One Day or Day One
Something needs to change
Introduction
At the time of writing it is the 13th May 2024, and I am not happy where I am.
I am 15 years old. My relationships are unstable, my GCSE's on the horizon are looming, I am unhealthier than I have ever been in my life and my chess skills are absoloutely atrocious.
Today, however, is the day that begins my journey.
A journey to a better me.
A journey to self-love
A journey. To happiness
Changes
1) Chess
My chess rating is frankly abysmal. I remember playing a chess classical game yesterday and losing in just over ten moves. 120 + 120 time control and I finished with 100 minutes still left on my clock.
I understand why I lost. Basic knowledge of the opening was not in my repetoire and I did not castle quicky enough. Yet still my rating begins to lower. The reason is because it is one thing to know why you are failing, but is much harder to act on those bad decisions
My goal is to become 1750 in classical online by the end of the year. To do this I will play less but will study more. With this I hope to achieve my rating goal.
2) Studying
At the moment, I have just got my End Of Year exams back and I did horribly. In short, I averaged around 30% an exam. Its simple why I failed and thats because I revised less than ten mintes on the day of the tests. So no surprise about my scores.
What I need to do is study but I REALLLLY don't want to.
But now I have found this website that is perfect for me. It tracks your progress, makes a leaderboard monthly with the other tens of thousands of members and gives you awards, badges and achievements. The best thing is though that you can study online in web video rooms. This is great motivation and stops you from getting distracted. For two weeks I will wake up at 3a.m and revise till school and the next two weeks I will not. This ensures that I will not give up that quickly.
3) Physical health
Nobody wants to exercise. It is diffcult, painful and time consuming and frankly not very entertaining either. But over the past couple of months I have seen my health deteriorating. I was eating unhealthy food and not moving off the sofa at night.
To get into physical health I will run 5k every day on the weeks where I wake up at 3a.m. On the weeks I do not, I will do 200 pushups a day. I know this does not sound much, but mixed in with the weight training and cardio, it is a big step.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe it is time for me to change. Posting daily will help motivate me to continue and ensure that I do not quit! Tommorow will be Day 1!