With the arrival of the new year, I've been considering how to live without the scaffolding of the education system. Past successes have always been driven by external accountability: without an orchestra to rehearse with, I don't practice violin; without classes to prepare for, I don't learn new material; without friends to share with, I don't journal. These last months of independence have been characterized by long periods of tired mindlessness--Reddit, sleep, video games--interspersed with bursts of inspiration and productivity. The resulting trail of half-baked projects and unfinished resolutions doesn't speak to much self-growth or progress, and I don't feel like I've achieved much outside of the office.
So, consistency. Despite the diversity of my friends' talents and temperaments, it's the one trait I can see across all of their successes:
Even in less "serious" areas:
This is speculation, but I'm guessing that these achievements all required a) some kind of schedule or task list, and b) thoughtfully following through. There might be some skills you can acquire by mindlessly drilling, but most require (or, at least, are accelerated by) consciously thinking about improvement while practicing. Even something like Rocket League, which you might dismiss as a video game--I know Jeremy not only spent a ton of time playing, but also streamed, watched streamers, found YouTube explanations, practiced in both free play and training packs, competed across ranked 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3, and constantly analyzed his own gameplay.
Now that I've been out of school for a while, I feel like I've lost both parts: no (a) from class curricula, no (b) from the external motivation of exams and concerts. I'm not very good at planning out, well, anything in advance. This has also been an issue at work, where we're expected to estimate how much we can accomplish each week, and take a proactive role in designing and choosing our tasks for the next week.
In order to achieve consistency, I think proper planning is what I'll need to work on. I need to break my goals down into small, actionable steps that I can follow without being overwhelmed, and repeat them until they become reliable habits. This is how I'm hoping to make long-term progress. I also need to gradually add new items to my routine instead of trying to introduce everything at once.
Some of my goals for the year:
I want to start small, probably just by fixing my sleep schedule, and work my way from there. I don't think I'll reach all of these goals this year, and maybe I'll remember or think of others, but I guess I have plenty of time ahead of me.
Lifan sent me this article that also summarizes everything pretty well. I've also seen this quote floating around before:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
- Will Durant
In retrospect, many of the things I'm most proud of had become habits at some point, including programming, playing violin, and writing blog posts. Currently the only things in my life that I'd consider to be deeply ingrained habits are personal hygiene and work...