First Rambles

3 minute read

Welcome to PacedProgress! I wanted to start off with the reasons for starting this blog here in 2020, yes a blog in 2020. Why would someone start a blog in this digital age where everything is designed to grab someones attention in mere seconds before they scroll or click away to somewhere else?

The short answer is…. that I don’t have the full answer to that yet. However going through the motions of everyday life has left me longing for something more, something that I could call my own. I am quite content, happy and challenged in my current line of work. Within the corporate life there is a solid linear ladder to pursue, at the same time this path is also what others have socially constructed around for me. Technically oriented people like engineers such as myself work well logically.

At the same time one does not need to confine themselves within one group, in fact as people we are an amalgamation of all our experiences. I see writing on a blog as a new creative pursuit and a way to get consistent practice to improve my reflective, explanatory and analytical writing skills as I work towards growing this blog.

A core tenant of my character is discipline. We’ve all heard of this, but not everyone truly understands and has discipline integrated into their lives. I believe the most successful and happiest of people exert discipline in their every lives. For one thing it gives their life structure. It is still teaching me to be responsible and mindful of my actions. I should have a level of discipline because in certain facets of my life: fitness, nutrition, education, career, I have been relatively successful. What I want to see is how much further and better I can be if this can be applied to the aspects of my life that I am not doing so well at. If anything, starting a blog will required discipline and persistence when it comes to creating content and generating readership!

To complement my journey into self-improvement I intend to dive deep into understanding and integrating the philosophy of stoicism. As part of mental toughness and discipline I need to be in control of my mind and emotions. Going through this ramble of my thoughts for the first post I do see a quick gloss over abstract ideas. These intangible ideas and practices are hard to grasp, but they are quite interconnected. When manifested and put into fruition I am sure they will be integral in paving my way forward in life. To start off I want to list relatively short term goals to kick off my New Year.

Overview of shorter 2020 goals

Fitness goals:

  • Drop 7-10 pounds, enough to be under 150lb/68kg (Will be achieve with a combination of HIIT + Keto + IF)
  • Participate in another TaeKwonDo tournament, one of which is Poomsae and possible one in sparring
  • Obtain my 2nd dan black belt

Career goals:

  • Take on as much quantifiable work that I can, enough that warrants a solid >= 8% raise or promotion
  • Become the Subject Matter Expert (SME) in my department

Financial Goals:

  • Save 60-70% of my take home income and actively invest a portion of that into my TFSA and RRSP in ETF’s
  • Keep enough for a 20% downpayment in preparation of buying a property
  • Make sure I build up a 3-6 month emergency fund
  • Look for ways to build up extra modes of income

Learning Goals:

  • Continue to tinker away at different personal coding problems and projects
  • Continue to practice Mandarin with Duolingo everyday
  • Read, integrate and practice Stoic Philosophies, start with Marcus Aurelius
  • Continue building up my financial literacy

Habits:

  • Try to break out of my caffeine addiction
  • Practice meditations, explore different methods and find what works well
  • Engineer a better fuller nights of sleep
  • Build up this blog! Blog, write, journal everyday. My hope is to get to a point where readers can learn from my own experimentation and results
  • Overall many of these things are for optimizing my body and mind in order to continue this discipline and be laser focused on my everyday tasks

Friendship/Family/Relationship:

  • Be cognizant of myself when pursuing the other disciplines, make sure I make the time to spend with my loved ones
  • Practice nonviolent forms of communication in order to get my message, thoughts and feelings across to my partner