Good morning and happy 2021!!
December Highlights
Finished semester with straight As
After stressing for the last month of school, being rewarded with good grades was nice.
Food... lots of food.
Cooking and eating and cooking and eating - yum.
Mental Rest
Definitely took a step back this month. Although I'm still doing online classes in order to graduate this upcoming May, I've definitely taken a step back to help my mind and body recuperate.
New Stuff
Calm
I've been using this app to increase my mindfulness and to help me focus on being present. I've also noticed that doing some of the prescribed breathing exercises helps me get better sleep. Although I can't officially measure this, I usually do not have dreams while sleeping. Since dreams are typically indicative of REM or deep sleep, the increased frequency of my dreams of late suggest I have been getting deeper sleep. I will definitely attribute this to my practicing of these breathing exercises.
Ponderings
Separate from this newsletter is a section of my blog called "ponderings." Here is where I will be posting weekly thoughts throughout the year. Every Sunday, I will post write-ups on current events and other pertinent topics. I enjoy writing and I believe this exercise will not only be healthy, but hopefully help to start a dialogue about some interesting topics. Feel free to let me know of anything you're intellectually curious about and I would love to do some reasearch and post!
Books
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F by Mark Manson
Again, apologize for the explicit title, but again a great book. Providing a framework for how to better cancel out the noise and focus on your own mission, Manson does an excellent job looking at various aspects of your day to day life and explaining how to simplify and keep from getting distracted by other people's (or your own) conceptions. The following quote is in refrence to metacognition or thinking about the way you think. When we second guess ourselves out of the fear we will not meet the expectations we had set, we inadvertently dimish our happiness.
"The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience... Paradoxically, the acceptance of one's negative experience is itself a positive experience."
Think, for example, you're at a bar... what will result in the better story: you telling your audience about how you won a race that you were leading the whole time, or you telling your audience about how you almost won the race, then tripped and fell at the last minute when you were prematurely celebrating your win? Yeah, you might get a pat on the back for the winning story, but inherently, you will get a better reaction, more laughs, and more follow questions talking about your failure rather than your predicted success. Naturally humans are more sympathetic and will typically be more curious about the loss and the last minute trip-up. We are programmed to learn from mistakes, therefore, when someone makes a mistake (unless it is extremely mundane), we are more likely to take more away from that experience, even if it's someone relaying a story at a bar. Same goes for the dialogue we have in our own mind. We are able to look at past failures often in a better light, especially when using the past as a lens through which to view our future.
Drawdown by Paul Hawken
The subtitle "The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to ReverseGlobal Warming," is probably the best summary for the book itself. I've been wanting to build upon my knowledge in the environmental space in order to develop a better understanding of how to integrate sustainable technologies into my future field of work. The book provides a great overview of the different technologies being used and those to come in the clean climate space.
In the coming 30 years, what do you think will be the number one most cost effective method to reduce pollution and inhibit slow global warming?
"If 87% of the refrigerants likely to be released in the coming 30 years were contained instead of emitted, we would theoretically save upwards of 89.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide."
Just to put this in perspective, if 100% of the addressable market implemented solar power (meaning the market that could realistically run solar operations given their sun exposure and altitude conditions), there would only be a savings of 24 gigatons of carbon dioxide.
*Note: Moving forward, I will post a quote or two on the books followed by a little explanation if I see fit.
Struggles
Productivity
With mountains in my backyard while I'm home, it can be difficult to focus. Balancing meetings, holiday celebrations, and school work makes the days go by QUICK.
Vegan Mission
Didn't quite work out as planned... I'll leave it at that. I'd recommend not setting that goal during the holiday season at your parents' house,
Closing Thoughts
2021 - let's seize the day everyday! Taking all in to account from the past 10 months of COVID and looking forward to see how we can all implement changes that we have sought for ourselves and our communities, let's get after it this year. I am jumping into this new year with a fresh attitude (and haircut 😉).
What’s Next
Head back to school
Ponderings
Skiing
Find landing place for after college
If you’re curious to see more of what’s going on, be sure to check out the rest of my blog. Or to see last month's update, check out Stryke’s Scoop from December!
Until next month!
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