I was blown away by the banquet this past weekend. It was incredible seeing everyone come together to create such a fun and memorable event. This was my first New Year’s Banquet, and it was an inspiring and motivational experience for me. The week leading up to the banquet was the first week of our year of the rabbit, and I was on fire, I had a plan for hitting my Ih Ho Chuan requirements and I was nailing my pushups, my sit-ups, and my forms practices. In short, the week leading up to and then culminating in the banquet was incredible. I think it has given me hope and excitement that will help keep me motivated throughout this coming year. But oh man, by Sunday I was tired. I was aching and I was wiped out from everything. I wound up taking Sunday to stretch and recharge, and then on Monday I got right back to it again and managed to get my planned repetitions in once again. Tuesday though, I tried to get my repetitions in but I was struggling to make any progress, I was finding myself short of breath and frankly weak. Out of my planned 140 pushups and sit-ups I struggled to even get 40 in. I went to bed early that night but woke up with a fever, and a splitting headache. A rapid test later and it looked like I was positive for Covid. It’s now Friday, and my fever has broken and I feel like I am recovering now, I still find myself low on energy and a bit short of breath but I am feeling a lot better than I was. I haven’t gotten my practice or reps in this week, but it’ll be okay. There is still plenty of time remaining this year to make up the difference.
It has been strange, having these two weeks juxtaposed with each other so completely. Last week felt like a win, and this week feels like a failure. Life has its ups and its downs, and I am quite certain that there will be triumphs and defeats that will arise throughout this coming year still. I think the important thing though is that like Sifu Brinker said we need to build habits of consistency. We need to continually strive to better ourselves and even to do a bit more than necessary so that when life surprises us, it won’t derail us.