RJ Rambles about shifting schedules

Hey everybody! 

This last week has been pretty good for me. Aside from work, which I got quite a bit done, I went on two nice hikes, one in a place that I'd never been before. We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park here in Texas. Spent a day there, hiking trails and checking out the dinosaur footprints. We had a lot of fun and it did a lot for my mental health. I've been having a great week since then. Here's some pics that I took: 

We did that on Tuesday. Then on Thursday, we went to another park that was more local and hiked a trail there that we'd never done before as well. It wasn't as picturesque as this one, but was still really fun. 

Both of those hikes, we did in the morning. For Dinosaur Valley, I took the full day off of work, but for the other trail, I came back home and spent several hours focused on the game in the evening, which worked out okay. 

I've learned that if I want to do something, I need to do it first thing in the morning or it's not going to get done. I've been wanting to go on more hikes, but by the time I finish working at like 3/4pm, I just don't feel like hiking all that much, and I don't quite have enough time to do it before the sun sets. 

At the end of last year, I tried to shift my schedule around where I would get up at 5/6am and work until noon and then go on hikes in the afternoon. That didn't really work out for me, because I have a very hard time going to sleep early and getting up early. 

So now I'm going to try something different. I'm going to take the mornings off to go hike or go to the gym (I'm joining a gym this week). Then I'm going to work more in the afternoon and evenings. Usually in the evenings, I'm just hanging out with my wife, watching TV or something. I'm going to have to cut some of that out, but I think we both enjoy the hikes more than the TV at this point anyway. 

So now, I'm trying to go on two or three hikes a week, depending on the weather. One of those hikes each week, I plan on taking the entire day off for and making it a little longer. And I'm also going to the gym three times a week. I'm going to be talking to a personal trainer soon as well, to hopefully form a routine that will help me lose a little weight and build more muscle. I want to be able to do harder, more difficult hikes. At the moment, I'm able to do like 6/7 mile hikes okay, but I want to be able to go longer. 

It's so hard to fit everything into a single day. I don't know how the people who have to commute to their job do it. It's crazy how much people are expected to do. I know I have it easy, getting to work from home on a job that is not physically straining and that I have fun doing. 

Anyway, that's where my thoughts are right now. My priorities are pretty focused on personal growth and exercise. I've wanted to get more in shape for like two years, and with the hiking over the last year or so, I really have. But I want more. I want to be strong and fit so that I can go more places and do more things. 

Back to work for me. Hope you all have an amazing week! Love ya!