Kuching

My finals ended on 26th August. I changed my mind and went back to my hometown the day after.

Been in Kuching for almost 2 weeks now. The first week was not productive to say the least. I was not familiar with my other commitments such as driving my sister to tuition and such which led to not planning the day; wasting a lot of time.

The 'box' was tempting with our low internet speed (compared to KL). Managed that by recording shows I wanted to watch.

Had a conversation  with a friend about watching news channels such as CNBC, CNN etc. . It seems to be a productive activity since we all can justify its benefits and how society urges us to ' keep up to date ', however it still depends heavily on what the current goal is.

I find there to be more isolated facts rather than concepts to be learnt. That should be a sign.

Perspective

"Overall, the mean household income in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau 2004 Economic Survey, was $60,528, or $17,210 (39.73%) higher than the median household income."

After 30 years of work, one's net worth would be somewhere about 1.8 million USD. 

There are about 49,000 people in the US who are net 50-500 million USD. 

Some want more, some want less.


What's your number?


"Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity. Why would you be realistic? What's the point of being realistic? I'm gonna do it it's done, its already done, as soon as I decide it's done it's already done now we just gotta wait for y'all to see." 
~Will Smith

My first 10 miles!

Woke up at 6 am, and went down to run. I only planned to run 11 laps around the condo. My record before this run, 2 days ago, was 10 laps which is about 4.2 miles. A week before, my record was 5 laps.

Based on previous records using RunKeeper, I calculated 1 lap is about .422 miles which now seems to me that this is not accurate because the miles per lap decreases as my laps progress.

When I started running today, I felt a slight discomfort in my stomach; an about to cramp sensation. I just focussed on my posture and the discomfort seemed to get better as the lap progressed.

The first few laps were always the hardest. I like to think that my body is adjusting to the stress which it is not accustomed to yet and that the first 5 laps were warm ups to "get the flow".

I could not have felt better after my 10 lap (broke my PR here). The small aches from previous laps did not seem to bother me at all and I was not catching my breath. The aches did eventually return. So I thought, wouldn't it be good to break a friend's record of 14km today. I took out my phone and calculated the number of additional laps that I'd have to run to reach 14km. 
It turned out to be 22 laps with the assumption of .4 miles per lap and 1.6km per mile.

I would not deny that during the laps, the thought of giving up was seductive. My feet were aching, abdominal pain was still an issue ( though minor) and my thighs were bruised. Despite that, I kept going for the next lap.

At the 18th lap, I came to realise that 25 laps would mean 10 miles. That's just 3 laps shy of the current 22 lap goal!

Here are my reasons of doing 10 miles:
1. It's a double digit mile
2. I've already ran this far
3. I've already ran for so long ( over an hour and still counting )
4. I FREAKING THOUGHT 10 MILES WAS 21KM!

5. I have no intentions of breaking my friends record (8.75 miles) only to have it broken the next day.

I finished the 25 lap and was about to stop. Took out my phone and it was 9.2 miles; 2 laps away from 10 miles.

I persisted another 2 laps.

So today is my first time doing 10 miles, 27 laps, and I've never ran this distance before. I never expected I would be able to run north of 2 hours. I broke my friend's record (in one week) and now it is his turn to break mine.

Today is definitely a breakthrough. 

I hope to do this again next week. Persisting another 3.2 miles to complete 13.1miles/21km.

I'm sitting at a coffee shop having breakfast whilst writing this. 3 glasses of cold tea, 1 cup of coffee and a bowl of noodles in soup.

Now I feel like a water tank.

New Shoes and PR

Bought my running shoes this Monday. It's a Sketchers Go Ultra. Ran 3.3 miles on that day itself.

The next day, I ran 4.2 miles with an average of 10m30s/ mile. That's my PR so far.

Tomorrow I'll again break my distance record without sacrificing speed. Looking forward to it.

Ping

Text structure and Running Mistakes

Woke up on time at 0600 today. Took out the trash and went for a jog. Did 5 laps which is about 1 mile folowing the advise from "How to Improve Your Running Form: The 5 Biggest Mistakes Beginning Marathoners Make" on youtube. It did help heaps. After the laps, I went for breakfast. Came back and watched some Jordan Belfort videos before reading.

Knowing the text structures really helped in reading. It helped me to get the big picture and even helped me to detect the writers insecurities by over elaboration and attacking the views of others.


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Marathon

I'm training for my first marathon. It will be in November. Woke at 0640 today although alarm rang at 0600. Only ran half a mile because I have gym in the evening.

Update:

I did another 2 laps after breakfast.

Searched up different types of text structures and memorized them. Hopefully I'll be able to read faster with this. Studies went well today, did more than expected.

Gym went well, the jogs in the morning does not seem to affect on my workout.

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Limiting beliefs

I'm a huge fan of Tony Robbins. In one of his videos, he stated that amongst reasons people don't succeed is because they are dragged down by limiting beliefs. A lot of people have goals but lack the faith to take action. Inaction may then lead to the belief that one is a failure and that cycle continues in a downward spiral.

However, limiting beliefs can also be broken. Beliefs are set up by how we interprete meaning of events. Failure could mean one should give up but it could also mean he is a step closer to success.

"Every failure learnt is a step forward"

I overcame a limiting belief today. About how I am not the best in math and that I will not succeed because of that. Backed that by another strategy; evidence. Evidence of people succeeding regardless of being weak in a particular attribute because they have their own strengths.

It is ironic how a limiting belief that runs in one's subconscious can create such uncertainty that can deviate one from their ideal path and how much energy it takes from someone. I'll pay more attention to my thoughts from now onwards. Looking forward to resolving those beliefs.

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Goals

“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry our their dream.”

Revised and planned my goals this morning using The Official 2014 Goal Setting and Action Workbook (PDF)  from LiveYourLegend.  Took some time to complete it but now at least I have more peace knowing that my ideal is backed by a plan.  

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Meditation and lucid dreams

I did a brief meditation yesterday where I visualized myself stepping out from the present and visited my ideal in the future. After I'm done "exploring", from a 3rd person point of view I visualized how the ideals all lead back to the present (tomorrow's ideals comes back to decisions and actions of the present) and how there was also a route to mediocrity. I vanished the route to mediocrity and returned to the present feeling energised.

This morning, before waking up, I had a lucid dream of visiting my ideal. Nothing changed but it was a great way to start my day knowing how the future might unravel.

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Occupied.

So the last time I posted was about a year ago when I was so hyped up with achieving my fitness goals. A year after, here I am, still working towards that ideal as I lost focus back then.

I took and passed my last exam in Jan this year which means that I'm done with my Diploma in Accountancy. However, I feel that I'm not quite done with accounting just yet.

Also, I finally decided to study for the actuarial exams which I have been putting off for almost 2 years because frankly, I was intimidated by the Math.

In May, I started attending college again. I'm now doing a Bachelors in Finance and Investments.

In July, I enrolled for Exam P in September. I'll only be heading back home after I'm done with the test in September although holidays starts end of August. Also, I decided to participate in the upcoming marathon held in Penang this November. I haven't registered but I am training for it.

Yesterday, 9th August, I set another goal for myself which is to finish 30 books in year. The deadline would be 9th August, 2015.

Today, I renamed this blog to The Path because the old blog title would clearly not have much relevance to future posts.

That's all for now.



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