Reflecting On Three Months In California

Monday will make it three months since I've been here in California.

One key thing I've realized is that whether you do or don't do something, the time will fly by.

That being true, in most cases, it's better to do something then. Three months is enough time from me to get a sense of what's working, what's not working, and what I want to change.

What Is Working

I'm doing pretty good at my job. I think there's always room for improvement, such as being more proactive in my rotational program work and searching for my next rotation, or trying to take on more responsibility in my current engineering role. But for the most part, I'm doing fine.

One thing I've learned that it is ok to take things slowly at work. I'm so used to working at a fast pace from my time at MIT that I get bothered or immediately think something is wrong if work is progressing slowly.

But this realization has made me more comfortable with the rate at which I'm developing as an engineer. Things take time, and that's ok.

Outside of work, I've done well to keep up with my writing. I hit my long-time goal of 50 stores back in September. It feels great to have that milestone under my belt. I'm not really concerned about the number of stories anymore. I'm more focused on the quality of each story now.

What Is Not Working

I'm not consistent with my writing or working out. The reason for that is because I'm not getting to bed on time. I'm really more aware of how the previous day-to-day decisions you make compound over time. Given that my time is less fungible, it's become more important that I use it wisely in the first place.

My general goal is simple - to self-direct my own development. I'm taking this weekend to figure out what I need to do every single day to get closer to reaching my goals.

What I'm Doing To Change

I'm taking this weekend to organize myself. I've already cleaned my kitchen and now plan to clean the bathroom as well. Other than those two specific tasks, I'm really trying to set a firm schedule based on what goals I want to achieve in the short and long term.

I want to be healthier.

Therefore, I'm building my schedule around getting nine hours of sleep (with a minimum of eight). Success starts at getting good sleep. Building on that, I want to lose weight and gain muscle. I'm currently ~170 lbs, and my goal is to get down to 160 by the end of the month, and 155 in November. While I'm currently working out via weightlifting 2-3x a week, I need to exercise more. I'm adding 20 min cardio sessions at the beginning and end of each day for a minimum of 40 minutes per day. My hope is over time I can work towards 60 mins of intensive cardio a day to accelerate fat burn.

I want to create content more frequently. Specifically, that's writing and film. My goal is to blog at least once a day on here, and film a short video on my Instagram every day. Fortunately, I'm doing a really good job with the latter, but not the former. So my plan is to block out an hour in the evening just to write and film.

I'm not necessarily worried about the quality of the content yet. I think it's more important to build consistency first. Once I get in the habit of creating daily, then I will work to improve the quality of my content as much as possible.

I'm hoping these basic changes I'm making will pay dividends down the road. I'm confident they will, so all I need to do is stick to the plan!

Soda