Sabotage.

Day 19.

I apologize for my last set of 1000 words. That was written after 2 beers and a case of the munchies at 12 midnight.

I have been sabotaging myself recently, and I’m not liking it. I mean, my daily schedule has me out of bed by 6am at the latest, and I’ve been out an hour or two or three past that, alternating between watching YouTube videos and rolling over to snooze. There was only one time this week I was out of bed by around 5:30, and immediately after I shot the sunrise I rolled back to bed for a two hour nap.

This morning I was out of bed at around 9:30. Not good. One thing I see sabotaging me right now are these extra-long playthroughs of Warcraft 3 – I’m fascinated how this guy is able to take on 11, if not 23(!) Insane-difficulty AI enemies all against him (spoiler alert – it all boils down to resource management, hit-and-run tactics, understanding of AI and overall persistence). That one video where he took on 23 AI players was 6 and a half hours long. I’m halfway through the 3 and a half hour long video with him against 11 enemies, and I’m dead serious in saying that’s the last time I’m going to be watching those sorts of videos in a long time.

Another thing sabotaging me right now is Brawl Stars. Made by the folks who brought us Clash of Clans and then Clash Royale, so you can bet they made it really addictive – my nephews got into it, then they got me into it, and now, after critical internal analysis, I’m telling myself that I’m grinding for my nephews when we play again.

Yeah. Right.

I mean, reality check here. If I’m not wasting time levelling up imaginary characters, I’m watching other people win at a game involving said imaginary characters. It’s porn without the sex. I can’t tell my grandchildren about that one time I binged on YouTube videos. I can’t put the levels of Rita and Jesse on my resume.

So yeah, less of that, I’m sure.

Also, less alcohol. I mean, it kept me in bed for almost the entire morning last Monday, so that was fun. Now, even not getting too buzzed after two beers last night, I couldn’t say that they weren’t a factor to the quality of sleep I had. It makes me feel hot and I have to alternate between blanketing up or not. Whatever, I just had trouble sleeping when I had to, and I felt sleepy when I should have been awake.

It sucks to have to make up from sabotaging yourself. Much better to have a clear outlook from a good start of the day, instead of playing catch up later in the day for stuff you should have finished in the morning. It’s not even a question of being hard on yourself, it’s really reminding yourself of the capabilities you have and acting on the potential you possess, for yourself and for others.

As a result of my sabotaging, I’ve had to compromise with plans I had for the afternoon, to do stuff I should have done during the first quarter of my day. To chase daily tasks just sucks.

It doesn’t help when you forget that you had other matters to attend to, on top of the fact that you squandered most of the day already. In this case I forgot that I had an appointment with my trusty car electrician, as we were going to finally address the air conditioning.

We replaced the blower a little less than a year ago when we found out that there wasn’t much cool air passing through. Now, the air conditioning didn’t turn on at all… or at least that’s what we thought. Turns out that the filter was too filthy that little to no air was coming through, and in order to take the filter out they needed to fiddle with the car from the passenger seat, and we also needed to pop the hood to loosen more parts.

So if I already compromised my morning, my time management was further aggravated by this. There were 3 people working on it, and it still took a little more than 2 hours to get it all done. At least now we have the option of air conditioning, which I’m learning is essential in crazy Baguio 2021 weather.

I’m promising myself now, no more long YouTube videos, and no more extended Brawl Stars time. Looking back at my weekly log I was consistent as I should have been on my steps, my words, and my workouts, but I lagged in doing anything to get me closer to my cybersecurity certifications…

It’s Saturday tomorrow, but it doesn’t mean it’s too late for me to at least wake up early. I need to take my mom out early tomorrow to attend the burial mass of a good cousin of mine, so that’s some extra incentive for me to work out, walk, and write a little earlier.

Besides, I do need to do some writing on my message for this coming Sunday, with the Title, ‘Passion Energized Your Talent’. We’re continuing down the road of empowering leaders among us by first having them recognizing and then enhancing what talents they have, with virtues as enumerated and explained by John Maxwell.

Personally I find it challenging in a good way, as it doesn’t present us with immediate ways to connect Mr. Maxwell’s points to Christ and His Finished Work. Here, we have more opportunities than ever before to flex our connection to Christ, and have it shown, not forcibly but as I would want it – subtle, but solid.

Right now all I have in mind is to reiterate what I’ve been talking about between Foundation and Talent, and to remind everyone of what I think are components of Talent – Knowledge, Skill, and Will. I’m thinking that to talk about Passion would be to talk about Will, and what drives our hearts as a supplement to what information we know, and what actions and procedures we are well-practiced in.

Certainly something to consider spending 1000 words on tomorrow.

Until then, God bless you.