To be honest I didn’t achieve any goals this year.
Yet this turned out to be the most productive year.
How:
Instead of a big goal
I focused on daily increments.
Instead of spending a lot of energy on my goals, I put effort on daily work.
Every year I have worked on the false notion that my goal could be reached by brute force.
But reality.
Life is unpredictable.
We do not have the luxury to work on big goals without compromising on health, mental stress and big sacrifices.
So everyday I set simple realistic goals.
Spiritual Part:
— Daily prayer
— Daily scripture reading
— A personal group(ME and God- basically a journal)
In fact I don’t really think about it. I have never missed Bible reading and praying for the last decade.
This year I have also created a prayer list. ( I even read a book on effective prayer 🙂 )
— My friends name
— My mentors
— My goals
— My needs
— Anybody who needs prayer.
This way I don’t forget anyone. They might never know, but praying for others not only blesses the other person, but keeps me grounded and filled with gratitude.
Physical part:
I ran everyday
Goal is to reach 10 K steps daily.
In fact I made very good progress in the first half of this year.
Then gained weight.
Probably should do more strength training.
But the energy often those long, sweaty runs, I could write an epic after them.
Working in the physical part.
Mental Part:
Daily I read a small portion for a self-help book and share my notes to my accountability group.
I try to implement the lesson.
And of course I follow reading breaks. (Learnt from Teddy Roosevelt the infamous president for reading a book a day)
After writing session can be boring every hour for 15 minutes I alternate.
-Fiction
-Non-Fiction
Travelling Audio books.
And whenever I have reached 70% of a book I sprint and complete it. This enabled me to read 52 books. Not bad eh.
Writing part:
My Bread and Butter is knowledge work.
So I have to read daily.
And write daily.
For me daily goals are:
Fiction: Minimum 250 words.
Non-Fiction: 3000 words minimum
Practice daily: (Daily poetry, Drabble, comics)
In a year time they add up like crazy.
So I have spiritual, mental, physical, and writing daily habits in place. This lets me accomplish a lot.
Tip:
Wake up on the same time, and sleep on the same time. (Those are the most productive days)
I wake 4.30 or 5.15
Sleep 9.30.
But still working with consistency. 7 hours of sleep it is enough for me.
Finally what are the the things accomplished this year.
– Running/Walking- 926 KM- Average 4km daily.
-Read 52 books.
-Writing
100 Lamentation poems.
100 Inspiring poems
150 Modern Psalms poems.
30 Sonnets
26 Short Stories
30 Drabbles.
1 draft of non-fiction book(Personal branding)
Published Poetry collection.
Half-way through my Children novel( for my nieces, what to publish before they grow up )
Almost 400 students certified through DRH training.
Wrote around 200K-300K words for my clients.
Saved and gave away Charity cash without the person knowing that I helped them. ( Need to earn more to give away more)
Got my PHD this year.
Trained for NET
Trained for IELTS
Conducted FDP’s for faculty.
So what do I hope to accomplish this year.
Of course
DRH expansion— going for WORLD DOMINATION.
To publish a novel, 2 poetry collection, short story collection, non-fiction book.
Read as many as I want. ( But do meaningfully)
So what’s my philosophically foundations.
I think about death a lot.
What if – it ends soon.
Will my life be in vain?
These questions haunt me.
Helps me in focusing on what is important moves me away from people pleasing and taking more risks.
In a nutshell, my philosophy
-Heart Within, God Overhead. (Do your best)
– All I got is this day ( Capiem Diem)
– Trust no future( Present is reality)
– Remember you are gonna die( Memento Mori)
-And also what is the point of gaining the whole world and losing your soul (Love God, Love People even your enemies(very difficult) still learning)
– Be super humble( you are mortal, what I know is nothing in this infinite universe)
Of course the biggest enemy is ourselves.
I need to fight self doubt.
My unbearable ability to feel things. (Poets sensibilities is a curse)
My good friends depression and anxiety. ( The trick is to not engage with them. They come and they will leave. If you engage they stay like unwelcome guests. And of course when they visit I make good use of it, I sit and write poems, and stories. ( I have learnt to cope with them).
This year I left my secure teaching job.
I was so scared.
Will I survive?
Will anybody help me?
So much of self doubt.
Financials took a hit, but slowly getting a handle of things now.
But it isn’t bad. It will work out, I know.
I know it will workout for you too.
Keep marching on.
Happy 2025