mooretrees wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:30 pm
I was thinking about your post on a long drive today...............
...........So why not dream up three to five projects that interest you and start pursuing them? .......snip
mooretrees, you hit the nail on the head with your observations. The current situation is not uncomfortable enough to spur change/action on its own, and I have nothing to do *instead* of maintaining current trajectory. This is pretty pathetic when I introspect, because a few years ago I had so many ideas for things to do when not working (volunteering, pursuing amateur athletics, reading, self-learning, getting out in nature more), yet I've recently lacked the imagination to do these things.
Part of it has been a fight-flight response to the mental damage/stress of the past 18 months, and going back to what's secure. This is very bad, because when we worship perceived security and put it above all else, do we really live our lives? Maybe it was Axel's journal where someone posted on this topic, but it hit home pretty hard. In general things have not gone all that well since returning to the USA on several fronts. The job funk is part of it, my diet has been terrible, I've been less active/motivated to be active, and I'm finding myself slipping into old bad habits that were nearly gone in 2019/2020.
I'm going to think about what it is that I want to focus my time on outside of work, and start taking actions to make progress with each until my limiting factor becomes the job. Surely if I find something that I'm more passionate about, the problem should solve itself somehow.
Some ideas that have been in my head are;
1) refocus significant energy/time on physical and mental health, specifically more mindful and intentional diet (both sources and amounts), more activity each day, and start a mindfulness/gratitude practice
2) set some goals for athletic pursuits, and follow through. One constant throughout my adult life has been working toward some sort of physical pursuit. Whether it was powerlifting, drug free bodybuilding, triathlon, cycling, training for a MTB endurance race, etc.....having a training plan and sticking to it provided great satisfaction and sense of purpose, and while completing the event was usually rewarding, the journey was always the highlight for me. Covid put a damper on this, as did traveling.......but I haven't ran a mile in over a year, and I'm just slowly getting back into MTB. I need to sign up for some sort of race/event for accountability and start training.
3) learn a practical skill, such a woodworking/repair, electrical, etc. I'm not sure how to best approach this. With a small apartment and no workshop/tools, I don't want to start a hobby with high startup costs and space requirements only to realize it was a waste of time.......I've thought about habitat for humanity or a local college/technical school class......will have to mull this over a bit more. I would like to convert a trailer or van at some point into an adventure vehicle/pod........and that will require a lot of learning (whether formal or youtube) and I feel like it's going to be a fun project......but our timeline is off for trying to do this now. Storage would be a pain if we're going to leave the country in the next phase of our adventure.
4) get back into mentoring. this is a vague one, but I've enjoyed both sides of mentoring, having mentored a dozen or so individuals over the years, as well as having regular mentors in my adult life. Most of these originated from work (my mentors), and were firstly career focused but later on turned into great mentors in other aspects of life.
5) get my thinking/actions back into the WL5.5-6 range......and act on it....this one is should fall into place as I get further into 1-4