In fact if you look it up, as I just did, you might be blown away by the shear coincidence that it is exactly 365 days. The last post being Sept the 11th 2017.
Wow. serendipity and synchronicity playing their parts I guess. Freaky how the mind works, since that was entirely NOT planned I promise.
(I'm discounting the youtube video for project back in black since that was more link than a post)
So Hi! I'm 356 days older than I was, and now it's 3 years to the date since I had what people might call a "proper job" Since that point I've been building this self employment gig after my last job ended in 2016.
What drove me to post up on here after all this time? Well a few things but before we get to that lets give you guys a background on what I've been doing since that time.
- I took up running! and got really slim, and probably close to being in the best shape of my life.
- My daughter asked to move in with me, which was and is AWESOME!
- Then another young relative has also moved in for an open ended period of time, also AWESOME!
- My left knee decided it doesn't much like running any more so now I am awaiting physio on that and am switching to swimming as my endurance sport of choice.
- Recently I've sold the bike, since I cant make use of it any more to any appreciable level due to knee pain
- I have discovered through a long term friend a guy called Tim Ferriss. and as a result am embarking on a study of Stoicism.
- I started and completed the first year of teacher training, building confidence and technique in front of a class, and have as of yesterday deferred the second year until 2019.
- The business has morphed a little, and continues to evolve along with it's owner.
- No I didn't manage to get the car back, yet.
- I reconnected with few old army buddies and some of the wounds of the past are beginning to heal.
So what of now?
Well I've started a podcast. a few weeks back we launched the optimisticality channel on anchor where myself, friends colleagues and mentors all chat over what it means to motivate ones self and others to greater and better things. We look at how that is achieved personally, professionally, individually and societally.
You can find the podcast on iTunes here
Theres a website too, with accompanying blog posts that lives here at "Optimisticality.works"
I've discovered green tea with honey... really rather refreshing if one doesn't want to overload with caffeine throughout the day.
We continue to have galactic battles in those far far away places on the x wing table and our D&D game is strong with my two main characters being up at level 13 and 14 respectively.
(For those not up on this story I play a rogue elven princess and a large blue dragon born - you can find our adventures on the obsidian portal here)
Actually phill and I completed an epic battle with the huge x wing ships recently and we filmed some of it with audio so that may well surface at some point too.. particularly ahead of the x wing 2.0 re release of the game.
As I write this little update here I can't help but remember a quote from T.S Elliot which I used many times before
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"
So it is with Stubbornly Optimistic. I have returned to this blog with a new found knowledge of the founding principles of the affirmation that got me through some very dark times, and no doubt will continue to do so in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
It seems fitting therefore to close this little update with a quote from Seneca himself:
Keep it real people, and remember:
"change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change"
