September
I promised to update once apartment mortgage is settled. What I will do instead for September is reflected in general what I learned and mistakes I made.
Poker
Grinded over 4k games which is the record in the past 6 months. My mental game was not stable during such period at the tables which affected my grind a lot. It also didn't help that training sessions from CrossFit became more intense and my body keeps asking for rest while poker awaits grind. This of course produces negative results. It is what it is, end result is that I made over 1k post RB but I ran 7 times bellow EV pre RB in this month with record low cEV of 42.
Things I learned, applied and will keep applying: 1) Grind 2 sessions in the morning , 3 or 4 more in the evening 2) Use same times with alarm clock and calendar settings for habit and system building 3) Technically, to change in strategy several things in my pre and post flop strategy which will lead to long term very strong win rate - example, expect way over cEV 60 in October, honestly 80+ would be more like it.
October, 150 hours of grind with 5 sessions per day without day off or 6 hours per day with 1 day off. I will stick to playing every day to continue with habit and system building as well as to constantly test and tweak strategy in actual games.
Would be really cool to get 25$ hourly in next 150 hours vs 9-10$ post RB which I had in this month. Positive I will have even higher cEV in October but with variance you never know on such low sample in such high variance format.
Weight loss and working out
Weighted myself today after training, 81.3kgs. That is 14.4kgs in around 16 weeks period. I had 2 weeks in September where I stopped dropping 1 kgs per week simply because I was not using calorie deficit but rather going over board on certain days. Training's became very hard + I increased intensity by doing pull ups 2 additional times per week at home, making working out 6 times per week. This lead to a lot of exhaustion in my body, I started taking naps in the afternoon for 30-70 minutes but that still didn't regenerate me well enough to grind as I wanted and planed.
I have 4 more weeks of training sessions left with my Sensei. Goal is to drop 4 more kgs in those 4 weeks, get down to 77kgs and then do body fat % measuring and prepare to do YouTube video. After such period, I will likely choose to do one of the following things: 1) Work out on my own with body weight exercises + doing cardio through sports and relevant exercises while maintaining my low body fat % and still building muscle ( leaning towards this most) 2) Continue working in CrossFit temple but via group training sessions 3 to 4 times per week (reason being - saving money for all the things set) 3) Training at CrossFit temple on Saturday (open gym day = free) and the rest of the days on my own, use time on Saturday to do weight training and rest of the day as in 1st case.
The reasons that I plan to change current arrangement are following 1) Financial - need to save money and not taking 1 on 1 training's I save around 150$ per month which for Oct Nov Dec and Jan is 600$ that I can save 2) I want to go through the process on depending on myself when it comes to working out. Creating work outs from scratch, measuring progress, preparing things for my YouTube journey which will later be used for course and coaching sessions.
What I learned from working out this month is: 1) Difficult periods for sticking to macros will come - accept it, deal with it, be prepared for it and don't let it affect overall progress (make them last as short as possible!) 2) My body is developing very well, especially upper part 3) I need to say no to girls even more since time at night with them affects sleeping which affects performance at training sessions (for time being) or to simply spend time with them on weekends only (when I don't have training the next day) 4) 7-8 hours sleep is a must with current training regimen without a doubt 5) I will do 16 more training sessions and then start to work out on my own and get to my new journey and share it with the world via YouTube
Teaching
It was one of the best months since almost all of my students took the knowledge from previous period and applied it with things they want to do. Examples: 1) Student will audition for cruise ship sight reading; several months ago he couldn't read a single note and now 4-5 months later he is getting ready for actual audition (huge success) 2) Student started preparing sets with loop pedal and effects for performance - using the harmony, arranging, orchestration, improvising and repertoire building knowledge as well as ear training, his playing now sounds very mature, developed and he will make his dream now (playing in front of people music he loves while making some money of it also) 3) Student wanted to set up a system for practicing 3 hours per day on average. I gave him in 1 lesson different approaches to time management as well as examples with actual areas of practice and how to apply it. 3 weeks later his ear training skills are sky rocketing, his freetboard knowledge with guitar triads is kicking ass and his rhythm is getting more under control and solid in all time feels - very cool results. 4) Student asked to do break down of funk guitar styles, to help him out figure out common rhythms, fills , figures etc. In 2 lessons, we covered rhythm approach and now in his practicing he is kicking ass with comping and making funky riffs. He is very happy and excited, I am thrilled with his progress and outside of that he is working on very advanced soloing approaches which take more time to implement. 5) Student wanted to compose harmony for original song that his female friend composed. We did it in 1 class and he was killing it, she loved it, he was thrilled and then came back with focus to work more on harmony and theory in the future. Last lesson we covered how to harmonize any melody using major scale harmony where he got very specific assignments - which I very much look forward hearing next Wednesday! etc
Things I learned from teaching in September: 1) Students are kicking ass in all areas, really going for glory in their own self mission and vision for themselves 2) Having dedicated students that trust system, enjoy the process and are in sync in both lesson and outside of lesson times is the best thing in the world for me period. I want to have more students, and all of them to be like current group of students. I don't want to get more students for the sake of money, no. I want students that deserve my time, energy, system, support, accountability, people that I will keep over delivering to just like I always do. That doesn't drain me, on contrary it recharges me - every lesson I look forward to!
Learning outside of these things
Tim Ferriss for sure left a huge influence on me this month. I have other people that I look up to and admire as well but Tim Ferriss is awesome because he is one of the rare people who is willing to test everything (question everything, try things to do the opposite way) and is a huge action taker vs people who claim they are but actually slack a ton.
Things I learned in this month: 1) To re-evaluate my mission and vision for next 1 to 5 years with detailed dead lines in all areas in life 2) To automate things that are taking time out of my life (to stop putting it off) so that I can dedicate time to the ones that I truly want to do and that count 3) To hire virtual assistant and set important parameters, goals and deadlines in both personal and business life using automation as tool to a) speed up the process b) save time and money c) make more money thanks to it all d) have more time to focus on things that really matter in my life
Hope your September was productive and that you were working on becoming better at something every day. Wish you a great October both on and off the tables and I will see you around in next update!
