2021-11-07 — Week 2 Report 😊

On October 24th, I wrote a post called “Life Makeover.” I talked about making a course correction, which would include making a number of changes.

So… we adjusted course two weeks ago, and how’s it going? Here’s a report: 🙂

Getting up at 5: I’ve done quite well! The latest I’ve gotten out of bed was 5:17. Usually, I’m out of bed between 5:00 and 5:07. I have not given in and just kept sleeping–not even once. Not on the weekend. Not on a day off. Not once. And today, was the best day yet for getting up: I was actually early, again.

5x5s: I’ve had really good days and bad focus days, but I’ve been doing 5x5s every day. On the bad focus days, I missed one or two of the 5 because I was too lazy to start the 5-minute countdown timer, which leads to spending way more than 5 minutes on a given task, thus not leaving time for one or more of the other 5x5s. But I’ve been doing them, and I did all 5 today, and we’re on track. Boom. And overall?

1. My room is significantly cleaner and more user friendly. The screens are gone out of it. The bed is made every day. No more dirty clothes on the floor, not even in piles. No more clean clothes on the recliner: the clothes are put away. The junk shelf is rapidly improving. The paper piles all over the floor have decreased to “active” paper piles (meaning they’re part of active projects I’m working on). There’s no food or dishes in there anymore. I use my room to sleep, store stuff, and meditate.
   The yard is looking better.
2. The weeds are gone from the front of the house. The weeds are nearly all gone from the old tree across the driveway. The trash by my cars is cleaned up. The rocks on the slope by my car are getting cleared out, so it can be mowed like everything else. The old ruined burn barrel is in the metal pile.
3. The driveway and garage are getting better. The metal has been hauled to the metal pile. The trash has been taken to the dumpster. Most of the coolant has been taken to the disposal. The diesel fuel has been placed in gallon containers for disposal over time (allowed 2 gallons a month at the disposal place, so… unless I can find a better way to dispose of it, it’ll be May when it’s all gone). All the shelves and things in the fridge were taken out (and then my mom cleaned it for us. Thanks, mom!).
4. My bathtub is pretty darn clean (not covered in oily-stephen residue). My side of the double-sink vanity is decently clean. Been cleaning some grease stains off the walls where my fingers have touched. No more piles of clothes in the laundry blocking stuff up. No more dead worms and bugs on the basement floor (worms manage to get in somehow during super-heavy rain storms and die on the floor). My stuff is cleaned off the kitchen table. My stuff is cleaned up… all over, other than my piles of papers at my “desk” in the living room. Haven’t figured out how to vacuum yet because I get up so early that everyone is asleep. That used to be a staple of my 5×5. I guess we’ll see how it goes.
5. I’m staying relatively on top of my email inbox, so that’s good!

Exercise: This one has been weak. It’s hard to do exercise with a bum hip (yes, it’s still bad, though I think it’s improving a little bit, very slowly. I hope). I’ve done exercise every day, I think, but I don’t think I’ve got a single day of 30 minutes in. It’s usually 5 to 15 minutes. So lots of room for improvement, but it has been every day, so that’s good. It’s hard to keep my motivation for it when I don’t have equipment and space to work out in, and I don’t have a solid plan for what I’m even doing. I’ll fix the latter part today, and the former, I’m gonna make a plan for how to solve that today as well (I’m writing this early in the morning, by the way). Mostly, it’s been just stomach work because that’s what I can do. A little arm work, a little chest work.

Breakfast: I think I’ve eaten breakfast every. single. day. this last two weeks. That’s… almost unheard of in my crazy brain, crazy life. So that’s super good!

Meditation: I think I’ve meditated every day. It hasn’t always been super effective, though. It’s been a lot like the exercise, though better than exercise, I think. I’ve been quite distracted on some days, and it’s been too short on most, if not all days, so there’s a lot of room for improvement, but I’m doing it!

Non-Profit Work: I think I’ve worked on my np maybe all but one day? Maybe every day? I’ve spent time working on names, vision, and self (as I’ve realized that a lot of the work I need to do is working on myself, and that will inform a lot of what I end up doing and how I end up doing it).

Work: I’m still working more than I should. I’ve been doing a little better, I think? I’ve been coming home earlier, on average, than I used to, but I still need to be more careful about how many jobs I take on. I’m booked through a good chunk of next week already, so it’ll be a good test for saying “no.” I am, however, improving, so progress in the right direction being the most important measuring stick means I’ve been successful so for, with some blips and plenty of room for progress still.

Bed time: I’ve. been. so. much. better. Boom. I still have room for improvement, but as the time stamps on my daily posts can attest, I’m improving dramatically.

Wasting My One Precious Life: No TV. No movies. No news. No mindless internet surfing. No porn. Boom.

So there you go: Two solidly good weeks (at least, I think so). Excellent, positive progress. I’m excited for where I am and where I’m headed.

What’s next? First, perfect the present goals:

1. 5×5 timers set. No excuses.
2. 30 minutes of exercise. No excuses.
3. Solid meditation. No excuses.
4. 45 minutes of np work. No excuses.
5. No jobs start after 6, needs to change to done by six, no matter what.

Second: Apply new standards (resurrect more old ones 🙃):

1. No working while driving. No texting. No looking stuff up. No data entry. None of that. NONE OF THAT!!!
2. Up at 4, bed at 8:30. The end. Woke up early today, 4:50. And because it was our “fall back” day, it was actually 3:50 🙃. It’s been a great morning! At 11 a.m., I’d already been up for 7+ hours! It was so cool to have felt like I’d already done so much, and it was only 11!
3. No more highly processed foods (flour tortillas that I’d brought back in are back out. “Healthy” jelly for pb&j tortilla sandwiches, out). Granola… not sure yet. So hard to find granola without a ton of sugar, but Granola is a staple of mine. Gotta figure that one out. Any suggestions? Even the granola with the least amount of sugar is saturated with sugar, like 13 grams per serving. I want to be as healthy as I can, so I can live as long as I can, so I can make a difference that much longer.
4. Self-discipline activities (with all my standards that require self discipline, the stronger I can get, the better, and adding smaller-bite self-discipline activities will help my overall effort:
   1. Cold showers, in the winter 😶
   2. Memorize inspiring quotes.
5. Tame the tongue. No cursing. It doesn’t help me feel better. Neither exclamations nor catharsis does anything for me, personally.
6. 10 things I’m grateful for every day, and working to be grateful for every experience, no matter what.
7. Do at least one thing every day that scares me.
8. Analyze/Improve Reflection

No excuses.

Indomitable.

***

It’s now evening. It’s 7:26 (remember when it was after midnight? 🙃)

What did I do today? I had a fabulous morning. Getting up at 3:50 was awesome. I was surprised I was up, that I woke up 10 minutes before the normal wake-up time. I guess my body is starting to adjust. That’s hard at first, trying to get into the new routine, and you have to do it every day for your body to really build a rhythm. But there’s so much I want to learn, become, and accomplish, that I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it so I need less sleep because I’m sleeping as efficiently as possible. That will give me more time to go out and change the world, and change the world I will.

It was a great morning. I was wide awake, pumped, excited.

After I finished my morning stuff, the 5x5s, the exercise, etc., I added in a little service. I got the rest of the section of fence pulled down, all the barbed wire coiled up, the fence posts pulled out. I cut out the gazillions of saplings that were all growing really close together, most were maybe 3 to 10 feet tall? I chopped them all down but two and mowed down the grass, so it actually looks really good right now (in my opinion). Hope everyone likes it. 🙂

After that, it was Hunter and Mieko’s son’s baby blessing. After that, I hung out and played with the kids over and over again. It’s been fun to reach out and encourage. Lift, inspire, tell them they can, see them feel encouraged, see them believe more in themselves. I tossed the football with a one of Mieko’s brothers, encouraging him and sending him a link to a motivational speech I’ve listened to multiple times (a long one from Eric Thomas).

After that, I played football with a big group of boys. That’s probably the most exercise I’ve gotten in a long time. My muscles were all tight and sore. 🙃 I need more exercise. After that, I ended up on the basketball court tossing the football with Rhett and encouraging a little six-year-old girl with an indomitable spirit to shoot the basket, toss and catch the football, right her scooter up the ramp (with the promise that I’d catch her). It was so fun. Wish I were a dad. But I’ll settle for being an uncleish for now, I guess. Was really a beautiful experience. I love lifting and encouraging and seeing the joy that lights up the eyes of those who feel noticed, encouraged–believed in. So cool.

After that, it was the monthly family meeting. I’m starting to feel outsider syndrome a little. The transition is coming soon, I guess. My life is in the process of radically changing. This time next year, I will likely be in a different state, with different people, doing different work. There’s a lot going on–both inside this little dude’s brain and what’s happening and on it’s way on the outside.

Bring it on.

So… commitments for the day…

• Exercise Space: I’ve made more room in the garage by flipping my weight bench around. Hopefully, that’ll help a little. I bought a Yoga mat which should be here on Tuesday.
• The Plan: The goal is weight-training cardio (meaning weight training in a circuit with little to know rest, power moves that get the heart rate up, so that I have a full 30-minute cardio workout that was done via strength training. Much more efficient. Now I just need my body to heal 🙃. Probably gonna start small. 5 to 10 minutes, working up one minute every day like I did last year. Not sure my hip can handle it, but we’ll see. If it can’t, we’ll re-evaluate and find something that will work. No excuses. Indomitable.

Gratitude, 10 things:

1. I’m grateful that I woke up early today and that it was daylight savings. It was super nice to be up at 3:50. Not gonna be my norm: That’ll be 4 a.m., but it was cool. So cool.
2. I’m grateful for cold showers. It was invigorating. I want to up my self discipline. I never know when my last day on earth will be. If it’s average, I’m halfway through, but I’m not even 1% through what I want to accomplish. I have much to do. Much.
3. I’m grateful to have been able to encourage Alex today. He’s a high school junior, and I was able to lift and encourage and I think help him feel more capable of accomplishing his dreams.
4. I’m grateful I was able to lift Mary today. She doubts herself a lot, but she’s so capable. She hadn’t picked up a softball bat in two years, and she only played one season in her whole life, and she swung and missed on the first pitch today, and she was down on herself for it, and I was like, no, you’re awesome. Bend your knees. Get down on eye level. You’ve got this. Next pitch? Demolished it.
5. I was grateful to encourage that little 6-year-old indomitable little girl, Misuri (spelling?). It was fun to teach her to shoot a basket and watch her try and try until she got it, and then to keep trying. And to teach her to catch a football, and to encourage her to dare to ride up the ramp on her scooter, promising that I’d catch her (which I did). It was so cool.
6. I’m grateful that I’m able to be there for others here on the hill that need service or a reaching out, etc.
7. I’m grateful to have been able to get the fence line not only pulled down but the weeds and trees cut back. It looks so good. There’s still cleanup to do, but it’s looking really good.
8. I’m grateful that tick season is over, and we’re back to being able to go pretty much everywhere without tick and chigger concerns. Wahoo! Rafe got sick from a tick bite, and now he’s got that side effect of no longer being able to eat red meats, etc. (not that I even eat red meat, but it’s nice to be tick-less).
9. I’m grateful to have multiple running cars that can be taken, used, borrowed, whatever.
10. I’m grateful to have been able to ponder a lot for this entry today.

I’m going to (gulp) create Instagram and Twitter accounts. I may not like social media so much, and I might want less invasion of privacy with everything I’m doing being watched and catalogued and sold to the highest bidder, but if I measure my desire for privacy against what I want to do for the world, it’s a no brainer. I want to change the world. If having more social media accounts opens me up to a massive decrease in privacy, whatever. It’s a tiny price to pay. And my life and challenges are already online for everyone to read anyway. So I get a million targeted ads, whatever. I get them anyway. Maybe someday soon I’ll have been away from porn enough to have it sending me boring ads and not ads with scantily clad women.

I tried to sign up earlier today, but I don’t know what handles I want to use. Guess that’s important. The ones I wanted were all taken, so… I guess we’ll see.

I didn’t hear from Steven early this morning, so I did the cold shower. He sent me the first challenge this evening, and the first challenges was… drumroll, please… cold shower.

😁

So… tomorrow there’ll be another one.

Bring it on.

10-day Stoic challenge.

And thus it begins.

Thought of the Day: “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
― Marcus Aurelius

My love to you all.

Lift the World.

~ stephen