The Health Chronicles: Some Quick Birthday Reflections
Another Year Around the Sun
Yes. In case you can’t tell by the title of this piece, today is my birthday. And while I do have some modest plans to celebrate, I also wanted to take some time to reflect on where I am right now and where I hope to be by this time in the coming year. Let’s just say, I hope to make some major strides in the right direction.
As I sit here now, and those of you who are avid readers know, I am trying to make small but meaningful changes in my life. I am trying to eat healthier, I exercise more, I’m writing, and lots of other things that may not seem like much, but they are meaningful changes for myself. They are ways I am trying to look after my brain health and overall health.
There are of course, some stressors as well. I am not where I feel I should be career wise. I am currently in a place where no matter how much serenity I try to find I am always feeling constant stress for things people don’t even think about. I may be making the incremental progress that I mentioned above but am still way too hard on myself because of the high standards I hold myself to. I am much kinder to others than I am to myself, and I know that’s something I need to work on.
In short, I am not happy where I am in life, despite minor victories here and there.
However, I am not letting that dictate how I move forward. I know the major hurdles I have to overcome in order to get to where I need to be. I have goals for my Substack space and branching out with other creative platforms that will help me get there. I was given a small, but incredibly meaningful writing gig this week which means someone will be paying me a small stipend to contribute to their newsletter. I am building small communities in spaces that I find fulfilling, and all of these things are great.
So, I guess the theme here is that even though the overarching feeling might be one of slight disappointment, if I allowed that to dictate my life then I’d stay stuck in the same rut. So, for my birthday I am going to choose to look at the positives and continue to make those incremental changes. My big breakthrough will come, and when it does, the possibilities are endless.
Now, some check-ins.
Did I drink last week? No.
Did I have junk food? Yes, but not nearly as much as I did the week before. I will also have some today. It is my birthday after all.
Average Walking Distance: 3.5 Miles. Yeah, this needs to improve immensely. I know I always feel better the more I walk.
Sleep Average: 7 hours. I am thankful for this, but I would like to do better. At least I don’t feel tired during the day anymore.
Screen Time Average: 7 Hours, 26 Minutes. It went down a smidge from last week, and I am spending way too much time still on Twitter, even if it’s all in the sports space. With college football around the corner, I really need to get this in check haha.
Average Notifications: 416 per day. This is only going to go up. Between soccer and college football score updates over the weekend this is going to soar. But at least these are positive things, and they are much better than social media pings.
So, that’s kind of where I am on my birthday today. I am thankful for many things, but not delusional about where I want to be, or feel I should be. I guess the best thing is that I am motivated. I want to make changes and start to live my life instead of having it happen to me or having others tell me how I SHOULD be living mine. At the end of the day all of this comes down to me. So, we’ll see where I am once the earth makes another trip around the sun this time next year.
Have a great week!
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Massive progress! Well done 💪 And, happy birthday!!!
The biggest thing is knowing exactly how you feel, where you are, etc., and knowing exactly how you want to tackle it. You'll get there!
Great job on your progress too! I liek the little updates.
And again, happy belated!!