Time Traveler

Fg2b

7 posts in this topic

Hi !

My journal is called "FROM GOOD TO BETTER" or abbreviated to FG2B.

Why such name ?

I recently take a video course by Mattew Barnet on Udemy about  goal achieving.  One of the principles was that you should not do something to get away from bad situation in your life, but instead strive to improve already good situation to even better one.

Of course, it is matter of perspective and everyone is free to choose which one he likes best. I have lived very long with such a paradigm that I don't want anything, but just  need to run away  from some danger that threatens me. Matt's course inspired me and I decided to try a new way of treating life; choose my goals and try to reach them because I want to, instead of trying to escape danger that awaits me ahead.

There is another aspect I'm trying to change,, closely related to one above; tasks or goals.

Meditate 2 hours a day, work out at gym for 2 hours 3 times a weak, drink 3 liters of water daily, these are all tasks. 

Achieve better health, earn more money, these are goals.

My second paradigm shift is from tasks to goals.

So, to try Barnet's goal reaching strategy I choose simple first goal: "Drop 20 kilos of weight until 16.04.2017".

I will record my progress, main strategy, results and insights here at least once every week, but  would not delve in much details which I will record in my private journal. If I will start another goal, I will record it's progress here too.

Goal #1 - Drop 24 kilos to 16.04.2017.

Started: 23.01.2017.

Milestones: 19.02 - 11 kilos lost, 19.03. - 19 kilos lost.

First ideas (how to)

Implement some reasonable eating strategies: chew until liquid, eat for hunger - not appetite, eat slow, eat until no longer hungry ...

Do some physical activities every day, walking is first one that comes in mind

Cold shower in the morning

Some forbidden stuff: beer, white bread, ...

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OK, almost two weeks passed, some reevaluation took place.

About goal #1

  • 3 kg lost, less than planned, but goal was very ambitious anyway
  • Some additions to daily rules:
    • eat breakfast, start with veggies
    • evening eat only vegetable soup
    • if eating eggs, then only hard-boiled

But main insight about my first goal is: "It was completely wrong way to state a goal like that and  must be restructured completely".

In the beginning, when I formulated my goal, my first difficulty was to declare two parameters:

  • amount of weight to be dropped
    • big enough to be noticeable,
    • small enough, so I can reach it fast
  • deadline of project
    • not too close, so I can proceed at moderate speed and not to take drastic measures
    • not far so I can ... WHAT 

SO I CAN RETURN TO MY PREFERRED STYLE OF LIFE: overeating, avoiding physical activities, eating unhealthy, drinking few barrels of beer every now and then and so on, so on, so on

New paradigm:

Goal should be implementing healthy habits and sticking with them for all of my life.

Of course they can be rearranged if I consider necessary, but not terminated on achieving some magic number on my scales.

I haven't heard someone saying that he / she want to quit smoking and the start again, but my goal was very much like that ;)

I rearranged my weight loss graph, now it extends much further in time (2018-may-20) and weight loss (40 kg).

I'm in no hurry now, cause I'll enjoy every day in this never ending journey !

My #1 goal is not a goal anymore, cause it lacks deadline, it is not specific and is only partly action based.

It is transformed to controllable never ending implementing healthy habits.

My weight loss graph will be one of the control variables in this journey, cause that can be measured precisely, and I will report it regularly.

So I need a new goal to test goal setting tools

I have one task i should accomplish quickly - a website for my brother, but frankly, this goal setting business is big overhead. All these affirmations, visualizations, etc, etc, takes precious time and if one is motivated enough and have clear action plan (like me in this case) then best way is: "just do it !"

Cause IMO all these special setting techniques promotes mostly motivation and taking action.

Also they can be useful (I hope so) when one doesn't know how to achieve one's goal.

So I will postpone my goal #2 until I'll find some decent candidate.

Other tools

I'm excited to try out this new (for me) tool, that coverts doing my "valuable actions" into a game !

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My inner clock says it's time again to write in my journal ;)

My Mental Bank (MB) based Healthy Lifestyle implementation goes very well. I have lost 6 kilos of weight without even trying. My healthy eating habits are easy to follow and I pay myself every day (MB cash) when I stick to them.

I haven't found decent goal yet to try out goal setting / achievement system. This is one of my problems - I seemingly don't know what I want. I can effectively accomplish many things if someone tells me what to do. This is stupid and crazy - I should somehow remove blocks that don't allow me to know my life purpose.

Meanwhile, I have started a course of LOA.  One of the exercises was to re-frame my negative traits. I wrote 5 pages of them and don't know where to start ;)   

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18 minutes ago, Time Traveler said:

I haven't found decent goal yet to try out goal setting / achievement system. This is one of my problems - I seemingly don't know what I want. I can effectively accomplish many things if someone tells me what to do. This is stupid and crazy - I should somehow remove blocks that don't allow me to know my life purpose.

I struggle with this one too. I went through a phase where I was trying out all sorts of weird stuff in an attempt to find something that clicks with me. Ultimately I think you're fine; just keep doing what you're doing and give yourself time to reflect on what worked and what didn't.

Keep it up!

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Homeostasis fights back 

I was bragging few days ago how nice I'm doing, but now I am feeling homeostasis in action on myself. She doesn't want me to change too fast ;)

I've got itchy runny nose for second time this year when before it happened  once in 10 years. Now I cure myself with cold showers and Scotch, but without much success.

My healthy habits worked so well, but every slip throws me back tremendously.

Impression is that some entity doesn't  like that I am changing.

1 hour later

I watched this: https://www.actualized.org/articles/overcoming-adversity

and now all my problems look so small to me :D

I took Leo's mantra:  “I can handle any situation, any challenge life throws at me.” and sung it some 100 times and now I believe that I can solve any problem, that raises in my way to better me.

I will certainly repeat this regularly particularly in times of doubt and recreancy.

Edited by Time Traveler
Change of perspective after watching Leo's video

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 “I can handle any situation, any challenge life throws at me.”

mantra works well, I use it every day

Weight loss

- 6 kg in first month, good, but no changes for last week or so. Best thing is that I love my new eating habits and everyday walking. I definitely feel much stronger.

New meditation style

I attended Vipassana (Goenka) retreats 2 times and tried to implement this meditation practice in my everyday life. But I could not get away from seeing it as a hard task I must do every day. And MUST DO IN THE RIGHT WAY.

So, now I invented my new Mixed Meditation Art (MMA) style, where I watch different inner states (music, bodily feelings, emotions, thoughts, ...)

Now meditation is pleasure for me.

My web DB project

My brother send me first email with requirements four years ago. Holy shit ! I am ashamed !

Back then I thought it'll be an easy task and I'll complete it in about a month.

When it turned out that I will need to learn much about databases and web design I felt overwhelmed. I could not divide project in small chunks without learning some 5 new software languages before. I concentrated only on end result and looked at learning new things only as a obstacles in my way.

Last few days I changed my perspective (with help of Alan Watts) and are looking at whole project as a piece of music and not trying to reach last note faster.

My progress with Mental Bank

I added two valued tasks:

* No shit (abandoning stupid time eaters like video games and news reading)

* Full workday (working 8 hours on my goals in accordance with pre-written plan) I'm on pension, so I don't need to grind 9 to five.

First one was easy (do nothing) second was hard. Could be, I need to modify it.

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Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck !!!

Sometimes everything is OK, marvelous and fucking nice !

But sometimes everything is pure shit !

Today is that time. Everything was screwed up from morning. I tried to do everything right, I meditated, I exercised, I went out with my dog, but as I said somewhere, "willpower is limited resource".

All my struggles ended with don't now how many hours of stupid computer games, bottle of scotch and total overeating.

Worst thing is that I didn't enjoyed any of that.

I feel like shit.

I suspect that this is due to weather conditions that are terrible today.

Could be that I shouldn't get out of bed today.

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