A word comes to mind as I reflect on the last few months: Zenosyne. It’s defined as:

n. the sense that time appears to be moving faster and faster – especially as one grows older – speeding towards the inevitable conclusion that will arrive unexpectantly soon.

Currently, it’s the week of SWOTVAC for my final semester of exams, which means I’m unofficially done with my undergraduate studies. This comes with mixed feelings – relief that it’s over, gratitude to have met great people, regret about not having done more, uncertainty about the future – but perhaps the biggest feeling is zenosyne: that each day seems to last one second less, that time is relentlessly accelerating, forcing me to adapt or be left behind. The first day of undergrad feels recent, second year feels like a familiar friend and the start of this semester feels like yesterday… but now it’s over. This is both an unsettling and exciting call to action.

It’s now been 3 months since my last check-in post. This is my third iteration of this process and I’ve found it to be useful every time so I think I’ll continue doing these. And so, here we go again: What went well these last few months? What didn’t go so well? And what are my goals heading into the months to come?

The good

1. Running

Running-wise, the main focus of the last few months was the Melbourne Marathon (Oct 13^th), which is the first marathon I’ve ever done. Training for this was a crazy experience: running 60km+ a week, doing 30km long runs, foam rolling daily and maintenance work in the gym were all foreign concepts to me until a few months ago. Despite this, the process taught me a lot and the actual marathon was perhaps the funnest challenge I’ve ever done. In training, I was able to get a lot closer with my fellow MUAC athletes, appreciate the importance of rest and recovery and feel my body adapt as I pushed it to run longer distances every week. While I’m satisfied with my time (3:20:59, 4:43min/km), I’ve definitely been bitten by the marathon bug and hope to complete more in the years to come.

2. Reminders

To be honest, the last few months were far from ideal. While I’ve recently developed good habits of reading the Bible and socialising, other habits which I’d built over the last few years such as reading books in general and journalling have begun to fade away. I suspect this contributed to me feeling a little lost over September, eventually leading to burnout. Thankfully, I was able to learn from this hollow period, which taught me the importance of strong relationships, consistency and prioritising activities that are fundamental to my wellbeing. Provided I remember these lessons, I’ll take this period overall as a win.

The not-so-good

1. Phone use

It irks me to admit this, but I’ve been spending an excessive amount of time on my phone in the last few months. I often find myself reaching for it when I’m bored instead of doing something more productive like reading, chatting to a friend or just being still. Most of the time spent on the phone isn’t even productive – it largely consists of mindlessly scrolling through social media or watching gaming videos and usually occurs when I’m procrastinating for something. Perhaps just getting started on tasks that need to be done is the real issue here.

2. Reading

For the first half of this year, I was reading about a book a week. And it was amazing. But for some reason, the practice began to wane and I’ve only managed 3 books in the last 2 months. It’s not like I have nothing to read – there’s currently 10 books and 2 audiobooks on my to-read list – but somehow, it’s lost its place as a priority. I think writing this is a good reminder to put reading back on the radar. After all, there is something magical about sitting alone under a lamp, book spread before you, and communing with someone whom you have never met.

Goals

So, in light of a fairly dull last few months, what are my goals for the future?

• Make things that need to be done as simple as possible
• Rebuild reading and journalling into my habits, and not let any successes get to my head
• Post at least 3 times a month here

I’m also flirting with the idea of setting up a YouTube channel, where I interview strangers on the street and ask about random topics such as joy, health, family or goals. I’ve found doing walk-ups in Christian Union and my church to be an incredible (albeit intimidating) opportunity to gain new perspectives on all sorts of things, and I think a channel like this would force me to continue this practice.