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Off-Topic => Something else => Topic started by: dsanchez on January 01, 2021, 19:20:41

Title: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on January 01, 2021, 19:20:41
2021 resolutions

- go to Peru
- 2,000km by bicycle
- visit a new country
- do The Cure pilgrim route
- get vaccinated
- read one book a week
- buy a new coffee machine
- use phone no more than 30'/week
- grow wealth in at least 50%
- learn new software for robotics
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on January 01, 2021, 19:23:24
By the way this is a good article about this https://compoundadvisors.com/2020/make-a-habit-of-it
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: SueC on January 02, 2021, 07:28:29
Thanks for the link, @dsanchez!  :)  It's good to have how-to with goals.

You might like this book I'm halfway through for your 2021 reading list, if you've not read it already - it's very good:  https://charlesduhigg.com/books/the-power-of-habit/

I like that in our era of technical insanity you have this resolution to cut down phone use (I don't even have a smartphone, is how I got out of that one, and I prefer a laptop to a postage stamp anyway;  Brett recently read a book called Digital Minimalism (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40672036-digital-minimalism#) that helped him further streamline the technological side of things).  And I like your goals about travel, and cycling, and reading, and learning, and getting your jab, and spoiling yourself a bit with a coffee gadget!  :cool

I tend not to make New Year's Resolutions because I sometimes think they lead to jinxes... or I make one main resolution to focus on - that tends to work well for us.  We're doing pretty OK with healthy eating, exercising, sleeping, and getting our work done, but of course there's always things in those we want to improve further...

When we finished building our house in 2016 we had to really focus on cardiovascular fitness... 5 years where we were mainly building and working around our farm in almost all our spare time had completely thrown us off our hiking and cycling schedules.  We were doing loads of physical work, including endless lime plastering (three coats to perimeter walls of entire house, inside and out)...

(https://live.staticflickr.com/3680/13231114104_88492b5ed6_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/mabVfY)

...and funnily enough, after a day of that, you just don't say, "Hey, I feel like riding my bicycle, or climbing uphill for a couple of hours!" like you would after a day in the office... so while we looked really fit after building the house, we really weren't, and had to start again in some ways.  We're mostly on top of that now (but it's still not as easy to do as when I used to have a regular indoors job!).

So that was one bugbear we finally mostly dealt with (now if only there wasn't hayfever season, because that throws us for six as well with our strenuous-exercise regime :evil:).

There's two things though that I've been trying to re-introduce as New Year's Resolutions for the past two years, and failed miserably with, to be honest.  I'd love to have those things back in my repertoire but have just not managed to do them more than in a patchy manner, sometimes with months of nothing.  It seems that I just can't fathom the energy to add them in on a regular basis - in part because I already have a huge to-do list:

1) Get back into doing Pilates at least 30 minutes at least every second day
2) Get back into playing my bloody musical instrument, grrrr.

Those two things were not a problem in life-before-the-farm:  I signed up to a group Pilates class twice-weekly, pre-paid so there was both financial and social pressure to go.  Once I was there, the instructor made sure we worked our tails off, so you only needed 60 minutes twice a week and that was all taken care of.  It's the missing link for effective core strength for me - I've got a pre-existing back injury from my early 20s that I've successfully kept at bay for most of my adult life by doing Pilates.

I'm too far from town to be able to continue to attend classes without losing an hour each time on the road, and it's not nearly as easy to make yourself do this stuff on your own.  I've got the mat and I did a compilation CD that goes for 30 minutes - the CD actually helped a lot, and just doing this stuff first thing in the morning - I had a nice routine going for a few months.  But then we opened the farmstay, and that's cost me my morning exercise slot when we have guests.

The music practice thing is another bugbear. It's something I love doing but don't have the energy to do when I've finished all the other stuff for the day.  In my breaks from the outdoor work, I usually collapse and read a book, or do some writing on the laptop (some of which you see here :winking_tongue) - because it gives me a complete break from physical work.  I just never come in feeling like standing up with a violin for a bit.  Conversely, when most of my work was indoors, and sedentary, I wanted to do energetic things when I came home.  And that's the basic bind, I think.

So I'm reticent about making resolutions about these two things - but if anyone has any brilliant ideas on how to possibly approach this, I'm all ears.  I'm actually thinking of creating a timetable for myself where I make non-negotiable time slots for my "missing activities" this year...
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: SueC on January 25, 2021, 02:37:28
Quote from: dsanchez on January 01, 2021, 19:20:41- use phone no more than 30'/week

Hey!  Here's an interesting article on IT use, pitfalls and remedies.  :)

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/15/meet-the-tech-evangelist-who-now-fears-for-our-mental-health
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on January 26, 2021, 10:37:15
Quote from: SueC on January 25, 2021, 02:37:28Hey!  Here's an interesting article on IT use, pitfalls and remedies.  (http://curefans.com/Smileys/twitter/1f600.png)

hmm good idea, think I will buy that safe keeping to store the mobile phones etc
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on January 26, 2021, 10:39:03
Quote from: dsanchez on January 26, 2021, 10:37:15hmm good idea, think I will buy that safe keeping to store the mobile phones etc

Try "willpower" first, it might turn out much cheaper!  ;)
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: SueC on January 26, 2021, 11:13:57
That's a laudable thing, @Ulrich, but willpower takes a lot of energy (and can lead to an unpleasant and unproductive psychological downward spiral of self-loathing if it doesn't work), and a "hard solution" can sometimes be more reliable while you're getting out of a particular habit you want to lose.

One of the great things about living on a farm is that I can't just pop out for junk food down the road if I feel like it - this has prevented quite a few potato chip binges in me!  :lol:

20 years ago, when Internet started to get too interesting for me, I actually cancelled my home connection, because it wasn't strictly necessary at the time.  Problem solved.  These days, obviously we do have a connection, and we've got other strategies to stop IT from chewing up too much time.  On the other hand, I don't watch much TV at all and think writing online and reading various interesting things is a better choice.  I love the big-library aspect, and avoid the "slot machine" thing by not doing social media, which I'm not attracted to anyway - and by keeping the social stuff I do to emails and two forums, and those to reasonable amounts of time.  To get to that point, I've sometimes used hard boundaries like pulling the connection for the day, or putting the laptop upstairs - because I never get comfortable on a desktop computer - I don't enjoy sitting in a chair and only do that when I have to, or for short periods of time - but give me a sofa and a laptop, and I can spend hours reading.

On the other hand, I have always spent hours reading, pre-Internet, as books, and we still do, although online things now compete.  As long as the quality is equivalent it doesn't bug me.  And I've always spent hours writing for fun, on paper, and am just as obsessive a writer when I do it offline.  Writing in public spaces hones your skills more, though, because you can't get lazy with your thinking, or someone is going to potentially hold you to account!  :cool

I think any mix of things that works to get you happy with how you live your days is fine.  Bit of a juggle for all of us though!  :)  Good luck with making improvements in your lives this year - for me, the biggest thing at the moment is lack of energy, but that's getting better!
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on January 27, 2021, 10:33:29
Quote from: SueC on January 26, 2021, 11:13:57That's a laudable thing, @Ulrich, but willpower takes a lot of energy

Maybe, but I think in general it is totally "underrated". Many people don't know what they can achieve if they want to! It is not taught in school...

Surprise, surprise: I even found a song about it.  ;)
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: SueC on January 27, 2021, 12:46:11
That's a nice song, and I agree with his sentiments!  :)  I do think he's talking about stick-in-the-muds, naysayers etc, and that the song is more about pursuing your dreams, thinking outside the square, not being afraid to be unconventional, having a go, taking risks, doing things differently - things like that - rather than, say, giving up cigarettes or other bad habits by willpower alone. :winking_tongue

And the smartphone in some ways is very like a cigarette: 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/23/smartphone-techology-iphone-mobile-cigarettes
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/smartphones-the-new-cigar_b_5530818

Putting my laptop upstairs, when I did that for a few weeks after reaching my daily "quota," meant I could use my inherent reluctance to climb the stairs to create a barrier that resulted in having to think about whether I really wanted to retrieve it or not (and generally I didn't want to, because that made it a conscious process and I'd remember there was a reason it was upstairs - whereas if I'd left it downstairs in my "road"  I could have picked it up without even thinking about it). Meanwhile, I could use my willpower in a positive way, to get on with other tasks, instead of using it negatively NOT to do something.  (Did you know that both when training animals, and when house-training students or family members, it is far less effective to say to them, "Don't do that!" than to say, "Do this instead!"?  It's better to say, "Be gentle!" instead of, "Don't be rough!" - and, "Walk, please!" rather than, "Stop running!" - and "Put the equipment away!" instead of, "Don't leave such a mess!" - and, "Have a nice crunchy nectarine!" instead of, "Stay away from the biscuits!" - etc etc)

The human is a complex beast.   :1f637:
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on January 27, 2021, 14:06:02
Quote from: SueC on January 27, 2021, 12:46:11That's a nice song, and I agree with his sentiments!  :)  I do think he's talking about stick-in-the-muds, naysayers etc, and that the song is more about pursuing your dreams, thinking outside the square, not being afraid to be unconventional, having a go, taking risks, doing things differently - things like that - rather than, say, giving up cigarettes or other bad habits...

Yes, but to me it's the same: if you dream about giving up something or dream about "conquering the world", it must be you who starts it, by taking the first step.

(Of course, with an addiction, one might need help by others, e.g. a clinic or psychiatrist.)
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on January 29, 2021, 12:11:20
Now that'd be a good "new year's resolution": do something that scares you!

Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on February 07, 2022, 11:35:25
Reviewing my last year's resolutions. Crossed out all what I accomplished:

Quote2021 resolutions

- go to Peru
- 2,000km by bicycle
- visit a new country
- do The Cure pilgrim route
- get vaccinated
- read one book a week
- buy a new coffee machine
- use phone no more than 30'/week
- grow wealth in at least 50%
- learn new software for robotics

Didn't 2K by bicycle but did 1.6K :pouting-face. I am improving this year with the books, but I think one per week is too ambitious so will adjust that. Definitely improved phone usage, but not to the point of 30'/week, more like 30'/day. The Cure's pilgrim route couldn't do it due Covid, same like the new country (wanted to do Iran). Anyway, 2021 was a good year, but 2022 is already starting awesome. My resolutions in the post below.
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on February 07, 2022, 11:39:49
My 2022 resolutions

- Improve love life, either all-in or nothing.
- Grow wealth in at least 33%
- 2,000 km by bicycle
- Get at least 100 XP (experience points) in KLM i.e. travel a lot!
- Go to Peru again
- Another bicycle tour of at least 250km
- Visit a new country
- Read 22 books in the year
- Buy a new coffee machine
- Lower phone usage to no more than 30'/day
- See The Cure & Slowdive
- Build a six-pack by mid 2022
- Get at least 8,000 @curefans followers on Twitter
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on February 21, 2022, 13:24:20
Two thoughts from me on this:

#1: you forgot something important! "Spend more time on CF, post more on CF!"

Quote from: dsanchez on February 07, 2022, 11:39:49- Read 22 books in the year

#2 Considering this, you post not nearly enough in the "book thread"! (This might help with #1 btw.)
 :-D
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on February 21, 2022, 14:46:33
Update:

Quote from: dsanchez on February 07, 2022, 11:39:49My 2022 resolutions

- Improve love life, either all-in or nothing.
- Grow wealth in at least 33%
- 2,000 km by bicycle
- Get at least 100 XP (experience points) in KLM i.e. travel a lot!
- Go to Peru again
- Another bicycle tour of at least 250km
- Visit a new country
- Read 22 books in the year
- Buy a new coffee machine
- Lower phone usage to no more than 30'/day
- See The Cure & Slowdive
- Build a six-pack by mid 2022
- Get at least 8,000 @curefans followers on Twitter
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on February 21, 2022, 14:50:26
Quote from: Ulrich on February 21, 2022, 13:24:20Two thoughts from me on this:

#1: you forgot something important! "Spend more time on CF, post more on CF!"

Quote from: dsanchez on February 07, 2022, 11:39:49- Read 22 books in the year

#2 Considering this, you post not nearly enough in the "book thread"! (This might help with #1 btw.)
 :-D

you are right! I will improve my online presence on curefans.com

as for #2 you are correct...I need to work on that, definitely! But I am sure I will get there.
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on February 22, 2022, 14:46:40
Quote from: dsanchez on February 21, 2022, 14:50:26you are right! I will improve my online presence on curefans.com

Very good! :smth023
My thoughts were a bit "tongue in cheek", but good to hear they fell on fertile ground. :cool
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: dsanchez on June 23, 2022, 16:51:11
Quick update:

Quote from: dsanchez on February 07, 2022, 11:39:49My 2022 resolutions

- Improve love life, either all-in or nothing.
- Grow wealth in at least 33%
- 2,000 km by bicycle
- Get at least 100 XP (experience points) in KLM i.e. travel a lot! [on track]
- Go to Peru again
- Another bicycle tour of at least 250km
- Visit a new country ✔️ [went to Qatar]
- Read 22 books in the year [on track]
- Buy a new coffee machine ✔️
- Lower phone usage to no more than 30'/day
- See The Cure
- See Slowdive ✔️
- Build a six-pack by mid 2022 [on track]
- Get at least 8,000 @curefans followers on Twitter
Title: Re: What are your resolutions for the new year?
Post by: Ulrich on June 24, 2022, 10:30:33
IF any of you have been waiting "for the planets to align", soon this time will come! ;)

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61910977

QuoteFive major planets in our solar system will shine brightly in a row during a rare planetary conjunction from Friday.

If the sky is clear, the naked eye alone will be enough to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn glowing before dawn.