Intentionally yet surprisingly
The magic of wanting to want to do something
It all started on the 9th of February 2021 when I decided that I wanted to learn and develop seven skills everyday (running, coding, graphic design, reading, playing chess, writing, studying) to figure out what I wanted to do in life. I copied it from Valentin who coined it the “Renaissance Human Project” (he now runs a startup, Monthly, that does exactly the latter).
But two months later, I’ve only posted five articles documenting whether I did do the tasks. To the average viewer, this looks bad and communicates that I’m not consistent at all but I’m here to report, while the latter is true, wanting to want something periodically actually has had some positive effects on me, to my surprise.
- I open the chess app like it’s Instagram — It’s now a subconscious thing to crack a blitz puzzles or play a 5 minute chess game instead of opening & closing the same three social apps at the same time. Weird right
- I’ve been reading more! — Which is probably why I’ve been in a better mood lately. Time and time again, I’ve read that the solutions to the problems of life are simply just to read, exercise and eat good food all in a healthy amount and I’ve lived enough days to recognise that it’s true. Reading sort of has this Kool-Aid effect on you, it’s great.
- In virtue of staying fit through running, I’ve given my hand at fasting — Intermittent Fasting is celebrated as the key to a healthier diet. So far, it’s been great since I feel more at ease whenever I hike treacherous mountains. I’m about 30 minutes~ faster than my hikes without intermittent fasting. Would consider it a huge improvement with no physical training! Since I’m a slacker when it comes to logging and tracking etc, I found a mobile app called Zero. It notifies me whenever I need to start/ end my fasters plus helps to hold myself accountable.
- Writing more consistently — I realised I can never do things that aren’t boxed into “projects” so as a result, I’ve decided to embark on BEDA (Blog EveryDay of April). More about that here.
All in all, there has been some progress in the way how I view certain activities (from an absolute slog to something that I actually look forward to doing) and some progress has been made. There’s still lots to do in coding, graphic designing and studying (very important as an undergrad!).
Although these are things I did not plan doing, they ended up being byproducts of things I did want to do. It’s funny how life surprises us in pleasant ways.
