Goals / Passion 2017

As covered in my earlier post too..
This year I'm not going to set Goals. As I have tried setting Goals for past few years. I could achieve some of them. But never found enough motivation to achieve all or majority of them. So I'm going to hit the nail on its head and set my goal as the same thing which is lacking all those years.
PASSION
The issue however is that I'm not a passionate person at all by nature. I have always been a very aloof person. I could not any passion work pursuing at all. So as a great speaker has said (in Tedex) "Fake it till you become it". I'm going to create my passions for me. In fact on second thoughts, this does not seems so absurd a notion. I think the goals that I keep on setting year and year and somehow reflection of my passion only. Its just that I'm so trapped in the rat-race that these passions are buried somewhere deep inside.

So without much ado (Since I don't want to spend whole of 2017 in planing to plan only). Here are my goals aka Passions.

Physical Health

• Reducing weight, target range 70 - 72 : My current wt stands at 76.5 kg. So that around 5-7 kg weight loss or roughly 10% reduction.
• Participate in Delhi half marathon : Brisk walking / running is one of the fitness activity I can indulge in more often as per my convenience. But my ultimate goal is to participate in half marathon. And I live in Delhi so Delhi half marathon is the best bet for me. Another convenient thing is that its normally scheduled in end of year making it best suited for new year resolution.
• Weight training : I would really like to bulk up specially in arms. Hence I plan to follow weight training also Even though following this along with weight reduction is tough.
• Yoga / Paranayam : For past many years. I'm constantly trying to follow my fitness related goals. Unfortunately there are not much results to show off. The only positives are that I have managed to stop my weight and waistline from deteriorating and almost eliminated my back pain issues. The negative on the other side is that it has been all about physical fitness, abs, muscle. Leaving the other aspects behind. Even though I believe and sometimes practices meditation and have done bit of Yoga in school. Still this area is more of less neglected one. This year I plan to follow Yoga regularly.

Mental Health

• Blogs : Well that what I'm doing right now. I plan to keep up with blogging and improve it further both qualitatively and quantitatively. Target is 12-15 post.
• Books : I love reading books, Hence its one of the goals I achieve very easily. However this year I will go for quality instead of quantity only. One of my target is classics provided they are easy to read. Target is 12-15 boooks
• Writing my own book : Yes I still nurture this madness in-spite of having encountered writers block many times last year. How and when I'm going to do this; I don't know. But I plan to at-least write first draft for my book this year.
• Recreation : I wanted to be able to play one musical instrument and my choice is Guitar. I have an on and off try on this earlier but could not go very far. You would find this in my new years list. This year I can get it off the block (Hopefully)

Goals 2016 appraisal

New year is the time for resolutions, but it is also the time for looking back at the goals for last year. Perhaps analyzing last year goals is even more important than making goals / resolutions for this year. So I'm going to analyse the last year's goals and track the progress against each goal too.
Also if I can draw some lessons out of the status (passed / failed) of each goals. So the list of my last year goals are as below.

1) Books - 15 books
Now this is really interesting. Because last year I end up reading 50 books. Yes that correct, I read 50 books last year. How it leads up to that is also pretty interesting. If I remember correctly I ready around 20-25 books in 2015. Then I was commuting by metro to my office and has plenty of free time to read books. As it happened; I changed job at end of 2015. Now I have to drive daily to my office plus very little free time is available. So I though to reduce my goal.
But I have to attend few months training in Malaysia where has lot to free time as there was no family / friends to spend time with. Hence I spend most of my time in reading books. That I could have utilized this time in complete other neglected goals in another story though.

In fact I read so many books that now I'm displaying withdrawal symptoms plus now my inclination is more toward quality read too.

PS : I took subscription of Kindly unlimited last year wherein I can read unlimited books but was really disappointed with the quality of books. Not going to repeat this mistake now. As for free books. Well I have bookbub.

2) Blog - 12 posts (full articles)
Well another goals, Where I still have some progress. I completed 9 blog posts compared to target of 12. There also I could see a pattern. No post in staring of year due to new job complication. Then pretty much on track for one post a month. But in the end of year again can't keep up due to adjustment with hectic travelling once I was back in India.
The good thing is that I stayed true to my resolution of writing full post only. Not some random quote just to make up the number
Though i still wants to write more and longer.
PS : I also tried to write to book but failed spectacularly [writers block!]

3) Physical fitness - Delhi half marathon, swimming
I could not partcipate or even prepare for Delhi half marathon. So a big failure there. But swimming I still could achieve somewhat as my my apartment in Malaysia has indoor pool. I tried satisfactorily there as lean backstroke and tried my hands at other strokes too.
PS : The big elephant in the room here is reducing weight. My target was to reduce from 78 to 75. I even reached 72.2 when I was in Malaysia due to food issues. But weight gain was back with a bang once back in India. At end of last year; my weight was 75.7. So still did satisfactory I would think. My overall fitness leaves a lot to be desired though

4) Communication - Toastmasters (one stage)
Big zero is this regard. I can consol myself by saying that reading books and blogging (my top two goals) are also related to communication. But the main aims herein was either to write a book or give speeches at Toastmaster.Both of which I could not achieve.

5) Qualification - Corres. degree (optional - MBA)
No progress at all

6) Financial - Planning, Equity
No progress at all

7) Recreation - Learn one new hobby (Guitar)
No progress at all. Perhaps one of my biggest disappointment. Missing out on such goals indicates that you are really getting mechanical. It has been on my to-do list for years but still not able to make any headway with it.

8) Technical - Learn one new software (Solid works)
No progress at all. Looking to replace this software with another one (ABB robo studio) but the problem is that I don't have the license key for the same

9) Entrepreneurship - Prepare business plan with road-map
No progress at all. In this particular case I' like a deer in Headlight. Have absolutely no idea how to move further in this goal. Desperately lagging behind and but I now seriously doubt if I really has it in me to be a Entrepreneur at all!

Well it does not look promising at all. 3 out of 9. In-fact its quite a revelation for me. Before actually doing this exercise, I was pretty sure that I did alright last year. Looking back at last year. I could relate with so many things I did last year. So many achievements!!. The only problem being that the achievement were not in line with my goals at all. 
That the main essence of Rat-race. Just doing so many things give you a sense of accomplishment. Wherein the main thing 
Are you goals aligned with the main Aim.

Also perhaps some of my goals were not so important for me so ignite the fire within. 
For this year, I'm going to set goals that are synonymous with passion.
My goals will be few (perhaps I'm going to divide my goals into primary and secondary goals.

So I need to answer an even more difficult question that what are your goals.
The question is. what are the things I'm really passionate about.

PS : 3 out of 9 makes it 33.3 % which is the infamous pass percentage in our schools. Perhaps the analogy is befitting in my case too. I can say I just about get passed in this exam But I need to pull my socks for next session (2017) which is already started

Blank slate - Again!

So we have that day again!
That day when you can feel the positivity in the air. When almost everyone is happy and motivated. Well almost everyone. Except for some people who are perpetually in pessimistic state.
The day for planning with renewed vigor.
The day when we shed the baggage of procrastination, frustration, negativity and pursue the journey ahead with zeal.
Its the first day of new year!
Normally people take stock of their plans for last year, make resolutions for new year regarding whatever they wanted to achieve in coming year.
I think before all that, better to soak in all the positivity, be grateful that we have got a blank slate again so that we can start afresh.
Its a chance to let go of everything that was bogging us down.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this new beginning is not limited to 1st of January only. The pattern that I have observed is our mood swings are like see-saw or sinusoidal waveform. Hyperactive on start of new year but deflated like balloon out of air on the sign of first hurdle or setback which sometimes can happen as soon as the first day only.
I  think it happens with everyone and I'm no exception,  but whenever it  happens to me I'll keep in mind two things

1)  This new year  is like a  blank  diary of 365  pages.  If  first page is torn or  soiled that it  does not means that you cannot create something good on  remaining pages

2)  Its imperative to set positive goals not the negative  ones,  This  positive or negative I  does not mean positive and negative in moral sense. for me negative goals are with magic word "No", "Zero" or "Without". The problem with such goals lies in old adage that says "Not thinking about something is also thinking about same thing only". 

One of the main endeavor is my life has been is to get out of this rat - race. But unfortunately to get out of the rat-race also, You have to run faster. And new year is the time when the whistle goes off.So this time is like
Get. Set , Go!