Day 52 - First video journal, documenting my self-improvement journey
Everyday documenting my growth.
Day 52 — Just a normal guy trying to improve his life
A Morning of Uncertainty
I woke up in a state where I felt like today could go either way. I felt a little bit distressed and thought it could quickly crumble into a day filled with anxiety, bad habits, and mindless activities like scrolling on my phone, watching anime, and eating junk food. But luckily, I was able to recover it.
To combat this, I used a mental trick of staying in the present, not worrying about anything, and having no expectations for the day. It’s counterintuitive because having expectations can actually cause anxiety, preventing you from doing what you want to do. So, to avoid this self-defeating cycle, I let go of expectations.
Creating and Posting Content
I posted another reel this morning. I was walking around the park and saw an older lady playing basketball by herself, so I made a quick clip from that. The quality was only 720p since it was from my livestream, and it didn’t receive much success. I think one reason was that it was shot in landscape mode and converted into a video for Instagram reels, which left a lot of empty space and made it hard to see what was going on. I also didn’t add captions or trim it enough to keep it snappy.
“I’m on a thing now where I post a reel every day as part of my content strategy to grow my account.”
The last few days have been good in terms of feedback, possibly because the content was more engaging and in the correct format — portrait mode, optimized for phone viewing. But today’s reel didn’t hit the mark.
Reflecting on Editing
Today, I also uploaded two podcast clips from before. This is the second day of restarting my daily progress documentation. I used ChatGPT to summarize the topics I discussed in the Wulai Hot Springs episode, extracting quotes and main points. This way, I can use these summaries later and also include them in the description. It’s better to describe what you talked about with your own words.
Recording Progress
I’m committed to recording these daily video journals to document my progress. Although I look haggard and sweaty from turning off the AC to avoid noise, I’m still recording.
“This is my current state, and the goal is to be consistent and show my progression of how I become the person I want to be in the future.”
Daily Tasks and Organization
I spent a good part of the day editing videos. I edited clips from my beach trip and my time at Wulai. The edits were minimal — just putting clips in chronological order and cutting out a few parts. I avoided adding captions to keep the videos versatile for future use.
I received a message from the catwalk lady saying I appeared on multiple websites after placing second in an international supermodel contest. I want to include this on my website, although it might get messy.
“You on news 😄😄”
- 壹蘋數位
https://tw.nextapple.com/press/20240614/7B5D3243DF7215282929179F56F6E530
- 經濟日報
https://money.udn.com/money/story/5637/8029341
- Yahoo
https://tw.news.yahoo.com/李奧國際-年度時尚gala-慈善大秀盛典-名流之夜-最新國際超模大賽台灣總冠軍誕生-060011694.html
- PChome
https://news.m.pchome.com.tw/living/tcpttw/20240614/index-71834325032806334009.html
- 警政時報
https://www.tcpttw.com/2024/06/112601/
- 蕃薯藤
https://n.yam.com/Article/20240614852745
- owlting
https://news.owlting.com/articles/724311
- match生活
https://m.match.net.tw/mi/news/life/20240614/7998819
- 天天上新聞
https://mknews.com.tw/2024/06/687871/
- 亞太新聞
https://www.atanews.net/?Wirenews=L3146
“At 5:48 p.m., I wrote: ‘Everything is such a mess. Hard to stay organized. I am so behind on so many videos.’ But I reminded myself: ‘Yes, it is worth it. Stay strong, little child.’
This is how I talk to myself in my journal.
Considering New Ideas
At 6:06 p.m., I pondered the idea of helping men with mental health issues. It’s something I believe I can do well by expressing my philosophy, which goes against mainstream culture, focusing on balance, intuition, and health. I linked a podcast between Chris Willx and Tim Ferriss, where they discussed a low information diet. I noticed that consuming less information but contemplating deeply on what I do consume has been more valuable.
Wrapping Up the Day
By 11:30 p.m., I finished editing my two YouTube videos and decided to record this audio journal, which I last-minute changed to a video journal. Despite being shirtless and sweaty, I recorded to show my current state and progress.
“This is how I’m living right now. One day, when I’m living in a better place, I can show the journey from here to there.”
I posted another reel from the gym immediately, testing what kind of content will stick. I need to maintain decent quality while experimenting with different types of reels.
Balancing Work and Fun
It’s midnight now, and I’m debating whether to go out or stay home and sleep early. I’ve been working a lot without time for fun, and I feel like I need a reset.
“When you can work anywhere, anytime, it turns into working everywhere, all the time. I need to deliberately schedule fun time, making all other times work time.”
This transition to being an entrepreneur requires some adjustments, but I’m getting accustomed to it.
Final Thoughts
“This is the first video journal of what has been happening. I hope you are doing well on your own journey and can progress. If you need help, reach out to me. Have a wonderful day.”
This is the end of the first journal. I hope it was good. I wish you the best in your journey. See you.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel or my Newsletter to commit to daily self-improvement.
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11:38am
Good morning.
I feel like today can go either way. I feel both content and distressed. To combat this I am journaling and using a mental trick of staying in the present, not worrying about anything, and having no expectations for the day.
I want to post another reel on Instagram, but the one I have lined up I don't like. It sounds like I am lecturing too much.
Let me glance at some other videos and see if I can do something.
11:53am
I will download the stream from yesterday and do a reel about the lady playing basketball.
12pm
Drinking coffee, woot woot!
12:55pm
I have uploaded a reel about the ayi playing basketball in the park from yesterdays livestream. The performance isn't so good. It could be due to a number of factors, such as it being in landscape mode, no captions, or the content itself is not engaging enough.
I have prepared two podcast clips and am ready to upload.
I have used ChatGPT to summarize the WuLai hotspring camping trip:
(I used this prompt: Write down the main topics or highlights from this transcript as bullet points, then under each topic take a quote from the transcript and place directly under the bullet point.)
[[summary of descript transcript chat gpt prompt]]
- Decision to Go:
- "I decided to go with my friends, my roommate, another French friend and my roommate's friend. So four of us in total. And we went to Oli where there is a outside wild Hotsprings."
- Activities and Snacks:
- "We spent the whole day there soaking in the hot spring we ate. Different snacks that we brought such as chocolate and bread."
- "And then we bought fresh honey and we poured it on the bread."
- Decision to Stay Overnight:
- "I was at first hesitant to stay the night, because like, you may have known this I've been sick recently. And so I was worried about the rain and the cold and everything..."
- "But I thought about, okay, what will make a more interesting story or a more interesting life?...I think having those moments in your life are extremely valuable. So I decided to stay."
- Experience Overnight:
- "The whole night. I pretty much soaked in the hot spring the whole time because I couldn't sleep too well."
- "I would get a little bit cold and I would get up and go soak in the hot spring."
- Morning Activities:
- "And then the sun. I was just coming out. And I was jumping into the water off of this rock. You know, the cold water. And the sun just coming out and the shock of jumping in. Wow. It's an amazing way to wake up in the morning."
- "So then. Then back to the bug. I was really thinking like, I really wanted what was going through its mind."
- Nature and Reflection:
- "I had many moments during this trip being out in nature where I'm like, Uh, more interested in nature, I guess."
- "I felt really just so interested in nature...so connected with nature."
- "I was thinking like, okay, what is valuable to me...I really value my health and fitness and meditation and being out in nature and my friends and exploration."
- Philosophical Thoughts:
- "I just feel so much more mature and have a clear understanding of what I want in life and how life really is."
- "We get so caught up doing all of these like goals and things like this. That in retrospect, like don't carry any significant meaning to me."
- Conclusion and Advice:
- "My recommendation for people is you should think about what will give your life the greatest lore, something that you can tell other people about."
- "Even if it's maybe uncomfortable in the moment or more difficult option, you should still try to do it if you can."
Next is the livestream trip to xianse temple
- Introduction and Intentions
- " Wow. I have not recorded a podcast like this in a long, long, long, long, long time."
- "I want to do it more of an audio journal. And to do it more consistently. Doing it every day to share case basically what has happened during that day. And how I'm progressing."
- Daily Activities
- "Today I had two castings. They went quite well. And after the castings, I did a live stream for an hour and a half."
- "I stumbled across a temple, which... is perhaps the coolest temple I've seen in Taiwan."
- Temple Description
- "It has a pond and a lake and these winding Rocky pathways all around it."
- "And the temple itself is three stories. And it is perhaps the closest temple I find in Taiwan to resemble the ones found in Beijing."
- Morning Productivity
- "This morning, what did I do this morning? I forgot. I think I was maybe editing video or something like this along those lines."
- "I think I was quite productive for the first two hours."
- Podcast Listening
- "Again, listening to podcast model wisdom. The particular episode is with Tim Ferris."
- "And learned a lot from that. And then I, you know, of course taking notes and, uh, my obsidian."
- Social Media Strategy
- "I think with social media, Aye. Uh, just started posting, you know, once a day. And maybe I will vamp it up to even like three times a day, something crazy like that, or at least like maybe two times a day."
- "I think on my Instagram, like, I don't want to create like the. The crazy reels actually have no meaning. I want to create something with. Every time that you see it. This something. Like valuable, like maybe you want to save it or. Just funny."
- Website and Content Creation
- "Now as for my website. I'm thinking about. You know, continuing the everyday journal and then I need to open everything. To make it available to the public."
- "I shouldn't spend extensive amount of time writing these articles. Um, I should rather be trying to create YouTube videos or some kind of video format."
- Reflections on Audio Journals
- "I think this audio journal is worthwhile though, because it. Mm, how can I say. Uh, helps me compile my thoughts and what has happened. During the day."
- "Um, it helps me to remember everything that has happened and to think about it again."
- Positive Mindset
- "Normally I go to bed stressed thinking. About all the things I didn't do. But this was one of the first times that I felt just so happy and proud of myself and smiled, and it felt like life was a game and it was the right difficulty setting for me."
- "I think. When I have inspiration to write, I should just pull out my phone and take those obsidian notes. Like this will come in handy later."
- Social Interaction
- "And I met another model from America. And we talked a lot and he's more American than me."
- "He plays football. He's been living in Hong Kong for two years and then, but like the way that he dresses and the way that he talks. In his. Mindset. It's definitely very. Like. You know, college. Oh boy. American."
- Book Recommendations
- "There's a bunch of book recommendations, which I can try to read for you. Um, awareness by Anthony."
- "The next is the effective executive. Then there's a little big, the fairies parliament by John."
- Future Plans and Experiments
- "I can perhaps just take these notes from obsidian. Maybe delete some of the personal things. And then put them directly on to ghost my website. Uh, along with, you know, this audio clip, this audio clip I can put on Spotify and things."
- "Maybe just put the microphone. Um, on my phone and see if I can just record it like that. Super easy, super quick. Take that recording. Bam, slap it on YouTube, something like this."
- Conclusion
- "Anyways, that is it. I hope everyone is doing well. Um, I'm going to keep trying my best and I think one day I can make it. I love you all take care. Bye-bye."
2pm
I just recorded a video of me dancing on the balcony to living in paradise. So fun. So happy.
3:36pm
What if I did a YouTube video newsletter?
OKAY, to make my goal clear, I want to clean up my website.
Write down the main topics or highlights from this transcript as bullet points, then under each topic take a quote from the transcript and place directly under the bullet point. Furthermore, suggest which quotes are a good hook, topic, or can be used to create an Instagram reel.
3:58pm
You on news 😄😄
- 壹蘋數位
https://tw.nextapple.com/press/20240614/7B5D3243DF7215282929179F56F6E530 - 經濟日報
https://money.udn.com/money/story/5637/8029341 - Yahoo
https://tw.news.yahoo.com/李奧國際-年度時尚gala-慈善大秀盛典-名流之夜-最新國際超模大賽台灣總冠軍誕生-060011694.html - PChome
https://news.m.pchome.com.tw/living/tcpttw/20240614/index-71834325032806334009.html - 警政時報
https://www.tcpttw.com/2024/06/112601/ - 蕃薯藤
https://n.yam.com/Article/20240614852745 - owlting
https://news.owlting.com/articles/724311 - match生活
https://m.match.net.tw/mi/news/life/20240614/7998819 - 天天上新聞
https://mknews.com.tw/2024/06/687871/ - 亞太新聞
https://www.atanews.net/?Wirenews=L3146
5:48pm
Man everything is such a mess. XD
Hard to stay organized.
I am behind on so many videos lol.
And the days I did what etc, I don't remember. Also files, videos and pictures and such, and who knows where.
Lastly, is it even worth it? LOL
Yes.
Yes it is.
Stay strong little child. Haha
6:06pm
What if I help men with mental health issues?
My own philosophy.
Maybe contrary to the grind grind grind culture.
7:39pm
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Kthp44Lgfz3c1uWb2mlu3?si=0ylq49_4TP2OOQx8wWYDWA
Still listening to this podcast.
7:45pm
Low information diet seems better.
8:19pm
Consistency is important, but need deliberate practice to improve.
11:30pm
I just finished "editing"two youtube videos.
Beach cave and cow.
Spending the night at wulai hotspring.
About to record an audio journal.
Today at the gym I also posted a shit reel haha. But hey, it's good to do something "bad" and get use to "rejection" or the feeling of it.
Video Transcript
This is my first attempt using video in my podcast and so if you want access to that video you can find it on my YouTube channel. Now today is January 15th, 2024, and I just want to go over the things I've done today. So I woke up and I was in a state where I felt like today could go either way.
I felt a little bit distressed and felt like, okay, it could quickly crumble into a day where I spend the whole day anxious, doing bad habits, scrolling on my phone, watching anime, eating junk food, things like this. But luckily I was able to recover it. I don't remember exactly how. I think I woke up in the morning, I had a lot of expectations, and so here I wrote in my journal, Like, I feel like today can go either way.
I feel both content and distressed. To combat this, I am generally and using a mental trick of staying in the present, not worrying about anything and having no expectations for the day. It's kind of counterintuitive that Or, it goes against the outcome that you want. If you have expectations for how you want the day to be, well, this expectation could give you the anxiety that prevents you from doing the very thing that you want to do, which is self defeating, which sucks.
And so, to combat this, you just don't have expectation, and then you still do the thing that you want to do. And then it's just a win win situation because you both accomplish the thing that you want to accomplish, but then you also don't have the anxiety and the stress and the negative feelings that would normally accompany it.
Okay. Now, I also posted another reel, at least one in the morning, about I was walking around in the park and I saw an Ayi, an older lady, playing basketball by herself, and so I just made a quick clip from that. Again, it's from my livestream, so the quality is only 720p, and not so good. And then I Did not receive so much success on this one.
One of the reasons I think is because it is shot in landscape mode, right? And then I converted it into a video for Instagram reels. And so I did not expand this particular video. The other two that I posted, so I'm on a thing now where I post a reel every day and this is my content strategy to grow my account.
Now, the last few days Feedback was pretty good. And I think one of the reasons is because it's more engaging, I'm talking and the things that I'm saying perhaps have some meaning behind it and also it's in the correct format. It's in portrait mode, it's optimized for being consumed on the phone. But the one that I shot today or not shot today, but I edited it today, I left it in landscape mode.
And so there's a bunch of black, empty space, and it's hard to even see what's going on. And then I didn't even put captions on it, and perhaps I could have trimmed it a bit more, to keep it more snappy, and the pace going faster. And so these are some things I learned from that. And, next, I I uploaded the two podcast clips from before, so today is the second day of, you know, restarting this record my everyday progress like a documentation.
And before that There's been a big gap, but I did record one episode a long time ago about my time spending at the Ulai Hot Springs. I spent the night there, and so you can go back and listen to that one. And then I used ChantGDP to go through and summarize what topics I talked about at the Ulai Hot Springs.
And I use the, have ChantGDP take the clips from like my quotes. Okay. I can see I'm stumbling a little bit, but took the quotes from the things that Ashley said and put it underneath each of the bullet points, the main topics. And this way I'm able to, you know, either go back and use that later. And I'm also able to just put that in the description.
You know, it's better to describe what you are doing or what you were talking about with the actual words you said in the video. That's my opinion. It does. It seems to be much, much better for me. There's also a lot of other things I did today where I was going through like the entire live stream and doing the same thing, and then I will go back through that and try to make some reels and content from that.
I made another reel, which is about this guy who was dancing at the temple, at the temple. Which I did a live stream on that yesterday. Yeah, yesterday. And so that was very interesting to me. Well, I'm sweating a lot in my room because I turned the AC off because I was afraid that it would be too loud.
And you can see I haven't washed my hair or anything like this. I look haggard, but I'm still going to record these like daily. Video journals, yes, to record my progress. Though it's a lot of rambling. And perhaps it won't be worth seeing if you don't actually You know, have like b roll footage to see what the heck I'm talking about.
But yeah, anyways, at least I can take the transcript of this and put it on my website, perhaps. Yes, something like this. My website, I hope to just, you know, just throw all the content there. And that way it's, you know it has a place. Okay. Anyways, I recorded a video of me dancing on the balcony. To the Lost in Paradise song, which is from the anime.
Forgot the name of the anime. So this was, you know, an attempt to dance to a song. And I clipped it, and I put it on my story. Just to get outside my comfort zone. And to get used to dancing and things like this. Then I was thinking about other things. Like, what if I did a YouTube video newsletter?
I don't know what I was thinking about that, like, you know, instead of sending a newsletter with text, it's me sending like a video of like the things that I learned or the things that I think would bring value. And then I want to clean up my website and I made some steps where like made things, everything public and I was trying to go back and.
start reposting the, the posts that I haven't posted in the past, like days that I missed, but I had to edit two videos, which I just finished. So I edited the video of the time with the beach cave and the cow, that beach trip. And then I also edited the video of the time at the Ulay. Now both of these edits is just literally Putting the clips together in chronological order and nothing else, maybe cut out a few parts and that's it.
So very, very, very light editing. No b roll, not even talking, no captions. I'm avoiding captions because then it makes it using the video in the future won't be You know, it won't be useful because there'll be other captions, and if I want to repurpose it for something else, there'll be a problem.
Anyways, and also, YouTube, they can auto generate captions now. Now, I also received a message from the catwalk lady saying I appeared on all of these websites and now I have like, 12, 15 websites pulled up which because I got, I got second place at the international, like supermodel contest, yeah.
And so I appeared on all these websites, which is cool, I guess. And so I want to put this on my website. Again, kind of like a resume, but it's going to be so messy on my website. Who knows? And then here, yeah, at 540. 8 p. m. I'm like, man, everything is such a mess. Hard to stay organized. I am so behind on so many videos.
And the days I did what? I don't remember. And you don't, I don't know where the videos and the files and the pictures and everything is. And then I'm like, lastly, is it even worth it? LOL. Then I'm like, yes, yes, it is. Stay strong, little child. You know, this is kind of how I talk to myself in my own journal.
And this journal I should also put on my website. Yes. And then at 6 p. m. Or 6 0 6 p. m. I'm asking myself, what if I help men with mental health issues? Like, what if that is the thing that I try to address? Because, that's something I think I can do well at. Just expressing my own philosophy and something that would go contrary to the grand, grand, grand culture, or the specialized culture, because I think my mindset is more of a balance and intuition and health, and I can, you know, expand on that.
Then I'm talking, I linked the podcast, which is between like Chris Willicks and Tim Ferriss. It's on the Modern Wisdom. They were talking about that. I just finished it today. Another, like, three hour podcast. Didn't finish the whole thing today, I started it, like, yesterday, the day before. Okay and one of the things Tim mentioned is actually he's on a low information diet, and it does seem to be better that way.
I've noticed that now, if I consume less information, just maybe, an hour or so, and then I really contemplate about that information, and I talk about it, and I cement it in my brain, then it both retains better, becomes a part of me, changes my behavior, the way that I view the world, everything like this.
And so doing it this way does seem to be tremendously more valuable. Okay. Now, consistency is important, but there is a need for deliberate practice to improve. Now, This is Basically, you need to just try to be a little bit better every single time that you do something and do it consistent, but again, trying to be a little bit better, but not perfect.
Oops, I hit the microphone. The reason You can do this is, you know, yeah, you will, you just improve. Okay. That's how you improve. And then last thing is at 11 30, I say, I've just finished editing my two YouTube videos, and then I'm about to record this audio journal, but I last minute changed it to be a video journal, even though I'm shirtless and sweating and my hair's messy and my room is small, dirty old, ugly, but this is my current state, you know, like this is where I'm at in life right now.
And the goal of this series is to be consistent and show my progression of, okay, how do I become the person I want to be in the future? Like the, kind of like, you know, those science labs where they do like the documentation like before the zombie outbreak or something like that. I don't know why I considered that, but that's kind of my goal.
So like this, you know, I shouldn't be shy to show like, this is how I'm living right now. And, you know, one day when I'm living in a much better place, then I can show that. And be like, wow, this is how I came from here to here because I kept at it. Then I also made a really bad reel at the gym and posted it like immediately.
Kind of like something that I would post like on my private story. I just posted it on my Instagram and this was just to kind of test like the waters to see like what kind of content will stick. And I think I should just do that, you know, post like two reels a day or something like this. And obviously a lot of them are going to be quite bad and, but the problem is, is I should also make sure that the quality is decent on these reels, like they can really hit a punch or something like this.
Okay. I'm debating on whether or not I want to go out now. It's 12 o'clock. I could shower, get ready, try to find some friends or I can stay home and sleep early. Today's Saturday. So if it don't go today, then Go to next week. I haven't been in a while. I don't want to drink alcohol, but I feel like I have been working, working, working and haven't had any time for fun.
So I feel like I need something where it's like a reset, you know, just like a day where I can chill a little bit because there's one thing that they mentioned in the podcast where when you are able and you are gifted the opportunity to work anywhere anytime it suddenly turns in to you working everywhere all the time and I really feel that because there's never a time like I feel like I shouldn't be working and I always feel like now it's like the opposite where before perhaps you would be given a shift of work from your boss and you just have to show up Do it and you're done.
And then you go home and all the other time is your quote unquote free time. Yes now I have discovered that It's the opposite for me where I have to deliberately schedule the time that I should be going out or doing something fun and all of the other time becomes the work time. So it flips around when you try to be an entrepreneur.
It flips on its heels and your life, you know, there's definitely some changes that are happening right now, which I have to get accustomed to. And so that is one of the big ones. I am going to at least shower, because now I feel like I'm in a sauna, like, I don't know if you can see. Maybe you cannot.
Okay, maybe I shall. I don't know. Okay, the lighting is terrible, you can't see. Anyways, this is the end of the first journal. And I think next time I can try to get more comfortable looking into the camera. I can maybe shower beforehand, try to look a bit better, maybe put on a t shirt, and maybe try to find a more aesthetic, aesthetic place to record.
Okay. I know I'm rambling a lot, but this is the first audio. Audio video journal of what has been happening I hope you are doing well on your own journey journey, and I hope you can progress This is actually my first one. I just realized my first video journal So this is day one. So if you ever go back and you're like wondering Okay, how did he start?
How were things? I will tell you that it was like years leading up to I can't even get to the point that I'm at now. And it will be another years, another few years until I get to the point that I perhaps want to be at more than I'm at now. I'm already quite satisfied with my life right now, to be honest.
That or I either just changed my mindset. I'm more grateful. But that's exciting, like, if this is video one. And so, this is your first impression of me. If you do go back to the beginning. So, I hope it was good, or not. I wish you the best in your own journey, and if you need help, you reach out to me.
Okay, bye bye, have a wonderful day. See ya.
