I am Deliberate

While this is not on the list for the “I am…” project it still seemed appropriate for me lately.

Deliberate means to do something consciously and with intent. We are often told in Kung Fu class to do things with “intent” and lately that has become more and more a part of my decluttering year as well.

Recently this came to light as I was going through my closet decluttering my clothes. I’ve always just sort of bought clothes when I needed them or liked them but didn’t really pay a lot of attention to it beyond that. Because I’m trying to declutter that means I’m trying to get rid of excess clothing; clothing that I don’t like, don’t need, or hang on to just because they’re still in good condition and I hate to waste perfectly good things. A lot of what’s in there falls under that last category. There’s also a lot of things that I have (and don’t like) because I don’t have anything better to replace them with as well as many that need repairs that I never get around to.

It’s time to make a change. I decided to be more deliberate about my wardrobe. I would rather have fewer clothes, that I love, than so many clothes that I don’t like and avoid wearing. There are clothes I’ve wanted, and intended to make, but I’ve never gotten around to it. So, I decided to spend my time, and money, a little more wisely… deliberately. The thing is, for a long time, I have failed to value my own time, and it’s a process for me to learn how to do that effectively.

I went to a place that makes clothes to measure and got fitted for a few base wardrobe pieces. That way I can have what I want but I didn’t have to take the time to make them myself. That just leaves the pieces that I can’t pay someone else to make for me to do myself. I’m trying to be more deliberate about off-the-rack purchases too.

This may make it sound like I usually buy a lot of clothes but I really don’t. There are more than a few in that closet that are older than my adult children.

With this approach I can mix and match a lot of things to make it look like a lot more variety than it really is and have clothes I love even though there will be fewer of them. By having fewer of them I can also afford better quality.

This also brings into consideration the idea of environmental defence because the volume of synthetic fibre clothing is becoming a real problem in the world. It may feel good to buy clothes that the label says were made from recycled plastic (or other synthetic materials) but unfortunately making plastic into cloth actually takes them out of the cycle of recycling because it’s too expensive to recycle it (recover the base material) once it’s been made into cloth.

It may seem weird to talk about clothing when talking about being deliberate, but it was because I’ve never been deliberate about my clothing that I started thinking about what it is to be deliberate with that as well as other things.

The decluttering continues.

Note:

Lately my blogs seem to get written and not posted. They just hang out in my document files. Need to change that. Still, I’m glad that I got them written at all because in previous IHC years I didn’t get them written at all during the growing season. So, there’s progress.

Numbers:

Since I haven’t caught up on posting my blogs I’ll just post the numbers as of July 15, 2024

Pushups/equivalent: 1736 - numbers aside I’m disappointed because I haven’t been diligent about doing them daily. Need to get back to that.

Sit-ups/equivalent: 1005 - same problem as the pushups.

Sword form: 241 - finally learned the last moves of the form. Hopefully I can remember them properly.

Da Mu Hsing: 237 - again not as diligent on this. Doesn’t help that I forgot to write some of the practice numbers down.

Random Acts of Kindness: 49 - it’s a struggle to remember to write these down. I do them and then just keep going.

Sparring: 130 - haven’t had or made the opportunities that I would like. Was too busy in open practice trying to finish learning the sword form moves.

Kilometres: 700

Memorize Mastery: Not much done on this lately. Hopefully, as I declutter my life and get more deliberate with my time I can get a system in place that works better for this. It used to work very well to do it in the morning but my morning routines have changed (of course) and now I have to figure out a new one.

Nurture relationships: always a work in progress. Not as diligent on this one lately as I would like.

Blogging: 20 - still a little behind.

Declutter: continues but slower than I would like. Maybe I should set weekly or monthly goals for this one. Right now it’s all still so daunting that I’ve just been working on whatever feels like I can manage (mentally and physically).

Great Coat: still on hold until the fall