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| Progress Report February 09 |
| Wednesday, February 11, 2009 |
Note: Yes its the boring post. Feel free to skip. ;--)
Things have been looking good this month. I want to remove some things off of my list, but I am refraining from doing it, will wait for a couple of more months of steady progress before I do that.
I have been reading this book 'The Power of Focus' for the Book Club. Its not a great book, but serves its purpose, there are some helpful points strewn through the pages. Based on that, I have come up with a list of some habits that I want to cultivate. Apparently a habit takes 21days to form. And it is better to focus on one habit at a time. Here is my list of habits-
1. Watch less TV, I havent been able to conquer this evil.
2. Declutter dining table/kitchen. From Monday to Friday, I let the place accumulate sundry items blame it on busy-ness, and clean up over weekend. I want to improve in this aspect. Little work more often, helps in the task turning into a major time consumer.
3. Plan the week more meticulously. The book talks about having a Blueprint for the week, and for each day. While I have my tasklists with deadlines and check them off, I would like to see if I am efficient enough. This will especially come in more handy, as we get deep in the project at work. Till now it has been quite normal 40hr work loads, so I have had time to concentrate on other things. But in the coming months its going to be a real challenge. Unless I really plan my days, I might end up dropping my non-mandatory activities.
That said, on to my progress.
The Good -
Positive thinking, procastination, spirituality, good habits, community work, eating healthy, drinking water, working out.
The Bad -
Temper control, Self control, worry, not let fear rule my life.
The so-so -
Tidiness, not getting hurt, enterprising/helpful, goals
I got into a few arguments with DH. I would like to be as patient as he is with me. He says he is not generally patient but he is with me because he loves me. I am the opposite I am generally patient with others but not with DH. I have to change this.
TV is still my enemy. Thankfully I am not home two days in the week in the evenings, that reduces my TV watching time to a great extent. I know I can get soooo much free time if I only cut TV and internet time. I have to work on this.
Worry and fear, with work getting busier, my mind seems to be going over tasks quite often. I find it impossible to find time to do things. This is where my 3rd habit comes into play. I have to plan much ahead, so I dont look for more time in the last minute.
I am conquering my fears a little. Public speaking has been my worst enemy. I am taking efforts to overcome it. I joined Toastmasters last year in September when I started this whole progress tracking thing. And finally I gave my Ice Breaker speech in January. I got the Best Speaker ribbon too! While I have a nagging doubt they generally give the ribbon to encourage the first timers, since it was a voting process, I would like to cherish this small victory. I am taking more roles and have more speeches lined up. I only pray hope I have the time to do them.
Tidiness, while I am dressing nicely, and keep the home decent, I would like to keep it even more clean, and not let things pile up. My second habit comes here.
Enterprising/helpful, I guess I am doing it to a certain extent but would like to do more of it.
Goals, bah, finally I started what I had put off for a long time, but I need to gain more traction on them.
I have to say at the risk of sounding cliched, since I started doing this, my life has definitely taken a turn for the better. I look at the big picture whenever I get bogged down. I am learning to learn from the failures and march forward without losing hope. Its only one life we have. No matter what junk life throws at you, the end goal is to be happy, and make others around you happy. Sounds so easy doesnt it?
As I said I joined the Choir at Church. Since we go for an earlier Mass, its all oldies in the Choir. when I say old, I dont mean just 45-50. I mean 70 too!! I get so inspired by them. One lady cant walk a stair without support, but still she gives what she can to the church community! I was reluctant to join too, and had half a mind to go to the later Mass where there are younger folks, even now I am sometimes bored because things have to be said multiple times for everyone in the group to understand. But still I find them all so cute! They have an amazing attitude towards life I think, they make their own jokes, and laugh like kids. And they are sooooo friendly!! They talk to me with a genuine interest, I like it. There is something to learn from everyone, be it kids or elder folks. It has been my wish and desire to serve the old people in an old age home or something, but I havent had a chance to look into the opportunities.
Since I love talking about my volunteering activities, I would like to do it here too. My pal from fifth grade that I email to every week, their class had a Colonial Fair Exhibition to which we PCPals were invited to. It was just a 15min thing, it was in between meetings, but still I managed to go. It was too cute to see the fifth graders try their hands on marketing, so early in age!
We have an Indian Community at work, which has very few active members inspite of the whole place swarming with Indians. I decided to become active there. We set up a booth for Republic Day in the Cafe, and have other events planned. Its not much, but its something.
And of course my other giving back was the blood donation, which turned out to take more than I expected from me. DH has forbidden me to give anymore blood. ;--)
Last but not the least, I made up with one of my college friends. We were very close and somehow drifted apart. I made an effort to rectify things, afterall, arent friends precious? Especially good old ones, who know you inside out, and understand you? I have realized they are hard to come by as we grow older. Why spoil a good relationship with ego and self centeredness?
Ok, so lets see how I do on my Bads and So-so's next month. And my habit in focus this month will be 3rd one. That is the toughest one to tackle according to me. If any of you are interested in cultivating new habits as well, this is an excellent website I have found useful and motivating. Zenhabits.net.
Adios my friends! |
posted by SK @ 5:32 PM  |
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| 5 Comments: |
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I'm also trying to be postive and all u know? *raises chin up and bites back a sniffle*
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Nandini,
hahah, why the sniffle?
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First line of the post, I must say was quite inviting to read the whole post!
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Whew!! I read through the whole thing..semma bore.. but I'll never skip these progress report posts..
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Arun, :--) It was just a warning.
Lonestar, too much I say! :--)
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I'm also trying to be postive and all u know? *raises chin up and bites back a sniffle*