Thirty-one days have gone by. We’ve almost completed the first month of 2016. Here is a list to reflect on how my daily improvement work went this month:
- Reading every day wasn’t too difficult. Having the goal of reading a book a month helped, though I didn’t finish reading the Think and Grow Rich book. The book has a lot of motivational perspectives for getting richer not only just in terms of money, but also living a successful life. Reading through this 1937 classic feels like going on an inspirational retreat. I read 23 days out of the 31 days in January.
- Writing every day was hard. Sometimes I have topics to write about, sometimes it just seemed like I was digging a lot trying to find topics to write about. I only wrote 14 days out of the 31 days; didn’t even hit 50% of the days. Self-criticizing aside, the tracking of writing has made me more aware that this is an area I need to focus on in the subsequent months.
- Exercising every day was easier compared to reading and writing every day. Tracking shows I exercised 27 out of the 31 days. I’m not sure whether the motivation was intrinsic or extrinsic or both. There is a gym at my work, so I work out at lunch hour on most days when I’m at work. My workout partner, Brian Westgate, is my fitness accountability buddy. It’s hard to skip gyms because I know I would have to face his humiliation multiple times via different channels of communication. I scheduled basketball and arranged family’s help to ensure I play basketball once or twice a week. I think I did well in this area, so I hope to keep it up.
- Meditating daily wasn’t easy. I only meditated 17 days. I’m familiar with all the benefits of mediation, but it’s not easy to practice the theories you know. I guess most nights I was just too tired to sit for 10 minutes. Practicing my breathing has helped my speech and temperament. I hope to incorporate meditation more in my bed time routines in the coming months.