Heyo welcome back! I can’t believe it. We’re 6 months in, the halfway point of the challenge and I don’t say this lightly, but I couldn’t have done it without your guys’s support.
I apologize for the late article, but during the week I was swamped and I didn’t want to rush out an article that was half-quality, so I waited until the weekend when I had more time to write a more thoughtful, quality article. I may switch my weekly article day to Saturday, just so I don’t pump out anymore half-assed articles.
This update article will be a bit different. I won’t really focus on the last week’s updates, but more so reflect on my growth thus far into the challenge. I will reflect on the last 6 months of progress and setbacks concerning the challenge as well as personal achievements.
But anyways, enough talk. Let’s get into the 6 month update!!
-Reflection-
At the start of the year, I had three main goals.
Compose music for 1 hour a day on Logic Pro X. By the end of the year, have 3 portfolio-ready music pieces. (Work towards my goal of eventually becoming a full-time film composer)
Land a CS Internship for Summer 2023 by spring break. (Enhance my software engineering and problem-solving skills professionally and earn some MONEY)
Run a marathon in December 2023. (Improve my fitness and see how far I can push my mental strength)
If you want to see a longer explanation behind these goals click here.
Over the course of these 6 months, the progress on these goals have waxed and waned, but overall I believe I have grown from where I was 6 months ago. The goals have also changed themselves over the course of the last 6 months as my thoughts, views, and attitude changed alongside.
As for these goal changes, I will document them at the end of the article with my revised goals for the last 6 months of the challenge.
Anyways, let’s get into the nitty-gritty’s of each goal and reflect over the progress.
Goal 1 was compose music for 1 hour a day. In the first three months of the challenge, I would say that I was hitting this goal very consistently. I would set a time everyday to compose and then truly sit down, undistracted to write. Over the course of the first three months, I believe I was creating the most music and improving rapidly, learning about rhythm, instrumentation, melody, harmony, etc.
After the three month mark, I started to slow down in terms of composing. I wouldn’t say that musically I stopped working hard, since I started picking up a love for piano and singing, but composing-wise, I stopped creating as much music.
To take the place of the lack of composing, I started to play more piano and sing everyday. As the summer started, I decided to invest in piano and singing lessons which have been very beneficial. Also as the summer started, my music tastes changed slightly. I went from listening to my “goated instrumental” playlist everyday, which consists of film scores, tv scores, classical pieces, etc, to my Coldplay playlist and other pop/pop rock music. I think the summer rejuvenated me in a way and I was much happier and more energetic, which fit the vibe of the new music I started listening to.
So, with this newfound listening, I also changed my writing a little bit. I went from writing pure instrumental to wanting to write with lyrics and sing. So far, since the start of summer, that’s been my goal to publish a song with lyrics and singing, but I haven’t been successful yet. Don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to instrumental. In fact, I am right now: “Comptine d’un autre été : L’Après-midi” by Yann Tiersen. It’s so beautiful.
But, overall my taste has changed a little bit and my goal for the end of the year will involve less of a film composer focus and more of a pop artist/singer focus. All will be revealed at the end of the article.
So, yea that’s my progress for this goal over the last 6 months. I am quite proud of myself truly for all the progress I’ve made and I’m very excited for the progress to come.
Goal 2 was finding an internship. Found one! Working happily now. I’m keeping this one short and sweet because this goal wasn’t really my main focus over the last 6 months.
Goal 3 was running a marathon in December 2023. This goal was the one that I believe shifted the most from week to week. At the very start, I was running consistently, albeit not very much, but at least consistently. But around the 1-2 month mark, my consistency had gone down the drain.
Unfortunately, I find that perseverance through mentally/physically challenging tasks is something I really need to improve on because without a friend helping, my drive for exercise is not really there/was not there. Nowadays, I think my perseverance has grown in this dimension and I exercise on my own more, but during my stay at school, the reason the goal shifted so much was because my drive to exercise and push myself really went down.
So, as the challenge continued, this goal shifted from a marathon to a half-marathon to just trying to get exercise in everyday. Currently, I think I am hitting that goal consistently and it does improve my mood and energy everyday which I love. So, I think for the next 6 months, that will stay my goal along with trying to hit a target weight of 160 pounds.
So overall, my exercise goal has not been the greatest achievement-wise, but I do believe I have grown. I am stronger, more fit now, not at a marathon level, but more so than when I started the challenge. I also believe I am mentally stronger and can push through tougher times when it’s called for.
-Personal Growth-
I think this challenge has been very beneficial in the fact that I have grown personally from it.
Let’s go!
I believe that my confidence, my mood and energy have gone up in part because of this challenge and the goals I’ve set for myself. I also would attribute it to being home, because at school I was quite lonely, without an environment to thrive. I hope next semester, I can change that.
But, I think there were a few realizations that led to my confidence, mood and energy boost.
It’s okay to be quiet. You don’t always have to contribute if you don’t need to.
This realization boosted my confidence and sociability skills a ton. I used to strain myself and tell myself I needed to be so extroverted and appear like super happy. But, I realized that’s really not true to who I am. I am a happy, positive person, but not super extroverted. So, once I realized this, the tension and conflict within me kind of dissipated and I am much more relaxed in social situations, something I am very proud of.
Food. Food. Food.
Food really does affect your mood and energy. I knew it before, but I know it now. I’m taking action on that. Nowadays, my food is much healthier than what I ate during school and my mood and energy have gone up because of that.
“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy” - Nightbirde
I believe this realization was crucial towards my boost in mood. I do believe that sometimes when you are truly depressed, an attitude change can only help so much, but for my case, I don’t think I was super depressed, it helped. I found myself thinking more positively, more about the future.
One more thing that touched me about Nightbirde’s story (search her up!) is that she found out she had a 2% survival rate from her cancer. Her response was “2% is better than 0%!” That is a level of positivity I strive for. Even in the face of overwhelming negative news, she found a way to be positive.
So before, I end off. I want to look to the future and list out my new goals. Here we go.
Write one song a month. Fully finished, lyrics, instrumentation, mixing, mastering. Something I can be proud of.
Play “Comptine d’un autre été : L’Après-midi” beautifully on piano by the end of the year.
Exercise everyday and hit 160 pounds by the end of the year.
It’s a short and sweet list, but they are very achievable and not unrealistic.
Thank you. Thank you, reader. These 6 months could not have been done without you, so thank you.
Anyways, that’s it from me! Hope you enjoyed.
Ryan Zheng
Ryzie. You free later today? I like your new name
Congrats on the 6 month mark