Attention Passengers

"We are what we pay attention to." Chris Bailey

I started tracking my workouts on the 28th of November 2020. Every time I did some sort of exercise I ticked a box and sometimes even wrote down what I did. So between 28.11.20 and 28.11.21 I worked out about 172 times (those were the times I marked it down at least). That's pretty close to 182 which would be working out every other day of the year!

From this week on we will have 7 chapters of physics in English. The teacher stays the same, but everything will be in English: the lessons, exams and even the practical work. At first I was skeptical but turns out that it is fine, it just takes a little adaptation on the vocabulary and sometimes a little deciphering of the thick Ch'ti accent. Our teacher told us that from his experience the problem is usually not the language but the physics itself.

This Tuesday was full of action. In the morning I got the results of exam that I scored decently on. Later, at lunch, I got to make home-made burritos with my sister. I also spent time with classmates and overall I felt like I enjoyed my lessons that day. About halfway through the day I received my report for this semester and I can say that I am more than satisfied with the results. By the end of the day I was quite overwhelmed, but I still had an oral exam to do. After said exam I went to the supermarket and bought junk food. Then returned home, lay on my couch and just heavily binged Netflix.

The highest point of (self)reflection occurs when changing habits abruptly. For example when taking a nap in the middle of the day for the first time in years or having a low-key hangover. This week I experienced both at different times.

After the nap I started thinking about my life choices and how every step had led me to where I am now. In France as an Estonian boy studying how sound waves move and why water and oil do not mix. Even with only 19 years I already have a lot to fall back onto, to rely on. With the low-key hangover it was more of a general existential train of thought, like how we take for granted all the physical but also social structures.

This year we will have to do an interdisciplinary project in groups of four on the theme of health and prevention. The objective being to slightly nudge for the project to be related to the pandemic and/or climate change. However we are completely free to choose our own subject (of course we have to run it by the teachers first), which has to be set to stone before the end of the first week back after Christmas.

A short while ago I listened to Hyperfocus and I enjoyed it. In his book Chris Bailey contrasts two states of being: Hyperfocus and Scatterfocus. Hyperfocus is for doing one task at a time and for being fully concentrated. Scatterfocus is for being creative and all over the place, so the polar opposite. Both are essential in everyday life, if mastered they can be very powerful tools.

In chapter 9 Bailey speaks about dots, how we connect them and how different dots have different values: “No two pieces of information are created equal.” This shone a light on the importance of what I consume, and the awareness about it. Deliberately consuming entertaining information (the junk food of its kind) is okay, it is just important to acknowledge it. Nonetheless bingeing sitcoms should be limited or just kept for darker days and TED talks and documentaries are to be prioritised.

That's it for today! Till next week!