this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025

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Self Improvement

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A community which focusses on improving yourself. This can be in many different ways - from improving physical health or appearance, to improving mental health, creating better habits, overcoming addictions, etc.

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Weekly Improvement Thread - Nov 2nd 2025 (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 months ago by moonlake@hexbear.net to c/self_improvement@hexbear.net

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Hello comrades and welcome to the first improvement megathread of November! bonfire It's time to review our progress from October and make some plans for November.

Some discussion ideas:

+ How was your October?

+ Do you have any plans for November?

+ How was your week?

+ Do you have some plans for next week?

Poster caption

"Stand up, rise to your feet, working nation! Endure a little longer! Workers of all countries are rising up and coming to your aid!”

This poster quotes a revolutionary song and notes the first anniversary (1918) of the October Revolution. The date on the poster (November 7) is when the revolution occurred per the Julian Calendar used by Russia at the time. The current Gregorian calendar records the revolution as having been on October 25. Russia changed to the Gregorian after the Soviets took control.

The November Revolution marked the second (and final) phase that terminated the provisional government in Russia. The provisional government was formed after the February Revolution (the first Russian Revolution) when the monarchy was toppled ending Russia's 303 years of under the Romanov Dynasty. Once the provisional government was dissolved, Russia came under the control of Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

Good luck in November! comrade-doggo

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[–] moonlake@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

roll call

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based-department

If anybody else wants to be added to the roll call, just let me know hexbear-specter

[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 1 points 2 months ago

Stickied good luck

[–] Moss@hexbear.net 3 points 2 months ago

Ever since I quit weed, I've felt like I have so much more time in the day, which is ironic because I'm working full time now and I was in college when I was using.

It's been over five months now since I've quit, and the cravings have come back recently. I was undeniably addicted and I never got help, but quitting was easy for me because I was so aware of how destructive it was for me. Now I'm considering whether I could use weed again in a healthier way, now that I'm in a happier place.

I wasn't planning on quitting forever, nor was I planning on coming back to weed. I just knew I had to stop, so I threw out my weed and pipe and grinder, and shut off my access to the drug. Now I'm able to reconsider what my relationship to weed should be.

[–] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago

Did the stereotype and cooka’d da pizza! Made my best one yet. My family is one of those American families that really plays up the ‘Italian’ LARP, and you know you did something right when it’s 100% vegan and it’s approved by your folks.

I think I want to suck it up and try a free course on coursera or some shit to get an idea of what skills are out there that aren’t agonizing for me to learn and do. Given that I have some interest in social sciences (got a social science degree), but want more of a hard science skill. GIS or urban planning or meteorology sounds interesting so I think I’ll swap my regularly scheduled doomscrolling tonight with some basic videos on those three topics (including bioinformatics and game design). I want to report those to my therapist as I want to take therapy actually serious.

[–] knifestealingcrow@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm entering month 11 of something I'm half-jokingly calling "The Radical Reconstruction of the Self", which is way less dramatic than the name sounds. It's more or less just a structured plan to get myself back on my feet and working towards becoming a version of myself I actually enjoy being. In that time I've made so much progress regarding both my physical and mental health (though it hasn't been without any setbacks or struggles) that I feel like I'm nearly ready to move on to phase two. This really excites me, because it feels like (prior to starting the RRS) I had spent years trying and failing to even get to the point I was at six months ago. I can look back on the past year and be genuinely proud of myself and what I've accomplished, which is something I can't say about previous years.

For too long I have been in a protracted struggle with myself and my brainworms. HOWEVER, through the power of unrelenting hope and LOTS of hard work, it is a struggle I intend to win.

[–] moonlake@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hell yeah, that sounds great! What were the main components of this plan? Do you have some advice to share?

[–] knifestealingcrow@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Late to the reply on this, oops. I might go more in-depth and make a post on it after 1 full year of doing it but I pretty much just looked at myself and sorted out some bare-minimum goals to start off:

1: get a new job that I didn't actively dread going to every day 2: Eat at least 2000 calories a day 3: Go outside as often as possible and get some physical activity every day 4: Socialize as often as possible

It's very bare minimum but that's where I was at when I started the whole plan. I really lucked out with number 1, I got a job in a kitchen with a very friendly environment where everyone is constantly being pushed (constructively) to improve. Adopting that kind of mindset had a lot of downstream effects on the rest of the plan, and getting staff meal every day and going on foraging hikes for ingredients meant I was more often than not achieving numbers 2-4 and getting paid for it.

As time went on I would do check-ins whenever I had the chance and update/add new goals. If I was consistently not achieving a goal I'd set I would figure out why and change that goal. If I was constantly succeeding I would take it off of the list of goals and celebrate in some way. The list of goals is much bigger and very different now (and a lot less vague) than the one I started out with. The "Phases" essentially just deal with scope: Phase one is trying to construct a scaffold off of which I can build on later with phase two, and is mainly dealing with improving my physical and mental health directly.

A key part of this that helped me was breaking the sort of "all or nothing" mentality I had before where if I didn't succeed right away I'd convince myself I couldn't do it. I eventually stopped seeing these "failures" as setbacks and instead saw them as opportunities to analyze why I wasn't achieving what I'd set out to achieve. Most of the time it was just a matter of trying again over and over until I didn't have to try anymore.

Also this one's probably slightly cringe but since one of my goals now is "stop caring about being weird/cringe" I'll say it anyway: some of the Volition quotes from Disco Elysium actually make for really great motivators/reminders. The amount of times I've said "stay the course. You'll make it someday" and "you've made it this far, it's just a bit farther now" to myself is quite high

[–] moonlake@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago

Sounds good! I have similar goals, especially your numbers 3 and 4.

I also fully agree with not caring about being cringe. I feel like the younger generations are terrified of being perceived as cringe and it's preventing them from fully expressing themselves. I'm glad that I grew up in a time before the Panopticon of smartphones and social media when you could be as cringe as you wanted.

Anyway, good luck with the next phase of your program! My advice is to keep a daily journal if you aren't already. It's much easier to track progress that way.

[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My confidence was at a low earlier but just sat in my car fighting away flies when I finally chilled out, all those months of study I think I fucking got this. That test on Saturday I'm gonna pass both and tonight and tomorrow I'm gonna go for ace-ing them and become the HVAC tech I wanna be

[–] moonlake@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You got this! Good luck with the test! Based on your regular and consistent updates in the improvement mega, I'm sure you're gonna ace it fidel-salute-big sankara-salute rat-salute

[–] Wmill@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago

Big ty moon lake rat-salute-2 no matter what I'm ready for it

[–] moonlake@hexbear.net 2 points 2 months ago

This October I practiced meditation on 17 days trump-enlightened and went running on 7 days. Don't have big plans for November, just keep up the habits and touch grass with friends as much as possible.

I recently listened to a decent episode on developing a morning routine, check it out