September in Review

I can’t believe that 9 months have already passed. This is the 6th month under review. Time flew fast. Today when I look back I have done a lot of new things which I would not have done if not for this accountability.

How did September go?

 
30-day Positive Challenge
 
This was a much needed challenge for me. It changed the way I deal with life. Not a day went smooth. Probably life was like that previously too. But as I was mindful, I am able to pinpoint it now. It was a true test of being positive in the negative and I successfully passed the test with a few failures here and there.
 
Sub challenges of positivity:
 
Smile:
 
I learned to smile more. Whenever I was verge on going into negativity, I forced a smile on my face. I put a reminder on my phone which asks me to smile. When I greet someone, I did it with a big smile on my face.
 
Books:
 
Even though I don’t read novels, I read two which the website claims as Bill Gates favourite books. They were Rosie project and Hyperbole and a half. I laughed so much throughout the books. They are amazing and are a must read. Rosie project was more about how a nerd launches a project in search of a life partner. Hyperbole and a half was a funny book with a deep meaning.
 
Gratitude journal:
 
I wrote at least one thing I was grateful for everyday. Most of the times it was for what my mom did for me.
Affirmations and Creative Visualization:
 
I was doing them on and off. At one point, I felt that visualization was preventing me from taking action because my mind thought that I have already accomplished the task for the day. I need to learnt the technique better before I implement it.
 
Watching a funny video a day:
 
I watched it for two days. Later on, I just could not find something of my taste. This requires deep hunting.
 
Complimenting:
 
I did this for the first few days. Later it just slipped my mind because of the too many activities I was doing.
 
Food tracker
I avoided eating the small chocolates for the guilt of writing the processed food in my tracker.
 
Ted Talks
 
I have not watched ted talks every day. But I did watch them on most of the days. Even though all of them did not provide ideas, the ones which did give the ideas were life changing.
 
Reading:
 
I spent more time on searching for books to read than actually reading the books I searched. I did not like a lot of books. I just read bits and pieces from multiple books apart from the three mentioned above.
 
Writing:
 
I published 11 posts against the planned number of 15. Even though I wrote more than 11 articles, they are still in draft stage. I am just not able to bring structure to them.
 

Goals for October:

 
Dance:
 
It is one of the ways to be more happy and lead a more fulfilling life according to Brene Brown, the shame researcher. It also a good way to get some exercise. I want to dance for a few minutes three times a week. This also gives me a chance to learn steps to my favourite songs.
 
Organised:
 
Even though I try to be, I am not really an organised person. My handbag is the biggest clutter. I can’t even find my ID card in it on a few days. I wear the same clothes every week because they are the only ones on the top of the shelf. I can’t find a file in my computer because I don’t have good organizing habits. A lot of frustration in my life can be eliminated if I learn to be more organised. It is not only about organizing it but also learning to keeping back things at the same place. Even though it is said that clutter enhances creativity, I want to try being an organised person.  
 
Words:
 
In order to write better, I need a good vocabulary. I use Knudge me app to learn new words. But what about synonyms of common words? In one sentence, ‘play’ might be apt but in another sentence ‘act’ might be apt. It is important to be able to recollect what is the best word that can fit in a sentence. I am going to take one word a day and do this exercise for next 30 days.
 
Creativity exercise:
 
How many ways can you use a brick? Write down your creative ideas in 90 seconds. I want to take an arbitrary object daily and write its uses to expand my creativity muscle.
 
Expand my knowledge:
 
You are not really smart if you are uni-dimensional. My friend requested me to write 200 words on ‘Which company will I invest in for 10 years apart from FMCG?’. I went blank. I did not know where to start from. That incident drove me to start learning basics of finance. In order to learn finance, I will

• Read one book on it
• Do one course on it
• Learn one term per day from Investopedia
• Search for the best blogs on it
• Find a site which allows mock investing

 
Courses:
 
I almost forgot that Coursera exists. A lot of courses are now only for premium members. Before they start making the courses I want to do inaccessible for free, I want to do them. I registered for four of them. My goal is to spend at least 10 minutes a day in learning.
 
Language:
 
I felt flattered when my colleagues complimented me for the way I speak in Tamil now. I feel sad that my learning has become stagnant. In order to expand the ways I can learn, I want to learn tamil alphabet this month.
 
How was your September? What are your plans for October? I am waiting to hear you in the comments section.
 
Happy October!