Week 2023#29: more resting and more saying no

Saying "no" turned out to not be so hard after all, and now I know why.

If you ever wondered what happens to a kohuke when you put it into the microwave, look no further!

The weirdest thing about it though was that it actually tasted good. Kind of like a warm desert, like you’d eat at Christmas dinner.

What I’ve learned

Having a compelling vision can make saying “no” easy.

I’m still working my way through the 12 Week Year and part of that was putting my “Aspirational Vision” in place, i.e. my long-term wish list of things I want to have, do, and be in life.

But only the things I actually care about.

That was quite a challenge, but after reviewing my initial draft 2 weeks later and still feeling good about it, I proceeded to the next step: breaking it down to the “Mid-Term Vision”, i.e. what I’d like to achieve in the next 3 to 5 years, given that I extend and exert myself a bit more towards that mission.

The idea behind all of this is to live life intentionally and realize your full potential.

Coincidentally, my friend Mete just wrote about living intentionally today as well.

Even without converting that vision into an actionable plan yet (the eponymous 12 Week Year), it already had an impact.

Not going to Fika every day was shockingly easy.

Because I knew that practicing this form of discomfort and behavior change would help me reach the things I want.

I finally feel like I have a pretty good idea of what I want to achieve, why it’s important to me, and by when I can realistically achieve it.

This partially confirms the theory laid out at the beginning of the book: you need a compelling vision to push through when times are difficult and not give up.

While “not going to Fika every morning” is certainly not meeting the definition of “tough times”, it was a significant enough departure from my regular behavior to feel different.

Direction vs Movement

Direction for Week 29:

• Saying “no”: this was a success, and it actually made me spend more time at home, with the unintended side-effect of starting to enjoy my own home 🤯

• Recovery: slept between 9 and 10 hours most nights and had another all-out workout session on Saturday.

Direction for Week 30:

• Stay the course with exercising: I have 6 more all-out workouts and eating in a 500kcal surplus ahead of me and I’m slightly afraid of overshooting my goal of reaching 70kg by the end of the year, gaining more body fat than I’d like. Luckily I know how make the fat melt off, because I’ve done it many times 🤞

• Live intentionally: actually convert what I read in the 12 Week Year into action, make a 12 Week Plan and hold myself accountable! It’s scary because it means…well, having responsibility for your own actions.

What happened

I said “yes” to a casting call and actually ended up as an extra for the movie Aurora. This was my first time as an extra on a movie set, and it turned out to be a lot of fun – lots of new people, many of them very outgoing and time was flying even though we were filming essentially only one scene for 6 hours.

Definitely not the last time I’ll play an extra!