2022 Week 25/52: Annie Duke & How to Make Better Decisions

Hi Everyone! How was your week 25/52? 😃

Mine was one of introspection. In recent years there were US political events that significantly changed my worldview, Trump becoming the 45th President, the BLM movement, and now Roe V Wade.

I’m heartbroken and furious that a woman born today in the US today will have fewer rights and less autonomy over her own body than her grandmother had.

Currently, I’m asking myself how was I complicit in that happening? What can I do to no longer be complicit?

2022 Personal Goals

✅ Goal #1: Manage my binge eating disorder. Every day, I will track my calories to eat around 1500 calories a day. I will record what I eat and post it to this blog to help me better understand what causes me to binge eat.

Eating 1500 Calories a Day: Week 25/52

❌ Goal #2: Write consistently. 5 to 7 days a week, I will read and follow My 2022 Writing Manifesto.

✅ Goal #3: Maintain my mental health. 5 to 7 days a week, I will sing three positive songs and sleep before 11:30 PM.

✅ Goal #4: Maintain my physical health. 5 to 7 days a week, I will meditate for 2 minutes, practice 25 minutes of yoga, and do 10 minutes of weight lifting or cardio.

✅ Goal #5: Read books to gain knowledge and new perspectives. 5 to 7 days a week, I will read for 30 minutes and I will write down my favorite passage/what I learned on this blog.

This past week, I enjoyed reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic and Galit Atlas’s Emotional Inheritance.

In reading Galit Atlas’s Emotional Inheritance, I now understand why I was pretty certain I didn’t ever want to become a mother. I was an undesired child. If my mom wasn’t socially pressured to or if she felt she had another choice, I would not have been born.

My mom, maternal grandmother, Aunt Spicy, Aunt Jekyll, and Aunt Coffee did not enjoy being mothers. They openly lamented to each other and me that if it wasn’t their duty or if they weren’t afraid of being made fun of for being one of those women that could not give birth, they probably wouldn’t have had kids.

My mom and Aunt Coffee say they would have lived a more carefree life. Aunt Jekyll goes further to say she would have likely lived a better life. These women were central in influencing many of my major life decisions up until I was around age 36. It is no wonder I never possessed the desire to become a mom.

✅ Goal #6: Become more organized. 5 to 7 days a week, I will spend 10 to 30 minutes organizing.

✅ Goal #7: Become more physically active. Every week, I will do 1 physical activity like hiking, table tennis, swimming, etc.

This past week, I played table tennis for 4 hours and hiked for 4 hours.

✅ Goal #8: Improve my listening skills: Every week, I will listen to one podcast or TED talk, and write down what I learned in 1 to 5 sentences.

The Jordan Harbinger Show: Annie Duke | How to Make Decisions Like a Poker Champ

I LOVED hearing Annie Duke’s perspective on how to make better decisions in life even though it meant admitting that I mostly made terrible decisions in the past.

A few points I found interesting:

(1) Do not confuse the outcome of your decisions with the quality of it. Running a red light is a terrible decision but does not necessarily result in a crash.

(2) Instead of asking people, “Are you sure?” try “How sure are you?” This way people will likely give an answer that is more in line with what they truly think or feel.

(3) Annie likes to give percentages in her answers. She would tell her agent that she has a 60% chance of completing another chapter of her book by Monday.

✅ Goal #9: Emulate Krista Tippet’s (Winner of the National Humanities Medal, Peabody Awards, Webby Awards) way of speaking. Every week, I will listen to Debbie Millman interviewing Krista Tippet and record a passage of Krista’s that I want to emulate.

❌ Goal #10: Remember my late father through cooking. Every week, I will post one recipe to this blog to remember him.

I realize that every week that I’m struggling more than usual with my eating disorder, I don’t want to think or write about food.

Personal Goal Summary

✅ Goals completed: 8

❌ Goals not completed: 2

This week’s completion percentage: 80%

Dear readers, how was your progression towards your 2022 goals? 😃