What Small Progress Can I Make Today?

“Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing”

Zeno

Today I can continue to make small progress in areas of my life by continuing to try to reinforce the routines I have been trying to foster for myself. Another way I can constantly make small progress throughout the day is by adding checklist items to my pocket notebook I keep in my shirt or in my digital Obsidian notebook, and then check in on my notebooks at the top of every hour when my watch vibrates in order to keep the notes listed within these notebooks in the forefront of my mind.

Today I have already made progress in becoming more focused on my duty as a sailor by picking up the work that no one wants to do, or thinks about, during sweepers at my barracks. I am currently washing all of the cleaning rags and mop heads even though sweepers was secured around 2 hours ago. I am also making small progress in my duty as a sailor by volunteering for two events with the Coalition of Sailors Against Destructive Decisions over the next two weekends. I I will make more small progress concerning volunteering by scheduling both the events into my Google Calendar.

I will also make small progress today with my health. Instead of eating at the Italian galley I will opt to eat at a galley that has less carbs. I do not feel well eating pasta and pizza two times a day every day of the week. Push ups will also be on the schedule today, becoming stronger is important to me, and coupled with eating less carbs I hope to slim down a bit.

The final area I will be making small progress is with my hobbies. While in holds waiting to take classes for my rate in the Navy hobbies are important, because they give me a way to feel like I am making progress towards some goal while also letting me enjoy doing something positive in my free time. My current hobbies are playing chess, which I just started doing a few days ago, and getting back into playing harmonica which I did for years but have not been playing for nearly 5 years.

I have just started playing chess and I am definitely a beginner at the game. I have played many games with my roommate and he keeps beating me. While I have been blundering much less because of the amount of time I have been putting into the game I still do not know the most basic and general strategies of chess. Along with not knowing the basic strategies my ability to see the possible moves on the board is poor, and because of this I have missed easy captures as well as easy to avoid losses. In order to make small amounts of progress towards getting better at the game I will spend at least 10 minutes a day completing puzzles on the Chess app, as well as reading and completing puzzles from Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess which I purchased the other day. I know that if I keep up with this routine of completing chess puzzles I will make small amounts of progress at getting better and I will eventually be able to beat my roommate as well as help him get better.

Picking the harmonica back up has been a joy. I played harmonica regularly for about 3 years and kept playing occasionally for a few years after that. Once I joined a band and became the bassist and singer I began to play harmonica less and less, until I got to the point of only being able to pick it up and play for about 5 minutes before my mouth became tired or I got frustrated by how poor of a player I had become due to not practicing. After being in my barracks for a week I decided playing harmonica would be a great way to give myself some goals as well as entertainment. I decided to get two harmonicas, one in the key of C and the other in the key of A as well as the following books.

I started with chapter 6 of the Blues Harmonica for Dummies book and I have found the lessons on it to be good so far. I am not rushing to move on to chapter 7 because I am taking small steps, and these steps mean getting really good at the material that is in the chapter before moving on. Right now that means just playing some riffs until I have them locked into muscle memory. I will accomplish that by doing many, ~20, repetitions of a lick with a metronome and then move on to the next riff. I will repeat this for 3-4 riffs a day twice a day. I do not know how well doing a set amount of repetitions will be so I may end up switching to doing timed repetitions, doing each riff for 3 minutes each. I have not really got into the Rhythms of Breath book yet as it is for practicing techniques, which at the level I am at right now is not that important in my opinion, but I may be wrong so I will try using the book and doing 3 minutes reps from it.

Sticking to these routines will give me small amounts of progression each day, and before I know it I will have become much more skilled at the things that I have put small amounts of time into consistently each day. Leveling up my abilities like this will make me feel accomplished which will give me a sense of well being.

Can I live well no matter how trying the environment?

I am currently living in a new environment that is not what I expected it to be. I am living in a barracks located on a US Naval base. I thought that the environment was going to be rigid and filled with people who joined the same profession as me because they wanted to become disciplined. This is not the case though, while many things are rigid, like the times a during the day we muster, and when we are allowed to eat and have free time, for the most part everything else is fluid. Many of the people here do not take their oath as seriously as myself and my roommates which sometimes can be annoying. I do not let the less disciplined sailors influence me though. I am lucky to have roommates who take their oath seriously, and I only hang out with other sailors who are at the very least making an effort to not be what we sailors call sh*tbags. I am living well here, I am trying to become a better person by giving 100% into my duty that has been requested of me because of the oath I took to my country. Since I am not able to currently defend my country by being active in the fleet, I am volunteering with other sailors to go out into the local community and help our citizens in need. I will continue to do well despite the environment not being what I expected it to be.