Idealistinfire's "If Ever I Stray" Challenge (recovery part 2)

[idealistinfire]

Ah, Frank Turner- just the musician a recovering workaholic needs.  For those of you who did not follow my previous challenge, I am currently working on recovering from some nasty burnout.  It's been a rough year and a half, but the last challenge was successful and I am on the way to recovering sanity and motivation, slowly but surely. Huzzah!!! 

 

Frank Turner's song "If Ever I Stray" is my general theme song for this challenge (look it up, it's a great song).  For the sub goals, if I'm going to bail on follow through, I have to first listen to the corresponding song and then decide to skip it.

 

Long term goal: be silly and badass, all at once

• Run 3-6 miles at a 10 minute mile
• Pull myself up over a wall without help
• Perform a gymnastic routine that includes a backflip or something else springy

Truthfully, I am nowhere near motivated enough to work on my long term goals, but I don't want to lose sight of them either.

 

 

Building block goals (aka - challenge goals)

 

"Reasons Not To Be An Idiot" - Get outside every day and hike/ explore a new outdoor location 3 times during the challenge

• Pertainable lyrics "so why are you sad at home? You're not designed to be alone. You just got use to saying no, so get up and get down and get outside"
• It doesn't matter what I do, but for at least 15 minutes each day, I need to be outside.
• Why? Because depression sucks and sitting in the sun helps fight it.  Plus, winter is too cloudy to pass on good weather just because I'm in a bad mood.  And I always regret not hiking - I love being in the woods, along the beach, where ever there is nature in abundance.

 

"Photosynthesis" - work less than 41hrs each week and 10 hours per day

• Pertainable lyrics "I won't sit down. I won't shut up. But most of all, yeah, I won't grow up "
• Why? Because working more than 41 hours is stressful, I'm salaried and there is always more work that could be done, so why kill myself over it?  And, it's summer! Sunshine is a limited commodity in the pacific northwest. Why waste It working indoors?

 

"Love ire and song" - reduce negative/jaded thinking

• Pertainable lyric - the whole song (language warning)
• Why? I miss the days when working in a nonprofit was fun and fulfilling.  and I realized last week that I spend a lot of time listening to bitter, burnt out people, which helps me not at all. 
• Success = listening to this song twice a week, walking away from negative conversations and activity looking for good things at work at least once per workday

[Waanie]

Sounds like a great challenge again . I'm listening to the song for the first time now, and it seems fitting. It seems like a lot of us need to get over negative thinking, so we can all help each other . I'm looking forward to following your challenge!

 

Edit: I just read the lyrics, and they are really impressive. It's very anti-materialist, I like it . Most people I know don't understand that it can be enough to have nice food, a pretty apartment and some great friends to have a good life. I'm trying to follow that mentality, and since I've decided I don't need a big house, a car, the newest gadgets etc. I feel much better <3.

[idealistinfire]

Week 1, Day 1

- reasons not to be an idiot: missed outdoor time. Oops

+ photosynthesis: day off

+ love ire & song: battled negative thinking with limited results. But at least the effort was made

 

Week 2, day 2

+ reasons not to bean idiot: 15 minutes outside reading

+ photosynthesis: 8 hr work day

+ love ire & song: limited work rants to 15 minutes and then had alightful evening with a friend talking of other things

 

Also encouraging- had the smallest bit of motivation to workout. There is hope yet

[Waanie]

It seems like you had a great start of your challenge! It sounds like the company you work for has some unpopular decisions, if people are ranting all the time. That or you work with costumers . I think it's great you talked about other things with a friend, evenings with friends are almost always great, make sure you have plenty of them .

 

Of course there is hope, you are totally going to rock this challenge. Just let Bree help you getting your time outside and let him make you smile, and you will rock this challenge .

[Georges]

Looks like a strong start!

 

Battling negative thinking reminds me of grinding out levels in a game.  It may feel like day 1 had limited results, but you probably laid down the groundwork for a lot of future success by getting in the habit of making the effort. 

[Raxie]

Love how thought out these are with the why's.  Also I really like your get outside more goal.

 

Good luck!

[idealistinfire]

@Waanie - I do social work, so some of the rants are customer related. But the CEO decided we needed to do more types of services, and well, that has led to a lot of burnout.

@Georges - I like the video game reminder.  I'll have to remember that for the future.

@raxie4942 - thanks! If nothing else, I can usual get to solid explanations and supportive reasoning. Must be the nerd in me

[Everstorm]

*poke*

[idealistinfire]

Week 1, Day 3

+ Reasons not to be an idiot: walked Bree for 30 minutes

+ Photosynthesis: 9 hr work day

+ Love Ire and Song: bought a picture of myself because I looked happy in it and squashed the idea of skipping the purchase because it shows how much weight I've gained.  I have a lot of trouble reconciling the vision of myself in my head and the one that shows up in pictures.  Also went to bed instead of staying up and dwelling on sudden negative thoughts.  Had a bit of trouble getting to sleep but still, an effort was made.

[idealistinfire]

my tablet is obsessed with posting. Please forgive it.

[idealistinfire]

Phoenix Burning! You're back . Its so great to see you again

[Everstorm]

Phoenix Burning! You're back . Its so great to see you again

Thanks.  I'm toying with a late join on the challenge.  Just checking on ev'ybody.

[idealistinfire]

Its not even the end of week one - that's like, barely late at all. You know you want to!

[Nuala]

*************   This is a semi automatic message from your future ex robotic guild leader     ********************

 

Hello! I just noticed that you haven't submitted the Assassin sign-up form.

 

For those of you new to the guild - this form allow us to list all the members of the guild that use our sign-up sheet, it makes our work easier and allows you to be registered in the phonebook or eligible for the most wanted list! (Please note, this is not the general sign-up, this is an additional sign up for our guild only.)

 

If it's not done already, make sure to subscribe to the announcement thread to make sure you won't miss any events or informations.

 

 

*************   This was a semi automatic message from your future ex robotic guild leader ********************

[Waanie]

You are doing great with your challenge! I can imagine that people don't like it that their workload has increased, especially not if some people got burnt out and others have to pick up the slack. It's good that you try to keep some distance from the rants though, they don't help you in any way and you only feel worse after those rants.

 

Yay for happy pictures .

[Everstorm]

Its not even the end of week one - that's like, barely late at all. You know you want to!

Yeah, I do.  Link to my new thread is in my signature.  See you around!

[idealistinfire]

Full update coming later, but a few happy points before I forget:

+I hung out with mom last night instead of moping that my friends cancelled on me

+looked up dog training pages when I wanted to dwell on depression instead

+ saw that it was raining today and did the mini challenge stretches to replace going outside

 

I'm especially happy about the last one. I haven't done any mobility work since beginning of my last challenge, and I'm feeling great after moving around a bit

[vibrantnotions]

Full update coming later, but a few happy points before I forget:

+I hung out with mom last night instead of moping that my friends cancelled on me

+looked up dog training pages when I wanted to dwell on depression instead

+ saw that it was raining today and did the mini challenge stretches to replace going outside

 

I'm especially happy about the last one. I haven't done any mobility work since beginning of my last challenge, and I'm feeling great after moving around a bit

 

WOO!!

 

Love your challenge set up this round. 

[Waanie]

How is your challenge going? Your first updates looked great, I hope the rest of your first week was just as awesome .

[idealistinfire]

week 1, day 3

+ outside for 15 minutes (sat on the porch)

+ 9 hr work day

+ no venting

 

Week 1, Day 4

+ outside (dog park)

- 10hr work day

+ spent time around mom (positive person) instead of moping/dwelling/obsessing.

 

Week 1 day 5

+outside (mowed lawn and stretching workout)

+9 hr work day

- lots of obsessing/dwelling

+ listened to Love Ire and Song (2 of 2)

 

Week 1 day 6

+outside (dog park)

- 7 hr work day, so 43 hour work week

- lots of ranting (letting work stress get the better of me)

 

Week 2 day 7

+rest day - lots of time outside

[idealistinfire]

Week 2 Day 1

+ rest day

+ explored a new trail (2mi, easy wooded path) 1 of 3 for the challenge

 

Week 2 Day 2

- outdoor time

- 10.5 hr work day

+ positive work talk instead of ranting

 

So, preventing burnout is a wee bit difficult when I have an obsession for perfection and not enough time/support to make it happen. Something to improve upon.

[Waanie]

You're doing great! It sounds like your job is very busy at the moment, but you managed to do achieve all your other goals . You are doing really well with going outside, and you also do useful stuff when you're outside . Maybe you can explain Bree why you are obsessing/dwelling when you feel down? Talking about it helps most of the time, and Bree won't tell someone else .

[idealistinfire]

So true - I'm sure Bree will be more than happy to get more face time And maybe if I say things out loud, that will help too 

[idealistinfire]

Week 2 day 3

+ outdoor (45 minutes, it went extra well even did a couple sprints that took 10minutes to recover from)

+ limited complaints about work and discovered I'm more excited about pursuing some extra education than finding a new job just yet. Progress in person discoveries, Huzzah!

+9 hour work day

 

Still tired and stressed out, but spent time outside with my sidekick instead of moping, and contacted a few counselors to see if they are good fits for the kind of help I'm seeking.   It's causing some anxiety to do so, but admitting I don't have all the answers nor super human powers always creates some anxiety.  So it's all for the good

[Waanie]

It is always difficult to accept that you're not perfect and that you never will be. Give yourself some space, talk to the counselors and you'll feel better in some time . Many people struggle with the same problems as you do, you don't have to feel bad about that.

 

I like it that you go outside a lot now, you seem to do really well . And education is always good, probably better than the stress looking for a new job brings .