Working and working out
The past few days, I have been trying to make myself focus extra on work. For the last month or so, with the holidays and the preparations for the debut of the TLC documentary, things have been a lot different around here, and I haven’t been nearly as effective as I would like to be. So I’m trying to make an extra effort to buckle down, focus, and work like crazy, stopping short of being a workaholic.
I managed to scope roughly 260 pages yesterday, which is by far a personal record of mine. It sure is satisfying to manage to get that much accomplished in a day, and it’s very, very encouraging. It’s funny how something like work can almost be addicting. When you get in a groove, you really don’t want to stop.
So aside from spending time with God, with the family, working out, and working, I haven’t had much time for that many peripheral things lately. Personally, I don’t really mind too much. Sometimes it really helps to only have a few things on my plate, because then I know that I can pour everything that I have into those specific areas. If I tried to divide my attention across 10 or 20 tasks, it would be really hard to be really effective in any one area, and as a result all 10 or 20 would probably suffer.
Anyway, it’s just a good feeling to be productive. I want to make sure that I keep this mindset, so I can be carrying my weight in the family.
Speaking of weight, I went to the Y this evening with Paul. We had another good workout. It’s only my second this week (I aim for three workouts a week), but both visits this week were pretty intense and thorough, so I think I’ve done pretty well all in all.
A few entries ago, I mentioned how I finally managed to pretty much bench-press my weight. The exact numbers on that day were me bench-pressing 190 pounds when I had weighed 191 that morning. So technically, that day, I was still a pound short.
Anyway, this morning I checked in at 189.5 pounds, and tonight at the YMCA I managed to press 195 pounds. I only manage to do it one time, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who could easily do that 10 or 12 times, but it’s still meaningful for me, personally. In a few short months, I have come a long way, as when I began I could barely lift 145 pounds.
What excites me the most is it’s more progress. As long as the weights are going up, it doesn’t really matter to me whether it’s 100 pounds or 300 pounds. It’s just really gratifying to be able to improve, even if it’s ever so slowly.
And again, it’s all relative. For some people, to bench-press 195 pounds would be a letdown. Not for me, though, and I’m just thankful that I’ve managed to make this progress. It’s really encouraging, and it makes me want to keep at it.