First post of the new year! As per the usual, I’ve been quite lax on writing any blog posts. My last one was back in October! Though, it doesn’t really surprise me that I’ve fallen behind. I haven’t held myself accountable for writing regularly. Nonetheless, a lot has happened since then, both good and not so good, but this post will mostly be me laying out some of the things I’ve been trying to do in my life for the new year… and the new decade for that matter.

I’ve started to do push-ups regularly. My current goal for at least January is to do 50 or more per day. I’ve done quite well on that and even have a way of keeping track of myself. I can feel my strength slowly starting to return.

I’ve also started playing Melee again, this time, purely on the B0XX. I don’t recall if I ever wrote something about me informally quitting and mostly playing the newer game (Ultimate), but I’ve come back full circle and am loving the game again. I’ve met my goal for reaching the SmashLadder rank I had before. With the new season up, my next goal is surpassing it and improving my playstyle in different ways.

I’m also regularly reading now. My commute to and from work is quite horrendous (1 hour or more), but I’ve learned to cope with it by reading. So far, since I’ve started, I’ve read 2 books:

1. The Will To Keep Winning by Daigo Umehara
2. The Book of Melee by Edwin Budding

Currently, I’m reading The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance by Josh Waitzkin, which is where the namesake of this blog post comes from.

With that said, I am always trying to find new ways to improve. I jump every time I find an opportunity to do so. Currently that is learning to be at peace with disorder around me, which I perceive is my current greatest weakness. As Waitzkin notes in his book, there is almost never a perfect environment in which we as individuals attempt to perform in (perform in a general sense, not just in actual competition). He mentions that we should be as “blades of grass” that survive even during a hurricane as opposed to a brittle twig that crumbles when stepped on. Being at peace with disorder, not letting it phase you, while trying to perform well is part of growing and learning and is something I want to become better at.