As some of you already know, I am an experimental guy who loves to do 30+ days of challenges to develop healthy and productive habits. So far, I have completed 30+ challenges, and many more are on the way.
I called this story “the first week” on purpose. Since the first week of the new year has already begun, many people have made resolutions, set new objectives, tested novel ideas, and have a to-do list for the upcoming twelve months.
I read an article yesterday by the very successful writer Ryan Holiday, who stated that a year is artificial. Because there are many ways to track a year: fiscal year, academic year, Chinese year, etc
“The new year is not real. It’s an artificial, made up event. Nothing has really changed. Nothing has actually happened.” — Ryan Holiday
I’ll be sharing my first week of life in this story, during which I spent a lot of time with family. I read a lot as well. Reading for two to three hours a day is one of my objectives for this year. As you may already be aware, reading well is a prerequisite for improving as a writer or in almost any other initiative.
Why?
A good reader can always bring way more ideas to the table than someone who has never embraced reading as a habit.
Here are a couple of ideas you might want to reflect on your first week.
Past Year
I had a wonderful year. I had massive financial success, bought two properties, invested, learned, and also failed a lot.
Despite all that achievement, I lost my father, who was among the most loving people I have ever met. Achievement feels like nothing; the person who would love and encourage me the most on my success is gone. During his open heart surgery, I lost him. He was only sixty-two years old. The 20th of February, when we lost him, will always be a sad day in my life. I find it hard to believe that life is too frail at times.
After my dad passed away, my mother changed. She used to talk a lot more when my father was alive, but not anymore. She has been thinking about my dad nonstop and misses him a lot; after all, they spent over 35 years together, through good times and bad.
New Year Intentions
Although I wouldn’t say I like the word intention, it expresses what I want to say. I’ve separated my goals into personal and professional categories.
My personal goal is to walk 10,000 steps or more each day, despite the rain or shine. We have a lot of snowfall every season where I live in a hill station. I’m taking up Dr. Heburman’s challenge to walk with a 30-pound vest in order to increase the difficulty of my walks.
My goal as a professional is to write more and perform at my highest level. I discovered the hard way that small victories are crucial to achieving anything significant in life. Stop and celebrate them with your friends and family.
Embracing Change
I am a pretty active guy who loves to enjoy outdoor activities, and in winter, due to bad weather, I love to hit the gym. Here is the tiny change I made this year: we bought a home, and I installed a brand-new home gym in the garage. It’s one of the best investments I made this year.
It’s not cheap, but it’s there to help me physically fit.
Note: I am a huge fan of Dan Go (Fitness writer and trainer), and he says to live a long life, you need to walk and live a healthy life and embrace weight training 3–4 times a week.
Volunteer
Here is another thing: I postponed a lot last year; this week, I made a couple of calls and sent emails to help more in the community. As I love to do hikes, I offered to help anyway to keep our trails clean.
Relationships
Spend more time with your significant other. I’ve made a conscious effort to spend a lot more time with my partner/family this week and beyond.
Your mental health will benefit greatly from it. I want to make sure that my time in the office is at most 9 hours. It’s time for me to stop spending more than 12 hours daily in the office in front of screens.
This excellent book focuses on essentialism and will show you how to cut down on your time on nonessential related tasks. Here is the book title.
