Bouncing back with progress

During one of the coaching sessions with Jenna (she is a life coach I had hired last year), I had conversation that went something like this.

Me: “I haven’t exercised in the last 2 weeks. That was not what I promised with you last time. I did not achieve the fitness goal”

Jenna: “Well, can you see yourself going to the gym regularly at some point in the near future? You said there was a period you did that before.”

Me: “Yes, I can definitely see myself doing that. 100%.”

Jenna: “Ok, great. Then, let’s be patient and wait. It’s going to happen, but probably just not right now”

I honestly thought she was going to put me on a spot and analyze why I hadn’t gone to the gym. Instead, she showed more trust and faith in me than I had in myself. This type of encouragement was new to me. I remember being stunned. I ended up starting exercise.

In essence, she was showing what self-compassion looks like in practice. It’s never about beating yourself up.

In my previous post, I shared my progress towards building my shop was halted due to a lot of challenges lately and I was trying to be compassionate towards myself. Practicing self-compassion paid off this time too.

After I wrote the post, I found more conviction and came up with better ideas to manage my day better. Brandon also started going to school regularly and that helped me come up with a routine schedule.

In short, I made more progress in the last 1 week than I did in the last several weeks.

New GFCI outlet replaces the old outlet without grounding wire. Also the new white cable out of the metal box in the picture is going to feed the new outlets in the shop.

I thought I learned enough from YouTube but then I read the manual that came with the outlet thoroughly to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Ceiling beams are in place now!

Using the 90 degree drill accessory was only half the battle. I had to come up with the idea of using clamps to hold the piece in place before I picked up momentum.

Here are some quick updates of what I accomplished.

• Spent several hours watching DIY electrical work videos on YT. Things I learned include: calculating wire volumes and selecting correct electrical box, choosing correct wire type for amp I need, safety codes for adding new outlets, soundproofing outlet box, use of GFCI outlet in the first outlet out of service panel to compensate for lack of grounding wire, assessing what is the best practice and what is acceptable risk given my constraints
• Placed ceiling beams. Learned to use 90 degree drill tool and clamps to secure 2x4s in tight spots

The above tasks took me several days. I can honestly do them under 1 hour if I were to do them again. I mentioned this in my earlier post, but first time you try anything always takes so long and you get exponentially better on 2nd time and so on.

It was a lot of problem solving.
Learning a lot of new things.
Being challenged.
Feeling the sense of growth.

When I quit my job, I thought I need to attain a new, perfect, fulfilling career and only after that, I was going to feel those. I could not have been more wrong.

I mentioned this discovery in my post about fulfillment before. Those emotions you seek are available to you today. They are not tied to some events in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tasks in the past week and I hope I come back with more interesting update soon!