"Jack of all trades, Master of none"
-Unknown
This week I missed most of work because of a head cold, another Covid test, and just general recovering from a month of nonstop work. What did I do?
Sleep, and a lot of it. I was pushing hard on a decent diet, many supplements, and will power to work from late September until the 26th of October. No weekends. No rest. Just overtime, hard training, and little sleep. Because of it I'm now 20-33% of my financial goal for my next "adventure".
Was it worth it?
Definitely.
With a Sanda tournament coming up in December, I need to work on getting healthier and stronger. Can't do that while working 20+ hours of overtime a week. Which brings me to another thing I did during this week: prioritize.
While laying in my bed and whilst roaming the vast dream lands, I worked through all of the goals that drive me. Seeing which ones needed to be focused on, and what ones could be pushed back to a later date. Saving money, the one I focused on in October, could be pushed back. Two goals came up to the forefront as urgent which was training for the tournament and finishing my personal training courses. Both of these had a deadline that was coming fast (December and January, respectively).
Those are what I'll focus on, but I did more than just that this week. I've also continued my studies in Thai, Personal Training, and... Photography.
Learning New Skills...
Just like with this website, I realized that if I'm actually going to be traveling and training around the world for a bit then I'm going to take pictures. Why not take good pictures? I had this similar thought back in February/March when I bought the Panasonic Luminx G7. The focus then was getting good videos made. As my workload increased, slowly the camera was put aside but always staring at me... almost saying, "Learn how to use me or else I was a waste of money".
Going back into studying the basics of the camera and photography was fun. I did a little trail walk, taking pictures along the way. Messed with the settings while listening to a Finnish guy explaining each and just became more familiar with the tool I bought. I think this little camera and I will become good friends.
Thai has been an interesting language to learn. I was surprised it is based off of the languages from India more than Chinese. I hope to continue studying Thai seriously for around 6 months before I return to my Chinese HSK studies. I think in 6 months of serious, careful study I can learn a good "chunk" of Thai that will get me through my first couple months. I do want to improve my Chinese so that I can interact better with the masters and people that I meet. But, priorities come first.
Relaxing
A priority that everyone has been telling me is to relax. So, I'm finally trying to incorporate rest into my schedule of things to do. For me, ever since I've gotten back from Maling my mind has been on the go. Wanting to move, wanting to improve, wanting a challenge. This means I have a hard time just sitting there watching TV or Youtube because I feel I'm wasting my time. Instead, I need things to do that help or allow me to relax. Journaling or Blogging is one of these things. To my monkey brain, it is still productive but I can be laying on by bed under the soft covers while doing this "productive" activity.
Just like there is active recovery in working out, I believe that there is "active relaxing". To me that would be Meditation, Qi Gong, Photography, Studying (or maybe reviewing), and Stretching. During the weekends I hope to choose these activities to do instead of the harder stuff that I'd normally do.
I just have to slow down and smell the crisp Autumn while it lasts.
Which won't be long.
-A happier Johnny