Hello all, how have you been. I'm happy to see this place hasn't been banned yet, even if it seems slower than it used to be.
I think my last post was 2-3 years ago when I gave a little update on how my journey into self-improvement had been going. I figured it's way past time to give another one. Hopefully someone gets a little boost in motivation from this.
For anyone interested, I joined ConPro about when it migrated here from reddit, although I was never really all that active. I doubt even the old users that are still around remember me. This place inspired me to reevaluate most of my life and gave me the push I needed to start actively working on getting better at it.
I started working out a lot more actively. I can confidently say I'm now in the best shape I've been since I was 18. I regularly go out hiking and mountain climbing with people in their early 20s (I'm in my 30s) and I'm consistently one of the last ones going.
I learned a lot of woodland and bushcraft skills. I go camping by myself for days at a time. I picked up a bit of hunting and I'm currently working on navigating off the landscape with minimal tools and supplies. It's been huge fun, I highly recommend it! Still haven't picked up gardening. It brings me no joy and I've the privilege of having access to quality home grown food I can purchase (including meat). Maybe some day.
I also started learning basic skills like cooking (I make 95% of everything I eat), mechanical (I've not called a handyman for anything for a couple of years now) and electronic repair (phone and computer) and am currently wading through learning how to fix serious issues on my own car. I just finished rebuilding an entire VW with a couple of friends.
I also got into basic programming, image and video editing. I'm by no means great at it but I know the basics. I'm planning on focusing more on coding at some point in the coming year since it'll be useful for work and I only really know the basics of a couple of languages (HTML, Java, Python). I really don't enjoy it very much, though. Definitely not for me. Photo and video editing, on the other hand, is quite fun and I've been enjoying it immensely. I even set up a YT channel at one point to get feedback on my video edits, although I've deleted it since then.
I learned how to draw pretty decently and hopefully soon I'll have time to start learning an instrument properly. I'm actually completely talent-less when it comes to any of the fine arts, so this is extremely slow going but an hour or two every other day gets visible results.
I started trying to build up my own business in the field I've always wanted to work in. That failed. Miserably. So I had to go back to working my old job last year which pays well but is incredibly boring to me. At least it gave me a lot more free time to work on things. I've not given up, though. I'm currently gearing up for another try, hopefully with the experience I got the first time around I'll be able to do it better this time. I'm not fucking quitting.
On a personal level, having you lot challenging most of my ideas and worldview made me go back over pretty much every single thing I believe and support, reevaluate it and actually inform myself on the issue. I haven't changed my views that much (although I did skew quite a bit towards what normies consider far right and some libertarian views) and I still don't agree with everything most of ConPro believes but I can confidently say most of my opinions are now informed and logical, rather than basic and emotional. I might still be wrong about some of them, since I'm not God and don't have all the information but such is life. Thanks for that!
That being said, changing that drastically made a lot of people around me uncomfortable and I've lost quite a few relationships I had. It also strained most of the ones I still have quite significantly but I think they came out for the better in the end. It also showed me exactly who I can count on when things get serious which is priceless. I also got to "redpill" (not a fan of that term) a few of my friends and family, so I consider it well worth it. That being said, whoever claims people like change is absolutely fucking lying! Turns out that I can count the people I know who like change on one hand and still have some fingers left over. Keep that in mind.
Anyways, overall I feel better physically, mentally and emotionally than I ever have. Most of my efforts have been directed towards improving in the field I want to succeed in professionally but I've managed to get a decent spread of other skills going. I'm not the happiest I've ever been, that particular peak was when I was a clueless teen who didn't care for anything serious, but I am content with my life and the direction it's going in. The world might be going to shit but I'm not, at least not knowingly.
That's about it. I can go into greater detail if anyone is interested, these are just a few of the highlights. Turns out, you can actually pack a lot of living in a year (or three) if you're not glued to useless things like the TV or games.
On ConPro, like I mentioned, I'm glad you lot are still around (mostly). I'm a bit sad I only recognize a few of the usernames on the current threads but hopefully everyone who left did so for the right reasons. I'll be around for a few days to answer any questions or anything and to get a feel for how the site is doing but I'm probably going to focus on real life again come the new year.
To all the Kings here:
Live well, never falter, never quit! If I can do this shit, so can you!
P. S. I get that things are shit in many ways but that's no excuse to forget the self-improvement posts, the gardenposting, the shitting on blind consooming and, most importantly, the goatposting. WHERE'S THE FUCKING GOATPOSTING?
