A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I need to be more productive with my living. I believe I have lived up to this promise. I have spent less time on social media. I am reading more, writing more (at least on this and my other (Health) blog. I am also been busy with stuff around the condo, cooking more meals at home, and with doing exercising (At least, doing Calisthenics).

The keeping busy thing, away from Social Media sites, has not been easy for me. I still do it, but not to the same degree that I had been. Do I have room for improvement? Of course, I do. Everyone could improve on anything if they really needed to. It’s human nature. The thing is, does everyone try to strive for self-improvement. I doubt it.

As I age, I see the need to self-improve. I don’t know what exactly started me on this journey of self-improvement, but I believe it was after I hit rock bottom with my depression, and my family strongly encouraged me to seek help – At the time, I wasn’t good at asking for help. I guess having a disability and the need to show I could be self-sufficient did not help in this matter. I learnt that I could not always do things on my own. For me, this wasn’t an easy lesson. I sought professional help.

I went for training, they helped me find work. Later, when I was ready, I went back to school to get my OACs/Grade 13 (It was a transitional period – Now, they don’t even offer this option, but back then you needed it to get into university). My wanting to be in school, make all the difference. Before when I didn’t wish to be there, I only got average marks. Whereas the second time, I excelled. This was the start. It gave me confidence that I could do things. It was the first step in change. Later, I got into IT. IT changes all the time and one is required to keep up with the changes in order to continue to be relevant. I learnt not to fear change. I began to incorporate the idea of change in my daily living. I strove to self-improve. I read more, tried new things.

Even today, I still try to improve. I write more. I used to write as a teen, but then I stopped. I stopped because I wrote a lot of poetry, but it was very dark and depressing. Because I suffered from depression at the time and I was trying to get out of that mindset, I gave up writing. Then about 10 or 15 years ago, I returned to writing. At first, it was short stories, then I wrote verse, then I wrote a book, and now I write blogs. I have improved immensely with my writing. I will always strive to be better, but the thing is to stay with it.

The “stay with it” is key. One must always stay with something if one is to improve at whatever one is striving to do. Writing is my thing. It has been a constant ever since I returned to it. Now, I am on a health kick. I was never good at dieting. I just “Yo-yo.” I have tried numerous times, but I always regained the weight back quickly. I know now; however, that the key is not to diet and to keep going. It needs to be a lifetime thing. It must be one of the “stay with it” kind of things.

You see, I am always learning. I hope I never stop.
—Robert Confiant 20 April 2019