5 Goals for November

60 days for the year to end. I can either look back at the months passed and regret what I could not do or look forward for the coming 60 beautiful days to achieve what I could not so far.
 
Here I go back in time, evaluating the past 31 days, not to feel regret but appreciate the good things and learn from what didn’t work out.
 

October Review

 
Courses:
 
I have started doing multiple courses on coursera but could finish only one on creativity.
Hoping to finish the remaining this month.
 
Finance:
 
As a part of my expanding knowledge habit, I started with finance. I searched for blogs but could not find anything which will really help me to start off. I tried to watch finance Ted talks too (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvcNw4F0Y4Y) and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcw_02ZB1o&t=873s) but haven’t learnt what finance is all about.
 
But after stumbling for the first few days, I learnt that finance is a very broad topic. If I say “I want to learn Finance”, I will reach no where.If I pinpoint at what I want to learn-  “I want to learn behavioral finance” or “I want to learn how to invest”, my goal is easier to achieve. That was when I stuck to these two courses – Introduction to Financial Markets and Behavioral Finance.
 
 
Organise:
 
I created a huge list of things to be organized. If I have to measure the success of this habit by the frequency I executed the task or completion of checklist, I have failed. But if I measure it with how well I started organising, I have done a good job.

• Songs: Instead of sitting with them for an entire evening, I am cleaning the ones which I don’t enjoy much as and when they come in the random playlist.
• Photos: The media from WhatsApp is set on auto download mode in my phone. Some of the photos are spam. But some of them are memories to treasure for a lifetime. While a few others are jokes which will crack me up on any day. I set this exercise for once a month so that I even do my photo routine.
• Clothes : I removed the clothes which I don’t wear regularly and organized the remaining by colours.
• Papers: I used to throw papers all over the shelf. Now I bought files and I keep them in those files based on the category they belong to.
• Catalogue: I created a notebook in Evernote and made note of what I am keeping where. If I need a document, I can search in my Evernote and it will tell me where it is available. This was the coolest thing I did this month.

 
The best thing about organising is it felt that I have a control over my life. I was organizing my mind while I was organizing the material stuff.
 
The habit which I failed to accomplish is placing them back where they belong to. So my frustration is not totally gone and I have to continue this exercise for a couple of months till I can call myself ‘The organized one’.
 
Learning Language:
 
Tamil alphabet:
 
Even though I am not able to read the entire word yet, I can recognize the vowels and consonants. Whenever I am on the road, I try to read whatever I find in Tamil. I am happy with the progress I made so far. Thanks to Memrise.
 
French:
 
I discovered another app to learn French. In Duolingo and Memrise, I am learning the basics of French. I enrolled for intermediate level of French on Mondly to speeden my learning
 
Words:
 
I didn’t stick much with this habit. But then it turned out to be a good exercise. I want to continue this for as long as possible.
 
Creativity Exercise:
 
I was not able to stick to this habit regularly. But for whatever I did, I tried to be as creative as possible.
 

Goals for November

New goals:

 
Improve Logic Reasoning/ Critical Reasoning:
 
I want to solve problems which will improve my reasoning skills. Even though I was good at them once upon a time, I feel my brain is rusted now. It needs some cleaning to be as sharp as before. I am going to spend one hour everyday on this. I can’t really measure the success of this exercise, but then I know that it makes me feel smarter.
 
One good thing about me:
 
I had a one time feel good list. But now, I want to maintain a daily list. I want to appreciate myself for one good thing I did in the day. This in turn motivates me to do at least one good thing a day.
 
Give something:
 
It might not be possible everyday. But I want to find opportunities where I can provide some help for others.
 
Network Online:
 
I have come across the benefits of this in multiple articles. I want to do the exercise to test its utility. As a part of this exercise, I am going to drop a message or comment or email to other potential or established bloggers/writers.
 

Turning old goals into habits:

 
Ted talk:
 
During the last Ted talk challenge, I could watch only 4 amazing Ted talks. This time I have a list from the book Ted talk to see the best ones. I think, this exercise is definitely going to give me ideas which are going to change my life.
 
Stay positive:
 
Even though I already did it in the month of September, it was not really sufficient to make it a habit. October was again a stressful month with negativity lurking around all the time. I want to keep doing this once in every two months to make it a part of my life.
 
Wake up early:
 
I have been skipping exercise as I had been waking up late every other day. Exercise is highly correlated with staying cheerful and productive. This in turn depends on my wake up time. So I want to wake up early. It is tough to wake up at 5 in this winter. But around 6 is decent enough to aim for. This in turn requires me to sleep by 10.
 
Books:
 
Only two months are left this year and I have not finished many books which I started. I have a lot of plans on how to select new books but I want to first finish the ones I started. Hopefully from January, I will follow my new way of selecting books.
 
How was your October?
What are your goals for November?
 
Let me know in the comments section.
 
Happy November!