Things I appreciate this week:
- Meet up with friends*3
- Reach out to my high school friend that I haven’t spoken to for a long time
- Took 3 boxing lessons
- Made my 2025 vision board
- Listened to multiple meaningful podcast
- Actively reading before bed
How I see and feel my week:
It is a fresh start to the semester. The classes are always simple and chill in the first week. I skipped one of them because it is less relevant to me academically, and I feel it would be better if I had given it slightly more attention.
Apart from school, life is fulfilling and joyful.
I have spent quality time with my friends, having dinner with different people from Monday to Wednesday, and I’ve reconnected with previous colleagues and friends. I will be meeting them again in the coming week.
It used to feel unnatural for me to reach out to people I hadn’t talked to in a while. I often felt there were no shared topics anymore, and initiating a catch-up lunch or dinner seemed scary and awkward. But I do care. I used to have a great time with them, and they meant a lot to me during certain periods of my life.
Last year, I started reconnecting with several of my ‘faded’ connections, and it was clear that the feeling was mutual. We missed each other, but we kept thinking we needed a good reason to hang out again and just couldn’t come up with one. So, we ended up pulling back and not reaching out.
However, what we really need is really simple: “I haven’t seen you for so long. Maybe we can have dinner together sometime.” That’s good enough. And the time we spend catching up and sharing updates is just priceless to me.
I have made an absolutely stunning vision board for my coming year. Listed out my goals for the coming year and found beautiful illustrations on Pinterest, and organized them together.
The whole process is much more enjoyable than I anticipated. I’ve seen people talk about how vision boards changed their lives and how great they are, but I have never put my trust in those words. Like, what could a combination of photos possibly do to your life?
Now that I’ve completed my vision board, I feel much clearer and more motivated with it than without. It’s a chance for me to visualize everything I’m looking forward to, and I find that really important.
With a list of goals, they are just check boxes that I will return to next year and check off some boxes. But when visualizing it, I get to see these images that make me feel as if those things are actually coming in the near future. And more than that, it’s a constant reminder of all the amazing stuff that’s on the way.
I naturally feel happy and filled with hope when looking at them. It makes me so proud.
Got off my phone and started reading! I’ve set a usage limit for social media between midnight and 10 am so that my options for using my phone before I go to bed and after I wake up are limited
Instead of scrolling, I have been focusing on reading, and it’s been going pretty well so far. I still get super frustrated when I naturally open social media and see that blocking screen pop up. STILL NOT YET! It drives me crazy!
It’s tough to read while thinking about scrolling at first, but somehow pushed myself to keep going. The words draw me in like they always have, reminding me of how I loved and enjoyed reading. And one or two nights in, I can’t wait to turn the pages.
I really hope I can stick with it. It feels like a great challenge, and if I make it a habit, it could really change things for the better. I just need fight the temptation from time to time. We will see:)
What I learned this week:
I have been catching up on the Finding Your Casual Magic (by UnJaded Jade) podcast lately, and two points from the guest speakers really inspired me. My words can never top theirs, so I will directly quote them in below:
- You can only do what you are capable of doing right now. If you have 10% to give on the day and you give that 10%, that’s 100% of what you were capable of at the time. (Optimism is Not a Luxury, it’s a Tool–with David Larbi)
- I struggled so hard to find the original words from the podcast, but I can’t… so here’s something similar to the original meaning: “Everyone’s focus is different, but when we compare the outcomes, we see everyone at their best. We might be comparing our fifth priority with others’ second priority; the effort and proficiency are naturally different. However, when we see this, we notice the gap between us and feel stress.”
Next week?
Do better academically.
Sleep better.
I guess that’s it. Til next week.