My whole life backslided real hard. Any advice appreciated.

[Dan Arnautu]

28 minutes ago, blazed said:

Very normal, you gotta do what you gotta do, brush up and try again.

Exactly what I'm gonna do.

[Key Elements]

I used to fall off of schedule / routine like that until I found my life purpose. I still exercise and eat right, but I'm not as routine as I used to be. I try to be free and let go. Life purpose is something I do on my free time because I gravitate toward it. I also gravitate toward exercise daily, but it's not rigid.

Try looking at some of his clips:

This may help.

If you want to look at the example of my life purpose, here it is. You may follow the links.

[Dan Arnautu]

@Key Elements Saw the video. Really spoke to me. Thanks a lot.

[Leo Gura]

16 hours ago, blazed said:

Very normal, you gotta do what you gotta do, brush up and try again.

Love it!

Encapsulates ego in a nutshell.

[Shroomdoctor]

@Key Elements Okay. That was me in a nutshell. 

[Socrates]

@Key Elements I think the delivery of the video was not good. Of course you focus on one thing as a job but you dont stop your everyday habits. That cancels out the whole personal development habits (like meditation, gym, reading etc) if taken literally. From my pov having good productive habits is the thing that grows you exponentially but i could be wrong.

 

 

[Key Elements]

@Socrates It depends how you look at it. When I look at a self-improvement video, I ask myself: how can I apply this in a personalized manner into my own unique life? For my life purpose, I combined two skills together: art and foreign language to make it a unique skill. I love art, but it's not easy to market art, so I teach foreign language through art. 

All the other stuff in my life that I used to not enjoy doing, for example, housework, I try to make it creative and fun -- so that I'm drawn to it. Exercise was boring until I made it done in nature and simple. I used to have a routine in the gym that I got tired of. 

[Dan Arnautu]

@Socrates Yeah, that's the thing I did not like about the video. By the way that it's presented it almost assumes that you can't have both a great physical body and an exceptional body of work. It almost goes to the point where he would tell you that you should not meditate, have a hobby or work out because it detracts from your one thing. I would personally argue that these kind of practices can enhance your "one thing".

• Meditation for building focus while you do your "one thing".
• Exercise is known to give people much more energy and less ache throughout the body, which can also help people a lot with their "one thing".

I think the video is misrepresenting what the book actually wanted to convey.

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@Dan Arnautu I had about a year and a half under my belt when I back-slid too. I can relate to how that feels...defeated, shame, panic, confusion, etc... I know what a kind person you are and how much you make a genuine effort to help others I will do my best to help you too ... From my personal experience, I have a few insights: One is to find more balance, and release some of the rigidity you had before (without falling into total slack-dom). Next, I have almost every neurosis on Leo's list, so this is coming from love and empathy... going to extremes like measuring your waist daily, having everything on a calendar, or whatever, is likely taking actualization efforts to the point of neurosis... it may be best to rebuild with a more gentle attitude toward this with maximum self-love possible. For example, if you need structure in your schedule, try doing this with some flexibility. Maybe "time block a)" could have options to be creative with your music or meditation... Perhaps after your scheduled school work, you could schedule a reward (like a smoothie with a friend or something... because you are now feeling "behind" it's probably silly to keep going in either of those ways (the way that you were, or in the way you are now)... balance/ middle ground... acceptance of what is...etc...  

I still haven't really recovered from my backslide about 6 months ago... but fortunately I was able to quickly see that the re-introduced bad habits weren't serving me... I just struggle with re-integrating the good ones....that said, you are hard-core, it is no longer in your nature to be a slacker like me, this is just an unfortunate domino effect that's occurred... you will be back on your feet - (fresh, balanced, self loving feet) in no time...I truly wish you the best!

[Dan Arnautu]

@Epiphany_Inspired Thank you a lot for the answer. Very detailed and full of support.

I just moved out to a new apartment, and I consider this to be a fresh start. I'm already starting to get my sleep back on track, followed by the other habits.

As for the measurements thing, I should've clarified that I do that only for the amount of time that I am cutting (6-8 weeks per year usually, which is not long by any means) in order to track progress. For the having things on calendar thing, I use Cal Newport's method; I have one notepad with me everywhere and I jot down things like new deadlines, errands that I will need to do etc. The next day, all the things that get accumulated there are put into the calendar. Then I rinse and repeat. This way you never forget assignments and things like that. Found it very helpful when I had to juggle a lot of stuff in it. And I prefer to do it myself, otherwise life is gonna do it for me, and it may not be that pretty. 

 

Edited February 4, 2018 by Dan Arnautu