The Monday Read: New Challenges

Goals give you something to look forward to

I’ve always enjoyed having goals. Something to work towards, something to look forward to, a way to push myself to do a little bit more than I might have otherwise.

So of course I have set, not one, but three new goals after coming back from the UK.

Japanese language goal

After 25 years in Japan my Japanese is okay, but could be a lot better. Particularly if I end up naturalising I would like to have better reading and writing skills, and a wider vocabulary.

My goal is to increase the amount of Japanese input I have, especially online. Instead of reading and watching almost exclusively in English I will try to get closer to 50-50.

Jiu-jitsu goal

I’m not sure why I enjoy jiu-jitsu so much, but I do. And as I get closer to 50, I wonder how many more years I will get to practice it. Time does seem to be of the essense.

I have a few BJJ goals. I signed up for a competition in June, which means I will need to work on my cardio (not great right now), lose some weight (I signed up at medium heavy, which means I will need to lose about 6 kg), and come up with a game plan to try and win my matches.

There are at least two other people in my bracket, which focuses the mind a bit.

I also want to go to at least 100 classes this year, probably the minimum if I want to have any kind of chance of earning a brown belt and eventually a black belt.

FP qualification goal

I’ve passed both papers of the FP3 qualification, but sadly not in the same time period so I still haven’t gotten my certificate. I think it might be time to come back to this (should help with the Japanese language goal above too).

How about you? What are your goals for this year?

RetireJapan TV

RetireJapan TV will be back on March 17th from 20:00. We’ll be talking about side hustles/part-time jobs in Japan. Join us live to ask questions or join the discussion.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. No new videos this week but I have one about visas and retirement coming up. Otanoshimi.

The Forum

Speaking of which, the Forum is doing well (40,593 posts so far). The forum rules are here. In essence, they are:

1. Be nice
2. Ask any question you like
3. Only answer questions when you have relevant knowledge or experience

Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I am still on my Terry Pratchett binge! Bought all of his Discworld books on Kindle and am currently reading Jingo (21/41). Really enjoying it.

This week’s links

1. I really don’t see the attraction (have been to a couple of clubs with friends but they left me very cold): Be Our Guest: The Art of Selling Water, Selling Dreams, Selling Love
2. All country FTW? Is International Diversification Finally Working?
3. Really thoughtful video from Dogen (YouTube): The Psychology of the Disillusioned Foreigner
4. Female TV announcers in Japan: Commodifying talent
5. Martin’s economic bulletin: It’s so over until we’re so back
6. Let’s stay healthy: How to Make it a Healthy Correction
7. Was surprised to see this from David Wagner: Why I’m Leaving Japan
8. Not worth the time and effort: Hetty Green and the timeless appeal of market timing
9. Nice: Osaka-Based ELECOM Unveils World’s First Sodium-Ion Mobile Battery
10. Stick to the plan: The Dirt Tells No Lies

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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