A documentation of my journey to improve my life
Tag: reflections
The fat trap Why do we allow ourselves to fall into the trap of being unhealthy, unfit blobs? How do we get sucked into the cycle of being inactive, screen starring, coach potatoes? Well, because it’s easy, indulgent, and a lot more fun. After all, who doesn’t want to have a fatty cheeseburger, some beer and wings or Netflix, ice-cream, and chill? All of those things are awesome! The problem, of course, is a matter of balance, or I should say, the...
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein Like most of us, I was given the opportunity to learn a new language as one of my chosen electives back in high school. Having just been forced to suffer through basic french all through middle school and not really enjoying the process I quickly dismissed the idea of tackling a new more challenging language. I had no connection to Mandarin, Cantonese, or Spanish; to me, they seemed...
Winners and losers, this is how we’ve divided up the world. There is no grey area, no participation ribbons to be given out for good efforts (as much as we like to pretend that there are). We shower our winners with glory and quickly forget about those that strived but did not succeed. We are taught to idolize winners and to model ourselves after them, but what happens when we ourselves strive and falter? What happens when we attempt to reach for greatness...
Stuck In A Comfort Bubble So often in life we find ourselves living in a comfortable bubble that we’ve created for ourselves. We sit wrapped in our artificial security blankets living cautiously and conservatively, assuring that we are rarely forced to step far outside of our comfort zones. This can sometimes be a nice luxury affording us a sense of security and comfort, like a good job or a nice house, but often this is the very thing that holds us back from achieving what...
As I sat knee’s locked and neck cramped squished into my seat on possibly the cheapest airline in the United States I had a lot running through my mind. I was returning home from our annual company trip to Scottsdale Arizona where I had just spent the last 5 days trying to find a balance between accomplishment and indulgence (not an easy balance to strike especially when the drinks are free and the peer pressure is high). I was the only...
A Reflective Run Through Toronto So there I was in Toronto Ontario; centre of the universe, home of Stanley Cup victories long passed and dreams (delusions) of new ones still fresh in people’s minds. I ventured out for a jog to clear my head after a long day at the conference I was attending. My headphones in, a smile on my face, my mind was completely engrossed in the incredible scenery around me. The buildings all had this eerie history...
Work/Life Chaos Just so you all understand I am pretty great at completely underestimating life challenges (which also makes for entertaining stories I guess). My name is Drew Vincent, I’m a 30 year old single guy with a great job and very full life. I recently bought a house this last September, finally moved in this December and since then have done nothing but project after project. I figured I could do most of the work in a few weeks, wrap...
Have you ever gotten in your car, driven somewhere and then realized upon arrival that you have no recollection of the trip over? How about checking the clock at work and realizing ‘holy crap, it’s already 2:30, where did my day disappear to?’ Or how about getting into an argument and then suddenly stopping to ask yourself, ‘how did we get here?’ This happened to me all the time, I would float through my days doing my best to steer my life in the...
I never in a 100 years thought that I would ever try meditation It’s not that I’m a closed off person, actually far from it, but meditation just seemed hokey and kind of far fetched. The only people I knew that meditated were long haired hippies and equally long haired (but probably in a man bun) yoga instructors and I didn’t exactly identify with either of them. Besides, I always felt like I was a pretty intelligent and self aware person and...
To most people living on a whopping $8 per day means cutting down to just the bare essentials. Get all your food, cheap transportation, hunker down, do as little as possible and hope no unexpected disasters happen. Would this allow you to survive on your meagre budget? Sure. But how boring does that sound?! If I was going to do this month long budget challenge I wanted to do more than just survive it, I wanted to make it epic! Sure I didn’t...
