2022

I’ve built up some good fitness and diet habits. One default for me now is 7000+ steps per day. Been doing that for ~200 days in a row. There are days I don’t leave the house but I’ll jog on the spot for a few minutes at a time to get my steps up.

It’s not so much the overwhelm that’s the problem; it’s thinking I shouldn’t be overwhelmed, feeling like being overwhelmed is some kind of personal failure. But hey, I’m still getting settled in a new country while trying to build an excellent business. Of course I’m overwhelmed.

Reading about William Barents and his efforts to sail from Europe to Asia via the Arctic in the 1500s. They were literally sailing off all known maps, into oblivion. Sometimes my ego gets big and I think entrepreneurship is pretty much the same thing, just without sub-zero temperatures and killer polar bears.

After constant headaches with real estate agents here, we were overdue a run-in with someone really good at their job. We met her today, a force of nature. People like her make me want to build multiple businesses and always be hiring, so I can get them on my team for the long-run.

Another day, another epic walk in Andorra. You find them here like you find old phone boxes in other countries, just scattered about the place, no big deal. This one starts at the edge of ALV, winds along the river, under new roads, across an old bridge, alongside a church from the Middle Ages.

Down at the FedEx office because the package is delayed and they don’t know if it’s in Barcelona or Paris. Nightmare. I come back through smelly traffic, past dug-up streets lined with fat construction workers, up to the apartment and there’s no electricity. of course there isn’t. Can’t wait to leave this fucking town.

Trying to do better tracking my work time. Answering emails is work time. Checking Twitter is work time. Arranging tasks for tomorrow is work time. Tempting not to track it, so I never have to face the truth. But if I truly want to manage my time better, I have to track it better.

Another Huston movie, this one starring his father and Bogart: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Shot mostly in Mexico, one of the first major Hollywood productions to be shot abroad. I’m used to seeing Bogart play the hero but he describes his character in this as “the worst shit you ever saw.”

Looking back at the last 3+ years of building and running eBiz Facts: which tasks in that whole process have I enjoyed the most? Clear to me now that it has been the big messy tasks, where I was able to bring order to some kind of chaos, with plenty of learning along the way.

I’ve gotten better at saying no over the years. With this guy today, I had to say no twice. First to hang out, then to be his mentor. Since he’d just done me a small favor, there was some pressure to reciprocate, but good chance I would have ended up resentful had I said yes.

We fly into Kutaisi at around midnight. The weather is damp and foggy in Georgia. We pass limping stray dogs in the potholed car park, bundle into a minivan. Driver tells us we have to pass through 70 kilometers of road works on the way to Tbilisi. We might get home by 4am.

Been on a downswing the last few days, low energy, low motivation. Seems it’s not possible to avoid them completely, but I can limit the damage they do. Mainly by continuing to get out for walks, eating clean, and not starting a new TV show that will take me a dozen hours to finish.