I saw @mikey and @battleaxe making new year's resolution type lists a few weeks back, and I thought at the time what a great idea, and I was going to pull a list together. As I leaned back on my chair to think about what I could change, the chair gave way, I slipped back and landed on my head and temporary amnesia took hold and I forgot all about it or maybe it just slipped my mind! Ya, that was it actually, I knew something had slipped!
So, a doff of my hat to @mikey and @battleaxe, two users I look up to and love reading, for the idea for this post.
So, let's kick it off, I'm going to outline 5 positive changes which I am going to try and adopt this coming year, from Scorum to lifestyle to food.
Remember where I came from
I am currently the lucky holder of 1,585 SP and also have 50 liquid SCR as I near the end of my fourth month here on the platform. I made a conscious decision at that time to try and organically grow my account here, and I started off with that tiny little seed of 5SP. The start was difficult and that very first post which I put loads of time and effort into returned a grand total of 0.01SP and 2 upvotes, one of which was my own! I didn't allow that to stop me though, and kept on plugging away and tried to sharpen my writing and engage with other users. That's when the true magic of Scorum became apparent. As I began to get to know the community, I felt welcomed and encouraged. I read peoples posts, they read mine and I started to learn more and more about sports I knew little about. I met people from the 4 corners of the world, some who shared my love of football, and many others whose sporting passions lay elsewhere. It has been a wonderful journey so far, but I always remind myself that I came from 5SP and an opening post that got 0.01 payment and I then pop over to the introducemyself page and look for some new users and welcome them to our wonderful little niche, offer some words of advise and leave them a nice little upvote to get them started. It is something we should all try to do every once in a while. If we fail to water these new little seeds, then the trees will eventually die out and the forest that is scorum would slowly disappear. Now, go on, head on over to the newbie section and find someone to support, we all know what it was like in those early days.
Regain my Fitness
Warning! Warning! Here comes a cliche! A healthy body is a healthy mind. I used to be a great man when it came to fitness. I'd play football twice a week, hit the gym a few times, cycle places and head out for a 5km run every few weeks to keep my cardio fitness ticked over. These days, there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. I have 3 young kids who crave my attention, when I get home from work, and I have a busy job. The nature of my job is such that, there is a continuous learning curve, as technology is always in a constant state of flux.
Those last few sentences there, do you know what they were? Excuses! If there's one thing, us humans are good at, it's making excuses. We do it all the time
I can't because....
I would if.....
if only I had more time, I would...
We put up these little barriers for ourselves. Look at some really successful business people or sports people. If you had a look at their schedule, you would faint, wake up and then faint again. They manage their time meticulously and so can all of us. Do you really need to watch that episode of Ozark, Desperate Housewives or whatever show you're into these days? What is it going to do for you? Could that hour be spent more efficiently doing something else?
Some of you might say, ok I can find the time, but I can't afford the gym membership. You don't need a gym membership, in fact you don't even need equipment. Burpees, pushups, situps, shadow boxing, running on the spot. Guess what, you can do them all in the comfort of your own home, and you could even watch your favourite TV show at the same time. You can't beat killing 2 birds with one stone, can you!
Now, when you do decide, like myself, do get back into fitness, it's important to ease yourself back into it slowly. Don't think you can do what your man is doing below straight away, you have to build yourself up. On a slight aside, I have the height of respect for the man below for holding that fart in, it can't be easy! 😂 😂
Maintain my Healthy Eating
I'm on a roll with the cliches, so here's another one. We are what we eat. Never was a truer word written, well except that time that someone wrote about how great I am, that was gospel. But outside of that one time, we are what we eat is a great statement. Think of the food and drink that you put into your body as fuel. Your mind, your strength and conditioning are all a function of what you eat. What do you think would happen to a car engine if you put the wrong fuel type in? It just wouldn't function right and it would eventually destroy the engine. The affect of food on our bodies is not as drastic as that, but nonetheless, the analogy is a good one I feel.
I go through phases of being very health conscious when it comes to food, but eventually the blander food gets boring, and slowly the sugary and processed foods start making their way back onto my plate and into my body. The problem is that it takes more time, energy and money to eat healthily than to eat rubbish. It would be great if the opposite was true, but alas, it is not, so we have to act accordingly.
I have already started along the path of healthy eating even before 2018 has come to a close, and in the last week I have completely cut out fizzy drinks, crisps, sweets and most cakes etc. I struggle from time to time with my stomach and I have found that cutting out gluten can really help me, so this past week, I have once again cut out all gluten from my diet. I love bread, pastries, biscuits and all of these gluten-rich products, so cutting gluten is a tricky one for me. However, it is well worth doing, and from what I have read many of us are gluten-intolerant without even knowing it, and over indulgence with gluten can lead to many ailments. Luckily these days, my local supermarket has a diversity of gluten free cakes, breads and biscuits for me to choose from, and going gluten free is not as difficult as it once was. You have to be careful with sugar though if and when you go gluten free, as many products can be laced with sugar to mask the absence of gluten.
Like with anything, you have to give yourself a little break every now and again, and over the following Christmas days, I am going to be less strict with my new health kick. I will allow myself to over indulge on Christmas eve, Christmas day and St Stephens day, but then it'll be back to basics again. Even on those days though, I will try my best to avoid any gluten laced things like bread, croisants etc, as I know that my stomach will thank me.
Get back to Surfing and Camping
2019 is going to be a year, where I rediscover some of my passions like surfing. It is a tricky one because it takes around 3 hours to drive to the West coast with my board, but even if I manage to make it across to Lahinch or Bundoran twice next year, it will be twice as much I have managed in the previous 6 years.
Things don't just happen. You've got to plan them, so that's one thing I am going to plan for sure, and I can even maybe try and teach my 5 year old how to surf as well, if he is on for it. My 2 year old is still too young, and the wee man is only 14 weeks, so I'll let him master the crawling first I think.
Another thing, we will look to rekindle this year is camping, and that can be mixed in with the surfing, as the really good surf spots on the West coast all have cool camp sites as well. The boys will absolutely love it, and it is something we used to do all the time. These days the camping gear is just gathering dust in the shed, so it's time to cast off those cobwebs and get back in the wild outdoors for some fun with all the family. With any bit of luck, we'll get another scorcher of a summer, and this will all be possible.
Right, I'm on a roll now, something else I have been threatening to do for quite a while is organise a golfing holiday with a bunch of mates. My friend even has a house on a golf course in Spain, so that one should be pretty straight forward to organise.
Dust of the guitar
I taught myself to play the guitar around ten years ago. I bought two guitars at the time, a nice acoustic and a cheap electric guitar, with an amp. I managed to teach myself around 8 or 10 chords using a few websites and loved spending hours trying to learn some of my favorite songs. My level is very basic, but I would love to dedicate more time to this in 2019. Again, a good way to try to achieve this goal is to try and involve the boys. I might look into buying a guitar for the boys to learn on at the same time. Although, I'd say that will last about 64 seconds before the strings are snapped, so maybe it would be better initially to wait until they are gone to sleep, and then try to strum out a few tunes.
One thing that I have to try and do, is pick a song or two and learn all the words and learn all the chords and strumming, so that the next time I'm at a party, wedding after party or the like, I'll be able to nail at least one song. You see, my problem is I need the words and chords on a sheet of paper on front of me, in order to deliver, and even then it is a little disjointed if I am completely honest about it. It would be pretty sweet to be able to just pick up the guitar and rattle out a tune. I do have one problem there mind you, I am a complete crooner, but If I pick the right song, I might just get away with it!
Song suggestions welcome..
Ok that's it for me. Lots of ideas. Lots of changes. Let's hope I can stick to it, and make 2019 the best year yet. The sky is the limit.
Thanks as always for taking the time to read my post.
Peace Out.
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