Similar Posts
Knee Challenge: Looking Ahead
I completed my knee challenge in terms of going hiking in Zion national park. I felt like I succeeded in a big way but still have a long way to go in terms of getting where I need to go.
What is next for me? I know in the long term, I want to be very physically active. I want to be able to practice martial arts, do a little parkour and gymnastics. I know it will take a lot of effort and time to get there and it feels quite overwhelming for me.
I’m going to set a few large goals and then look at some of the very short term goals getting there.
2 year goal – the ability to practice martial arts, parkour gymnastics and skiing. My goal isn’t to go too hard in any of these areas, just to be able to do them safely.
1 year goal – to get back to preinjury levels
1 month goal – be able to sleep, walk, stand and light exercise with zero discomfort. I will call this goal little freedom.
I don’t really know what the next step in my process is. It feels too soon to set a schedule yet.
I just want to slowly rest and explore for now.
My feelings are that challenge videos make for really good productivity but I need to slow down sometimes and feel the feelings.
Maybe I will write a poem:
Creaky Knees
When I bend my knee
It feels like I’m grinding
Hinges made of old stone
Like the kind in movies
That open secret magical passages
And grate against themselves
I say that I want to be able to do martial arts again
But the truth is
I don’t know what I want
I am afraid to dream again
Of a world where I can be active
I’m so used to being scared
Of clutching my knee close
So as not to hurt it
I feel like I’m too old to have these dreams anymore
Of flying
Like I did when I wanted to learn parkour
Everything scares me
I feel that
I need to understand this part of myself first
Listen to what it wants to say
“Everything is a danger”
It tells me
The protector of my knee
Of my body
It feels safe to not move at all
The Valorant Challenge: From Silver 1 to Platinum 1
I’m gonna try to do something crazy, which is to try to rise from Silver 1 to Platinum in Valorant.
For all of you who don’t know, Valorant is a competitive FPS shooter. Like all popular computer games that are competitive, it is extremely difficult to progress in rank.
When I first started Valorant I was in Iron 1 and after months of playing, I rose to Silver 1. Now I want to make a similar rise from Silver 1 to Platinum 1. But I want to do it faster this time. I want to do it within the course of 2-3 months.
I want to use this experience as a test of my speed learning skills and also how I can make videos for challenges.
I also believe that mindfulness and self-awareness can bring greater success than any brute force tactic, and I want to prove that with my progress in this game (which will be easy to measure and indisputable).
My current philosophy for speed learning:
- Embracement of pain
- Lower expectations
- Process emotions
- Try new things
- Self-reflection is KEY
- Need to see yourself
- Focus on fun
- Play when you want with things you like
- Small steps
- Don’t need to do everything in one day
- Do tiny steps if possible
- Prepare yourself
- Create an environment for success
Specifics:
- Embracement of pain
- Don’t set goals
- Assume I’m gonna do bad
- Slow down and process when I’m doing bad
- Always try new strats
- Self-reflection
- LOTS of VOD reviews
- Focus on fun
- Only play comp when you want to
- Other days do light practice
- Focus on agents you have fun with (focus on agent abilities that are fun)
- Small steps
- Find ways to practice in aimlabs, spike rush and deathmatch
- Prepare yourself
- Work on environment
- Work on posture
NEXT: What my plan on filming will be.
Also, got recommend How to Fight Thich Nhat Hanh by a friend on how to work on mindfulness.
Fitness Challenge 2: Increasing Appetite
So I’m most of the way through my second part of my challenge – Week 2: Big appetite (increase hunger throughout day) and I’m having a huge amount of issues.
I try to eat a lot but I don’t seem to be able to find a way to digest the food.
Several things seem to be standing in my way:
- Extreme chronic stress
- Lack of exercises and energy
- Poor sleep
I’m going to do what I always did in these situations of great stress. I’m going to simplify and try to find something very small to focus on. And that thing will be breathing.
Whether or not I feel full, hungry stressed, tired or anxious, I am going to strive to do only one thing. To breathe. I find that breathing has tremendous effects for all the of things I listed above as obstacles standing in my way.
Knee Strength 10: Boxing
I did boxing class today, and felt amazing afterwards, but my knee did not feel good so I put on a brace immediately.
Some more thoughts:
My inner thigh is definitely tight and can use some body work and I wonder if that is causing me to move it a way that hurts my knee.
Fantastic point. Need to keep the knees over the toes. They connect because of inner thigh tightness it makes it harder to keep knees over toes.
Some more ideas when it comes to kicking.
This seems really helpful. Pointing your knee at the target.
Profit in Peace 22: Feeling Like Shit
I feel like total shit. I didn’t sleep well and the back of my eyes hurt and I’m tired and bleary and a little cold. It is taking everything to not play games all day. I feel what gives me anxiety in this house isn’t just the expectations from my parents…but also the amount of stuff. There is too much stuff to feel comfortable around here. To feel calm.
I have been thinking about this idea a lot. The idea of “Whatever you feel the world is withholding from you is what you withhold from the world.”
I feel that this can help with a lot of the turmoil in my mind.
Valorant 25: Blunder Chess
So today, my girlfriend and I were discussing how to make better decisions in Valorant and it made me think that we are playing low level blunder chess. Blunder chess at 200-800 elo is simply playing chess with these main ideas:
- Check for blunders (hanging queen, bishop, knight or rook)
- Check for checks on king
- Look only one move ahead
- If no clear threats, work on positioning
The idea behind blunder chess is simply that people at low elo will make a lot of mistakes and you can simple wait for them to make a mistake.
I strongly believe my elo (below diamond) that “blunder chess” is highly effective since a lot of simple mistakes are made.
I wonder if I can do the same simple ideas in Valorant where I don’t strategize too much, but check for very simple positioning and big mistakes:
- If I pull my util or knife out, can I be shot?
- Am I under time pressure?
- Positional advantage:
- Taking space or map control
- In order of lowest to highest risk
- Utility/teammates
- Shoulder peak
- Jump peak
- Jiggle peak
- Wide swing
- In order of lowest to highest risk
- Defending map control
- In order of lowest to highest risk
- Utility/teammates
- Hold and fall off method
- Spraying
- Jiggle peak
- In order of lowest to highest risk
- Taking space or map control
- Treat teammates as utility