technomancer Shadowlion and the Empress Plot to Take Over the World

[ShadowLion]

 

 

Last challenge–while the Empress and I were strategizing our path to world domination over tea and crumpets–

we decided that I needed to focus on some very specific things to be my truest self in 2019.

 

 

Definition: (1) (adjective) ruthless in competition; (

2) (adjective) violently agitated and turbulent;

(3) (adjective) marked by extreme and violent energy;

(4) (adjective) marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions; inclined to react violently; fervid;

 

 

"FIERCE" is the acronym designed to support this quest,

which I am intensely committed to achieving,

in ruthless competition with myself,

through the following means:

 

 

FOCUS - Attend to one thing at a time, the most important thing.

IMPACT - Choose the most important thing on the basis of its impact, and where its effects will accumulate and compound over time.

ENERGY - Trust the Universe and my intuition. Follow the path of positive energy. Invite feedback. 

RESILIENCE - Proactively seek to become stronger and more resilient by regularly going outside my comfort zone. Balance stretching my limits with adequate rest, recovery and social support. 

CREATIVITY - Fuel the fire. Nurture my creative spirit. Make cool stuff that energizes me and helps others. 

EXECUTION - The time for planning and strategizing is done. Execute the plan! 

 

 

12/31/2018 - My accountability partner and I are meeting later today, New Year's Eve, to wrap up our respective end of year retreats and have a focused work session on our plans for the coming year. I'll report back here with the results and my challenge goals, on New Year's day. 

 

The results of the New Year's Eve Accountability Buddy session:

We didn't get as far on concrete goal setting as we had planned. We realized in our initial checkin that we were both still a bit scattered and  conflicted on some of our goals.

 

We shifted gears after discussing possible solutions, and ended up doing a "Draw Your Future" exercise.

 

 

 

and worked with our respective Tarot cards for the day. Mine, of course, was the Empress. I used this particular version, chosen intuitively from a page image search results:

 

 

 

Once we had more clarity on our "whys", we adjourned to do some individual work on goal setting and prioritizing during the week, with the agreement to have a followup accountability session next Saturday after our hike.

 

We had planned a hike as part of our session, but it was cold (46 degrees Fahrenheit! ) and rainy yesterday in Phoenix and we were wimps. (Had not prepared adequately.) We made a pact that there would be no more bailing for weather in the future–beyond adapting time or location based on actual hazards like lightning or flash flooding–as we are going to be FIERCE in our training. 

 

To be continued. I am getting ready to go back to work tomorrow, so I'm interspersing writing this update with household chores.

Spoiler

 

MY GOALS FOR 2019

MY GOALS FOR THIS CHALLENGE

Note on the Leopard Photo

Note on the Empress

 

 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following for your fierce victory.

[Cheetah]

Following for the hiking.  :-)

[Sloth the Enduring]

I ain’t gonna lie, I’m just here for the truck porn.

[Maggie-Miau]

Hey ShadowLion! Cheering for you to do all the fierce!

[RES]

I'm here for world domination   

[h3r0]

That is fierce. Looking forward to seeing more. 

[DarK_RaideR]

19 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I ain’t gonna lie, I’m just here for the truck porn.

Same here, with the added bonus of ShadowLion. Good to see the acronym goals make a comeback.

[Rurik Harrgath]

Here for Technorangery!

 

[Edigo]

Following! 

[Thom Stépan]

Mind if this returned lost one follows you on your quest for world domination?

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[SkyGirl]

Following for that badass acronym goal set!! I love it!   

[ShadowLion]

Just dashing by to say, "Hi!"

 

Up to my eyeballs in everyday life challenges... Will post goals as soon as I can. All I can do the last few days to keep the main practices going! 

 

Staying FIERCE and sending good first-challenge-of-the-year vibes!

[ShadowLion]

Once Again, It's Truck Porn Tuesday

and there are no pictures... 

 

I promised a lesson on the Wildland Engine Typing System in a previous Truck Porn installment and I will do it at some point, but I've had a lot to deal with the last week and a half. Beyond a lot of extra stress and pressure at work, a home renovation project on a deadline, and some major health and financial problems in the family, I've been completely overloaded.

 

It's a bit of a mixed bag for this challenge so far. I have made it a priority to keep making home cooked meals and taking my lunches to work. My veggie consumption has dropped somewhat from my average of 6 servings a day in late December, but is still at a pretty consistent 5 servings a day. I was hoping to get to 7 this challenge, but my grocery shopping has been too sporadic to make that viable. I am doing what I can.

 

The vertigo, like what I was having a year ago, has returned. Not quite as bad, but still pretty disruptive to my daily stair laps, though I have taken two easy Saturday hikes the last two weeks. I have been stretching and doing a few body weight strength exercises, kind of maintenance level, not the more structured and strenuous version I planned for this challenge. I've managed to hang onto my tiny habits, but have not added any new ones. 

One thing I have been doing quite a lot of is observing, listening, journaling. I've been making time to read and think and contemplate. My stress level was getting so high, I just had to draw the line on others' expectations of me and withdraw for some quiet. A lot of it has been active quiet. I've been spending more time than usual doing household chores, cleaning, and rearranging furniture. I can move around, get some things done, and think stuff through.

 

 

[Thom Stépan]

Once Again, It's Truck Porn Tuesday

and there are no pictures... 

 

I promised a lesson on the Wildland Engine Typing System in a previous Truck Porn installment and I will do it at some point, but I've had a lot to deal with the last week and a half. Beyond a lot of extra stress and pressure at work, a home renovation project on a deadline, and some major health and financial problems in the family, I've been completely overloaded.
 
It's a bit of a mixed bag for this challenge so far. I have made it a priority to keep making home cooked meals and taking my lunches to work. My veggie consumption has dropped somewhat from my average of 6 servings a day in late December, but is still at a pretty consistent 5 servings a day. I was hoping to get to 7 this challenge, but my grocery shopping has been too sporadic to make that viable. I am doing what I can.
 
The vertigo, like what I was having a year ago, has returned. Not quite as bad, but still pretty disruptive to my daily stair laps, though I have taken two easy Saturday hikes the last two weeks. I have been stretching and doing a few body weight strength exercises, kind of maintenance level, not the more structured and strenuous version I planned for this challenge. I've managed to hang onto my tiny habits, but have not added any new ones. 

One thing I have been doing quite a lot of is observing, listening, journaling. I've been making time to read and think and contemplate. My stress level was getting so high, I just had to draw the line on others' expectations of me and withdraw for some quiet. A lot of it has been active quiet. I've been spending more time than usual doing household chores, cleaning, and rearranging furniture. I can move around, get some things done, and think stuff through.

 

 

Habit maintenance is probably more important than creating new ones. The consistency of maintaining your habits in the face of adversity, it what will bring real change.

I am proud of your achievements so far this challenge.

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[DarK_RaideR]

6 hours ago, Thom Stépan said:

Habit maintenance is probably more important than creating new ones. The consistency of maintaining your habits in the face of adversity, it what will bring real change. 

I am proud of your achievements so far this challenge.

Quoting for emphasis. It's not about ambitious goals, it's about consistent habits.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

The others are correct. Be gentle with yourself. You are already lapping everyone on the couch, pushing too hard can only hurt you.

[ShadowLion]

@Thom Stépan Hey, Thom - Good to see you!!!

 

And, a big "HI!" and "Thanks!" to everyone that has stopped by to follow, say hello, and offer encouragement: @Tanktimus the Encourager @Cheetah @Sloth the Enduring @Miaulin @RES @h3r0 @DarK_RaideR @Rurik Harrgath @Edigo @SkyGirl 

 

Just knowing that you fellow rebels were out there working your challenges and keeping a straggling ranger in mind helped me stay the course and keep at mine. Things finally started to lighten up at work today, so I should have a bit more bandwidth the rest of the challenge. The vertigo continues, but I have found some ways to work around it. (See next post.) And, I have an additional week to get my part of the home repair/improvement project done before D starts the next round of work. I'm actually a little ahead of where I thought I'd be on it, too, as I have been taking some of the work stress out in cleaning and moving furniture on weeknights, which has made the weekend work sessions go a little faster. Yay!

 

Tiny habits continue. I have modified my vegetarian goal. With as much physical work around the house and with hiking and stair laps, I've felt the need for more protein than I know how to work into a largely vegetarian diet. I am eating less meat overall than I was and I am still determining what the optimum intake levels and sources are for me at this stage. I need more muscle, and while it is much easier to do that when I eat animal protein, I want to be consistent with my beliefs on the ethics of meat consumption, its impact on the planet, and all the beings that live on it. It's something I am wrestling with right now. 

 

And I hiked my fourth Saturday in a row! Hardly a sacrifice, as this is the time of year to get outdoors in Phoenix. 

[ShadowLion]

T and I went to the Lost Dutchman State Park and hiked last Saturday. The park sits on the western side of the Superstition Wilderness Area (additional trails, interactive map) and the scenery is quintessential Arizona in all directions. (Pictures are swiped from the internet except where noted. I am really bad about taking pictures. Too busy gawking and talking, and I forget to get the phone out.)

 

I almost wimped out as I had been having a lot of vertigo on Friday and it was really bad Saturday morning when I woke up. But I am a stubborn shadowlion and I wanted to hike. I am a shadowlion with en epic quest, after all. And, I thought we were going to do another easy hike, so I pondered how to best do it safely. I have two hiking sticks, though usually don't hike with them. Hmmm. I played around with them a bit and practiced various plants and braces with them out in the back yard. Good enough. Nothing going to keep me off the trail. 

 

Treasure Loop Trail: Length 2.4 miles round trip, rated moderate, elevation change of 500 feet. It terminates at either picnic area. Info | Downloadable Map

 

In this picture you are looking east from the trailhead at the picnic area. We started on the northern section of the trail here:

 

 

 

The light and colors in these two picture are very similar to what it was like during our hike. We headed west to east (bottom-center to middle of the image), then looped behind the lower two buttes (slightly left in front of the main outcrop), and returned east to west via the trail's southern section:

 

 

You can barely see the thin, light colored line of the trail coming out from behind the smaller of the two outcrops, about a third of the way up from the center-bottom of the picture.

 

 

It's a lot easier to see the southern section of the trail in this picture. You can see where the trail comes out from behind the buttes and turns back to the west. Look at the center of the picture and follow the line of the trail left and down towards the saguaro cactus. Past the cactus, on the left edge of the picture, the trail turns to the southwest and heads right to the bottom middle of the image. The portion closest to you is rather flat and smooth, unlike the steep and rocky portions near the buttes. 

 

It was a great hike. It was a lot tougher than T remembered it, since there have been some pretty heavy rains since the last time she was there and we were slow as we are both out of shape, me more than T. I stopped frequently to catch my breath, and then kept going! The first third was a fairly easy, steady grade. Then it got steep and rocky, with a lot of twists and turns. Coming back was easy once we got through the steeper part of the descent. I was very glad for my hiking sticks.

 

The weather was perfect and it was so much more fun being out hiking than doing my laps in the stairwell at work. I was very glad for every lap that I've done in preparation, though! This was a milestone hike - I graduated from easy to moderate on just the fourth hike. 

 

Just remembered. I do have pictures from the hikes from weeks 2 and 3. I will post those soon. Some more iconic Arizona scenery...

[Thom Stépan]

If you like I can talk to a Superdad mate of mine, he is a Vegan and at one point a competitive body builder. He was a contestant on the Australian Ninja Warrior and now runs a Ninja Warrior gym in Queensland.

He will know what are the best sources of plant based protein for building muscle. Jarrod often says he is plant powered, rather than vegan.

I an glad to be back here. I missed my Shadowlion friend.

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[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That hike sounds amazing, and even more incredible is you doing it with vertigo.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Beautiful pictures.

[RES]

I have vertigo as well, I can't imagine doing this with it! Though the view alone would make it worth the attempt  

[Cheetah]

Awesome hike!  I'm more than a little jealous.  :-)

[ShadowLion]

@Thom Stépan - That would be great if you could get some pointers from him. It is a big change and I am a bit overwhelmed at all I need to learn! My goals are all intertwined and the dietary changes are where I keep getting stuck. 

 

@Tanktimus the Encourager @RES - My two-stick solution worked pretty well and I took things slow. The vertigo varies a great deal from day to day, depending on how my sinuses and ears are doing. I did better as the day went along, which makes me wonder if some of the variation is due to the poor air quality in the city. 

 

@Sloth the Enduring - There are some awesome mountain bike trails in the area, and I saw some people on road bikes on the paved roads, as well. Arizona has some great places to ride. 

 

@Cheetah - Part of why I'm posting pictures...hoping others can get a little vicarious scenery (and warmth!). For all of Arizona's other ills and oddities, it's pretty hard to beat it when it comes to awesome outdoor views!