Fifteen days into the Forgotten Goals 30-Days Challenge, the halfway mark, and I have already failed in one of my three goals – the goal on sleep. I have yet to self-test for the other two goals but I believe I’m on track.
That said, I find it difficult to balance a routine comprising of Aikido, MovNat/Parkour, running, street callisthenics and Convict Conditioning callisthenics. I am reworking and experimenting with my schedule because it feels that my routine is severely suboptimal. This explains the fatigue and regular burn outs.
In any case, here are the respective reflections and corrective action on my three goals for the challenge.
Sleeping Well
While I managed to sleep better and longer, I didn’t meet my benchmarks, violating the “sleep before 3.30am rule on weekends”. On a few occasions, I slept for less than 6.5 hours on weekdays.
Because my horrible sleeping habits were so ingrained, spanning at least a decade, I should have allowed for an ease-in period.
Another issue that contributed to this failure was my insistence to work on 2 to 3 other habits in conjunction with sleeping well. The drain in mental energy strained my focus. It was day after day of maintaining self-control on so many habits; habits that I now realise were my way of coping with stress or pushing away moodiness. When several coping habits are forcefully restricted, it is unsustainable. This leads me to another conclusion that I should have explored the underlying compulsion that has caused me to push back bedtime so many times in the past.
Am I going to stop working on the “sleeping well” goal since I already failed? No way! This setback is just feedback on the corrective action to take for the next 15 days and after. It doesn’t matter if I fail here.
Callisthenics Goal
Forgot that I distinguished tricep dips and chest dips in my benchmarks. Need to work on both and take note of elbow form. Elbow sometimes hurt from pressure.
Also, still finding the correct form for Straight dips. Right wrist hurts due to the tremendous weight isolated on it.
Aikido & Movement Goal
Need to get much more practice for rolling and incorporate it as a random movement snack. My right-side roll is still horrible and side vault needs more practice.
Note: My 30-days challenge goals and benchmarks can be found here.
