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Day 23 | Loneliness is not always being alone. It’s easy to surround yourself with people to fill time and be a distraction but it is hard to find people you truly connect with that fulfills the human need to be a part of a tribe. I am very grateful for the few with whom I have a true connection, both past and present. Without these people, true loneliness set in and I have to rely on my own company, which has not always been the most positive. As part of my journey, I need to prioritize maintaining the connection I have, rebuilding some I have lost and being open to new people coming into my life. A picture of a time I did not feel alone. Day 22 | Don’t be bored actively. I mentioned this yesterday. I feel like boredom is the root of so much negativity. When I historically filled my free time with work, food, binge watching shows and countless hours of video games, I was allowing myself to be actively bored. Just filling time for the sake of killing time. Don’t get me wrong, nine of those activities are bad, and in fact, I think they can be very healthy but the problem is that I was doing them for the wrong reasons. I was using these as distractions. What I’ve realized is that you need to fill your time with things that make you happy, give you a sense of accomplishment or rewards you with a new experience. Don’t just fill your time to avoid being bored. Live. Explore. Learn. Tonight, I choose to live. Day 21 | Filling time with positivity and productivity. Came across this on my social media feed the other day and have been thinking about it a lot. I have always believed that having hobbies is a great way to keep focused, not get bored (which I believe is the root of much negativity) and find a sense of accomplishment in life. This list of 5 needed hobbies intrigues me. I don’t want to set myself up to fail by taking on too much but I feel this list can bring some great balance. So here is my list of hobbies. 1) I have a career that makes me money. 2) Between my diet, joining the gym and my love of long walks, I think I’m covered. 3) I’ve started writing again to push my creativity 4) I’m planning on doing some courses as part of my journey to build knowledge and 5) My daily activities and reflections are truly helping me evolve my mindset. Even though it was a random social media post, I feel like this post reinforces many of my plans. Day 20 | The journey should never be over. This is me reflecting after I woke up. Potentially vulnerable having not brushed my hair, put on an out fit or shaved, just having my coffee. Yesterday was an interesting one. I am honestly feeling like a different person. I woke up with a smile on my face and I went to bed with an even bigger smile. The difference from 20 days ago is shocking. My challenge now is to not stop the journey. It feels like I could take my new found happiness and just ride it out until the end of time but deep down I know, if I did that, I would not maintain all the good I have accomplished. I need to keep making the choice to be happy, keep doing things that push my limits and keep exploring what it means to be alive. Easy would be to sit back and enjoy, but I need to keep pushing now harder than ever. Day 19 | Your Health Is Important. From mental health to physical health. Apparently a lot of health related things this week. I’m really happy with the progress of my diet, gym and mental health regiment. My only regret is that I let myself get to a place wheee I needed to work so hard to correct things so from now on I am going to take a more proactive approach to my health. I recently had 25 vials of blood take to run a long list of tests. I got the results today and had a doctor walk me through things. Overall, I thank keto for this, I’m a pretty healthy guy. There are some things to watch closely but nothing that can’t be prevented. I can’t believe I was nervous to get something like this done for so many years. Maybe I was afraid to find out something I did not want to know. Regardless, one more thing off my list that I don’t need to worry about and can proactively monitor to make sure my physical matches the positive mental state I’ve learned. Day 18 | A day late because I could not quite find the words. I’m still not sure I have. Today is serious topic for me and follows some of my previous reflection. I have long suspected that I may have been living with ADHD my whole life. I am not ashamed of health issues but I have not taken steps to address them either. Over the past few decades, I have seen unbelievable progress towards how mental health issues are perceived and accepted in society. With this in mind, I want to, and need to, be open about my truth. As part of my journey, I have started asking for help when I need it because I can now acknowledge that I can't fix everything on my own. Recently, I took the step of asking for help from a professional to work through some of my deeper challenges. I am so glad I did. She nearly immediately confirmed my suspicion about ADHD and put me on a plan to work through it. Obviously too soon to say there is a long term difference but I am starting to feel the benefits. I have not been this balanced since… well, maybe ever. Day 17 | Make the right choice. Today was a hard day. I’m now at a place where I can admit that without it breaking or regressing my progress. The other major difference is that I can recognize when I’m having a hard day and make the choice to change the direction of my thoughts. It sounds easy to simply make a choice to be happy but it’s something I had to learn. I am infinitely grateful that I have found the inner strength to make the right choice. Now, on to happier thoughts and more adventures. Day 16 | Sing like you are in the shower. Another night out but this time doing something I know I already love. It’s karaoke night at Duffy’s Southampton. I’ve missed singing in public but am thrilled to have found this monthly activity. Nothing communicates thought, emotion and passion like music. This is my chance to flush any negativity, I may be feeling, out of my system. I’m thinking a little Green Day, Plain White Ts and Mark Cohen will suit this evening well. Day 15 | Say YES to life. On my journey, I have taken many steps so far and have many more planned. Tonight is a little experiment to see how far I’ve come. I write this before I venture out but I may post tomorrow depending on how things go. Here is my experiment: Tonight I say yes. Go with the flow. Don’t over think and have fun. Think about the movie “Yes Man”, but a little more responsible. St. Patty’s seems to be the perfect excuse for this little exercise. I say that now but may have a different opinion tomorrow. Hello green drinks. Hello good friends. Hello Port Elgin night life. Day 14 | Writing my future. Exciting day! I finally got my reMarkable 2! I am obsessed with writing in notepads. When I got back to Canada I found a huge box of old notebooks dating back to high school. Though I love notebooks, they are not practical with all the travel I do so I bought an eNotebook that feels like paper to write on but of course stores everything digitally. It even converts my handwriting to text! From my bucket list, I have decided to finally start and finish a novel. Now that I have the tools, I am good to go. @remarkable • Day 13 - Lucky 13 deserves something special and something I have never done before. I’ve always considered getting a tattoo but have not taken the plunge because I could never decide what meant enough to me to permanently mark it on my body. If my journey has taught me anything, it has reinforced how short life really is and that choosing happiness is a choice I need to make. This in my new, and first, tattoo of the chemical dopamine with a semicolon. It’s now on my wrist to constantly remind me that that though I need to acknowledge sadness and hard times, I need to choose my own joy and seek it out. Thanks @greathuron Day 9 - 11 | Don’t Panic! A late update because some people have asked. I took the weekend off to clear my head and get focused. It worked. It’s was hard and I was a bit in my head over the weekend but I had a wake up call that truly changed my perspective. I’m back in action and stronger than ever. We only have one life to live and it’s always going to be shorter than you expect. Say yes to the world because you never know what it will offer you. Day 12 | Since coming back to Canada 7 months ago, i am equally proud and embarrassed to say that I have gone from 240 lbs to 180 lbs thanks to the shockingly enjoyable keto diet and the amazing support and cooking of my wonderful wife. Though feeling more attractive and healthy than I have in years, I have hit a wall in my weight loss and want to be more fit. So, time to join a gym. I hate the gym. I have not actively gone to a gym since I was a teenager, when I was swimming competitively. Time to change that. A month of a personal trainer to get me started. Thanks @learnfitstrength Day 8 | Friends. A day of reflection. I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has reached out to me with their support. I can promise you that there is no need to concern about my posts. However, sometimes in life, it feels like your journey is a lonely one but it’s been proven to me that I am not alone. This has been an important realization. In life, there are good times, bad times and a lot in between. I’ll admit that I have been living through challenging times but I refuse to let life beat me. I have been taking life one day at a time by focusing on making positive change every day. Though this journey, I already have a sense of self and accomplishment that I have not felt in years but know there is still a long road ahead. Knowing that there are people rooting for me pushes me to succeed even more and makes each step a little easier. Thank you. Day 7 | Tonight's part of my journey is one I am very excited about. Combining 3 things I love into an activity that brings me joy. Tonight I am with the love of my life and some people I love to play some music together, an activity I did not even realize I missed. These are the types of things I need more of in my life. They bring me true joy. Even if I am VERY much out of practice. Thank you Angel, David and Taylor for making my day. Day 6 | Today I’m going to finish writing my bucket list. All the things I want to do before the curtains close. A list o specific accomplishments I can work towards and hold myself accountable to. I won’t share it here but I will share it with the person who knows me better than anyone in the world. Somehow, sharing the list makes it more real. Makes me more accountable. Just the push I need to keep moving forward. Not a related picture today. Day 5 | Today’s little activity could be very easy or very hard. Only time will tell. It’s definitely one that I have not been looking forward to but I know it’s absolutely necessary. I’m not going to post the specifics because this one is very personal but I’ll keep the progress in my personal notes. For lack of another picture to include, here is a picture of a wintery beach at sunset on a beautiful but cold day. Day 4 | I thought this would be an easy one but apparently not. The goal: to find old pictures that represent a times when I was really happy or proud of myself. The problem seems to be that I did not keep many pictures from the past. Regardless, here are a few moments from the past including; some from musicals I was in. A bit of photography from when I thought I was an artist. Pictures from the Philippines (aka the happiest place on earth). My lovely wife. Some random friends and travel. Enjoy. I know I did at the time. Day 3 | A bit of setback today. I knew not every day would be easy. Regardless… The hardest parts of this journey are pushing myself out of my comfort zone and ticking to a plan. Posting daily on social media is a great example of one thing, representing both challenges. However, this is extra hard when I feel set back and unsuccessful for the day. So… to shake things up and refocus, I’m doing something simple to accomplish and move forward. A nice long walk on a cool winter night. Day 2 | Rough start. Celebrated the start of my journey a bit too much. Never the less, I move forward. Today I took my wonderful wife on a date to the movies. Between covid, moving across the globe and with life getting in the way, we have not had a simple, fun, old school date night in far too long. Feels good to get back to basics. Day 1 | Today marks the first day of a journey to self-discovery and happiness. Not that I’m not happy with many aspects of my life but I know there is more. I’m doing this for many reasons but mostly, it’s for myself. I have to find who I am. I plan to post as frequently as possible. Not for clout or attention but to hold myself accountable to making actual change every day, try new things and push myself out of my comfort zone. So here we go. With a new haircut and beard style, I begin. Thanks @mihermano_southampton It’s been 13 years and I still think it’s too early for this snow. Suit Up! Looks like another devil in my shoulder…. There seems to be a little devil on my shoulder. 1 truth and 2 lies. Take your guess. Delicious. Nutritious. Fun! Another one in the series of places I’ve worked that changed my life. #Bell is where I cut my teeth in the call centre world. Love working from such an awe inspiring building! #nuber for one more week I did not think I missed travelling for work but it has its perks! Even when the waitress brings you warm bread after you told her you are keto restricted. Chicago. What a cool town. First time here and worth every minute so far.