Rebel GQ's LTU4 to LTU5 journal

[Rebel_GQ]

End of Week 1

I am currently on my 3 day break after having completed the first 7 day session. First few nights were tough on sleep; the last couple saw some improvement, though there has not been a night with a complete interrupted sleep. However, it had gotten better as the week progressed. I also felt very tired and lazy during parts of the day.

On Day 5, I had a job interview. The night before that, I attempted to prepare myself for the interview. However, the more I attempted to prepare and research what all is needed and what to say, the more unmotivated I became. I felt it was overwhelming and too much to do. I finally said to myself "screw it, I'm going to bed; I'll just be myself tomorrow, if they end up liking me, then great. If not, then it's not meant to be."

On the way to the interview I felt some anxiety/stress/tension/nervousness. This reached a peak when I was waiting in the lobby for the HR lady to come get me. As soon as she greeted me, all forms of anxiety/stress/tension/nervousness melted away instantly.

I first interviewed with the technical team. In my interviews and social interactions in general, I am quite serious as well as a bit boring. To my surprise, I was naturally cracking jokes during the interview, and there were several times where everyone laughed. It made me feel at ease and made the interview a lot more relaxed for both me and the interviewers. I did not have an answer to some of their technical questions, but at least I felt comfortable and at ease during the whole process.

Immediately after the interview, I then had lunch with the senior director and CIO. Before lunch was over, the CIO offered me the position. (Note, I was previously informed by the technical team that there were other interviews they had to conduct before making their recommendation.) But looks like the CIO liked me enough to just offer it to me on the spot.

I was pretty happy and excited the rest of the week, and am looking forward to what session 2 of LTU4 will manifest.

[findingme]

That's awesome how that turned out! I'm loving reading these experiences with LTU!

[Rebel_GQ]

End of Week 1 - Other observations from LTU4

- When watching movies with tear-jerker scenes (or even mildly at that), my emotions are coming out. My eyes become watery and I start sniffling. It seems like I am living in the moment with whatever the character(s) in the movie are experiencing. I actually hate this and try so hard to fight it (as crying during movies is not a manly thing to do), but it seems to happen every time now. My wife just laughs at me and states "go ahead and cry if you want". I have been of the mentality growing up that guys are not supposed to cry at movies, and I never have, until now.

[Hatman]

End of Week 1 - Other observations from LTU4

- When watching movies with tear-jerker scenes (or even mildly at that), my emotions are coming out. My eyes become watery and I start sniffling. It seems like I am living in the moment with whatever the character(s) in the movie are experiencing. I actually hate this and try so hard to fight it (as crying during movies is not a manly thing to do), but it seems to happen every time now. My wife just laughs at me and states "go ahead and cry if you want". I have been of the mentality growing up that guys are not supposed to cry at movies, and I never have, until now.

Same thing with me, except that I am running USLM. Both happy moments and sad moments make me feel like I'm about to cry. My taste in movies has also changed. And you know what? I'm fine with it lol. Maybe it's time for you to outgrow this mentality as well?

[Shannon]

This bullshit about "crying is not a manly thing to do" is just that - bullshit. Male or female, child or adult, if you are human you have emotions, and those emotions sometimes need to purge. Crying is therefore a normal, healthy thing for anyone to do. It's not always fun, but it is good to purge the ol' emotions once in a while.

The "manly thing" to do is not always the "reasonable thing" to do. Like these guys who are convinced that "no pain, no gain". To "be manly, I must suffer and take it with a grin, because that means I'm tough and a REAL man. REAL men don't cry, because that's a sign of weakness."

Real men cry when they need to, because it's a sign of strength to be true to yourself and your own emotional needs, especially in the face of social bullshit and sexist crap like "REAL men don't cry!" What, you're not human? You've been sold a bill of goods there buddy.

[Paul1131]

End of Week 1 - Other observations from LTU4

- When watching movies with tear-jerker scenes (or even mildly at that), my emotions are coming out. My eyes become watery and I start sniffling. It seems like I am living in the moment with whatever the character(s) in the movie are experiencing. I actually hate this and try so hard to fight it (as crying during movies is not a manly thing to do), but it seems to happen every time now. My wife just laughs at me and states "go ahead and cry if you want". I have been of the mentality growing up that guys are not supposed to cry at movies, and I never have, until now.

We can’t all be stone faced stoics ALL the time. I’m that way by nature, but every once in awhile something hits me. I’ve had kind of a struggle being ok with it.

[Broski]

End of Week 1 - Other observations from LTU4

- When watching movies with tear-jerker scenes (or even mildly at that), my emotions are coming out. My eyes become watery and I start sniffling. It seems like I am living in the moment with whatever the character(s) in the movie are experiencing. I actually hate this and try so hard to fight it (as crying during movies is not a manly thing to do), but it seems to happen every time now. My wife just laughs at me and states "go ahead and cry if you want". I have been of the mentality growing up that guys are not supposed to cry at movies, and I never have, until now.

I experienced this same exact thing two nights ago...I cant remember the last time i got emotional during a move and I was legit crying a bit during a show I was watching where one of the main characters died

[Rebel_GQ]

End of Week 2

Overall past week was "light". Relaxed, easy going, little stress and even lazy. It is still taking me around 1.5 to 2 hours to fall asleep, and there are times I wake up in the middle of the night but at least I can fall back to sleep easily. When I do sleep, it's always deep and restful. This may explain why during the day I feel tired and low energy.

Some observations from this past week:

-I seem to be more attractive in my wife's eyes. Like when we first met and started dating, that look she had where she would stargaze deep in my eyes and tell me how handsome I look. She is staring at me and smiling at me a lot more.

-I did a lot of reminiscing and reflecting of my high school and college years. I even had a couple of dreams of my best friend in high school whom I had lost touch with over the years and learned that he passed away a few years ago. In the dreams, we were our younger selves, hanging out just like old times. I often wondered if we had the latest technology of today's IML back in my day, how my life would have been any different if I used subs back then. Very nostalgic and reflective mood this past week.

-Whenever I was out & about at crowded venues, there was always an available parking space right near the entrance. Almost like the universe always reserved a spot for me to park. This was noticeable in USLM3, but was most obvious this past week. Same thing at fast-food restaurants and grocery stores; though there was always a considerable crowd, likewise there was always an open register or open lane where I did not have to wait in any line at all.

-I received my job offer letter from (from my earlier post). I requested an extra week vacation from the standard they give, as well as more salary. It was agreed upon with no negotiation and no questions asked.

-I made a list of 8 goals I hope to achieve with LTU and will read them every time I listen to it. I had meant to do this while on USLM3, but just did it now. The goals are mostly related to being debt free, financial prosperity, etc.

I start my next 3-day break tomorrow, and I will hop on LTU 5.0 after this break. The 6 loops (7 hours) have been working fine for me. I wonder if the efficiency of the new Magnus Engine will mean less listening time.

[Shannon]

Yesterday I was going to the Pirate Festival (Arrrr, matey!) and I realized most of the way there that I had misunderstood the description GF had given of where it was. I realized that had I known where it was, I would have parked a half mile back and walked in. I also realized there would be no way to turn around and go back, that I was either going to go into the parking lot across the street from the festival, or drive half a mile further, park, and then walk over the bridge and back to the festival.

Normally I wouldn't even try to go into the parking lot across the street, because it was packed. But for some reason I did, and I had someone pull out and open up a spot for me within 5 seconds, literally.

[Rebel_GQ]

Yesterday I was going to the Pirate Festival (Arrrr, matey!) and I realized most of the way there that I had misunderstood the description GF had given of where it was. I realized that had I known where it was, I would have parked a half mile back and walked in. I also realized there would be no way to turn around and go back, that I was either going to go into the parking lot across the street from the festival, or drive half a mile further, park, and then walk over the bridge and back to the festival.g

Normally I wouldn't even try to go into the parking lot across the street, because it was packed. But for some reason I did, and I had someone pull out and open up a spot for me within 5 seconds, literally.

That's awesome. So far for me, out of all the modules from LTU4, I am getting the most results from USLM3. Or perhaps, the other modules that focus more on "internal" stuff, I am not noticing as much.

The module with the least results for me thus far is UMOP3; I am still lazy and procrastinate but the good news is, whenever I initiate a task, it goes through to completion and with relative ease. Looking forward to ME4 strengthening up the UMOP portion. But I must say, I am thoroughly liking LTU4. If this will be the only multi-module sub, I see no reason to switch and will probably stick with this one for the longest time until 6G version comes out.

[Rebel_GQ]

End of Week 19

Been awhile since I posted.  First, my condolences to Shannon for his loss and the things he is currently going through. Hang in there, Shannon.  Things can only get better from here.  I know you will manage to get through this.  Here's to having better days ahead.

So I have now reached the end of Week 19 on LTU (including from the time I started on LTU4), making it just short of 5 months.  This is the longest I've run a sub.  I've been doing 5 days on / 2 days off on Masked Ocean Surf.  The 5 on are Sun-Thurs nights (to cover my M-F work week), and then I take the weekends off.

Observations:

• Sleep issues that were experienced at the very beginning are now non-existent.  I'm sleeping really well and feel very rested upon waking.
  

• Overall, I feel a lot happier, calmer, and more at peace and more laid back with my life and the things I'm going through.  Last year was a down year in several aspects of my life; I felt like I hit rock bottom the tail end of last year.  But things have slowly gone upwards since, and so far I'm having a really good year.
  

• Positive people from my past has come back into my life.  Old friendships and past coworkers.
  

• Greater appreciation for 80's music.  I was a kid growing up in the 80's, and back then I liked the music because it sounded good and made me feel good, despite not really knowing the majority of the lyrics of each song.  Listening to these same songs now, and actually googling the lyrics, makes me appreciate the song even more, and I had been doing a lot of reflecting of my childhood years.
  

• Confidence and coolness.  The same way I felt during ASC run. 
  

• Temptation to try out another sub.  Started happening the last 2-3 weeks.  I recall reading somewhere that about the 3 month time frame, the subconscious may start getting tired and there may be an urge to move onto something new.  I'm trying to fight that urge as I want to see what LTU can do for me long term, not to mention the financial investment I made into this that I owe myself to run it for significantly more than 3 months.  Honestly, I think what triggered it was someone on this forum having great success with DMSI after 3 months of LTU.  Not saying I want to run DMSI specifically, but am curious how I will do on other subs (like BASE or BAMM) after a good run of LTU.  I will keep going on LTU though.
  

• Desire to improve physical self image.  I've been hitting the gym for the past several months.  I've been trying to eat right (though this has been inconsistent), as well as experimenting with workout supplements that fall in the category of borderline illegal to build muscle quickly.  I'm feeling really good though and I've lost 16 lbs from when I was at a low point October of last year.  I've also been seeing a dermatologist for micro-needling sessions to remove all the built-up acne scars on my face.  I want to look good and feel good, look young and feel young.
  

[Rebel_GQ]

Someone advise to me how I can change the title of my thread to make it "LTU5"

[Rebel_GQ]

This weekend, USLM aspect of LTU was evident at work, once again. Yesterday, when I took my car to the dealership for 55k mile service, I was given a large discount without even asking. Today, I had lunch at a sit down restaurant with my family, and we ordered the exact same thing as last week, but the bill was $17 cheaper today for whatever reason.

USLM is also evident at my workplace. I always find a solution to a problem and things get done. Sometimes, the solution does not come as quickly as I like (sometimes in a couple weeks), but I am always confident now that a solution will come; it's just a matter of time.

[Rebel_GQ]

Someone advise to me how I can change the title of my thread to make it "LTU5"

Disregard.  Looks like USLM led me just now to figure it out, LOL