Stiegl’s self improvement thread

[Stiegl]

You bring up a good point Bravo. I'm gonna add that to my daily list: keep my place clean enough to bring a girl over. Gotta develop that habit.

Day 5 (Sunday)

Guitar: Practicing the entire Greenday song. I'm getting pretty good at it

Storytelling: Spent a couple of hours doing chores while thinking in the new inflection pattern. Trying to make it an everyday habit rather than something I turn on.

Fitness: Diet was very good, I cooked enough for 5 good meals yesterday. Did yoga and core exercises.

Mindset: Still struggling with doing it for me. I feel apathetic when I think that noone is going to see what I'm doing and it's just what I want to do. I feel motivated when I think it will make me more awesome. I will keep drilling it into my head until I accept it and develop the habit.

Taking ice's advice and locating that book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in world that can't stop thinking". Will read through it this week.

[Stiegl]

Day 6 (Monday)

Guitar: Practicing the entire greenday song. I'm not sloppy anymore, so I'm going to move on to the next one.

Storytelling: Did some speech work while reading that makes me sound less forceful/angry. There are some habits from my first language that don't translate well into speaking English, trying to unlearn the habit.

Fitness: Diet was good because I had meals leftover from cooking. Did my upper body exercises.

Mindset: This is starting to become a habit, so there isn't as much resistance to doing this anymore.

[Stiegl]

Day 7 (Tuesday)

Guitar: Rocksmith doesn't show the string muting in Last Dance with Mary Jane very well. I had to look at youtube videos to figure out how to make the song sound the way it should.

Storytelling: Still practicing sounding less forceful when I read.

Fitness: Diet was ok, didn't get enough fruits/vegetables. Yoga and core exercises.

Mindset: I feel a resistance to change... why am I doing this? What's the point? I especially felt this going to the meetup. I didn't want to. There was no reason, I just didn't want to. It felt like why am I putting in all this effort?

Meetup: Went to a meetup where some guy was giving some lessons on the technical aspects of mountain bike riding. Learned a couple of cool things, but I've figured out a lot on my own just by riding some trails. There were two couples, a couple of nerdy dudes and a lady that was in her late 30's, so noone I really want to associate with, but I practiced doing some smalltalk. Didn't bother trying to really engage them.

[Stiegl]

Day 8 (Wednesday)

Guitar: Still working on the string muting for Last Dance with Mary Jane. This is new territory for me, so it's a bit of a mess.

Storytelling: Thought about 2 stories from my life that are recent and that I can bring up on my date tomorrow. Thought about how to make them more fun and engaging rather than just a factual recap.

Fitness: Diet was ok, but it's hard to eat clean when I don't have meals pre-made in large quantities. Did my upper body workout.

Mindset: I feel like I'm starting to have an answer to why am I doing this... because it's "right". Doing the thing that's "right" and will get me long-term benefits even if I don't see any shortterm benefits inspires me a little bit. Saying "It will make me a better person" for some reason doesn't do the same, because I ask "how?" or "when will it be useful". Doing what I am supposed to do because "it is the right thing for me to do" somehow gives me a reason to do it without asking for a payoff. Gonna have to explore this more.

[Spacedust]

Keep it up man, looks like you are doing pretty good

[Stiegl]

These last few days have been really hard. I’ve been in a funk lately. I tried to follow my routine, but I did it with resentment.

I did a lot of soul searching these past few days, and I think I’ve come to a realization.

The reason I fall out of my habits is because my habits are based on outcomes. If I do this, then that will happen. But I am at a point in my life where improvements aren’t noticeable. If I practice guitar, it’s not going to improve my life immediately. It might give me some little results down the line.

These past few days made me realize I need to let go. I need to stop thinking about doing things for results. There was a good quote I heard recently: “you can’t direct the wind, but you can direct your sails”.

I started to shift my mentality to just directing my sails, doing things because they will take me in a generally positive direction. Who knows what life will bring, but what I’m doing is generally positive form me. Somehow this makes the resentment go away, and I can do things just for the sake of doing things… because I’m not asking myself “why am I doing this”.

I’m going to keep up with this mentality for a while and see if it does anything for my apathy.


Guitar:
Thursday: Played with some palm muting, getting better.
Friday: Apathetic, couldn’t force myself to play
Saturday: Still apathetic, did some soul searching instead
Sunday: Back to playing guitar. Working on a bit more of the song now.

Working Out:
Thursday: Core exercises, clean diet because I cooked a large batch of food
Friday: Worked out, good diet because of cooking the day before
Saturday: Apathetic, didn’t do anything
Sunday: Yoga and core exercises, diet was OK but not great

Storytelling:
Thursday: Thought a lot about what one girl said to me on a date… she said she felt like she didn’t really know me. I’m thinking how do you not know me after 2 hours…
Friday: Thinking about storytelling and what I’m doing that a girl doesn’t really know me after 2 hours… rethinking my stories and how I communicate.
Saturday: I realized I need to reveal more of myself. I’m too closed off. I don’t share personal information. Worked on coming up with stories that share myself.
Sunday: Worked on telling things from my life that share more of myself and who I am… it’s a change in the way I think about things, that’s for sure.

Mentality:
These past few days have been all about rethinking my mentality. From what that girl told me to why I’m so apathetic about doing my self improvement.

Meetup:
I was apathetic on Saturday, so I skipped the meetup. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did. Bitch move on my part.


Overall, a lot of soul searching these past few days, but I think it’s all part of the journey and I’m going to come out stronger because of it.

[Stiegl]

Defintely some mentality improvements in the past few days. Thinking about things without a specific goal, but as a general direction, really seems to give me motivation. “You can’t direct the wind, but you can direct your sails”.

Day 13 (Monday)
Guitar: I figured I’ve got Last Dance with Mary Jane handled. Moving on to Machine head by Bush

Storytelling: I’m playing around with 2 minute speeches like they do at speech events. Gonna start recording myself when I feel fluid.

Working out: Ate a good diet. My pushups are at 20 with a 20 pound vest. Pullups are lagging for some reason.

Mentality: I felt motivated. Every time I think of what I’m doing in terms of goals, I was demotivated. When I thought of it in terms of doing things that are generally good for me, I felt motivated.


Day 14 (Tuesday)

Guitar: Working on the main riff to Machinehead. It’s pretty fast.

Storytelling: Working on 2 minute speeches

Working out: Ate a good diet because I cooked a lot of food. Did yoga and core exercises

Meetup: Went to watch a baseball game at a bar with a meetup group. It was interesting to meet people, but it was a few couples and a couple of single people that I wouldn’t want to socialize with. Had some beer and wings.

Mentality: I felt motivated when I let go of the goals and did it because it was generally good for me.


Day 15 (Wednesday)

Guitar: Still working on the main riff of Machinehead

Working out: Diet was not so great. Didn’t eat enough. Did my strength training. Energy was low but I got through the workout.

Storytelling: Thought about how to make simple events from my life interesting for 2 minute speeches.

Mentality: I’m liking the thought process of doing things because they are generally good for me, no specific plan of how it will make my life better.

[Ice]

Have you read that book yet?

[Stiegl]

Thursday (Day 16)
Guitar: Still working on that Machinehead song. There’s something sloppy about my chord changes and it shows up in the sound. Gotta keep working on it.

Working out: Diet was ok. Did some light core work.

Storytelling: Worked on one-minute-stories.

Mentality: Feeling pretty inspired.


Friday – Sunday (Day 17 – 19)
Gone for the long weekend.



Monday (Day 20)

Guitar: Machine head is still sloppy. I keep muting strings accidentally. Chord changes are too fast to find my fingering accurately.

Working out: Diet was good. My pushups goal is coming along nicely, I’m at 25 pushups with 25lbs on my back. My pull-ups are really lagging, I don’t know why. Kettlebells are good, I’m at 30 with 35 pounds.

Mentality: I was kind of on auto-pilot. These activities are just what I do. It feels better since I don’t have the aversion for it. That change in thinking last week was good for me.

Storytelling: Didn’t have time. Got home late in the day, saw family, did some things, ran out of time.

[Stiegl]

Ice, I’m more than halfway through the book. It was a great recommendation, the book addresses exactly what I’m talking about.

The whole “Extraverted ideal” is exactly why I have issues with self respect. It feels like like there is so much emphasis on having a fun/confident personality and not a lot of respect is given to being right or having something meanigful to say.

I'm a little over halfway through the book. I'll power through it in the next couple of days and I'll post an update