Check-In Catch-Up: 2015-03-26 (Thursday) - 2015-03-30

This past weekend was my birthday party, over at Amber and Jay's apartment. Here's the scoop.

Body: PASS (walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: PASS (creativity)
Spirit: WIN! (games, crafts, walking outside)
Social: WIN! (lots of socializing with friends)

My step count was definitely light over the weekend, though that's coming back up during the weekdays again. My party was crafts-based, so there was silly creativity for Mind and Spirit points. And it's been very social, as I've been visiting with friends from work, gaming friends, and friends from out of town.

The Bull of the Board

I recently bought some frames in order to protect and display some wall art that's been kicking around my condo recently. Somehow, despite making lists of my required frames, I managed to buy one frame too many. So I decided that I could use it for the vision board I've been planning to make.

Just on a whim, I decided to look up tips for how to make a good vision board. I was expecting some unhelpful advice, like what kind of glue to use, but I figured someone on the internet might be able to suggest what kinds of priorities to set and how to turn them into plans.

It turns out I was right, but not the way I expected. In fact, the entire concept of a vision board has nothing to do with setting priories in order to make plans; rather, they are steeped in the new age magic concept of "The Law of Attraction". That is, just by creating a collage of things you want and wishing for them all the time, they're supposed to just magically come true. Huh.

Fortunately enough, Psychology Today has an article about vision boards and the scientific investigation into whether or not they actually work. In short, no. It turns out that imagining success can make you less motivated to make the efforts necessary to succeed. On the other hand, many of the same studies show that imagining the actions needed to achieve success does improve outcomes. For example, if you want a good score on a test, don't think about having a good score; think about studying.

I still want to spend some time thinking about success anyway, mainly because you can't think about studying if you don't even know that you want to take a class. In my case, I'm not trying to magically wish things into existence, I'm trying to set goals and priorities. From there, I'll be figuring out the actions required to accomplish them, where the real success comes from.

Check-In Catchup: 2015-03-19 (Thursday) to 2015-03-25 (Wednesday)

I got out of the habit of doing these when I took a break to focus on my writing deadline for Sunday. So allow me to demonstrate resilience and fire these back up again.

Body: PASS (walking, diet, but late nights)
Mind: WIN! (writing, internet browsing for information, paperwork)
Spirit: WIN! (writing, gaming, walking outside, paperwork)
Social: PASS/WIN! (friends, family)

As usual, I'm finding my bedtimes slipping to be a bit late, though even this slip-ups are not as bad as they used to be in the past. Also, last night I was able to get a fairly reasonable bedtime so things are improving.

I managed to get some writing done, which is always good for Mind and Spirit points. Getting my paperwork done (dealing with RRSPs and ESPPs from work) is also worth Mind points for the concentration and learning, and Spirit points for the relief of getting them done. I feel less stressed when I roughly understand my financial situation.

I had a couple of days of very low social activity but a couple of days of quite a lot of social activity. This is a category for me to watch, as right now it would be easy for me to get socially isolated, given that I don't have any scheduled activities like work or classes.

A Change of Pace

I'm finding the Monday, Wednesday, Friday pace to be a little quick under my current circumstances, so I'm going to move to a weekly News or Thoughts post.

Hopefully this will make it easy to remember for followers: there should be new things worth reading each weekend.

I may up this pace again in the future when my life is more settled down.

Jane McGonigal Strikes Again!

Jane McGonigal is the TED presenter to turned me on to the idea of playing a game where players score themselves on their physical, willpower, emotional, and social aspects in order to improve their lives. This became my daily check-in.

To up the ante, she also has a TED Talk on how to harness gaming to save the world. An intriguing concept, a fun viewing, and a well-conducted talk. Give it a look.

For convenience, here are some links she mentions in the talk:

Institute for the Future
Superstruct

Victoria Retrospective

March has been a busy month. I had a lot of settling in to do, such as wrapping up things and work, figuring out my exercise habits, and putting my condo into proper order. There's still a lot more to do, of course, but grooves are staring to form.

But all of this grooviness really started to form in Victoria. With a chance to remove myself from all obligations and just meditate about life, I started to rediscover my goals, my motivations, and my habits. So I think it would be good to do a quick review of the lessons I learned in Victoria, as nicely summarized by the ninja lids.

To review, in order (with the one in the center last):

1: Arrival-Being

The initial state, and the beginning of idea and action, is just the state of being. Relax and observe.

It's easy to assume that action must be begun immediately, and that effective people are continually doing things. In truth, action without observation is essentially panic.

It is essential to find a moment to do nothing. In Victoria, I spent a lot of time doing nothing, which should be done now and again. During normal routine, however, a few minutes a day to do nothing is fine.

2: Testing!

The first thing babies start to do after being born is to test things out. They wiggle their fingers, blink their eyes, and squirm around, trying to understand this new life they've been born into. The same process occurs in the initial stages of software testing: the tester just pokes around, getting an intuitive feel for the program and its functionality.

It is useful to apply this type of testing to life in general. Try taking a new class now and then. Try new foods. Try going to new places.

3: Willpower

Willpower is the process of turning desire into reality through action. On a small scale, this can be getting a drink of water from the fridge. On a grand scale it could be writing a novel or maintaining good relationships with your family members. In both cases, if you stop doing it halfway through, you will fail. If you open the fridge but then wander off, you will still be thirsty. If you visit your family once and then never talk to them again, those relationships will weaken.

Most of the following lessons deal with how to succeed at applying willpower. It is not as easy as putting on a stern face and being stern with yourself, as we will soon see. In fact, not only is all that sternness not a lot of fun, but it's actually ineffective.

4: Possibility-Hope

Before willpower can be applied, you must first believe that there is any point in doing so. If you think you're doomed to fail, then why would you even try?

There is some subtlety to this. Sometimes it is necessary to stick to your principles even in the face of failure. To use a Hollywood trope, characters often fight impossible fights. But in some sense, they are able to fight these impossible fights because they believe they can succeed at doing the right thing, even if doing the right thing will end in a lost fight. While they may die in battle, they'll have succeeded in sticking to their principles. Now imagine a character who does not believe it is even possible, or worthwhile, to fight the impossible fight, but just gives up on the spot. That is a sad character indeed.

I don't have any keen observations in how to sustain a sense of possibility and hope. But if you find it lacking, then this is where you need to start. Find hope, any hope, even if that hope is simply to do something principled in the face of impossibility.

5: Focus

If willpower is sustained action, then a serious threat to willpower is distraction. Focus is the art of prioritizing what goals are worth pursuing, which actions will lead to said goal, and then maintaining your awareness of those actions so that you accomplish them.

Focus can be great for overcoming temporary unpleasantness in the task. For example, cleaning the house might involve taking out the garbage or cleaning a litter box--not inherently pleasant activities. But if you know what your goal is and why these actions are important, you can find yourself not minding the chore, or even enjoying it!

Important aside: Don't take this to mean that distraction is inherently a bad thing. In fact, distraction is a healthy and important process, as it leads to discovery and fun. It is only a threat to willpower. Willpower, like all good things, needs to be taken in moderation. Have willpower for parts of your life and day, but not all parts.

6: Action-Joy

This concept of action is symbolized by physical movement, but it could also apply to making plans about projects or careers. It is quite simple, in that it is simply a celebration of the joy of action.

As human beings, we enjoy movement. We enjoy going for walks. We enjoy driving in cars. We enjoy going for boat rides. Look at any amusement park, and look for an activity that doesn't involve human movement.

The same is true for larger-scale action. We like imagining big plans.

Embrace that joy.

7: Perseverance-Enjoyment

And now, the true secret of willpower: enjoy yourself. All of these hyphenated words are yin-yang equivalencies. That is, I believe perseverance and enjoyment are not simply similar or related, but are, in fact, different facets of the same concept. If you enjoy something, you will persevere at it. If you want to persevere at something, find a way to enjoy it.

This is the problem with trying to have willpower by being stern, or by trying to drive yourself with guilt: it takes all the enjoyment out of the activity. Given that perseverance is enjoyment, this means you are undermining your perseverance. While you can force yourself to persevere for a while, you'll soon run out of steam and, most importantly, you'll be miserable. If if you do keep it up for a long time, you'll eventually look back on that time and wonder why you bothered.

8: Practice

This isn't so much the eighth in the series, but rather the Gestalt that the other seven create if you remember to apply them regularly.

Remember to just be.
Remember to try new things.
Remember to apply willpower to things you want to accomplish.
Remember to have hope and to see possibility.
Remember to focus on what is important.
Remember to feel joy in taking action.
Remember to enjoy the things you wish to persevere at.

This isn't a total picture of how to live life, of course--the only total picture of life is life itself. These are just a few observations that one person happened to make while having a pleasant time in Victoria.

Doing these things well is Ninja.
By being Not Quite good at something, you must practice to improve.
This is why I attempt to be Not Quite Ninja.

Thank you very much to Mark and Karen for letting me stay with them, and for educating me with their wisdom.
Thank you very much to Luna for being exactly herself the way that only a dog can.
Thank you very much to my parents for their love and intelligence.
Thank you very much readers for putting up with my momentary sentimentality.

Check-In: 2015-03-18 (Wednesday)

Body: PASS (walking, but not much sleep)
Mind: WIN! (de-junking, organizing phone photos, waking up early to move car)
Spirit: WIN! (walking outside, de-junking, shop therapy)
Social: PASS (visiting with friends, corresponding with family)

I had to move my car at 8:00 am yesterday, which helped result in my short sleep. As a one-off event, I'll let that still be a pass, though if I keep it up it'll start giving me failures (spoiler alert: I got a good sleep last night so I'm good). My diet wasn't terrible, but it was restauranty so I'm calling that neutral.

On the other hand, I had to move my car at 8:00 am yesterday, so that's a willpower victory under Mind. I also did a lot more de-junking which is good for willpower and soul.

Photo Post: De-Junking Progress

Gifts from Amber and Jason: the horn at Christmas and the skull for my birthday.

The dragon, the chest, and the wardrobe.

New comforter.

Kitchen. Not bad considering it was after supper.

New plates. Ooh. Blue.

Tiny TARDIS, though it is bigger on the inside.

Work in-progress: filing and wall-hangings on the floor.

Though one bookshelf is starting to look organized.

Check-In: 2015-03-17 (Tuesday)

Body: PASS (walking, diet)
Mind: WIN! (cleaning, de-junking)
Spirit: WIN! (de-junking)
Social: WIN! (breakfast with family, visiting with friends)

Yesterday was another quiet day and another de-junking day. It's amazing how long the de-junk process is taking, though steady progress is visible. Also, yesterday I was able to start moving things around for the sake of aesthetics rather than purely practical considerations.

Any day now I'll get enough floor space revealed that it'll be worth vacuuming...

Check-In: 2015-03-16 (Monday)

Body: N/A (medical test)
Mind: PASS (reading / physics, visiting)
Spirit: WIN! (good test results, birthday dinner)
Social: WIN! (birthday dinner)

I'm sustaining the N/A score for Body since it was another day affected by the medical test. I again kept my activity light since it was the first day of re-introducing food. Sleep was awful the previous night due to the necessary preparations the previous day combined with the very early test time.

I'm putting some visiting as points under Mind, because I talked to my friends and parents about a lot of intellectual subjects. I also spent some time with my Bedtime Physics Reader and discovered, to my chagrin, that the book made several mistakes under the Newtonian physics section. I say it was to my chagrin, but I actually enjoyed the exercise.

I also had a spontaneous birthday dinner with my parents and some friends, which was a good social victory.

Check-In: 2015-03-15 (Sunday)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Body: N/A (fasting and resting)
Mind: WIN! (fasting)
Spirit: WIN! (good mood despite the physical discomforts of the day)
Social: WIN! (family visit)

Sunday was mainly occupied with fasting and, as a result, conserving energy, which means deliberately blowing the step goal and only getting small amounts of gentle movement to avoid too much damage from sitting disease.

On the other hand, I was able to endure the discomfort, on my birthday, with good humor, which counts as willpower for not eating (Mind) and just a general display of positive attitude (Spirit).

My parents came in to help with the driving on Monday morning (between the fasting and the Fentanyl, they don't want you driving to and from your appointment), so I got to spend my birthday with them.

I'm not sure what to do with the Body score with this day. On the one hand, fasting and missing my step goal is a fail. On the other hand, there is some evidence that fasting now and again isn't really bad for you. So I'm just going to call this a "N/A" and not worry about it. The point of this exercise is, after all, to stay in the habit of evaluating my wellness, so the odd exception here and there isn't a problem.

Check-In: 2015-03-14 (Saturday)

Pi day!

Body: WIN! (walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: WIN! (cleaning, filing, and de-junking)
Spirit: PASS (walking outside, tv, de-junking)
Social: PASS (visiting with friends, corresponding with family)

Saturday I found out that walking the University and back, heading there on the high-level bridge and returning on Groat Road, is about 8.5k steps. It's also quite nice in that it doesn't require crossing many roads.

I also continued my campaign of re-organizing and de-junking my condo for some Mind and Spirit points.

Stuck in the Fast Lane

I spent all of Sunday fasting for a medical test, so the blogging today is going to be brief. In fact, this would be it!

Check-In: 2015-03-13 (Friday)

Ooh. Friday the 13th.

Body: WIN! (rest, walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: PASS (willpower: walking on a really tired day)
Spirit: WIN! (walking outside, cleaning out desk, watched Chappie)
Social: WIN! (watched Chappie with friends, corresponding with friends/family)

Briefly:

- Tired from kung fu (sore muscles) but walked anyway. I missed my step goal, but I was *seriously* tired.
- Cleaned out desk at work. Odd feeling, slightly spooky, but overall a positive thing, moving on to future endeavors.
- Saw Chappie with my friends Shane and Dean. Good show. Fun times.

Check-In: 2015-03-12 (Thursday)

Body: WIN! (kung fu, walking, diet, sleep)
Mind: WIN! (budgeting)
Spirit: WIN! (cleaning, walking outside)
Social: WIN! (kung fu, corresponding with friends/family)

The two dominant features of Thursday were getting back to kung fu for the first time in at least half a year, and also delving into budget planning for the first time in... possibly ever.

Kung fu was also useful in that I got to see some people I haven't seen in a while, giving me a good social victory.

Strange Days

Time has been strange in the last couple of days.

It started with going to kung fu on Thursday night, which is a definite reminder of the past, though I've certainly forgotten a lot over the last year or so of absence--and seven years of spotty attendance.

There's also the surprising physicality of it. Despite all the exercise I was getting in Victoria, and mostly continued in Edmonton, my first class back destroyed me. All of Friday, moving around was a painful reminder of how hard my thighs had been working doing stances on Thursday. I'll be glad when that goes away after a week or two of sustained effort--hopefully. In any case, it was this muscle-crushing exhaustion that was largely responsible for this post coming out on Saturday instead of Friday.

Excuses, excuses.

Though something I did accomplish on Friday, resulting in my timey-wimey whiplash, was going into work to pick up my things. In some ways this was a dive into the past as well, but a much more recent past. Also, the reality of cleaning out my desk (metaphorically--it had already been put into boxes, mostly) made the future loom distinctly larger. Though I'm still convinced that this was the right decision, scary though it may be on occasion.

Today I've been diving into the history of the things I own, as an ongoing process of getting rid of the junk I don't need. I did laundry, for example, but as I put things away, I went through all my cupboards as well as the clean laundry to decide what I actually want and need. I now have a couple of large bags of clothing to be either given away or recycled as rags.

It's a good process. One that causes more mess in the process of creating less mess, though a quick visit to the dumpster, recycling bin, and reuse store will clear out a lot of it.

Check-In: 2015-03-11 (Wednesday)

Body: PASS (walking, diet, but late bedtime)
Mind: PASS (research into education)
Spirit: WIN! (walking in sunshine, research into education)
Social: WIN! (visiting friends, corresponding with family)

Still battling the late bedtime monster, but otherwise doing well. Researching education is good for keeping me focused on the future, which is good for my optimism.

Check-In: Current Status

Body: PASS (walking, diet, but late bedtimes)
Mind: PASS (education research, blogging)
Spirit: WIN! (junking out, planning future)
Social: WIN! (visiting with friends)

Just getting a current status for the check-ins so I can start these things up again. I'm dropping the "total win" as a score simply because I think the granularity is unnecessary. A pass is a totally acceptable level, meaning maintenance is being sustained, while a win means I've gone over and above a pass, so everything is extra-groovy. Further distinction doesn't seem necessary.

The main thing I need to work on right now is getting my sleep schedule back under control--I'm again creeping into the late bedtimes and late mornings, but after the success I had with this in January, I'm not too concerned. In the near future I'll be firing up my writing again as well, in which case the Mind category should shift into the win category as well.

All in all, not a bad place to be starting from.

Edmonton: Infinite Possibilities

I promise I'll talk about my experiences in Victoria and Vegas soon--there's plenty to tell/boast about. But for now, my focus is on the present and future. As I return from sabbatical and vacation, I find myself in the position of rebuilding myself in Edmonton. The rest of my life is ahead of me, and my actions in the next few weeks will have a disproportionate impact on what the future looks like.

To that end, I'm starting to go through all the junk in my condo to decide what to keep, I'm figuring out what I'm going to do for income, and I'm investigating school and careers for the future. To succeed at all these things, I have to follow all the lessons I picked up in Victoria, which mainly means I should enjoy these responsibilities.

Anyone who has seen this kitchen recently should 

be impressed by the lack of clutter.

Enjoying the junk-out is easy. There's something wonderful and unburdening about getting rid of stuff. I've already cleared out the space above the cupboards, except for one tin of hot chocolate mix and one large cooking pot because they don't yet fit anywhere else. I've also cleared off a small shelf in my living room and made two brave assaults on the Paper Monster (all those unsorted sheafs of paper from old bills or old creative scribbles).

Figuring out an income for the short term is trickier. I'm going to try my hand at freelance editing work, which could result in far too little work and money, far too much work, or, if I'm lucky, a Goldilocks-zone of just enough work to keep me happily fed without eating too much of my time. Only time will tell. To supplement this, I'll need to look into other possibilities, one of which might be doing gardening for the summer, which would fit nicely with my fitness plans.

Figuring out school and careers for the future is also tricky, but at least easy to enjoy. I'm still interested in the kinesiology, but I'm also considering fields like psychology and urban planning so that I can learn about human health on all scales, from diet and exercise for individuals to designing healthy cities on the macro. All of these things sound fascinating. The trick will be designing them into a single degree.

I'm still worried, in the back of my mind, that kinesiology isn't quite the right direction for me to go, despite how naturally it fits with my kung fu and yoga hobbies. So I asked at MacEwan University's career counselling if they had career advice. It turns out that non-students can sign up for two $60 tests (students play only $20 a piece) to determine aptitudes and interests. I'll admit I was surprised by the high cost, given that these are just a couple of quick tests, one of which is even taken online.

So, being an able user of the internet, I found the same resources online for free.

According to the Myers-Briggs test I found, I'm an INFJ personality type, which basically is a complex mixture of dreamer plus doer. I guess I dreamed of saving $60 on a test and made that happen, so there's a good start. The description does feel reasonably accurate, actually, bearing in mind that it may simply succeed the same way that horoscopes do, by being vague enough to apply to nearly anyone.

I was also able to find something called a Career Cluster Interest Survey, which suggested I either go into Human Services, which is all about helping people meet their needs, or else Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications, which sums up my Communications degree nicely. Also testing strongly were Business, Education, and Health Science.

Again, some vague responses, but all of these line up with the kinds of careers I've been considering.

There's a lot more investigation to be done in all of these areas, so I'll have lots of fodder for the post this Friday.

The Blogs Are Back In Town!

There's a lot of catching up to do. There's the conclusion of my Victoria trip, the dazzling fun of my Vegas trip, and the infinite possibilities for the future that I'm now exploring in Edmonton.

The best photo I have to sum this up--at least, the best one that's conveniently available on my phone--is this flower-based-merry-go-round from (I think) the Bellagio: colourful, not quite what it appears to be, definitely strange, and quite entertaining.

News posts to follow in the next few days.