Weeks 1518 and 1519

The last couple of weeks have been highly productive at work but I haven’t been nearly as productive personally with my Japanese goals specifically. 

I have continued to work out (missing one day each week) but wasn’t disciplined with my diet - especially this past week as my in-laws were in town and I allow myself to not worry about calories while we are with them as one of the things we like to do as a family is try new restaurants. 

I have been thinking about why I allow my personal goals to drop when I am prioritizing work and ultimately, I think it’s because I find myself to be risk-averse. I care a lot about my family and the trajectory that we are on so I prioritize my work. 

I also recognize that the amount of time it is taking from my personal life has temporarily elevated, causing me to be more tired in the evening and me to make decisions regarding sleep prioritization over my personal goals. 

It also doesn’t help that my Japanese goal consumes a lot of mental bandwidth so if I leave it until the end of the day, I get even more exhausted before bed. 

That is tempting me to shift it to the morning but I would have to do it at the gym as there is no way that I can squeeze it into my morning routine without me being very late to work. 

I could also explore dropping to four days a week in my next mesocycle. 

That may be the best option for maximizing goals that compete at times.

With my new role and a chance to get to know a lot of people significantly better, I have been reminded of how important people are to me. This is directly at odds with how I live my life generally, where I don’t take the time to spend time with people away from my wife. 

I don’t know that this is a need but it’ll likely be worth exploring at some point. 

It also has helped me recognize that my goal of learning Japanese for the sole purpose of talking to people and the method of learning the language I have been pursuing is directly at odds with that. 

I wonder how much faster I would learn if I was getting to know somebody. I don’t know if I will do it this year but I would like to do it next year. 

I think in the interim, I can see what it is like conversing with ChatGPT and if that helps with my retention at all. 

I feel like I have plateaued at the intermediate level for a long time but I am sure it is due to a lack of consistency.

I want to make sure that I learn this before moving onto other goals as a way to add pressure but I am often reminded of Claude Shannon’s approach to life - letting things drop off when his interest in it wanes. 

What doesn’t help is that I recognize that the boring parts are often what you have to push through but it seems like those that are “successful” at their specific fields are able to show up and do the work without it feeling like work.

For me, going to the gym doesn’t feel like work at this point. I can consistently go and don’t feel like I use much mental bandwidth doing it. 

The diet is a much larger challenge for me. 

One other thought worth noting from this week is my desire to progress multiple years forward right now.

I have a lot of goals on the horizon and it feels like time can’t move fast enough for me to make the progress that I want to see. 

I’ll get there but it’s been driving me a bit crazy. 

I find myself consuming YouTube content to find shortcuts when I ultimately know that shortcuts are a waste of time and all I need to do is spend that same time taking action.