I can’t believe I’ve been back at home for a week after my solo U.S. trip ended. It feels like I have been back for much longer than that. It’s only been a week. 😯 I’ve been writing blog posts about the holiday and the whole experience, which are still in draft mode. This weeknotes number is 42, which is, of course—the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. I feel like I should be doing it some sort of justice, but we’re not here to pay too much celebration to what is just a pretty basic numbering system of a category of blog posts. 🤭

I have had so much on my mind recently. I don’t want to lose the hunger and the drive I mentioned in my last post about how I felt after the last XOXO event. I feel like I should have worked on something by now; started a project or something like that. All I’ve done is talk to people about a couple of my ideas and write a few of them down for myself. I’ve not always liked sharing my ideas with people out of embarrassment, but a few folks in the XOXO Slack workspace mentioned sharing their ideas so that others could hold them accountable. It’s a judgment-free, encouraging space. But there is definitely some vulnerability associated with sharing the fact that you want to work on something that you care about, when there is the likelihood that it might not be much that other people care about, and it’s just too easy to care about other people’s opinions.

Here’s where I bring up the oft-used excuse: time! I don’t have enough time. Bullshit, we have learned to tell ourselves. Outside of my day job, I’ve actually had a lot of time in the past week. But the way I chose to spend it was on getting back into the routine, spending time catching up with my favourite coworkers, and decompressing a little bit after my holiday. I listened to a whole audiobook on the weekend while cleaning my apartment—I definitely recommend How We Love by Clementine Ford. I don’t watch any TV shows or movies since I’m not into them. Most recently though, I did watch the weightlifting in the Olympics, and Nick keeps an eye on Formula 1 (a note on how to watch F1 in Australia: I think most people use Kayo Sports, which is a streaming service focused on sport). I’ll admit to spending some time scrolling on Instagram looking at Reels, and actually getting quickly bored of the content I was seeing. Even though it is sometimes entertaining, it doesn’t always add a tonne of value. But I have fairly good willpower at the moment to switch and find something else to do with my time.

There’s also the importance in reflecting on my holiday—a whole new experience that deserves time to be mentally and emotionally processed. In the past week, I don’t think I’ve wasted a moment. My time has been generally well spent. There are times when we might consider working on something new but we keep stalling or think we should be getting a move on, but I think it’s important to recognise if we have instead been spending our time on something that’s not very valuable, versus spending time on things that are still important to us.

I look back and think, hey, it has only been a week, and I am taking a bit of time to re-engage with the things I enjoy before putting even more energy into new things. Working out at the gym is still important to me as I consider doing another powerlifting competition. I like my workspace at home to be tidy and clean. The wind in Sydney has blown dust and debris into my apartment when I’ve wanted to have the doors open for a cool breeze. I still want to be connected to my day job and inspired by the work I do there. I think there are opportunities to learn new skills (at my own pace) in my day job, but also in some of the projects in my list of creative ideas.

I suppose top of the priority list is sharing more about my solo trip on my blog, sharing a handful of the memories and pictures that I took. I’ve actually been spending time writing a somewhat lengthy blog post about my time in Phoenix. 🌞 But I’ve got to remember that things can be worked on simultaneously and that’s OK. Maybe I had a preference for completely finishing one thing before moving onto the next, but maybe I can figure out how to be satisfied with working on a couple things at a time. Not too much, though. And I’m not talking about abandoning projects or having unfinished projects—that’s another topic entirely. 😅