I have a day off at work and my priorities have changed a ton since last time. So I thought I would go ahead and comment on how much my priorities have shifted.
It’s crazy going through and writing these posts every couple of months made me realize that I’m a huge flip-flopper. Like my priorities keep changing every-time I write one of these. It’s a bit disturbing really, I used to think of myself as a much more consistent person. Oh well, I guess it’s good to break false illusions about yourself.
Dance
✅ Previous Post
So instead I’d like to focus on House dancing instead because there’s still a decent number of classes and I can practice solo.
Probably the biggest priority change in the last couple of months has been how often I’m attending House dance lessons. I never realized how many dance studios taught House (Or maybe I’ve just been living under a rock?), because I’m having a great time going to them.
There have been a couple mis-steps, where I accidentally attended some classes they were way TOO HARD. But overall, it’s been really fun and I’m even practicing solo so that I can get better faster.
❌ Previous Post
Having said that I don’t want to drop WCS (I’m still going to class and taking some privates) but I won’t focus too hard on it for now.
So I pretty much ended up dropping WCS. It was a hard decision but I just felt like I wasn’t improving that much without the “Socials”. I’ll re-visit once covid restrictions open up and allow dancing in large numbers. Bummer 😢 …
🔑 System Habits
- Go to at-least 2 House Dance classes a week (including progressives)
- Anymore is somewhat counter-productive as I don’t have time to actually practice and absorb what I learned in class
- Practice 2x/week
- Solo drilling and practice is where I actually notice the most improvement
- (For Fun) Explore some other styles. (Afro? Hip-hop?)
Running
🤷 Previous Post
but for now I think a worthy goal is to go to as many running clubs/groups/events as I can. Especially if they are located near me; most of them are.
This one is kind of a wash. Leading up to the half-marathon race I was actually doing a ton of running and going to most of these running clubs. After I finished the race, I pretty much stopped going to most of the events.
I still go to a couple of the run clubs here and there but I’m definitely not as consistent.
🔑 System Habits
- Run at-least 3x a week (long run, speed work, easy run)
- Maintain 20-30km a week to be ready if I decide to do a race
Diet
👀 Previous Post
This has been super hard to do while running so many miles.
I’ll have to re-visit this after the race.
I’m still trying to stick with it, but definitely not as strict as before. Mainly making sure to fuel up before the hard strength training sessions no matter what.
I basically lost no weight and in fact gained some weight. It’s been hard to stick with it.
At-least when I was climbing a ton it was extremely motivating to be lean and low weight. Now, not as much.
My biggest problem has just been binging. I have to will myself to not eat more than a meals worth in a single setting.
Either way, it’s time to get back on it. 🔑 System Habits
- 16-8 Fasting Protocol
- Let’s lower the difficulty so I’m more likely to actually stick with it
- Figure out a system for not binging
Strength Training
👌 Previous Post
This is one area that I think I have mostly figured out. I’ve dropped 531 and opted for Reverse Pyramid Training (RPT) full-body 3x week. The benefits are as follows: I pretty much stuck to this for the most part.
I’m not sure if it was ideal though because:
- I had trouble maintaining intensity with cutting/running
- I didn’t see that much improvement because my diet was all over the place.
However the 3x/week is a good frequency. So I’m going to stick with that and switch to 531 Full-body 3x a week. Maybe add an additional day for some more pressing for the calisthenics stuff. Pretty simple…
🔑 System Habits
- 3x/week 531 + Additional pressing
Career/Personal Growth
❌ Previous Post
The only idea I really have so far is to write as much as I can,
I’ve done a terrible job of building a personal brand. I wrote a blog post for the company that got rejected and I’ve been de-motivated ever since.
I should probably set a more realistic goal than writing a ton. Maybe sharing personal projects or writing a short (very short) piece about something I worked on every week?
❌ Previous Post
In particular, Nix and Bazel. This year I really want to focus on trying to learn more about those technologies, write about them and build tools for the company and personal projects using them. Didn’t do a great job learning any additional Nix or Bazel on my own. HOWEVER, I have managed to grab some developer productivity work and I expect it won’t be long before I get even more familiar with them. I need to start using Nix/Bazel in some of my own personal projects to really improve.
They do seem to be a hot topic, as I seem to be getting lot’s of recruiter messages based off a brief blurb I have about them.
🔑 System Habits
- Continue to work on personal projects like Habitica-Strava Integration
- Use interesting technologies (Bazel, Terraform, Nix, Elixir, Rust) for fun and (eventual) profit
Bouldering
I basically stopped bouldering. I dropped in recently and it was definitely fun, but I’m just not sure if it’s a sustainable habit for me. I’m not going to bother with any systems for climbing because it’s just not important to me anymore. Crazy how much things change in a span of months 🤣