Last week, I stumbled upon an image online that stopped me in my tracks. This simple visual sparked a train of thought that I could not shake for days. What was so captivating about it? Take a look:
Small things we change today can significantly impact our lives tomorrow. This idea resonates deeply, especially when it comes to health and wellness.
The Compound Effect of Consistency
You cannot just go to the one 5-hour gym session and get out of the gym as the fittest and healthiest, only small steps and consistency add up. Doing a 10-minute morning exercise routine could have saved me from lower back pain and the ongoing treatment.
My Wake-Up Call
I never had a sedentary lifestyle, it was always some sports, moving around, and long walks with headphones on, but last 2-3 years when I started running an agency, I had to take way more hours in sedentary mode, and the results were bad: I have damaged intervertebral discs and got a radiculitis... One month ago I could not sit for more than 20 minutes and then sharp pain started, now things are way better, but it took me around 1,5 months of therapy (not talking about how much money I spent, we all know time is the ultimate currency), while this could have been prevented in the first place.
Beyond Physical Health
This principle extends beyond just physical health. Think about all the things you (and I) wanted to do but dropped. Heres my list of small changes that could have led to a better, healthier, happier life:
- Switching eating habits
- Writing blogs daily for 20-30 minutes
- Morning lower back exercises
- Walking 8k steps daily
- Taking mom out for dinner weekly
The list goes on. While we can't change the past, we can start making these small changes today. Your future self will thank you.
🖼️ Life Lately
💻 Work: CRO & FanFuel
June & July have been pretty intense in terms of workload, we have onboarded a new amazing client at InsightWhale in May and now the process paces up. In this project, we are testing extensively and have one of the best communication and workload structures, the client is not pushy and yet always shares ideas & things to consider for CRO and development activities. I like the process so far, we already have some winners in tests and this is just the beginning, I am confident in the coming months this store will grow, and its revenue will go higher.
With FanFuel things are a bit complicated. Due to the summer season or lack of interest, we got only 4 beta testers instead of the 8 we had while I finished user interviews. The best start for a Shopify App is to get installs and good reviews, say 10 in the first weeks, but since we cannot do that, I was postponing the launch date and trying to find new first users. I ended up getting 2 new stores to try out FanFuel, but it is all now tied to our QA expert getting back next week, so we can launch properly and if any bugs come out fix them quickly. Anyway, next week is the time, I don't want to wait anymore, it makes no sense.
⚒️ My health & wellbeing
Since the end of June, I started having severe and sharp lower back pain when I sit for more than 20-30 minutes, as I wrote at the beginning of this post. At a certain point, I was barely able to walk after work sprints. My friends recommended I visit a doctor, who specializes in back pain treatment and so far we have had great results, we started and are continuing with physiotherapy, and some meds too, while now I also do physical therapy. I think we are somewhere halfway through it, but I feel way better, especially, after doing exercises to strengthen back muscles. But again...if I paid more attention to my lower back for the past 2-3 years, just doing a 10-minute morning exercise, I would have to spend so much time, energy, and money on recovery. Treat your body & mind right, burning yourself for some delusional reasons is not worth it.
🎾 10S
I started playing and training tennis last year when my friend Santiago gifted me a new racquet, dampener, and other gear, I fell in love with this sport. After a couple of sessions, we dropped, I don`t remember the reason, but it was all boiled down to us not able to book a court, Sanchez was not into training us, cause he wanted to play with someone who is higher level and we just forgot about it, but...
In June Sano sent me a link to a tennis school near my house and I went there for my first personal training session and that`s where it all kicked off. First of all, because of amazing coach Luka, he is an easy-going, positive person, who loves tennis and shares this love with his students. Now I am going to group classes twice a week, have a personal session once a week, and also play with friends 1-2 times per week. I do not have any specific goals here, just want to improve and play because I like the game, love its aesthetics, and that you need to be athletic and play smart - ideal combo for me.
Need footwork, need footwork
🎵Music
Fortepiano lessons are on pause now, because I move a lot these days and also have lower back procedures going on, which take a lot of time. Hopefully, by the end of August, I will be back exploring chords and playing the keys, btw I am currently playing simple melodies we started with my tutor, doing it at home.
In September I will also be starting house music production lessons, it is one of my biggest dreams, to create a track from scratch, but a track that I will like and listen myself. Excited to get this going, my SoundCloud journey is going soooo well now, the latest episode got more than 250 listens. When I see geography, it somewhat gives me goosebumps, people from Africa, some French cities, my hometown Tbilisi, and many other places listen to music I mix, that`s just incredible, I hope to expand the momentum. A new episode will come out soon and then there will be some collab episodes, first one will be with my friend who taught me how to mix music, this gonna be ICONIC.
You can check the latest mix here
All in all, the first two summer months are smooth&sweet and yet very active on the work side, also combined with my other hobbies and, of course, lower back rehabilitation. The weather in Tbilisi is fine as always, it is sunny every day, I walk a lot and enjoy the moment, life is gooood from all angles.
Just random
This weekend, I am flying for Keinemusik in Istanbul, then getting back to launch FanFuel and continue agency work, and then my birthday coming up.
August always was, is, and will be an awesome month.
Thanks for reaching this far and reading my writings! I hope the main idea of this post got you to think about small changes that will make your lives better. If you like my content, don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a post.
Instagram:
Telegram: @only1genqa
LinkedIn - Link
or
Email me at: qarchava.g.o@gmail.com
Wishing you all a nice weekend ahead! Be good to yourself 😉