It’s feeling like quite the zoned out and blur day for me today, quite tired and all that jazz. Head’s feeling really fogged up. Hoping that my Costa Rica Tarrazu at Coffea will help clear things up 🙂 i’m having black coffee today, which is a first, and i have to say, it’s pretty good actually.
Anyway, it’s now the 4th of April, which means that we’re 4 days into the 2nd quarter of 2013.
It’s time to look back over the last 3 months and see how things stand.
Over the last 3 months i’ve done quite a bit of travelling (Macau, Kuala Terengganu, Penang, Perth), watched SHM, had quite an awesome Birthday week, got back to classes and made better friends at Monash, read quite a bit (Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords), got back to writing, started journaling again, got the ball rolling on waking up early & exercise and of course dealing with Round 1 2013.
Essentially it’s been a quarter of small daily improvements, a quarter of repairing the foundation and of moving forward and learning. I’m fairing much better with Round 1 2013 as compared to Round 1 2012, which is good. I’ve gained a better understanding of Fibromyalgia and am making a point to spread that awareness. So that other people understand and so that i don’t forget.
As for goals, i can say that i’ve missed quite. I made my goals not accounting for setbacks and well, life in general haha.
But that doesn’t mean i’m not going to set goals for Q2, however this time i’ll take what i’ve learnt from Q1 and use that to calibrate Q2 goals; Health, Academic, Personal Development, Social & Finances.
Q2 Goals & Guidelines include:
1) a book a week
2) 3 posts a week
3) wake up at 6am 4 times a week
4) morning exercise 5 times a week
5) Study lecture content before hand.
6) not going out after 7pm & sleep by 10pm – Sunday to Wednesday.
7) 1 vegetarian meal a day
8) journal during Holy Hour (which means daily)
9) 2 road trips
10) Cut monthly expenses (includes: transport, food, coffee, phone bills, etc) to 700.
Going to work on the Q2 Goals & Guidelines a little more, but the 10 above are the core elements.
Have you thoughts about how your last quarter has gone? Have you thought about how you want the next quarter to go?
Get cracking on your goals.
Start small and simple and build on that. Set some goals for the week and simple daily goals that will help you achieve the weekly goals. Always break things down into smaller manageable steps.
They all feed into each other.
Daily Goals build up to Weekly goals that build up to Monthly goals -> Quarterly goals -> Yearly goals -> 5 years -> 10 years
With goals and guidelines you build an awareness on what’s important, and that will be the difference.
By getting clear on what you want out of life, you heighten your awareness around what’s most important. With better awareness comes better choices. And with better choices you’ll see better results. Clarity breeds success.
Robin Sharma
I’m back at Coffea Coffee with a Madonna Flat White next to me, which tastes better that yesterdays, not that it was bad yesterday but that today my perception of life is a little brighter.
It’s been a while since my last weekly review/reflection, hoping to get back to making this regular, but now on mondays instead of sundays.
Reflecting on the week, ended Sunday March 17th, there is much to be concerned about, but also much to be grateful for. As usual i am grateful for the family and friends that i have around me that support me when times get dark, as they did during the last few days of the week, and celebrate with me during the good times, my 23rd birthday.
Last week I had plenty of fun with friends old & new, going out for dinner, watching Armageddon (for the first time), playing FIFA and retaining the FIFA King Title, and also saw an increase in productivity; got back to reading, though i only managed 3 hours last week; blogged more, put up 3 posts & revamped my sites layout and categories; got started on a regular sleep pattern and woke up at 6am 3 times; and a few other things which i can seem to recall right now cause my fibrofog has gotten worse from the time i woke up, from a 3/10 to a 6/10 now. which brings me to the most important part of last week;
Fibromyalgia Strikes back, with a vengeance.
My post from yesterday:
I’ve been fighting for some time now, and one thing i’ve learnt is that no matter how good things can get, there will be a time when it comes back for me. Through all this it has taught me a few things but most importantly, like all the other hurdles in my life, it’s made me stronger and made me aware of something: “The toughest fights I’ve ever been in are with no one else but myself, because once i win that fight, everything else is only a matter of time.” This week has been bittersweet, sweet because it’s been fun and there has been some improvement in productivity; bitter because while i wasn’t looking Round 1, 2013 (my first difficult spell with FMS this year) started, and i wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked to have been. I don’t know how i didn’t see this coming, i pushed myself harder than i should have over the first few days of the week and should have seen this coming when the my symptoms Spiked on Tuesday. How did i miss it? maybe i thought Tuesday was a one off thing, maybe i pulled a page out of the beginning of last year and ignored it, maybe i got arrogant and didn’t think it could hurt me this time. I think that’s the one, I got arrogant. Arrogance cost me a lot a year ago, at least this time around i’m more aware and won’t let it get as far as it did then. The pains, stiffness, aches & fatigue got mildly worse as the week proressed but yesterday… yesterday things escalated click here to continue reading
(Sidenote: Please click o the passage above to add the view count to yesterdays post. thanks)
This is sums up the end of last week, and the main point of today’s reflection. I’ve been fending of minor Fibromyalgia attacks from the beginning of the year without much problem, but last week saw the resurfacing of something that i didn’t want to see again, something i didn’t want to deal with again, but something i will have to fight again and beat again. Last year, Round 1 2012, was a fight over 3/4 months, and like i mentioned above was the toughest fight with it i’ve had over the last 3/4 years. I beat it last year, i’ll beat it again, it’s just a matter of time. I’ll need to adjust to the new battle ground and being back at uni, but i’ll get it done.
Good Morning guys,
Hope you’re morning has been good! I’ve got my Mocha next to me as I sit at my fav table at the Starbucks Monash.
I got hit by a Fibro Spike (sudden, out of the blue, ninja spike of my fibromyalgia symptoms etc) yesterday morning that really took the wind out of me for a big part of the morning, but i managed to eventually (2 hours later) get out of bed. This morning wasn’t as bad as yesterday, it was difficult but nothing like yesterday and took me 10 minutes to shake enough of it off to get out of bed, though today i experienced something that’s been MIA for a long time, waking up moderately disorientated with a hint of nausea on the side. As for now, things seem to be pretty good. Had a good ComBank tutorial and an even better Business Law tutorial, as of now BL is my fav class, the syllabus thus far (2 weeks) has been intriguing. It’s making me wonder whether i should actually be doing law. I know it’s only been 2 weeks, it’s just that fighting against injustice is something that appeals to me, i’m not a big fan of unfairness and if there’s something i can do about something i think is wrong, I’d like to act on it.
Which brings me to today’s main course, though it’s not all that filling.
Last week i published a post about my the Monash Parking Problem, and in doing that I’ve also launched a new category, initially to be called Monash & Co, but decided that Student Life would be more apt. It doesn’t limit my writing to just Monash, but allows me to collaborate with Down Memory Lane to bring write about previous student life in; CPU, UWC.
In this category will be the writings of a student about issues ranging from infrastructure, like the last week’s piece, to academics. Essentially anything to do with my current place of eduction; currently Monash University Sunway Campus. I feel that through writing i can Act, that i can create awareness and hopefully make a change or non-change. I will write about things that i feel can change or praise things that i think have been done right.
Now, just because last weeks post didn’t reflect Monash in the best of light does it mean that all future posts will follow suit. No.
I will praise and I will critique.
I will write the good, the bad & the ugly.
It will be based on my opinion of right and wrong.
I will strive to be as unbiased as I can,
I will do my homework,
but essentially,
I’ll write it as I see it.
Just a heads up, the next few posts will not present Monash in the best of light, but it is something that needs to be put out there, just need to do a little more homework.
Well, i think that’s about it.
Oh wait i forgot!
If you have something you would like me to look into and write about please let me know, and i’ll look into it and see whether i can put a post together.
#BacktoClass
A new academic year has started and as such I’m back here at my old writing spot at Starbucks Monash Sunway, it’s been at least 4 months since i last blogged from here. Today i am accompanied by Latte, 2 normals shots topped off by a decaf shot. Good to see that many of the faces from the last semester are still around behind the espresso machine.
Birthday Present!
Now, maybe you’ve noticed a new addition to the pic above and maybe you haven’t, for my recent 23rd birthday my A-Team got me a Logitech bluetooth enable keyboard for my iPad and today is the first time i’m really using it and i have to say, it’s pretty damn nice. Thanks guys. Not that i didn’t like typing on the iPad itself, it’s just that now i won’t lose touch with typing on my macbook, which was happening last year. the iPad on-screen keyboard is way more compact than the physical keyboards and i started having some trouble typing on a physical keyboard a few months after getting my iPad, so now that will not be happening, feels very close to typing on my MacBook Pro. Oh, and now that there is no keyboard on-screen, the entire Retina Display is dedicated to my writing, that’s probably my favourite thing.
Today’s Point
The current issue on mind was kicked off by the Sunway Monash Residence office and their communication failure 2 weeks ago.
I was at the SMR office to apply for the the Non-Resident SMR parking, and was told that they don’t do pre-bookings and that i would have to apply next month. I figured that to mean come on March 1st. i actually thought about applying there and then for February, and i pay for the current month, which would essentially be burning the 50 bucks for Feb, but since I was told that there was no pre-booking i figured that if i come early on the 1st there wouldn’t be any problems applying. However i would not be able to go on the first so i got help from my mum and a friend but that came to nothing as i was told a few days before the 1st, while i was in perth, that not only was the SMR Non-Resident parking lot full but that the waiting list was closed.
Now imagine my confusion,
how can there be a wait-list if there is no pre-booking the week before the beginning of the next month. I was confused and not pleased, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying my great perth holiday; which i will talk about at a later date. So, on the first day of this semester i went over to the SMR office to talk to them but that came to nothing, there was nothing they could do to help me out, even though it was one of them who misinformed and mislead me. All i kept hearing was, “the waiting list is closed” and found out that they were taking-in applications on the 25th of feb….
Wait a sec… let me see if my math and concept of space and time is right…
A week is 7 days, thus 7 days before the 1st of march is = 23rd of February… but wait, that can’t be right because i was told there was pre-booking and that no applications are taken in during the last week of a month,
so…
is the SMR Office using a different calendar system (in which the should be public about it) or is my basic concept of the calendar system at fault?
Dear SMR Office,i think you guys need to get your act together and be very clear on your Non-Resident Parking Application Policies & Procedures, something like the incredibly detailed set rules and regulations for the parking lot that’s on the application form, but for the Application Process. Hopefully this happens sometime soon, hey maybe i’ll go over and suggest it, so that students like myself aren’t let down in such a confusing & bitter manner.
Oh, and in the event that you do actually have formal procedures & policies for applying, why was i not provided with that information when i came to inquire 2 weeks ago, or better yet last year when i got the lot.
So what i learnt from all this and my couple visits to the SMR office is the customer service isn’t all that and that there are people there that just don’t know how to communicate and that you can’t trust what one person communicates entirely as it may not even be right.
Ok, so i didn’t get my nice parking spot, i’ll just revert to the normal parking right?
But wait,
Unfortunately the Monash University Student Car Park (SCP) fills up by 9am, on most days, and the median, mean and mode of my classes is 12pm. So this posed a problem on Tuesday when I arrived at Monash at 10am… which was solved by parking by the side of the road that also leads to the SMR Main Entrance, somewhere in the region of a 10 minute walk from campus, somewhere on the road next to the South Quay Lake.
And I wasn’t the only one who had to park there, there were at least another 40 cars there.
Yes i was irritated and angry that I was misinformed and that in order to get a space at the SCP i would need to be there by 8:45am but I will (and have) adjust(ed). My little parking problem alone isn’t a big deal but i’m not alone in this, there are many students who face problems with parking everyday and some to an extent where they are late for class (even though they came plenty early) or miss class, Monash University Sunway Campus needs to do something, maybe buy some land next to the SMR or near the South Quay lake and build a multi level car park with a proper weather proof student walkway to campus.
Unsustainable Growth
How can you keep enrolling more students when you do not adjust the parking capacity to support the growth? Once upon a time, from a year ago, it was possible to get parking between the hours of 9 & 10am, but by 9 it’s not at capacity but over-capacity and spilling out all over the place.
Just let me be clear,
I’m not whining about this. yes I was on a rant for some parts of this post (at the least haha) but like i said, i’ll adjust and deal with this current problem, i’ve had much bigger problems to deal with over the last year than that of this.
Silver Lining?
Well,
It will give me a bigger push to wake up bring & early to get my morning rituals done and be at the monash parking by 8:30am, it’s going to encourage me to plan for the week and stick with it and i’m going to save a little more money.
Parking a week will cost me now RM8, which is RM32 a month which is Rm18 saved. hahaha.
However,
I would really encourage Monash to help ease this major parking problem as it is their concern, it is a direct problem for their biggest stakeholders, the students! and i also hope that SMR will get their act together, their customer service could be much better and so could their communication & transparency.
Happy New Year dear readers and welcome to the first post of 2013 which is coming to you from The Bee at Jaya One with Flat White by my side 🙂
2012 wasn’t a great year but from all the shit that life threw, I made new friends and most importantly I started writing & blogging. It was the writing that really helped me get through 2012.
The last two months of 2012 was really messy and in the mess I didn’t get to write a lot, or have many of my Holy Hour, or quiet times and due to that, I degraded in certain departments of my behaviour and development. But that was so last year, on to the present 😉
I didn’t welcome the new year in the best of moods, I was… Blind sided, and that kept me upset and disappointed through midnight and for most of the first day of the new year. I felt hurt and I don’t think anyone else saw that, all they say was that I was upset, and well, they weren’t wrong but they weren’t right either.
It’s funny that the first post of 2013 should relate to my most popular post of 2013 Those You Love The Most Can Hurt You The Worst To most observers, they would have probably thought that I was making a big deal out of a small issue, or that I wasn’t being fair and well, let them think as such, I really couldn’t care because they truly do not understand why the BlindSide had such impact. In fact, it still upsets me when I think about it.
I guess the problem stems from the fact that I’m emotionally exposed, I don’t keep them on a leash and they then attached themselves to certain events that I look forward to, to familiarities, to people… And when things go south, I’m not prepared for it, it comes as a shock, and then anger takes over to hide the hurt & disappointment. Yes, I know, all this is my own problem, I expect too much of the people closest to me, and why? Maybe it’s because I feel that I try to my best to do that which others expect of me and I expect what I give? Maybe. But whatever it is, I started off the year with a lesson, and a very important one a that, a lesson that needs to be ingrained and is vital to my personal and emotional development. I’m sure that there are others out there who feel the same, and there will be others how disagree. Truly, all that matters is that which can help me Keep Moving Forward.
@arkaysthoughts: 2013 Lesson #1
Minimise your emotional exposure. Try your best to not allow let your emotional position be reliant on others. Learn to dissociate from that which can be disassociated. Learn to care less for that which disturbs, disrupts & aggravates your mental & emotional status.
@arkaysthoughts: 2013 Lesson #2. Make today better than yesterday. Always. http://t.co/VCG1Ahd9
This was not how I wanted to start 2013, i expected something very different with certain people but I will make the beet of it and learn and develop I guess that’s lesson #3:
@arkaysthoughts: 2013 Lesson #3 life is up & down. Aways try to make the best of something. there’s always something to learn from the good, the bad & the ugly.
This post isn’t mean to be a downer or a glass half-empty post. It’s meant to be human. We are, after all, human, and what is it they say about humans?
People will disappoint & hurt you, even the closest of relationships, and the closer they are, they worse they sting. So learn this from me, I’ve made this mistake plenty of times, but the frequency is diminishing, try your best to be minimise your emotional exposure in relation to external factors. Let your feelings revolve around you and how you fair in the world, and how you progress, around things in your control. Minimise your exposure to that which you cannot control. Make it so that when people disappoint you that you don’t take it like me.
Do what you can for the people around you and leave it a that. Stretch for those who stretch for you. Reciprocate that which they give you. There won’t be many people that will do this, so make sure you know who they are, and have your priorities in order.
It is a new year and I have no doubt that there will be great times ahead for me, and of course some lows as well. Just remember to keep your expectation of others in-check and expect more from yourself to keep your drive going and so that you Keep Moving Forward, but of course keep it balanced and realistic. Remember, focus in making today better than yesterday! And taking life a step at a time. i know this isn’t one of my best works of writing, but it is a step forward.
Yes I’m not feeling great now, but that’s life, and I will work to pull myself into a better state.
Again, Happy New Year and the year will Get better 🙂
I’ve been in Thailand over the last week. Spent the first few days in Kaeng Kracang and explored the Natural Parks there and enjoyed the sweet sound of nature and lack of the first world. I was in complete Ghost Protocol, completely disconnected from the world and it felt nice. It was a timely retreat from connectivity, unfortunately I only managed to get one night of good sleep thanks to having to wake up really early after a day of travelling, one night on a thin mattress, another night of food poisoning. But all in all the scenes I saw were incredible. I took loads of pics, as you can see on my Instagram, but unfortunately I could not take a pic of the night sky which was amazing. It says scattered with thousands of little diamonds, some so very bright. It was breathtaking. I was sitting at the back of a pick-up truck heading back to my chalet and spent the whole time looking up, surrounded by pitch blackness of the night. That was probably the best part of the trip, so far, that 30-45 minutes, and although there were others with me, it felt like it was just me, the stars and the cool night wind blowing thorough whatever little hair I have on my head, and it felt great. I left Baan Maka, the chalet I stayed at in Kaeng Kracang, yesterday (but not before enjoying the sunrise there) and journeyed on to Bangkok, which is now where I am. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of big, busy, crowded cities so I’m really missing Baan Maka and it’s solitude.
Right now it’s ok, I’ve found myself a nice, urban, teched-out, “little”shelter inside the Siam Paragon Mall, True Cafe/ True Urban Park – ( @trueurbanpark). I’m away from the noise and bustle, that’s not to say I can’t handle the noise, dirt and mess of the city, I just don’t like lingering in it for too long. I actually took a 40/45 minute walk to this mall from my hotel and it was nice to explore the streets of Bangkok and I think I’ll walk back as well. But for this moment, I’m going to enjoy one of my favourite things to do, chill at a cafe with a nice cup of coffee and write.
So the question is, what should I write? I’ve already given you an intro via a look at what I’ve been up to over the week. I guess it should be something related to my trip.
Well before I took my walk here, I was actually quite reluctant to so anything. I was happy chilling at Baan Maka and The food poisoning took quite a lot out of me, including my sense of exploration, so before I walked over here I just wanted to spend the day in my hotel room, resting, napping, playing angry birds, probably some reading and at the most go downstairs to the little cafe. Getting sick had really cast a bad feeling over the trip and Bangkok’s mess didn’t make my mood any better. I was looking for any excuse to stay at the hotel, and ironically, while I was sitting I realised that I was giving into fear, I didn’t realise it before but when I did I realise that I couldn’t let things be, I had to do something. I knew I had people in this mall, so instead of taking a cab or ‘tuk tuk’ to get here, I walked and I’m glad I did, of course with the help of my iPhone and google maps to prevent me from getting lost. I really got a look at the city, not all of it but at least some of it and I’m going to walk back to see more. Today I almost let the fear instilled by getting sick prevent me from ‘Living the Day’. Of course there’s a time to be resting in bed, that’s when the fear functions to our benefit, to ensure that we can recover, but by yesterday evening I was fine, the fear was overstaying its welcome this morning and was just making me last and preventing me from ‘Putting More Living in my Day’.
Always try to make the most of a your day, Live Life, don’t watch it slip by. It’ll take practice to get to a point where it becomes a part of you, so start practicing.
Now if you’ll excuse me, not that you have a choice haha, I’m going to check out what is supposed to be the largest aquarium in South East Asia or Asia.
I can hear the heavy rain outside as i sit here at Artisan, enjoying my Flat White. I haven’t got back into the full swing of things, having really got back to business, not for the lack of trying, I just need to try harder. The examination month really messed up my system and the holidays haven’t helped me get back to business either. One month has already passed, it’s December and I still haven’t got to blogging regularly. It’s been harder than I thought it would be, waking up early has been more difficult than I remember it and it doesn’t help they memories of last December come back to haunt me (last December, after my finals, was the time my fibromyalgia got really bad and got the best of me) so when I wake up really tired and/or foggy, it scares me and I go back to sleep to hide away from it. The fibro fog has indeed been making cameo appearance recently, now infact. Then there are other nights when I sleep late because of social reasons, which I have indeed cut down on this week and will continue to try to make social events happen earlier. Every time I think about how I haven’t been able to get back to waking up early and blogging regularly it upsets me, and then I start to think that maybe it’s the Fibromyalgia that’s coming back but that maybe jumping to old conclusions,I’ve had the Fibromyalgia at bay for a while now, so I really hope it isn’t that. I think, maybe, I’ve figured it out. I went through a major shift in my daily routine during my examination period and I can’t just expect to get back to what was before. I’ve been doing it wrong, aiming for big steps daily so that I can quickly recover, and that’s what’s been messing me up. I forgot all about small daily improvements to build up the momentum, now, i have very little momentum and I can’t just conjure it out of thin air, I need to rebuild it, I need to reset my foundation. Thankfully because it’s already in me somewhere, it won’t take as long to build it back up. This is quite a human thing I feel, we are all works in progress.
We are All Works in Progress. Don’t expect to get to your goal easily or without friction. There will be good times and bad. Times when you will fall a sleep at the wheel and times when you feel like an MVP, remember that it’s all part of the journey. We aren’t robots and we will make mistakes. I look back to all the times that I went of course over the year, and every time I persisted and got back on track. As Tobias Wolff out it
We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.
There are always going to be curve balls and hurdles in the journey we are each on, it’s not going to be a perfect journey, there will be times we might take our eyes of the road and run face-first into a hurdle or lose focus and get hit by a curve ball, we aren’t perfect, as I have mentioned before many a time, we’ve just got to get back up, learn, recalibrate and get back on the road. Sometimes, we may spend some time on the sidelines, such as what I recently went through. Distracting myself with other things, not thinking about where I wanted to go, afraid of getting back on the road, convinced that I would slip up again, a story that sounds all too familiar, especially over this year. What I’ve got to always remember is that I will slip up and make mistakes and get distracted, I’m never going to be able to erased that completely but I will be able to minimise it, and the last year has been a testament to that. Every time you feel that you can Keep Moving Forward, think about how far you’ve come and how a while back you thought that maybe you couldn’t make it to where you are now. Maybe all you need, is a little breather, we all need them regularly. The problem with these little breathers, as I also know too well, is that we sometimes don’t define how long they should be and we prolong them. On the other hand there is the mistake where we don’t take breathers and keep pushing ourselves till we burn out and then face being out-of-it for a longer term.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t beat yourself up too hard when you mess up, yes beat yourself up a little, remember that we are works in progress and that every time you or I mess up, it’s an opportunity to study and learn why it happened so that we can adjust for it and Keep Moving Forward.
I’m here at Starbucks but instead of a Latte, I’ve reverted back to a Cafe Mocha, and damn does it taste good. Every time I take a sip it takes me back to when I first started drinking Mocha’s while blogging, and the feelings and emotions that were common then. I love this effect, where a certain stimuli triggers off certain memories, sometimes you have a hard time placing the familiar experience and you then spend a few minute cracking your head over it, and finally, once you’ve figured it out, spend a few minutes looking back and reminiscing. As I’m drinking my Café Mocha here, it just reminds me of all the others times I’ve sat at a Starbucks with this same drink, of how I would take a sip and stare into blank space while trying to future out my next post or to find the right word, or of how I would take a sip to fuel my mind as a thought was being expanded and stretched, and how exciting that process was, of how my fingers would have to race across my iPad to keep up with the words, thoughts and lines being churned out from my mind, and then the stillness when it was all over and all I wanted to say was typed out and ready to be posted (the problem always being they I always forgot to spellcheck, working on this problem).
I love memory stimulation, it brings about a more real experience when recalling something. Replaying it in your head is one thing, but when you has external stimuli to trigger it and/or guide you, you live through it again, you re-experience it; whether the stimuli is sound, taste, smell or touch. The mor stimuli involved the more vivid the reliving of a memory can be, and sometimes it feels like you’re living in two worlds at the same time, and you know that can’t be true, but part of you actually believes it, or there is the other situation where you just want to continue reliving the memory because you have been taken to a time where live was better, in a situation where you just want to escape. And as pleasant as reliving a last memory can be (or how bad sometimes) you have to come to terms that it isn’t going to last because for the most part this re-experience depends heavily on the external stimuli, and once that ends, it’s only a matter of minutes before the memory becomes less vivid and in some situation, just a mere recollection of a sequence of events, lacking an feeling or emotion.
Of course, all that I have written above it based upon my own experiences and you by all means may have a different experience entirely, but I’m feeling they this is a very innate human thing, so we will all experience something similar, the event of linking a memory with one or many external stimuli, strongly supported by our emotions. For when we relive a memory, it’s the emotion linked to the memory that finds us first, which then brings all the other pieces together to build this vivid experience. The emotion is the reason for it’s vividness.
Then again, maybe someone has been spiking my drinks so that I ended up tripping? I’ll leave it to you to decide, believe and live what you want.
Good Afternoon guys, I’m here at Starbucks, been while and I’ve realised just how long it’s been. Guess I hit another speed bump.
I’ve been away for a while, a long while, put all this all on hold during my exam period, but I shouldn’t have stepped away for this long and I wouldn’t have needed to if I kept one eye on my academics and study died regularly instead of taking it all to the 11th hour. I was in such a mess, sleeping late, waking late, not exercising as much and so on and after the exams were over, I had rebuilt the old habit of sleeping late and I’ve been feeling messy, really cluttered. Writing kept me in check, kept me in awareness of myself and what I was doing, where I was going, without it I drifted away from the personal progress that I was making. The last month may have been necessary but it wasn’t good for my personal progress which leads me to a flaw in my personal progress, I didn’t put enough focus on academics. So, lesson learnt, must put more focus into my academics so that I won’t be left with a last minute hurdle at the end and have to dump everything else to get passed my exams, again.
So, my main focus for the next week is simple, get back into “shape”. Eating well, exercising regularly, writing regularly, reading, sleeping well, waking up early. Yes, it is Diwali, but I’ll have to work around that, I’ve spent enough time in the mess of mine, I’ve wasted enough time doing nothing, I’ve had enough of not having productivity in my days.
Easier said than done, but so very achievable.
This was just a warm up, taking that step of just doing it, just getting some writing done. my next post will be more back to business as usual.
Sitting in my favourite spot, at my favourite Starbucks with my Caffe Latte, just took a whiff of the scent, what a smell. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the smell of coffee in the morning, not just any cup of coffee, a good coffee. I love it very much, it makes my day feel better, and today it’s made a good morning even better. The simplicity of it, the mere fact that a smell can make one feel better and happy. Just amazing.
I’ve got a simple idea for you today, Make Today’s Work Better Than Yesterday’s . Got this idea from one of my mentors, Mr. Robin Sharma.
Have you ever wanted to get things done and feel productive, but didn’t know how to start or just “couldn’t start”? Well this strategy is brilliant for building momentum to get you going, and it’s jut so simple. Whatever you did yesterday that you deem productive, make it better today or for those things that you deem unproductive, make today better by reducing them. I use this strategy whenever I crash or fall sick and need to get back to productivity and my ideal days.
What I do normally is I watch less tv than the day before, get up earlier than the day before (until I reach my ideal/goal wake up time), sleep earlier than the day before (again until I achieve my ideal point and then stay there), read more, study more and exercise more. I do each progressively until I achieve my Ideal Parameters. To give you a better picture, here are some of my Ideal Parameters: wake up at 6am, sleep at 10:30pm, exercise twice a day totalling a minimum of 1hr, read 50 pages daily at minimum, study for 90 minutes at a go and tv & Xbox at max 1hr. Over the past few days I’ve made great progress with regards to my waking up, sleeping, reading, tv & Xbox and exercise. Unfortunately I haven’t made much headway with the studying but ill get there, one day at a time, as long as I keep improving daily. I find this the best way to get back on track and rebuild any momentum lost, or even rebuild momentum from the ground.
Now, lets say that you’ve achieved and running consistently at your Ideal Parameters, use the above statement to work on other parts, don’t stop but don’t let it cost your Ideal Parameters because, well at least for me, the Ideal Parameters help keep me going, they make sure I’m taking care of myself, that I’m doing the basics so that i can go on to do other things. Never sacrifice, at least for prolonged periods, your Ideal Parameters, because it is that that is helping you Keep Moving Forward.
So go ahead, make today better than yesterday, NOW. don’t wait for tomorrow to start, get started now, and make sure you’re doing it inline with Your Personal Productivity (ill talk about this in a future post).
arkaysthoughts 