Month: May 2019

2019 Week 22 Goals

The best part of last week was I tried making cheese pasta and Hyderabadi Biryani. Surprisingly both of them were delicious and gave me confidence to cook them once again. I spent a lot of hours in learning to cook the right way. Nevertheless, it is a good start in the cooking journey.
 
Review of week 21
 
1.Inside Coca Cola
 
It was an amazing read in the recent while. It not only talks about the journey of the CEO but also gives insight into the history of that period. It is informative and inspiring at the same time.
 
2.Write
 
I could write on five of the seven days last week. On a few days, it was difficult to write and on few others it took less than five minutes to write. But I am glad that I could make it a habit again.
 
3.Photography
 
I found a mentor to review my photographs.Surprisingly, the only aspect I lack in, according to him is rule of thirds. I am being more aware of it from now.
 

Plans for week 22

 
The last week was a struggle. The advice I keep getting these days is let go off a few hobbies so that the entire journey doesn’t feel like cramming too many things in the day. I can’t let go off my full time job because that earns my living. I can’t let go off exercise or meditation because they are essential for my physical and mental health. Next come the hobbies. They are essential for my happiness and well-being. Instead of pursuing everything daily, I can make them twice a week to not let go off them completely.
 
I will take off this week and work on building a plan on where I want to be in each of my hobbies at the end of this year. If I am pursuing each one only twice a week, it doesn’t make sense to do weekly challenges.
 
I will take a week to think over all of this and release the plan latest by June 1st.
 
“If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither one”
 
This quote made me take this break. It is okay to take off to reflect in life once in a while.
 
How was your week 21? What plans for week 22?
 
Happy week 22!

2019 Week 21 Goals

The best part of this week is getting a DSLR as a gift from my dad. He had always been supporting my dreams and will keep supporting me in the future too. It took me down the memory path where he always spent more than what he could afford to support my passions. May be I wouldn’t have been multi-talented as everyone refers to it as if not his encouragement.
 

Review of Week 20

 
1.The intelligent investor
 
Even though my target was just one page a day, I read 24 pages in the last week. I am not able to write any points at this stage as everything seems to be important. I need to read it once more to summarise the key points.
 
2.The Habit of winning
 
If you hardly read any books on self-improvement, you will find it an interesting read. If you ask me to rate it basis of difficulty level, it is for beginners. It was just a collection of stories I read at different ages. Will someone learn to win based on that? No. Will someone get superficial motivation? Yes. I was disappointed with the book as I expected the author to write stories from his professional life to teach how to win. But I finished the book because I felt good to read the old stories once again all at one place.
 
3.Write
 
I went into a deep focussed state while writing this week. It felt beautiful after a long time. I wish I could go into such states more often.
 
4.Photography
 
The exercise I did last week didn’t seem to be that useful. I need to find a proper road map for myself.
 
5.Exercise
 
I am able to comfortably lift 2.5 kgs but my hands start shaking when I try 4 kgs. A week more and I should be in a better position.
 
6.Meditation
 
I missed my 7 day streak again. I could do only on the weekdays. During the weekends, it somehow doesn’t fit into the routine.
 

Plans for week 21

1.Inside Coca Cola
 
I usually don’t read this type of books but I realised that books of this sort gives us insights into the habits of those who succeed in life which we can emulate. So far it is an unputdownable book. Hoping to learn some interesting lessons from it.
 
2.Selfie
 
Even though it might sound lame, it actually helps in having a good day. Selfie to start the day and one more to end the day. Irrespective of how yesterday was, today is a new day with new opportunities. Let me welcome it with a smile. Click. Irrespective of how bad the day was, I was strong enough to face it all. Smile. Click. Some of my best selfies were those which were clicked after a tough incident. Because the confidence of all is not lost. It is just a phase. Things will be well soon.
 
3.Write
 
I want to get back to writing on Quora. I will write an answer daily again for the next one week. I had stopped in between as I felt that I had nothing new to write about. But the thing with writing is, you can get new ideas only when you keep writing. I don’t want writing to go away from my passions. I love it as much as I love photography.
 
4.Photography
 
Now that I have a DSLR, I need to explore more. This week I will spend time in learning all the settings. I should know what the camera is capable of to expand my skill set.
 
5.Exercise and Meditation
 
I don’t have to call out these two specifically every week from now as they are being taken care of by habits. I have set the routine for exercise as 8 to 9 every morning. For meditation, I make use of my commute time. They are going good. Also, I am maintaining a tracker to measure my progress and also to keep a log of how I am feeling after every session.
 
That’s all for this week!
 
How was your week 20? What plans for week 21?
 
Happy week 21!

2019 Week 20 Goals

The best part of last week was I made a few variety dosas on the go. I didn’t want to make chutney, so I put Ragi powder into the dosa to make ragi dosas. A kid might find a ragi dosa boring. To make it more interesting, I added bananas to make them like a sweet. On the other hand, for my uncles who are diabetic and can’t afford eating a sweet dosa, I added oregano seasoning to bring a different taste to dosa. The happiest part about all this exercise is the smiles I brought on faces.
 

Review of Week 19

 
1.Write
 
I was not able to do that. I was exhausted at the end of the day and couldn’t find any interesting topic to write about. The reasons I failed were that I kept it for the end of the day and I didn’t have a clear agenda. I will correct the same this week.
 
2.Photography
 
I learnt a bit about over and under exposing. But I am yet to practise that to the fullest. But the best part of it this week was to click the best candid of all time.
 
3.Meditate
 
I couldn’t make a 7 day streak. But I meditated 5 out of 7 days which is still good compared to my frequency in the past.
 

Plans for Week 20

 
1.Learn a bit about finance
 
Even though a lot of people say that Intelligent Investor book is not for Indian audience and it is outdated, there are a still few of them who consider it as timeless. It is a fat book. I will aim at reading just a page from the book every morning before I leave to work. Also, I will make note of at least one point from a page.
 
2.The Habit of winning
 
It’s been a long time that I spent on reading a book. I will spend 15 minutes on this book before retiring to sleep in the night.
 
3.Write
 
Since I was not able to stick to my goal last week, this week I want to be more specific about it.
 
When will I write?
 
As soon as I return from gym, I spend time in cooling down physically with random browsing on my phone. I will make use of this time to be active mentally, even though I am exhausted physically.
 
What will I write?
 
I had suggestions for a few topics to add to my book. I will work on those.
 
How long will I write?
 
My aim is to bring back writing daily into my routine, I will spend just 10 minutes to start with.
 
4.Photography
 
I will learn to study the photographs created by experts to use similar techniques in mine.
 
5.Meditate
 
5/7 is a good score. But 7/7 is an awesome score. I will aim for this streak this week.
 
6.Exercise
 
I realised how inflexible my body became with my laziness to not exercise regularly in the past one year. Presently, I feel extremely exhausted after each workout and feel demotivated that I am not able to make any movements as per instructions. This is just a phase and this too shall pass. I will eventually learn to convert the instructions to respective postures and make myself kinesthetically intelligent.
 
That’s all for the week.
How was your week 19? What are your plans for week 20?
 
Happy week 20!

2019 Week 19 Goals

It was an adventurous vacation except for that I lost my phone and the memories from the trip. But from the hardships and the memories I collected, it motivated me to start a travel blog to help others decide which places to visit, what to expect and where to stay. This will also motivate me to travel more. With my packed workload, I am not ready to start it full fledged. But I will share the link of that blog on this website once it is ready.
 

Review of Week 18

 
1.Next steps for the book
 
I have a rough outline on what are the next steps I need to follow to publish the book. A few more steps might come up as I keep working on it.
 
2.Buy DSLR
 
Now that I have lost my phone, I don’t have any excellent device to capture amazing pictures which compels me to buy a DSLR sooner. I zeroed in the model but just waiting for some good offers.
 
3.Workout
 
As a part of new workout, I attended a boxing class. I always dreamt to wear those gloves and pose the way they show in movies and hit the bag. Last week, I created that opportunity to live. My body ached so much that I found it difficult to get up from bed. At the end of the day, you need to work for what you want. If I wish to shred the extra weight, I need to learn to enjoy that pain.
 

Plans for Week 19

 
Even though, I so badly want to get back to my initial plans for the year, I find it close to impossible to make so much time for self-improvement daily. It is tough to be married, work on a full time job, take care of the entire house and then work on yourself. At times, I feel like giving up the entire self-improvement and just learn to go with the flow. But one thing, this entire exercise of working on my dreams has taught me is that “I’m possible” or “Impossible” is in my hands. If I don’t crawl when I can’t walk, I will never get to the state of running.
 
I will do it slowly. It doesn’t matter when I will reach up to the pace. I will take it one at a time.
 
1.Write
 
I will write 15 minutes daily. It can be an answer on Quora or some content for my next book or simply an article. It doesn’t matter if I am ever going to use that content again anywhere or not. I just want to get back to the habit of writing daily. Writing helps me connect with myself and I can’t afford to ignore it.
 
2.Click Pictures
 
For a few days after I lost my phone, I didn’t have a phone in my hand but everywhere I went, I saw something which I wanted to click. At this stage of my life, I can’t afford to buy another expensive phone. I will make sure that I don’t stop clicking because I don’t have a good phone. I will target to learn at least one concept per week and click a picture based on that concept.
 
3.Meditation
 
Yesterday, I got a forwarded message of 90 day Meditation Challenge. Given my meditation practise history, I think it is too ambitious to target 90 days. But I will do a one week streak to start with. If I succeed in this, I will make it 14. I will just give my best. It doesn’t matter if I am actually meditating or not, the intention to do it and strive for it matters.
 
Since I am just taking baby steps, this is all for the week.
 
What are your plans for week 19? How was your week 18?
 
Happy Week 19!