Journaled on Friday, 17th of October 2025 | Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 26 degrees, warm, sunny and blue skies.
It’s Friday, the end of the week, usually a lighter day for work and classes.
Fewer classes mean I can focus on other projects: the blog, the YouTube channel, video work, uploads, or things around the home. After an early class, with nothing else until midday, I had time for housework and exercise.
I sweep the flat almost every day and keep everything in its place, but by midweek my duffel bag was already stuffed with dirty laundry, so I took it down to the laundrette in the condominium.
There are only two washers and dryers, and luckily the machines were free on Friday morning. Working from home means I don’t go through many clothes, so I don’t need a fresh shirt, jeans or shorts every day.
It sounds terrible, but even in Rio, a tropical city that gets very hot in summer, I can wear the same shirt and shorts for two or three days.
There are a few reasons for that. One is the air conditioning, which I only switch on in extreme heat. The flat stays fairly cool on its own, and there’s almost always a breeze, which helps.
Another is what I wear for work. When I’m teaching remotely, I usually wear just a black UV shirt and underwear, since the students only see me from the chest up. It’s a bit like a news presenter behind a desk: a suit and tie on camera, shorts or nothing at all underneath.
And when I’m writing a blog post or editing a video, I skip the shirt altogether, just underwear, completely at ease. Since COVID, working remotely has meant wearing very few clothes, or changing them far less often.
The laundrette was empty, so I loaded in a duffel bag’s worth of clothes, not a huge load. The wash takes 35 minutes, then I move the wet clothes to the dryer stacked on top.
Drying takes longer: 45 minutes, so 75 minutes total, an hour and 15 minutes of idle time. I use that time to journal. Usually I manage two entries, and today I did, which made me quite proud.
Once I start an entry, I don’t stop. My thoughts, good or bad, flow from my mind, down my arm, through the pen and onto the paper. I always finish what I start, and that’s something I’m proud of.
It’s a kind of promise to myself, and a promise you make to yourself still has to be kept. Break enough of those, and your self-esteem and self-confidence slowly erode.
Sometimes I struggle to get started. I think there’s a bit of self-sabotage in that. But once I begin and the motor is running, I don’t stop for anybody, not even myself, until it’s done.
I think it’s a mindset that applies to so many things in life.
A boring book you’ve started is still a book you have to finish. A project can be easy to begin, but having the drive, focus, discipline and even the honour to finish it is far harder, and plenty of people give up along the way.
It once took me five years to sell a boat project, but I never gave up. I believed in it, and I always felt that giving up once would make it too easy to give up again.
The rest of the day was a few classes and some quiet time alone.
Be kind and be happy. If you can’t be happy, still be kind, but never be naïve.
In bed by 10 p.m.
Thank you
Thank you for reading. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments.
Richard
