Daphne had been insisting that I leave the inn in HabitRPG I had so cozily settled in the past few weeks; thatTrapper Santa boss would certainly not kill itself! I actually did, but actually I hadn’t. By some mistake I didn’t really click on the button which makes you leave the inn (or the flipping site/my laptop/our internet was being unresponsive) and thus missed my opportunity to join the party and fight the boss. This made me very angry indeed. I started fidgeting around the site trying to find a way to undo this when I clicked on “Challenges“.
While the author is plugging himself in more ways I considered possible, it’s a very encouraging and thorough read for someone like me whose ambition is to become a polyglot, but it could be just as useful for anyone aiming to learn a foreign language . You’re probably going to get information overload from that one but it’s worth a try and anyway it’s a valuable resource. Even I had no idea all these sites existed dedicated to all these different kinds of language practice. I had probably just never looked hard enough for them, subconsciously following some of those 32 excuses myself…
A month ago I was halfway there; today, after the most exhausting run yet, I’m proud to say that I can run 5 kilometres and then some.
To be more precise, I finished Week 9 when I was in Loutra last week, but the distance I ran within the time limit of 30 minutes was 4k instead of 5. Today I did Podrunner’s Week 10 Graduation Run 1, which was 35 minutes long and at a higher BPM than usual (the whole idea of this podcast is to run with the beat provided – usually techno, house or electronic music indefinable by me). In the introduction for the graduation week it said that it would make me feel good about how far I’ve come and that I would find it easy to complete. It wasn’t easy at all, but I pushed through and finally did run 7 circuits of the Alsos in 35 minutes, with an unplanned 30 second pause to say hi to Alex and Ilias who I ran into while, um, running.
7 x 820m, which is the length of the circuit, equals 5740m. Considering that the Alsos isn’t flat (the highest point is 20m higher than the lowest one, which adds a bit to the difficulty level), I think I did quite well.
I only began running less than 2 months ago. It was October 5th that I did Week 1, Day 1. I had to run 60 seconds for every 90 seconds I had to walk, for 20 minutes. I’ve come far. I didn’t expect I would make progress this quickly, but here I am. HabitRPG, the proximity of the Alsos to home and the variety of places to run in to shake things up a bit – I had runs in Prespes, Loutra and Ommen, as well as the Alsos – probably helped. Another factor I still can’t say with certainty whether it helped or not but my gut says it did, was my abistence from PMs since the beginning; still experimenting with that one.
I will continue running, probably starting next week with Gateway to 8K or Bridge to 10K, I haven’t decided yet. Sofia will definitely find me running in the parks and pumping those legs! That post by The Oatmeal… Now I understand perfectly what he meant. I feel the same. It’s a goal, it’s exercise. I’m doing it for myself. What could the next challenge for me be?
I don’t want to toot my own horn here – at least, not just that, for if I didn’t want to boast just a little bit for achieving what I thought was something I could never do, I wouldn’t be posting here; no: I mainly want to encourage everyone to re-evaluate what you think is and isn’t possible and start with small steps in order to become whatever it is you would like to change into, or do whatever it is you would like to do. We tend to see the best of the best on the Web – that guy who walked across China, the other person who draws amazingly, the girl who can play the piano and take everyone within earshot for a trip – and we forget that there’s hard work, discipline, failures, self-doubt and probably years or decades of dedication that we never see. However, everything starts with something, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” or “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand” and I’m thankful that the Web isn’t just teaching us to constantly compare ourselves with the world’s best, but also provides us with the tools and community to start doing what it had never even occurred to us we could.
Or on any screen, I might add. I’m putting this HighExistence post right here to remind me in the coming days of my resolution to fight my internet addiction, and at the same time help you, dear reader, ask yourself whether you’re rockin’ in the same old boat. We have to do this together.
Because infinite novelty is becoming a real problem, you know.
Have I been turning my back to life? The number of hours Daphne must have witnessed the above is discomforting.
I have been counting my growth-killers and the distraction brought about from the internet has definitely been my No. 1 for months now, if not years – if not for far more than I dare to admit. I’ve been more than reluctant to do anything long-term to try to stop it, which proves that I really am addicted to the internet. Remember The Shallows? It’s no accident I pursued to read that book and praised it so much in my review.
A few resources in case you’re about to take this as seriously as I am:
Step 1:Do some reading: NoSurf, in the vain of NoPoo or NoFap. Will help motivate you and make you see that it’s not just you… Step 2:Treat it like a real addiction.You have to take measures to distance yourself from your poison. HabitRPG (I’m a sucker for gamification, baby), Chains.cc, Freedom, Leechblock, RescueTime are good starting points.
