My Journal - Alex

[AlexTheGrape]

 

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.

[dandielionous]

@AlexTheGrape I wonder if you realize that you are a leader here.

[Mad Pharmacist]

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

[AlexTheGrape]

@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. 

[AlexTheGrape]

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

[AlexTheGrape]

Love that photo!

Thanks! Looking slick with your new avatar

[Mad Pharmacist]

I hope you remember your umbrella for the rain/snow

Screw umbrella, I have the power of surviving the worst.

Today was snowy btw.

[Piotr]

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.

[AlexTheGrape]

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.

[Cam Adair]

hahaha love that pic! stoked to hang out sometime soon.

[Phoenix]

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!

[AlexTheGrape]

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!

[Cam Adair]

Happy New Year Alex!

[dandielionous]

 

[AlexTheGrape]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you've got some new goals for 2017

[AlexTheGrape]

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.

[AlexTheGrape]

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

[AlexTheGrape]

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

[AlexTheGrape]

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. 

[Piotr]

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

Something that forces you to complete your goals is a must! But can you think of anything else than money?
It's a pleasure to drop by, thank you for sharing your journal with us!

[Mad Pharmacist]

Hey, thanks for this awesome picture of you on the sunny beach!

On the other hemisphere it's so snowy right now that I should take a special picture for you especially to cool you when you'll experience hot temperature!

I can't wait to the outcome of Trump Zone! Hope you'll get used of the challenge I gave you as my idea (the one with water filter)

Have a nice holidays! This way you'll boost your productivity to the highest level when you'll come back from them!

Greetings, Mad Pharmacist

[Cam Adair]

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

Definitely hoping next year. Think I'll be going to India in August/September for a tour, so hope to pop over to Aus/NZ after that.

[AlexTheGrape]

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

Definitely hoping next year. Think I'll be going to India in August/September for a tour, so hope to pop over to Aus/NZ after that.

Awesome! I look forward to seeing you here

[AlexTheGrape]

Quick update: 

The past few days have been a blur of working at the restaurant, doing chores whilst my dad and co. are away, and driving up late. It was my step-father's birthday today and I drove far to see him. I wrote him a card, got him a present, and he made a surprise visit with my family to see myself and my brother working at the restaurant (my brother started working yesterday!).

The Trump Zone explanation is now pretty much complete, I now need to edit some videos so that I have something to show for all this preparation. It seems to be taking a lot longer than planned due to things coming up unexpectedly these holidays.

I haven't been doing too well with my daily habits, but I plan to get back into it tomorrow as my schedule will finally allow for it.

[AlexTheGrape]

Positive Habit Streak – Day 0

Today has been a relatively relaxed day. In comparison to a few weeks ago, my day has been lazy because I didn’t achieve any of my previous positive habits. I spent time finishing the TrumpZone explanation and editing the video (check it out here).

I’ve been thinking about my plan to use losing money as an incentive to get me into self-development properly again. The last time I did that I simply didn’t end up giving up my money because it was too valuable to me to give away. Furthermore it is a very artificial incentive – in real life I won’t have a threat to push me to better myself. I have to come to terms with doing self-development because it is what I want, not because it fulfils some outside pressure. If I rely on additional incentives to do difficult tasks I’ll never be able to keep consistent if that incentive is removed.

I’ve decided to keep myself accountable for doing ALL the positive habits in my journal by turning my counter into a positive habit streak counter. That way I’ll have to reset it to 0 even if I forget one of these. That way I’ll be completely focused on completing them and if they’re not working for me then I can bin it.

Gratitude journal

I am grateful for having a view from my window.

I am grateful for emailing.

I am grateful for having the choice to improve myself in any area I choose.

One amazing thing that happened/I did today:

I moved my desk to the window so I can get a view. It makes for a great change!

Workout/run

No.

Daily task planning ahead of time

No.

Exercise planning

I’m doing ForceFit 2, week 6, day 2 (the day I failed to get started on).

Meditation

No.

Visualisation

No.

Daily affirmation

No.

Fully cold shower

No.

Reading + taking notes

Yup.

Getting to bed before 10:10pm

No.

Jar of Awesome

I’ve decided to add at least one entry into my Jar of Awesome, as I have consistently been ignoring it recently.

Daily application of self-development skills

Tomorrow I’ll make sure to make the right small choices. This is because the small difficult tasks I choose to ignore on one day will end up being the way I go about them every other day.

Weekly Goal(s)

NONE.

Next week: Don’t fail a single day of my success streak!

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.”

I only got up the video of Trump Zone today, which is pretty lousy! I also didn’t get started on getting to know my neighbours better, which is a real shame. I’m going to have to try that one again, but instead of making it a monthly goal I should try scheduling it with a more urgent deadline and with smaller starting expectations. I’ll try this starting Monday: Get to know the neighbours in one house this week (I haven’t managed to any, so I need to start small with one).

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:

Basically nothing other than taking the time to respond to some pen pals and writing here.

What didn’t go well today:

Procrastination an laziness everywhere.

What I could have done to make my day better:

A lot.

What I will do differently tomorrow:

Get on with all the habits.

Photo Stream

Here’s another photo from the day up the mountain and at the beach.