have a weight training workout planned for today. In general I have barely exercised in the past two weeks (ever since I got a stomach bug in mid-December) and that combined with the crappy diet has made me feel pretty terrible. Time to break that cycle.
• I – What have I done for myself this week? I’ve read a lot and spent a ridiculous amount of time setting up Apple Reminders as my new todo list (it’s surprisingly powerful these days), which is total productivity porn but I really enjoy that kind of nonsense. I also just kicked off a new morning routine which I’m hopeful about even though I’ll have to get up a bit earlier for it.
• O – What have I done for others this week? This one’s funny. I feel like I’m constantly doing things for others, but really that’s just everyday maintenance like cooking for my boys and cleaning so my wife doesn’t need to. That kind of hurts to realize. One standout though: I took the boys to Conestee Nature Park yesterday for a few hours which they all loved. But even that was also kind of for me (since “be outside more” is part of my year of connection).
• U – Do I have any unexpressed emotions? Feeling lots of good things about family and friendship. There’s some love I should do a better job expressing, and letting everyone know that this Christmas break has been really special to me. As for negative emotions, I’m not super excited about going back to work next week. But I bet that’ll be fine once I’ve started. It’s just been a while! And anyways, I guess I did express that to Nancy.
• Y – The “yeah” factor; what brought me joy this week? The Conestee Nature Park trip with the boys was a definite joy moment. We found a little sandy spot next to Reedy River and spent a full hour hanging out there and digging and finding freshwater clams and interesting old trash. Good “year of connection” experience. Also been loving playing Boomerang Fu with my boys on the Switch.

Takeaways from last week:

• Do more for people who aren’t me (connection with others)
• Get outside even when I’m feeling lazy (connection with nature)
• Playing video games with my boys brings joy (connection with my kids)

Next week

• What’s my next weekly experiment? Starting E2M with Nancy. It’s a food and exercise plan type thing but I’ll just be doing the food and ignoring the exercise. I need a hard reset on food after the holidays, and us doing it together makes shopping/cooking easier anyway.
• What mistake of ambition am I going to aim for this week? By end of week I want to have proposed an internal coaching training to my boss. I’m working with a friend at another company on structuring it and writing up the plans.
• What am I looking forward to? On Tuesday, our kids are going back to school which means I can get back to a normal running/lifting routine and work hours will be a lot calmer around here.
• What is stressing me out? I’ve really enjoyed the holiday break, and the idea of going back to work is a bit stressful. I’m sure that’ll pass once it starts, but saying goodbye to a great vacation is always a bit stressful.