Cycle 20’s Dream and Flow

Since Cycle 16, the only goal of each cycle has been refining my Flow. That was also true this cycle. I based the Cycle 20 Flow on the Flow document from that time. I also added two things. A daily “108 Reset” habit, which was supposed to be time I set aside each day to get ready for the Cycle 20-21 reset period, because I was so far behind updating it. The other thing was a “Dream” habit, or time I would set aside each day to work on my Dream, which, at the time, was a fuzzy idea of creating an AI+English class.

I also added fasting and learning to cook and cooking once a week as bonus goals.

Cycle 20’s Story

I crushed my Flow. The “108 Reset” and “Dream” concepts initially seemed somewhat fuzzy because I hadn’t defined them clearly enough. Eventually, “Dream” became really clear. So clear that I wrote an AI and English course, which I taught remotely over the summer. As I approached the 108-day reflection period, “108 Reset” became clearer because I had a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish before it was time to reflect. Both ended up being wins. Fasting and cooking ultimately proved to be huge wins. It started with fasting for 20 hours a day, which eventually sparked my interest in the one-meal-a-day (OMAD) approach. These two things ended up overlapping because if I’m only eating once a day, it needs to be really healthy, and the best way to eat really healthy is by cooking.

Cycle 20 has been, by far, the best cycle I’ve experienced. It started strong and ended stronger. That’s never happened. I also usually stop checking in with people at the end of the 108 days, but this time I decided to keep the check-ins going throughout the reset period and switch the focus to updates about reflecting and planning.

Cycle 21’s Dream and Flow

The focus of this cycle is therapy. I injured my hip four years ago, and healing it has been at the top of my list, but I’ve never been in a good headspace to do it. The last cycle finally got me into that headspace. I’ve already started physical therapy, and have homework to complete over the next month. The Dream here is to keep doing the homework and going to my appointments.

I thought the other focus of the next 108 days was going to be refining Flowism and Way of the 108. That and continuing to refine my personal Flow. Then a peculiar thing happened when I was testing my new email account. I decided to send a test message from miltownkid. Instead of writing “test,” I wrote a whole ass message. Then, instead of looking at the message and saying, “Yes, this is working,” I wrote another whole ass message back to myself… Uh oh… what’s this?

These exchanges prompted me to decide to focus on working through whatever that was instead of working on Flowism. It seems like there was still some internal work to be done. Well… I knew that, but… more work to do NOW! That sent me on a mission to figure out the best way to do that. After a lot of questions and back-and-forth with ChatGPT and Gemini (mostly Gemini), I landed on Internal Family Systems. The basic premise of that style of therapy is that all people are composed of multiple parts, each with a specific role. In the middle of all of this, there is supposedly a chill ass, curious ass, compassionate ass, confident ass, clear ass, courageous ass, creative ass, connected ass Self ready to lead the squad of parts . Anyhow, I made a whole 6-document ass plan for myself for the next cycle (and beyond!)

The Dream for this cycle is a combination of physical therapy and mental therapy. A big part of the mental plan is finalizing all of the bipolar management systems and protocols that are half done.

The Flow is doing my exercises every day. Physical therapy means actual exercises as prescribed by the doctor. Mental therapy means reflecting on the IFS-themed prompts I created with Dr. Gemini… lol Oh! I also ran into an IFS Chatbot that I’m experimenting with as well. I have a DBT workbook and some other books I’m purchasing. It’s all in the 6-page document. :)

Final Thought

I’ve had cycles where I was trying to accomplish something and cycles where I was focused on refining habits, but never two things at the same time. This cycle is unique in that I’m entering it with a strong foundation of habits and routines to build new ones on top of. I didn’t explicitly mention the AI and English plans, but there are some things brewing in the back of my mind. I suppose I’d be OK if there wasn’t any more movement there, as long as I’m making my mind and body stronger and more resilient. Ha… some reflecting is happening real-time at the end here…

I want to live, well, off of Flowism and The 108 (some more real-time reflecting… it looks like I’m going to call Way of the 108, just The 108 now). When I came up with the idea for AI and English, I was in a more depressed state. I wanted to come up with a Dream, a goal of some kind, using AI because I was using it so much, but mostly just for entertainment. That worked. I had an idea, pitched it, and executed it. During the idea phase, I thought I could become an expert in AI and ESL. I am on a path where I can absolutely do that but… does that just take time and energy away from what I really want to do? Can I do both? Right now, I don’t know, but I will keep finding interesting ways to use AI for teaching English. I just don’t know if I want to lean into it. I suppose I can add that to the Dream for this 108. Getting clarity about how that Dream would, or would not, support my bigger Dream of living and spreading Flowism full-time.

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