Habits review: November 2019
I’m continuing to work on my writing, conditioning and meditation habits. I will also look to introduce a new habit around the “Own the day” theme.
Habits under active development
- 📝 Regular writing
- 🏋🏻 Conditioning sessions
- 🧘🏻♂️ Meditation
📝 Regular writing
I feel like I’m in a good place with my writing habit as I came up with a list of categories for my future posts, which allows me to focus on writing rather than trying to think of things to write about. The regular topics include montly financial summaries, monthly habits reviews, P2P platform reviews, book reviews and new habit introductions. I’ve also started writing more often outside of my predetermined schedule for writing on the train, but I don’t hold myself accountable for that as I don’t want to overstretch myself. I haven’t started writing about software just yet, but it’s coming.
I have been regularly writing on the train for 2 months now, which means that I have spent at least 16 hours doing it!
🏋🏻 Conditioning sessions
I haven’t skipped a single stretching or conditioning session since I’ve started doing it (though I did need to reschedule some to other days because at one point I wasn’t feeling well enough to exercise). I’m very happy about my results! My handstand is progressing well as I’m learning the proper form. I find that I need to work on my balancing skill the most. I will post some pictures of my progress the next time!
🧘🏻♂️ Meditation
I currently do 15 minute sessions every day and feel really good after them. It seems like my life has become a lot more stable after I’ve started meditating. My self-compassion has improved as I have become a lot more tolerant of my mistakes and appreciative of my successes. I started treating myself as I would treat a friend - with a friendly and compassionate attitude, avoiding judgement. I also use that time as an opportunity to reflect on the bigger picture and re-prioritise things that matter to me most - family and friends. I still push myself to get better, but now I do this in a more constructive and sustainable way.
Mastered habits
- 🙆🏻♂️ Morning stretch sessions 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).
🙆🏻♂️ Morning stretch sessions
I’ve been doing them for over 3 months now and I’m confident that they are part of my regular morning routine. I don’t need to spend a lot of effort to do it and I’m very satisfied with the results - my splits and bridge have improved significantly. I’m getting very close to comfortably touching my legs with the head - I can already do it for short bursts of 3-5 seconds, but still need a bit more practice to stay in that position comfortably. My middle split is also progressing well and one great thing is that I no longer feel a persistent “pain” in my right leg which I felt when I was regularly doing it a year ago. I think I might have had an injury that didn’t have an opportunity to heal properly back then, but a long break helped it.
Habits wishlist
I thought a bit more about the “Own the day” theme and I thought I can start working on it early (I don’t have to wait for next year) by focusing on small parts of my daily routine. I particularly want to have a look at my eating and evening habits as I feel that my morning is in a relatively good spot.
In the evenings I want to replace my “watching TV shows” habit with a reading habit. There are a bunch of great books that I haven’t read and need to catch up on. It would act as a gateway to my “learning something every day” habit.
As for my eating habits, lunch is the main culprit as I haven’t established a healthy pattern. 4 days out of 7 I eat in the office and I’m not confident that I’m getting my nutrition right. I want to be as confident about my lunch as I am about my breakfast, where I already know plenty of options for nutritious, filling and healthy meals. At home we are eating healthy meals, but lunch and evening meals are still a mess. My wife has done a great job of keeping us healthy, but I need to start helping her as opposed to bringing “the good (sweet) stuff”.