March, 2018 — Get Anxiety Out of the Way

A Letter to My Future Self

Dear Zake,

I』m the 24-year-old version of you from 2018, how have you been?

Since 2015, every month, I take a day to reflect on my work, life and thoughts, sharing with you.This is the 28th mail I』m sending to you.

March — Get Anxiety Out of the Way

Today is April 5th, the first day of a Chinese National Holiday Qingming, and now at 9:36AM, I』m sitting in our office(which technically I』m not allowed to), reflecting on what have happened in March.

The traffic is awesome today, since no one go to Tech Park that direction, and it only takes me 10 mins on bus which regularly cost me 30 mins. So I asked myself,

Why do people follow the holidays to decide when to take a rest?

Our body is different, each one of us. And I』m fascinated by the fact that people only rest after work, on weekends or holidays. This is not the way how our ancestors seek for work life balance, and I think it actually decays our productivity and mind from time to time.

To rest whenever I want in this modern world seems impoosible, but I have some cool tricks for you.

I have a 550ml drinking bottle at work, and I found it』s perfect for me. I have to stand up and go fill my bottle every hour, which guarantees my deep work hour and a 5–10 min rest 60 mins to get my productivity back.

By the way, going to restroom either is taking a pee or poop, or just simply washing your face, also helps a lot.

If you don』t feel like working on things you used to love these days. Simply do less and have more leisure time with yourself, work on your hobbies to keep you life fulfilled and motivated. Go to the places you always want to travel and relax, don』t think about too much about how much money you are going to lose, compared with your happiness and a healthy mind, it』s nothing at all.

Sorry for the longest opening review of all time, sometimes you need these bullshit to set up a scene for revealing your vulnerbilities.

Work

Yesterday is my last day at VRVIU, the startup I』ve been working for the past 16 months. We』ve been through a lot of difficulties, bad shits, pivoted many times, and finally reached to a point of a complete technology solutions and business plan.

Choosing to leave at this time is definitely not good for the company, since it takes a lot effort to understand our technology and advantages to handle the daily product work. Yet I knew I want to take new challenges and learn new things, back in December last year.

How do you know?

Yes, a question just hit my mind. I think when your passion, motivation, productivity and personal happiness level all go down, and no matter how you try you cannot get them back, that』s when you should think about taking a rest and switching to new challenges. Your happiness level may include a lot of things, like your growth, your sense of achievement and energy level of people around you.

Looking for a job also requires some hustle. I remember early Feb before Chinese New Year, I won』t go home to sleep until I updated my resume, finished daily research goals. Yes I went Hokkaido for the holidays, but the first thing I did after I get off the plane in Sapporo, is to take a video interview at the airport.

And when it goes well, you probably need to do further research as a homework for the interview. So I traveled during daytime, seeking inspirations, and worked on my research at night. I didn』t sleep that much in Hokkaido actually.

Your work experience shows what you』ve done, your hobbies and side projects show WHO YOU ARE.

When I started to seek for job opportunities, I realized how important your side project could help you get the position. As I may mention before, all the interviewers or bosses either read my blog or watch my short films. One of them said,

your photography and film work indicates your level of aesthetic.

And by the way, I think if you keep doing what you love as side projects, you will end up finding some jobs close or similar to your hobby as well. But if you always say how much you love something without taking any actions, you will be in that rut and never get out.

Life

I officially become a wine lover, and take a sip almost every night when I get home. But then it actually turns out to be not healthy at all. According to Matthew Walker』s research and book, alcohol, marijuana and caffeine, those things all have a bad long tail effect on our sleep.

Although sometimes you feel like these things do help you go to sleep faster, but your brain and body hormone do not reach to the proper state for a deep sleep. And you will fall into a vicious circle, which causes worse sleep and more health problems.

So now I bring a bottle of wine with me to office, and during or after lunch, I can have some, so that my body will still have plenty of time to process them before going to bed.

Dating a lot?

Yes I am meeting a lot of girls during March, almost every weekend I will meet 2 different girls. I even purchased a Tinder Plus for more matches and features.

I think I』m not in a position of falling in another serious relationship right now, but I want to practice to be a good communicator in dating, so that next time I come across some girls I really like, I can go up confidently and lock them down.

However, it』s not ease. I met a girl who』s constantly sending me gifts and asking to stay with me for the night; I met a girl who』s finding anyway to drink me under the table so she can do whatever; I met a girl who』s just simply enjoying deep talks; and I met a girl who』s just really bitchy and pulling me back and forth…

And I think now I can sum up what my next steps are in 4 stages:

1. Learn to love yourself and have an epic life

2. Be social with girls, more dates

3. Build up confidence and abundance

4. Pick the one that』s compatible the most

What I』m Digesting

1. New Understanding about Leadership

I came acrossed the following 2 podcasts in one day, and together they help me build a new image on leadership, which is actually opposite from we will know about leadership.

a16z Podcast: Improv』ing Leadership?

a16z.com

Are you part of the Captain Class? | tonyrobbins.com?

www.tonyrobbins.com

2. Looking for Jobs?

These relates to what I was doing in March. Apart from updating your resume and seeking for good positions, you also need to reexmine your principles on what it takes to be a ideal new employer for you, and how to get the jobs you want easier.