I am enjoying a laid back day off today, and a relatively light weekend ahead. I will try to catch up on hobbies. And I also hope to start thinking ahead for the coming year. With that forward look though, I will try to look back and think about all I have accomplished in 2023.
I often get tunnel-visioned in my busy life, seeing only the day ahead or the week ahead, primarily looking at the present. I often fail to see how much better my life has become. A comfortable home. Good health. A career that brings me satisfaction and accomplishment. Relationships with family and friends. Progression in my hobbies and past-times.
Maybe this could be my new hobby. I am definitely not a strong skater. Let’s say I have a lot of potential. Hoping my family can help teach me their ways!
In the year ahead, I hope I can keep up this habit of looking to my future and looking at the past. I think this gives me greater appreciation for how much I have, and how much I have grown. And how much more living and growing I have to do.
Some goals I have for the year include:
-Running a half marathon in the summer. I invested in working with a coach to hone my skills and keep improving.
-Blogging more often, as a way to reflect and grow.
-Spending quality time with my family and friends. Aiming for time with family every 1-2 weeks and time with friends once a month or more.
-Traveling with intention and for joy.
-Continuing to learn languages with Duolingo.
-Continuing to play piano and guitar as an outlet for creativity and relaxation.
-Reading 40 books. I am definitely behind right now but I can feel things starting to pickup. Thank you snow days and cold weather, driving us inside!
Yay for snow days!
-Continuing to save and invest, spending money and time with intention to optimize comfort and joy in life. Avoiding squandering my money or time on things that are not going to return comfort or joy.
-Learn a new skill. I am thinking of trying something in the arts and crafts realm.
I will use this post as a way to reflect at the halfway point and endpoint of the year ahead to gauge how I am growing and meeting my goals. I know perfection is impossible but progression is definitely achievable and laudable. Growing just a little bit each day or week or year will be tremendous. Now it is time to go back to my day off and enjoy this time to unwind and ponder.
I was trodding my way through an iFitWinter treadmill workout with Billy Demong (the former Nordic combined skier and Olympian gold medalist) yesterday. During this, I think he said something that helped me put workouts and the point of workouts in perspective.
What Billy Demong said was this: Put in the work, do the workouts, follow the simple formula of “keep your hard days hard, and keep your easy days easy,” and you will improve. Your endurance and your speed will get better. Time on your feet and building endurance is like increasing the size of your engine, but by also doing hard work on hard days (speed play), you improve the speed of your engine. Both are important and vital to improving. I have heard this time and again in other books and lectures about workout plans and improving performance in sport, particularly distance running. It is a simple idea. But putting in the work itself is definitely not easy. The work is hard, and often painful, and it could be easy to give up. Showing up and doing each workout requires perseverance and diligence.
Our cat Oscar shows inspiring perseverance and grit, jumping over 3 feet in the air to reach my precious flowers. Nothing will hold this little guy down.
Billy also said it well later on in the workout that if you put in say an hour most days of the week (5-6 days/week), you will advance. It does not require many hours to get better. To be the best, you can put in 3-4 hours/day. But for my own novice athlete purposes, I can see 30-60 minutes/day, most days of the week way more doable, and achieves what I want to get, which is 70-80% better. Getting that last 10-20% improvement takes way more time and effort.
I have definitely seen this myself, particularly in my first year of following marathon training plans. In that first year, I went from essentially 0% ability to about 60% ability in marathon running pretty easily, by doing the work and finishing the workouts. From here, though, over the last 4 years, the gains have continued but are not as dramatic and not as plentiful. I agree with Billy that the key is steady, repeated work. I like seeing how my endurance and enjoyment of a longer run has steadily improved. I feel comfortable running at a faster baseline pace. I find it comforting and cathartic to get in a run most (if not all) days of the week, as my schedule allows.
I think the same thing holds true with everything else. We put in the work in school and professional/job training. Being in the very moment of grade school, high school, college, and med school, the work is hard, but doable. We do the same at work with our work goals and projects and deadlines. Chunking it up into a day, or week, or month, I can see that each goal I strive for is relatively simple and achievable.
If I focused too long or too hard on the end goal (26.2 miles, graduation from a 4 year college degree, or achieving a degree in medicine, or finishing a tough, grueling residency), I could see myself getting demoralized or overwhelmed. By being nearsighted though, each day or each week, I can see myself achieving and growing. And indeed, by piecing these days and weeks and months together, I have definitely improved and grown. I see the parallel with tough workouts and tough segments of workouts. A 2 minute push at tempo pace is hard in the moment. But afterward, the feeling of accomplishment is a huge reward in and of itself. I am sure that is why we keep going back for more workouts, and keep pursuing more goals.
I don’t yet have another race or goal in mind. But I strive to put in workouts most days, if not every day, of each week, to keep my endurance up. And it also serves to help me decompress and keep my mental health in check. I have not yet come up with a perfect schedule to coalesce with my family responsibilities and work responsibilities. I tend to squeeze in a workout here or there where it will fit, and it is not consistent day to day or week to week. But by prioritizing my health and my workouts, I can see myself performing better in my personal life and my work life.
I think my health is the best reward of all of this hard work, better than any particular medal or time on the clock at the end of the race. (But don’t get me wrong – I will keep pushing for the PR (personal record)!) Health is one of the most valuable commodities we have. I feel I need to put in the work each day and each week to nurture myself, body, mind, and spirit, to approach the best version of me. Self improvement (health wise and professional wise and family wise) is one of the most valuable rewards I have seen through my fitness journey and my journey in life. The process of getting better is a never ending process, and I look forward to continuing to improve.
As a parent, I hope to instill in my children an appreciation and respect for flexibility. With this, I am talking about mental and emotional flexibility, though physical flexibility is to be respected and is something to strive for too. (Though I admit, my mental flexibility far surpasses my physical flexibility at this time. My physical flexibility is yet another thing I need to improve upon. My kids can likely teach me a thing or two!) I am by no means an expert in flexibility, but I truly value the skill of “going with the punches” and being able to bend to adapt to whatever situation I am in.
Teaching each other the fine art of cartwheels (which require grace, poise, and of course, flexibility).
I think patience is another valuable skill closely related to flexibility. Without patience, you can easily lose your cool and waste negative energy wishing and ranting for things to be a different way. Instead, being more accepting of a situation helps you better tackle whatever challenge are coming your way. And in addition, flexibility, over rigidity, is definitely key to overcoming life’s challenges.
A good way I try to show this to my children is by helping them navigate their afternoon routines. It never seems to go to plan to get all their homework and afternoon activities done in the exact order I plan. Instead of panicking or being upset by this, I feel it is way more productive (and less dramatic) to accept the events as they come, and simply tackle the next step when you can. This teaches grace under pressure, but also helps them navigate the fine art of time management. Time is truly valuable to me, a finite resource you cannot get back, and I hope to train my children to better utilize the time they have. Being young, I can see that time feels infinite and plentiful. Perhaps though as we get older, we start to see the reality of the finite aspects of time, and that it is a gift to be cherished.
One thing that has helped me tremendously with flexibility is goal setting, and trying to prioritize my goals. I try to set up to 3 goals per day, and prioritize them. If I can get at least one of them done, as I planned it, I am pleased. Getting all 3 is a nice bonus, but if I cannot get to all 3, I try to be more accepting of this, particularly if I got my #1 goal done. I won’t totally abandon those other goals, but I try to look forward in my week and see where they can fit.
Again, this is a lifelong pursuit to be more flexible and patient. But I hope that I can guide my children how to do this well, by giving advice and by setting the example. With these two invaluable tools of flexibility and patience, I can foresee my children being valuable members of a workplace, a family, and a team. They will be productive and well respected, and I think they will be well adjusted and more satisfied with their lives and accomplishments.
My favorite season is now back…fall. The weather has been what feels like unseasonably warm so I am welcoming the promise of cooler, brisker weather. I am sprinkling some pumpkin spice in my coffee in the morning to celebrate the time of year. And the return of my favorite fall ale, Block House Pumpkin Ale, at the beverage store is a highlight for the season. I stocked up this year on a case, so I am happily well set on this fall staple.
I also appreciate how this time of year is a time for children to resume a new school year, so it feels like things are starting over. I know that January 1 is the beginning of the calendar year, but the fall for me feels like it is kicking off new beginnings.
I think also the fall is my favorite time of year as it kicks off a series of fun holidays for my little ones …Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I love watching them get excited for these festivities, and it brings me back to a time when I too when get very excited for them. I do still enjoy the holidays, but they carry a more special kind of magic when you are a child.
As I go through September and into October, I tend to revisit my goals as well for the year, as this is the time of year of my work anniversary. Along with setting professional/work goals this time of year, I strive to come up with a personal goal or two to focus on, and I try to look back on how far I have come in the last year. I find it amazing how fast and slow time can go, seemingly at the same time. A week can drag on forever, but it feels like I am still in my 20s, but here I am approaching age 40. I look forward to the next couple of months of brisk (but not too cold yet!) weather, pumpkin ale, and reflecting on where I have been and where I hope to go in the next year.
I feel pulled in different directions each day: called to serve my family and also called to fulfill my career demands. I find that the following approaches have helped me find some peace and organization in my busy daily life.
Peppa Pig and pals – Striving for order in a disorderly world.
Writing Down My Goals
I physically write down my goals for the days and weeks ahead. I keep a journal and jot down thoughts before they escape. Each morning I try to focus on one or two achievable goals. Our modern lives are bombarded with constant streams of social feeds and updates. Having my goals written down keeps me focused and organized.
Keeping My Goals Short and Doable
If one of my goals remains on my list too long, it is often because the goal is too large, or I am not yet ready to achieve it. I think harder about how to reword the goal to achieve tangible results. I strive to break down bigger vague goals into quick achievable steps.
My shorty, getting bigger every day.
Setting Practical Deadlines
Having deadlines has made me more accountable and productive. After each of my goals, I set a reasonable “due date.” If the due date passes, I analyze where I may have went wrong in my estimations. Or, I think about what challenges may have come up to monopolize my time. I then choose a new deadline, taking into account my track history.
Re-strategize When I Don’t Reach My Goals
Life can get complicated and messy. Life does not always follow the course I want it to take. Sometimes traffic will make me late. Illnesses come up when I least expect it. Another emergency arises. This does not mean, however, that I need to throw away my plans or live a chaotic and disorganized life. Instead of looking at this negatively for too long, I consciously try to see the disorder of life as a challenge and a way to become better, stronger, and more resilient.
If life gives you livestock, why not go for a ride?
Practicing Gratitude Each Day
I strive to focus on 3 things in my life every evening that make me smile. There is so much I am thankful for. I have bad days interspersed with my good days, but regardless of what happened, I try to take 5 minutes in my evening to focus on what has brought me happiness and joy.
