Challenge #8: the 13th letter tries to build a foundation

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Challenge description

Despite having taken part in 7 previous challenges, I feel like I have nothing to show for it. In challenge #1, I established my main theme—consistent exercising and activity patterns—which has since appeared in almost every challenge since then. But even though I’ve repeatedly made progress on this front, it has never lasted: by the beginning of the next challenge, or by the beginning of the challenge beyond that one, all my diligence would have collapsed, and I would effectively be starting over again from scratch.

However, on the other hand, there are two recent events that inspire me to get back into 6-week challenges.

First, during a recent long-distance travel by train, I was approached by an older blind lady if I were travelling to the same destination as she was, and if I could help guide her off the train later on. Her main concern when asking me for help was heaving her suitcase from the overhead rack, and not tripping over stairs or the lack thereof when disembarking, as she did not have a white cane with her. She had called for help at her destination station, but past experience had told her that both the personnel on board the train and at the station might feel that the other party is responsible for taking care of her. I couldn’t help her with getting off the train, but we still talked for a while about the challenges blind people face when travelling to foreign places without a guide, such as unfamiliar layouts and non-auditory announcements. It was a good reminder of how fortunate I am that I can do so many things on my own, without limitations or difficulties.

Second, during that same long-distance travel, I met two new acquaintances. They had heard that I practice martial arts, and, among other things, asked me what it was like. Did it make me feel strong? Or confident? I thought about the question for a moment, and then told them that I couldn’t really answer that. Because per se, martial arts practice makes me feel neither of the above, at least not consciously. It just feels normal. Expected. I’ve been practicing martial arts for so long, I don’t feel the effects of practice anymore; rather, I feel the effects of absence of practice. Martial arts has become part of my identity, part of “what I do,” and I don’t remember what my “life from before” feels like well enough to make any useful comparison. It’s like asking some professional musicians about how music has changed their lives from before: some of them may have started young enough that they don’t remember that life from before very well. And I have since realized: this is exactly how I want to feel about exercise and activity. I want to reach the point where I find it hard to remember that “life before exercise and activity”.

So here I am, trotting along again, with an updated list of goals—or rather, focus areas. I don’t have a clear idea for how to avoid entering this progress–stall–atrophy cycle again in the future. But then again, I also don’t believe in “taking time off” to come up with a solution instead. Unlike other, less fortunate people than me, I am in a position to exercise and to control my activity level. And it has taken me years—not weeks—of martial arts classes to become a martial artist at heart. So why should it be any different with becoming strong, wise or courageous? All “taking time off” would do is to delay the point of mastery further into the future than necessary.

Focus areas:

  1. Do Convict Conditioning exercises. (“power”) The Convict Conditioning program is still the exercise program which is most compatible with my beliefs about exercise. I’m also familiar with its structure and my relative level of fitness among the exercises, so I have little incentive to switch to a new system.

    Target amount: 1 CC session per day. (This includes “low-intensity” sessions such as joint exercises on off days. To be further refined.)

  2. Ensure a minimum amount of rest, at the right time. (“wisdom”) This is more of a mental problem than a physical problem (hence the label). There is nothing stopping me from getting enough rest at the “right” time, beyond my own rationalizations and other bad habits.

    Target amount: 1 evening deadline. (to be further refined)

  3. Write job applications (as a Ph.D. candidate). (“courage”) Because the prospect of having to sell myself frightens me.

    Target amount:

    • 1 application on day #14, #21, #28, #35 and #42.