Monthly recap : April 2021

Day 30/30

Aah, it’s the end of April and with it ends my least productive month. I haven’t even reached close to completing any of my goals for this month and that’s OKAY. This month has been tumultuous with the second wave of covid hitting India, constant rise in covid cases, my closed ones getting infected and hospitalized thus causing us trying to battle anxiety and fear every single day. It has been a hell of a month. And I’m glad it’s over.

Although it shouldn’t be the case but I feel motivated by the start of a new month. It feels fresh with new possibilities and hope. A fresh new start to my goals, it’s like hitting the reset button and starting afresh. And I need this refresh more than ever this month.

I’ve planned a lot of things for May in my head. Will write it down in my journal tonight. But I’ll refrain from making huge commitments here. I really want to stick by all my plans this month. The most important aspect surrounding all of my goals for May is developing mental strength and inner happiness. What I’ll be doing differently to make sure I stick to my plans is to track my time (every tiny detail for at least a month) so that I’m aware of how well (read horribly) I use it. I’m pretty excited for May.

Mental health

• Meditated for 16/30 days. No excuses, no genuine reasons. I was lazy on some days, anxious on others but in general not disciplined enough to follow my routine
• Journaled/documented my day for 0 days. Nil, absolutely none!
• Practiced gratitude journaling for 0 days. No where to hide!

Personal Growth

This section is for a new skill or talent that I’ve acquired in this month, tried a new activity or thing that has pushed me out of my comfort zone.

• I gave a job interview that was pretty tough. I’m glad I ventured out of my comfort zone and faced my fear. It was a good experience!

Workouts

• 1 long run in this month. 13 kms on my birthday
• HIIT workouts twice a week during the weekdays (ranging from 20 to 30 mins). Longest workout streak of 5 days last week.

Education

• Zero progress with CFA level 1 curriculum.
• Zero online courses completed in March

Entertainment

• Completed reading 0 books 
• Watched 2 amazing movies this month that I couldn’t stop raving about. Bollywood movies Paglait and Ludo are an absolute must watch.

May, let’s get it!!!!

Quest to be best

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Day 14/30

I have been following the journey of a fitness influencer on Instagram and it makes me wonder if such people do exist in real life. She seems to be living a perfect life especially when it comes to leading a productive lifestyle. She was quiet overweight when she decided to take things into her own hands by starting her fitness journey. It’s been 4 years that she has been following it diligently and I’m in awe of her. She strives hard everyday to be the best version of herself. It has only been 2.5 years for me yet I’ve fumbled way too many times.

I don’t feel productive whenever I have issues with my mental health. I feel lethargic, lazy and end up whiling away my time doing nothing. This wonder woman works on her goals, ever day with the same determination she had when she started. This gives me hope that we can be consistent in our life. We just need to fight and win against the demons in our mind.

Working on things that don’t provide instant gratification can drain all of our energy. That’s the reason we fall off the wagon more often than we can imagine. We seek immediate reward always. Training the mind to delay gratification is the first and biggest step towards success. Finding a strong purpose will help you stick by your goals.

All things set aside, this wonder woman has inspired me work on myself, truly and faithfully. No excuses, no escapes, sheer hard work to become the best version of myself.

If any of you are intrigued by her story, please read her article below, it’s beyond inspirational.

https://iwillgetlean.medium.com/my-beginner-mindset-a77b02bcf4af

I have a strong desire to know myself in my best version. On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is my best version, I feel like I’m on 2 right now. The journey from 2 to 10 won’t be easy at all but the extremely fulfilling. I want to give it a shot. I did embark on this journey 2.5 years back but I’ve not been supremely focused and consistent about it. It’s high time I do that.

My ‘quest to be best’ begins right now!

Curtain call

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

-George Eliot

As this extraordinary year 2020 draws to an end, I am reminded of the uncertainties as well as opportunities showered on us this year. The other day, my colleague called 2020, “a year of self discovery” and I couldn’t agree more. While I am aware of the pain and turbulence caused by this year, I might be one of the few people who is extremely thankful for the existence of 2020.

Before Covid-19 hit my country and a nationwide lockdown was announced in India, my life was pretty much the same. I woke up every weekday, squeezed myself in a local train, spent my time doing work that I absolutely despised in office, came back home, wasted my time on the internet and repeat. The only thing I looked forward to during those times were my runs and any impending running events that I registered myself to. The lockdown brought with it a halt in the mundane daily routine and blessed me with a lot of time on hand. I had never spent such a long time at home before that. Ever since I was in school, I have been running hither and thither throughout the day, each day, for some work or the other. This year, in 2020, I spent close to 3 months at home, with my family, with my thoughts, doing nothing, relaxing and rejuvenating. It was blissful.

I was depressed, disoriented, lacked passion and purpose in my life before the Covid-19 lockdown. The lockdown made me realize the importance of my existence and all the amazing blessings I have in my life. I try my level best not to take my life for granted. I try to find happiness in the small things that make up life. I try to give my 100% in everything I do in life now. This is how 2020 has helped evolve my thoughts and actions. I am eternally grateful for this year as it gave me the much needed break that I had been desperately seeking ever since I started working.

I have planned to blog every single day till 31st December to document my emotions till the end of the most special year of my life. I want to usher in the new year with a clear mind, positivity and unending self love. I aim to create a wish list for the next year, a detailed one, with a rock solid will to achieve every single goal I set for myself going ahead. I want to transform into the person my childhood self would be proud off. I am proud of myself now but I truly wish to challenge my skills, willpower and determination to become the best version of myself. LET’S DO THIS!

My fickle mind

#79/100

“The most powerful control we can ever attain, is to be in control of ourselves.” 

–Chris Page

My weekends are turning out to be the most unproductive days of my life at the moment. There are a 100 things I wish do during the weekend and I wish to do all those things at the same time. Yesterday I sat down to watch a YouTube video, it was a really engrossing video about the “neuroscience of love”. The video had a neurologist explaining what happens in the brain when a person is in love. 5 minutes into the video, my eyes fell on an unread book besides me and I somehow desperately wanted to start reading the book. I picked up the book, went through a page when my phone beeped, it was a comment on my instagram post. I ended up spending almost 30 minutes scrolling through random feeds on instagram right after that. I hope you get the idea by now, my mind is a like a kid in a candy store during the weekends. It wants to do everything at once.

This reminds me of my childhood. I’ve always been a day dreamer. My primary school teacher had the same complaint about me during the parent teacher’s meet, she mostly found me gazing at the sky outside the window in the middle of a lecture. I’ve consistently found it difficult to concentrate on one thing for a long time.

I still haven’t found a way out to deal with my hyperactive mind. It might be because I’m yet to work on myself to get past this limitation thrown by my mind. I guess it’s high time I take up the challenge to control my attention deficiency and use it fruitfully to get my work done!

I tried researching on the best ways to counteract lack of focus (I am not calling it Attention Deficit Disorder/ Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder yet because I haven’t been diagnosed by a certified psychologist but most of my symptoms point right at it). I’m planning to consistently try out these techniques for 90 days starting tomorrow (I’ve never been able to form a habit in 21 days) and post my experience about it after the end of this experiment (January 9th, 2021).

As per the internet, YouTube videos and TedX speeches by people diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, below listed techniques have helped them immensely to make ADD/ADHD their superpower :-

• Nutrition : Eat wholesome organic food and drink more water. Quitting food that drains our energy and makes us feel hazy. (Sugar, processed food, junk etc)
• Sweat everyday : Workout everyday, even if it’s just for 10 mins.
• 8 hrs of sleep everyday
• Morning routine : Meditation + Gratitude journaling + Workout
• 30 mins POMODORO : Break your to-do list into smaller tasks, set up a timer for 25 mins, work non-stop for 25 mins against the timer, take a 5 min break
• Music : Use music as a backdrop to avoid any background distraction while you work
• Block Time : Schedule time for each activity during the day. Set up a to-do list for the next day and review it by the end of the day.

Hope to see a positive change in my life (possibly a transformation) by the end of my experiment.

Start your day right

#50/100

“Inaction only makes a task more daunting in your eye. Act quickly, before you overthink, get anxious or give up.”

― Avina Celeste

Clearly I’m not an expert who can advise you on how to get your work done and be productive in life. I have dealt with chronic procrastination before. I still can be quiet an annoying procrastinator and terribly lazy at times. Over the years, I have come across few tricks that have worked well for me to complete my tasks well before time and get a good night’s sleep knowing that I have been productive today.

Although I have a good sleep schedule, I can’t avoid negative thoughts on those nights where I feel I have been unproductive throughout the day. This has happened with me almost all my life. When I was a student, I loved making schedules and timetables to study. But I never understood why I was always unable to stick to those timetables. I know now that it was my anxiety acting up and building unnecessary stress and fear in me to work on my tasks. I wish I had this realization back in the days. It would have definitely help me make better use of my time.

Well, it’s better late than never. I have picked up few techniques from my experiences that help get my work done, at least in most cases. I’m still the same person with a better ability to fight the evils of anxiety, fear and laziness.

The thing that works best for me is preparing a ‘to-do list’. Yes, I still get excited while preparing schedules. Preparing a to-do list helps me organize my tasks on a sheet of paper (you can use any method) so that I have a fair idea of tasks on hand (than leave it to the mercy of my unpredictable memory). I really wish to jot down a to-do list every night for the next day to be mentally prepared for each new day. Now this is something I really need to push myself to do. Next up, start before you can think. Yes, you have your to-do list in place which gives you an idea of the work you have to do during the day, pick one task (possibly the most difficult one) and start right away. You can spend some time on thinking of ways to get it done in the best possible manner but I tend to slag around and waste my time when I do this. On most weekends, starting from Saturday, I used to wake up late and then sleep some more till I came back to my senses at the end of Sunday. My weekends started getting more productive once I created a early morning running schedule and forced myself to stick to it each time. Once I got the most difficult thing done first thing in the morning on a weekend, the rest of the day just passed by blissfully. I am a morning person, I like to get to work first thing in the morning as those are my most productive hours. For night owls, I suggest you understand your productive hours and complete your work during that period of time. The last and most important thing that works for me is to plan well ahead of time. I hate last minute jitters, trust me when I say that it doesn’t help in the quality of work at all. I have shrugged off work to the last minute all my life and ended up with a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction at the end of it. It’s better to pre-plan your work and add it to your to-do list each day so that you are able to work on it bit by bit each day.

That’s about it! These are the ways I’m sticking to currently to avoid that nagging feeling of disappointment at the end of each day. Hope it helps you in some way or the other. Do let me know if it does!

Thank You!

Thank you, undoubtedly the most underrated phrase on this planet. No, I’m not talking about being thankful towards other people in your life (that’s a separate matter of discussion anyways!), but being thankful towards your own life!

So we get up every morning, travel to work, crib about the insane traffic on the streets or crowd in the public transport, crib about being at work, cry about the extra work hours, go back home, while away our time on the internet and sleep. This accounts for 60/70% of an average human’s life. While studying they can’t wait to work, while working they can’t wait to relax, while on vacation they dread the end of vacation and during retirement, they don’t know how they’ve spent their life.

We as humans have the tendency to take everything in our life for granted. Be it the food that we eat, the house we live in, the clothes we wear, the people we interact with, or a thing as simple as the air that we breathe. We keep waiting for something amazing to take place in our life, to earn more money, a better job, a better house, basically we keep sending happiness on a chase for a “better” something. Why do we end up making happiness a journey always? Since we’ve sent “our” happiness on a chase, we struggle to keep up with the journey and get depressed, anxious, sad and upset when the path seems too long. What we don’t realize is that we can convert this journey into an interesting ride and enjoy every millisecond of it!

When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to grow up and earn money so that our family could have a better life. As an adult who has achieved most of her childhood dreams, I still feel that my life is unfulfilled because I’ve replaced my childhood goals with a new set of goals and sent my happiness on a chase again. Getting my house renovated has always been one of my biggest and most prominent dream as a child. As I’m typing this, my house is being renovated and instead of feeling accomplished, I’m still waiting for a miracle to dramatically transform my life! Do I need to find any newer or better ways to complicate my happiness, hell no!

I’m glad I’ve had this realisation finally! Happiness, in fact, is a very simple process.

• Live in the present moment:- The best way to do this is inculcating the practice of journaling your daily life. Treat every day as the D-day rather than as a  run-up to the main event. After all, each day is precious, you’d never know if you’d live to see another day. So stop stalling all the pending items on your bucket list, treat life as a grand celebration and thoroughly enjoy each day of your life. And journaling it will help you reminisce.
• Practice gratitude:- This is most important. If we keep finding things to crib about, we’ll keep sending our happiness on a life long chase. Recollecting and writing down things you are grateful about will help instill a sense of achievement, fulfillment and most importantly happiness in you. Instead of cribbing about everything in life, we can just be grateful for the small little things that build the grandeur of our life.
• Be the “best” you:- Since it’s very evident from the first point that we need to pull ourselves out from the regretful past and uncertain future, we shouldn’t delay our goals, wait for a certain something to take place or a future period to achieve whatever we have set our heart to do. The best time is always “NOW“. So strive to be the best version of you every day, make each day count and crush all your goals in the present. Bring a full stop to your never-ending “waiting period”.

Sounds simple ain’t it? Wonder if it actually works? Well, no other way to find out than actually putting it to action! Let’s not complicate happiness anymore!

 

Getting out of my comfort zone

It was my first day at my new job today. This place is everything I wanted my dream job to be like. Extremely knowledgeable people, great office environment, fixed timings, great brand, yet, I feel weird.

There is this intense feeling of discomfort that is plaguing my mind. I just can’t come to terms with the fact that opportunities lie outside the comfort zone. In my previous organisation, I knew everything and everyone, everything and everyone knew me. I didn’t like the people there nor the office timings, yet, I want to go back and hide myself there.

What is wrong? Why do I feel so uncomfortable at a place that feels so right! Well, that’s the cost to pay when you venture out of your comfort zone. The comfort zone is a place which protects you from any kind of fear. New places brings with it unknown situations, uncomfortable meetings, it tests your knowledge and your ability to deal with new surroundings. All this ain’t pretty. Especially, for an introvert like me. Introverts like to conserve as much energy as possible. They lose energy and hope as soon as they have to encounter a new situation.

It’s time to be more positive and embrace my reality. Living my life one day at a time might help. I either live in the past or find myself dreaming about the future. Present is never an option for me.

Embracing every moment of the present situation will help me recuperate and that’s what I am going to do. It was my decision to move out of the situation I was in and upgrade my life. Now, I need to be more mature and responsible about my decisions. Happiness is a continuous process. You cannot wait for it to find it’s way to you. Happiness sometimes requires effort. Your mind needs to free and clutter free in order to create a nurturing house for it to stay in for a long time.

While I go back to my reality, I urge you all to give the uncomfortable situation you are currently facing, another chance. Just remember, this feeling too shall pass. It is just an illusion created by your mind to protect you from prospective fearful situations. And believe me, you are stronger than that! So, fight the FEAR.!

Why do I procrastinate?

Oh well! Not again!!

I know there are thousands of articles on the internet and a million books written to tackle the massive issue of “Procrastination!” However, even after reading and learning about them in depth, I still haven’t been able to wad off procrastination completely! WHY?

We all know that procrastination brings with itself unwanted anxiety and negativity. Somehow, I’ve become too comfortable with it. Every single day I wake up with the single most thought of completing my work and leave office ON TIME. However, even on lean days I find myself working till the last moment and reach home late…YET AGAIN! What the hell is wrong with me?

Another example that comes to my mind is preparing for any big interview or work assignment. I’ll try to get as much time possible to prepare well and end up wasting (with enormous guilt!) all the time I have on hand. I find myself preparing and working at the last moment as usual and blow up the big opportunity.

So, why do I keep on repeating the same mistakes again? Am I too dumb to understand what’s going wrong and not able to apply corrective measures? Or am I happy with the way things are and don’t want to change anything?

The answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE!

Well, while dealing with procrastination, the biggest mistake everyone makes is to connect it with laziness. I agree, there are people who do not get things done because they are too lazy to work straight away. However, there are few people who genuinely crave to get rid of procrastination and are still unable to do so. Here’s a little glimpse of their thought process in advance of a new assignment :-

• STAGE 1 : THE BEGINNING – A new assignment!! A clean slate for me to work on. Let me gather all the neccessary tools to conquer this! I’m going to slay this!
• STAGE 2 : ERROR ALERT – You make a little unimportant mistake somewhere and your mind starts churning “ALERT” messages. You try to ignore them and keep working.
• STAGE 3 : ENTER “FEAR” –  The big “F”. The biggest villain in anyone’s life. The reason why people quit things midway and are happy in the comfort zone. It makes people believe “IT’S BETTER NOT TO TRY THAN TO END UP FAILING”
• STAGE 4 : I QUIT –  The well known result of extreme procrastinators. Quit everything you do midway, do it at the last moment as it gives you a solid support in case you fail. You can always end up blaming your “procrastination” for the failure instead of embracing it.

That’s it. You do not want to accept “FAILURE” and stick to procrastination as it saves you the trouble of believing that you’ve failed because of  your incompetancy. You want to live in a bubble where failure doesn’t exist. Even if you fail, it’s because of “procrastination” and NOT because of YOU! You can always hear procrastinators say “If only I did not procrastinate, I would have succeeded!” That’s their defence mechanism churning nonsensical excuses to help them deal with reality.

So, how do you get over this?

ACCEPTANCE & REHEARSAL

ACCEPTANCE – You need to accept the fact that failure is a part and parcel of life. You can try your best for all the assignments you work for and still end up failing it. That doesn’t mean you are not doing well. Each mistake is a learning opportunity. Try not to repeat the same mistake again instead of avoiding it completely. Committing a mistake provides you an opportunity  and experience to correct it the next time. Avoiding it keeps the ground wide open to commit it again. So, it’s always important to try!

REHEARSAL – Instead of blowing up the big chance that comes your way, why don’t rehearse for it? Try working a little each day to prepare yourself for the big event. Anticipate the future course of action and start preparing for it. You always have a faint idea of the opportunities that could come your way in alignment with your goals in life. Utilise each day to prepare for it so that your fear is weakened on the D-day. Fuel your strengths not your fears!

Hopefully this summarises the thought process of procrastinators and provides valuable insights to deal with it in a better manner.

More power to the procrastinators!!

Ciao!

 

 

 

How these 4 little changes in life are helping manage my time better!

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst – William Penn

Being a chronic procrastinator, I’ve always found myself running out of time, for no specific reason whatsoever. From reaching appointments late to sprinting like a marathon runner to catch my morning train at the last moment, I’ve done it all. However, my tardiness got the better of me last month when we missed my sister’s flight. I couldn’t handle the situation at all as this was the third time we had missed a flight. At that very moment, I decided to change, for the better!

The methods that I’m listing below are not foolproof or devised after years of research. These are the methods that has helped me, a chronic procrastinator, to value time and use it well.

• WRITE DOWN ALL THE TASKS AT HAND

I’ve always been a fan of preparing meticulous timetables with fixed time slots for specific tasks. These timetables have unfortunately never worked for me. Setting time limitations forces you to work haphazardly. Also, the disappointment of not completing tasks in decided time slot wrecks the entire schedule.

What I did : I’ve started writing down everything I need to do in a day first thing in the morning. This is the habit that I’ve developed at office to remember everything that I require to complete on a single day. I try to make this list as elaborate as possible, listing down all then small things that I need to do that day. This little change has worked magically for me to realize the amount and importance of tasks at hand and work accordingly. Also, the pleasure of striking off a task on completion is unimaginable!

Result : I now have a clear schedule of the number of tasks at hand and plan my day accordingly. This has also helped me to cut down on tasks that I may tend to forget.

• WILLPOWER

This might seem like a vague idea to implement. However, this is the single most important thing that can help in better utilization of your time. Everything boils down to one fact, desire to complete the task at hand. If you can find the reason why you want to accomplish a certain task, believe me, you’ll find a way and time to manage it. Before starting any task, find one reason that made you do it in the first place.

What I did : My Super list has given me a clear reason to achieve certain long term goals. For all the other mundane routine work, I try to time it and complete it in much lesser time on the next occasion.

Result : I can prioritize my tasks well and complete them in the order of importance.

• SET CLEAR REWARDS

This is the fun element to complete your work. Usually, our mind wanders or we delay the work at hand when it gets boring. What you can do is set a reward for completion of any work. The reward can be as simple as taking a break to buying that thing from Amazon which you’ve been eyeing since a long time. Successful completion of your task will help you enjoy the reward better.

What I did : The rewards set by me give me motivation to finish any task. I’m prone to taking a lot of breaks or indulge in long periods of doing absolutely nothing. Now, I’ve set these as my rewards which helps me complete my work as well as enjoy guilt-free breaks!

Result : Work is always fun when you have a reward waiting at the end.

• BELIEF

In officer Judy Hopps’s words, “Zootopia : Where anyone can be anything!” Now imagine your entire life to be Zootopia, this gives you the power to do and be anything you want. Always have a firm belief that you can accomplish any task at hand. From belief comes confidence, from confidence comes success! This realization is for those big dreams in your eyes. For all other work, the above three changes should suffice.

What I did : I’ve read somewhere that negative thoughts are the weakest when they first arrive. Whenever I’m apprehensive about certain work and have negative thoughts about it, I counter attack it with a positive thought.  They usually don’t return.

Result : I can cut down on delaying any task for the fear of not being able to complete them well. Attempting something has already given you an edge over those who are yet to begin or think they can’t do it. Life is a compilation of experiences!

Hope these methods help you in some manner to achieve your goals.

Ciao!

 

 

 

Challenge : 100 days

This year, 2016, has almost come to an end. Well, not almost, there about 100 odd days left. I realized, like always, I haven’t really done much to make 2016 a memorable one.

Last week, I saw a link on Facebook to join the “100 days with Pinkathon” challenge. Pinkathon is an annual marathon held in India to empower women. They believe a healthy family, a healthy nation and a healthy world begins with empowered women. I haven’t participated in their marathon yet (#2017 goal) however was extremely excited about this challenge. The challenge requires you to run minimum 2 kms everyday for the next 100 days. The challenge began on September 23rd 2016 with the 100th day ending on 31st December 2016. So basically, you accomplish the challenge throughout 100 days and celebrate on 1st January 2017 (along with #newyear2017 celebrations of course!).

I also got an email to join the “100 happy days challenge“. Rules of this challenge are pretty simple. Every day, for next 100 days, I need to find the 1 best thing that made me happy and document it. Your happy moments can be documented on any social media platform or their website itself (if you wish to avoid publicity). Due to our daily routine and supposedly busy life, we forget to live and enjoy the present moment. This might be the best way to do just that.

Along with the above 2 challenges, I decided to create my own challenge “100 punctual days”. I am a chronic procrastinator and extremely tardy. I never reach anywhere on time (not proud of it at all). I curated this challenge for my benefit. I hope by the end of this challenge, I’ll be able to join the ranks of people who are extremely punctual. I believe anyone can accomplish anything they want if they value the time in their hands.

I have embarked on the journey to make last 100 days of 2016 memorable. I hope these challenges bring a positive change and help me in some manner to become “the best version” of myself.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED : 23rd SEPTEMBER 2016

Ciao!