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AlexTheGrape
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Posts posted by AlexTheGrape
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Hi Alex, nice picture!
I love the structure you are using in your posts, it reminds you what want to do better next time and learn from it. Its structure helped remind me what I wrong the previous time and analyze it.
Don't worry about not reaching level 12,5, as a runner myself I understand how difficult it is to not get your desired outcome. We all have our good and bad days, but if you keep running consistently you will see progress. Good luck!Hi Thomas!
Thank you! I often put in pictures for better incentive for me to continue photography and to make it more interesting.
Yeah journalling is important for reflection, but I find putting in the specific prompts help that even further.
What I'm annoyed about is that I've done better before! I don't mean to boast but my best is 13.6, and so not making it back to that level can be annoying. Oh well I have all the more incentive to do better next time. The problem I had was that I simply gave up when it got to 12, even though I was able to go further. Anyhow it's not a big problem, you're right that I just need to keep trying.
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hahaha love that pic! stoked to hang out sometime soon.
Thanks!
Hang out soon? Does that mean you're coming to NZ soon?
Please don't get my hopes up if that's not the case haha 
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At first, and as always
great picture!Secondly, I'm really amazed by your long term goals. Especially when I saw the 4 years one. This means something real. Good luck on that, cause I can't wait to hear about the results!
Thirdly, I see that new year brings you the idea of new changes and plans for you, too. We are both set for success, we both have plans, so let's both have a deal that we will accomplish them.
Greetings, Piotr.
Thank you!
I knew that I needed to get some long term goals for me to get some idea of where I'm heading, for a better sense of purpose. I'm pretty sure it'll change with time and it is currently very specific and based on that entrepreneurial stuff, but having that current goal should help me a lot.
Yep, the deal I'm making is that I'll lose money if I don't complete them. This is forcing me to make both realistic goals, and acting on those goals in spite of discomfort. Stay tuned to see how it goes!
Thanks again for dropping by
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Quick update:
I have spent the last 2 days and today at a friend’s batch and had a blast! It was great fun and I think I truly made the most of the days spent there. I have been thinking about Cam’s email out (also on facebook) about having a theme for the year. I certainly know that leadership should be my theme for the year, as it is an area I have little experience in that would prove very useful if I upped my skills in it. Leadership applies to a lot of things, and that is why it is such a good theme. I also think I should continue setting up a punishment for not meeting weekly goals (losing money) as an extra incentive, as it’ll force me to say “fuck it” and go do the difficult stuff because stagnating and doing nothing will now cost me more. Literally, it will cost me $$$.
I didn’t take many photos unfortunately (I tried minimizing phone usage most of the time), but I took a snap chat video whilst on the boat.
I’ve scheduled to write about TZ and everything tomorrow, so I intend to do that ASAP among loads of other tasks.
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Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've got some new goals for 2017
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I'll be busy celebrating New Years tonight, but I have a half-finished explanation of TrumpZone which I will post within the next 5 days or so and videos to upload on YouTube. I'll respond to comments individually later as well. In short today has gone pretty well, but I'll give it a proper post hopefully tomorrow. Thanks for your patience, reader!
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Post-Detox Day 254
Today I has been amazing. Period. I kicked it off with extended meditation, and then ran off to the park to do some intense exercises. I got to level 12 in the beep test (running test), which although is really good by other’s standards, didn’t meet my goal for today of 12.5. I then did workouts until almost 50 minutes of exercising had elapsed. I then had a call with my accountability partner and did a couple more things before leaving for work. I had two hours which I didn’t spend very well that was between my lunch shift and dinner shift. I’m now home and basically have no time left for other things, so I’ll need to keep a balance between work and play without mooching off into procrastination.
Gratitude journal
I am grateful for getting the drink-serving position at work again.
I am grateful for chocolates I was given for Christmas.
I am grateful for printers.
One amazing thing that happened/I did today:
Having finished my exercise and morning routine and it being only 9am felt amazing because I then had time to spare for other things which I’d previously blown on watching history videos in the past few days.
Workout/run
Yup!
Daily task planning ahead of time
I’m now planning… Done!
Exercise planning
I’m doing ForceFit 2, week 6, day 2.
Meditation
Yup.
Visualisation
No.
Daily affirmation
No.
Fully cold shower
Yup.
Reading + taking notes
Yup
Getting to bed before 10:10pm
No.
Daily application of self-development skills
Keep what I’m trying to achieve in mind when doing difficult tasks, in particular the reward.
I didn’t do this very often today, I’ll try again tomorrow.
Weekly Goal(s)
NONE
Monthly Goal(s)
Have at least one video of my holiday programme on YouTube with a dedicated channel.
Have gotten to know the inhabitants of 10 neighbour households.
Old 3 Month Goal (1 month left!)
My three month goal is to develop my leadership skills enough to confidently coach a sports team or lead another form of community group.
3 Month Goal
Expand my holiday programme to a running business/be running my own community group within my neighbourhood.
Know my neighbours from at least 100 households/have them as contacts for my holiday programme.
12 Month Goal
Be running my own community group, hosting public events (more detail needed)
48 Month Goal
Have grown my holiday programme/community group to be accessible by at least half of the NZ population.
Have the skills (namely leadership) to have my options open for being an entrepreneur or having a normal job.
What went well today:
Everything, because I stuck to my commitments.
What didn’t go well today:
Procrastinating because I hadn’t dedicated some free time.
What I could have done to make my day better:
Dedicating some free time.
What I will do differently tomorrow:
Get 30 mins free time to read what I like once I’ve completed all essential tasks.
Photo Stream
Here’s my best attempt at taking a selfie with my chunky camera! I love that you can see the camera in my glasses.
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Hi @Zeliow, welcome to the community!
Good choice to create some structure in your life and starting your own journal!
All the best for your exams to work towards your bachelors degree.
Those are some awesome goals, especially since you only just started!
Looking forward to see how you do
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Love that photo!
Thanks! Looking slick with your new avatar
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Good job on you working on your commitment!
Also I think that money punishment is good for those tasks that you know you MUST do but you're struggle to do it.
Not with every goal, because this way you'll get so big pressure on yourself that you'll be seriously stressed about it.
Sometimes you won't be able to finish one of your ten goals, and that's ok, you still finished 9 out of 10, so that's super awesome!
I used money punishment only to abstain from games. I'll donate other GQ (Including you) only when I start playing video games again.
So, you should use it only for something that IS important for you but you're too lazy to do it. Or just don't want to.
Thanks for the call and for an awesome landscape of NZ!
Greetings, Mad Pharmacist
Thank you!
That's a great idea, I'll just use the money punishment for the essential goals. Getting stressed about them seems like a good way to ensure commitment.
Thank you for the call too! I hope you remember your umbrella for the rain/snow
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@AlexTheGrape I wonder if you realize that you are a leader here.
Thank you! I know I've been here a while, but I guess I don't get to see much of what impact I can make on others in the community, so I'm rather oblivious.
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But remember, no playing online! We should all three visit each other to play!
GameQuitters' online gaming session would be a bit contradictory.
IN PERSON ONLY.
I didn't even know you could play online until you mentioned it here!
Yup definitely no playing it online. -
Post-Detox Day 253
Okay, time for a reality check. My 5 day holiday to the Coromandel was acceptable for being somewhat inconsistent with my daily habits and self-development. But for 4 days after Christmas? C’mon Alex!
I’ve tasked myself with posting about my TrumpZone programme tomorrow whilst I’m not working (not much time actually) so you can hear about what I’ve been keeping from you!
I’m kick-starting my self-development again and going all-out. It seems that even though my ever-growing tasks and lengthening workouts etc are taking up plenty of time, I spend even more time browsing the internet and generally wasting time if I don’t do those things. I had a call with the Mad Pharmacist today and have come to realise that a lot of my self-development motives this year have been from a powerful motive, the fear of failure. I feared failing to get the position in the Defence Force I wanted, so I made sure to do the best I could physically and otherwise to prepare myself for it. Now that I didn’t achieve that, I no longer have that motive. The only other motive I have left is a positive drive for something I want, however I haven’t been put in the position to act on that type of motive very much until now. This could simply be me trying to make sense of things and I could be completely wrong, but what I know for certain is that I need to either develop my self-development drive by taking more action and/or add a negative incentive so that I fear failing to do these tasks (e.g. losing money, but handing over the money first so that I’m accountable).
Alright! I’m just about set. I want to come up with some new year’s resolutions very soon, I’ll probably make it in goal format that I update on a weekly basis. Hey that’s it! My new year’s resolution will be to complete all monthly goals every month this year, otherwise pay $50 to a person/charity of my choice. If you, the reader, think that I should abandon this idea and solely focus on positive incentives, please let me know quickly before I make the commitment in two days!
Gratitude journal
I am grateful for the wonderful weather of my country.
I am grateful for the car accessories I’ve been given generously.
I am grateful for my desk fan.
One amazing thing that happened/I did today:
Taking the time to have a call with the Mad Pharmacist today really got me reflecting and back on track. Thanks a lot @hycniejsy!
Workout/run
Nope.
Daily task planning ahead of time
I’m now planning for tomorrow… Done!
Exercise planning
I’m doing ForceFit 2, week 6, day 1.
Meditation
Yup.
Visualisation
Yup.
Daily affirmation
Yup.
Fully cold shower
No.
Reading + taking notes
No.
Getting to bed before 10:10pm
No.
Daily application of self-development skills
Keep what I’m trying to achieve in mind when doing difficult tasks, in particular the reward.
Weekly Goal(s)
NONE
Monthly Goal(s)
Have at least one video of my holiday programme on YouTube with a dedicated channel.
Have gotten to know the inhabitants of 10 neighbour households.
Old 3 Month Goal (1 month left!)
My three month goal is to develop my leadership skills enough to confidently coach a sports team or lead another form of community group.
3 Month Goal
Expand my holiday programme to a running business/be running my own community group within my neighbourhood.
Know my neighbours from at least 100 households/have them as contacts for my holiday programme.
12 Month Goal
Be running my own community group, hosting public events (more detail needed)
48 Month Goal
Have grown my holiday programme/community group to be accessible by at least half of the NZ population.
Have the skills (namely leadership) to have my options open for being an entrepreneur or having a normal job.
What went well today:
Deciding to finish cold in my shower helped me deal with discomfort for a little bit of the day.
What didn’t go well today:
A lot.
What I could have done to make my day better:
Sticking to commitments, and reflecting daily.
What I will do differently tomorrow:
I will make sure to stick to these commitments, and make sure to journal!
Photo Stream
This photo is another I took whilst on my Christmas holiday. I really like the waves in the foreground in this one!
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Merry Christmas everyone!
All the best for the final days of 2016
Here's a photo I took on my walk a couple days ago:
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@Shine Magical I think you've made a great decision to continue going without gaming. The point of quitting gaming or cutting back on it is to have more time in life for things that matter the most, and to have a more fulfilling life. If the things you've now started to do that are beneficial would be overtaken by gaming, it is likely that gaming is not a good choice, but rather just the path of least resistance. I played a video game with some school friends for a few hours some couple of weeks after my detox, however it became apparent that the gaming was simply engaging and sometimes fun, but not fulfilling in any way. I then went cold-turkey again.
The Lesson: if you've had to go through all this trouble to reduce time gaming and you're starting to see positive results, returning to gaming will erase the progress you've made, delay the attaining of your dreams, and will likely end up being a regrettable decision.
All the best for abstaining from games
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I've decided that I need to keep my goals and planned activities more concise and to simply dump the ones that aren't important enough. I've grown a list of to-do's so large that I simply don't attempt it very much anymore because it is stressful and takes up more time than I have to spare. I am on holiday and I'm not doing much at the moment, but I need this time to relax with my family for the next couple of days whilst it lasts. More on this a little later.
- Cut down on unimportant activities
- Choose one weekly goal instead of overwhelming myself with goals and tasks
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@dandielionous thank you for taking the time to read my journal, I hope you've enjoyed it and learned something from my slip ups and successes alike.
2am is pretty late to stay up reading the journal! I hope you are reading more 'sustainably' now
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@dandielionous thank you so much for your kind words! That was a wonderful summary of my journal, and of the progress I've made during my time journaling.
I agree that all those aspects show a type of growth, all in notable ways. I didn't think of the 'skipped' and 'I forgot' changing to 'nope' or 'no', it shows that I'm holding myself more accountable, so thanks for bringing that up.
Haha yeah I try to not be grateful for the same things now, it helps a lot to be grateful for ever more things.
Yep I'd agree my self-confidence has grown, however that might be working against me at the moment as I'm stagnating in terms of development due to a lack of drive. That'll fix itself after I start university however.
I had to look up Casanova to see what it is all about, and I ended up reading half the wikipedia page! It seems he's certainly had an interesting life, but it's certainly not the type of life I'd want to pursue. Thank you for you affirmations, I'm sure I'll find the right person eventually.
Wow what a good photo to suit! I shall indeed be AlexTheOwl
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I really like the Settlers of Catan!
Once during convention I played it on the large scale (Like 10x bigger than normal board game) and it was pretty interesting, especially because resources were in the corner of the room, and you had to run for them everytime you rolled giant foam dices
It was during 4 a.m. and I remember that this running for resources kept me awake
We should play it once I'll come to NZ or you come to Poland, shouldn't we?
Greetings, Mad Pharmacist
Wow! COUNT ME IN TOO! Playing Catan large scale would be awesome!
Haha yes, playing it when we meet up eventually would be wonderful.
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@AlexTheGrape Thank you for the photos! I have been downloading your photos to use for desktop picitures etc.
Thank you for the encouragement.
Reading your journal was like reading a coming of age story. Have you ever read the Diary of Anne Frank? I would give you a link but my internet is not working that well. ;( I believe it's available for a free download. I think there is also a movie.
You're welcome! Great to hear you like my photos, I always take scenic ones so they do tend to make good desktop backgrounds
Oh, why is it like a coming of age story? It is currently over only a little more than a year's worth of time, so I didn't think I'd have matured all that much haha. Yes I read about half of Anne Frank's diary, I should probably read it again sometime, but I have a lot to read already...
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Hi Dandielionous,
Firstly, well done on writing a journal to 15 days. It is alien to many people to write about their life instead of just living it, so taking the time to reflect is a wonderful thing you're doing.
I'm amazed at your self-awareness, you seem to be noticing the problems everywhere and contemplating the how's, why's, and what's to do next. That is another level of consciousness, so keep it up!
The only advice I have for you at the moment is to not be too hard on yourself for not achieving goals, and make sure they're SMART goals. It was really wonderful you tried to read an entire journal every day, but as you mentioned it took a very long time to get through mine. If there are any lessons or changes you'd like to write down and take note of, it'd be great to have a daily way to apply them, or turn them into goals (I need to be much more consistent with my own self-development actually...).
I shall be writing a better thank-you in my journal for reading it.
Keep on keeping on, I'm sure you'll be in a better place out the other end of the detox.
To finish off I am making a phrase that I hope is memorable for you (with some photos I took yesterday for flavour)
This path will be rocky, it will be difficult, but it is the path that will take you to the top.
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Post-Detox Day 247
Today has been another great day! We had pancakes for breakfast then went on a 2 hour hike up a nearby hill. It made for great walk, and I took heaps of photos. I then introduced the TrumpZone programme to my two brothers. My little brother seems to be liking it a lot (and asked for a second challenge that day), but my other brother opted out because he didn’t want me telling him what to do (he’s my twin so yeah). In the afternoon I drove them down to the beach and we had a swim, used boogie boards, and did a little lying in the sun. In the evening we had another game of Catan, which must have been the longest ever.
I think I'll make a separate thread for TrumpZone, as there will be a lot to explain. My little brother and I have been recording videos of what we're doing, however the internet I'm using at the moment is from my phone so I don't have enough data on my plan to upload any (I also need his permission first). I do plan to upload some form of video at the very least before the end of the month.
This photo is of me up the top of the huge hill I hiked up with the family. I took many photos on this trip, so there are many to come!
My Journal - Alex
in Daily Journals
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Awesome! I look forward to seeing you here