2019 Week 1 Challenges

As I mentioned in my previous post, this year is going to be only about weekly goals. I want to focus on the quality by which an activity is changing my life rather than how much time I am spending on that.

Here are the goals by areas of improvement and my strategy to reach them.

1. General

All of us have the same 24 hours. But one thing which differentiates an average person from the elite is how they make use of the time. In the past few months, I realised that I keep checking my phone for no reason. It is a sure shot killer of time. Hence I installed Your hour app. This tells me the number of times I unlock the phone in a day. I am not aiming for a 50% decrease in a day. I want to be more mindful and unlock it only when it is absolutely necessary. I want to reduce whatsapp time and increase the time I spend on reading books.

If I am successful in this one habit, it is going to create a lot more time for me to pursue my dreams.

2. Health

Physical

Exercise

I can create an elaborate exercise routine. But from the way I failed in it last year, I don’t want to create any of that. I will keep it simple. I will just focus on squats. Presently I can comfortably do 20 squats without any fatigue. It doesn’t take more than 2 minutes. Irrespective of how late I wake up, these few minutes is something I can definitely afford.

Food

Staying mindful of what you eat makes a huge difference. I want to start with counting the number of times I chew the food before I swallow it. I read that this is one of the easiest ways to reduce weight. Now is the chance for me to try and test it.

Skin care

I want to start taking care of my skin in a natural way. One of the most common home remedy to have a shining skin is to apply turmeric.

Mental

What am I feeling today?

Even though writing a diary is all about writing down what I feel, doing this exercise helps me point out the main things which pull me down.

Gratitude

One of the easiest ways to stay happy is by feeling content with what you already have. Feeling grateful for what I have is going to bring a smile on my face irrespective of how bad my day goes. Every night before I go to sleep, I will write it.

3.Relationships

In the book, the relationship cure the author mentions about 6 ways you can approach a person during a conflict. I am a straight forward person and seemed to have offended way too many people in the past few months. This chapter is helpful for me to convey my honest feelings while not offending the opposite party.

4.Hobbies

Photography

In the last few weeks, I received compliments that I am good at identifying what I want to capture. But I just need to learn technical details. In order to equip myself technically, I will start off with this course from coursera.

Writing

I will be reading Words that sell and doing Craft of plot.

Language

I finished french from Duolingo. Even though I can’t speak french, it was fun to learn a new language. Now I want to learn Spanish, which is the most spoken language in the world. Just one lesson on Duolingo everyday for the next 365 days will help me achieve that.

5.Academics

I will write down one plausible topic I want to research on. The topic can be feasible or not feasible. I don’t want to limit myself when thinking.

6.Mental agility

Right now, I don’t have a plan on how I can go about it. But the easiest way I know is to read a book and pick ideas from there. I will be reading the book Agile mind to get started with it.

7.Second source of income

I won’t be earning money at the end of the week. But I can collect ideas and gain knowledge on this by reading Common sense on mutual funds and 4 Hour work week.

I will read the book whenever I feel like opening my phone or need some sort of distraction. I won’t measure myself in terms of how many pages I have read but by how many ideas I could collect by the end of the week.

That is all for this week. What are your goals for this week?

Happy week 1 !