My experiment with Job searching

Job searching, the ubiquitous constant in my life from last 14 years. Being unhappy from job has been my constant frame of mind now. The novelty of new job wears off as soon as few months. In fact in my case it has been as low as few days. Which happened in my current job only. I realised in two days after my joining only that I have made a mistake. In the hindsight that was around 3 years back. The situation is definitely better now. Looks like the worst has passed now. Or you can say that I have accustomed to the situation now. Have built a nice cocoon around myself
Though I'm obdurate in sticking to the same job. The realisation do creep in underlining the precariousness of my situation. Though I had my eyes and ears open for any opportunity for the whole time. The main impetus comes last year after February when I completed two years in my current job. I felt its sufficient time not to be branded as frequent job hopper. Plus when you see only stagnation in your carrier ahead and your salary is plateaued. Then its time to renew the job searching. 
In past year, there are few opportunities created by me which are pretty serious options. To my bad luck, I could not convert any of them. It was very depressing to fail having come so close to desired outcome. In fact in one of the opportunity, the discussion was going on well into this year also and very recently (few days ago) it concluded not in my favour due to target salary very low on their part. In fact my mood-swings are like an YoYo right now. Swinging between stable frame of mind and utter despair. Time and again I had to remind myself that financial growth and monetary considerations are very high on my priority list right now. All the struggles and sacrifices that I have made is just to earn more money. And hence it was very natural on my part to reject the offer letter with minuscule salary increase. 
My effort over the course of last year was a huge improvement over the low bar set by me , when it comes of job change / interview. Last year I actually actively reached out to my network to find out if they have any suitable job opportunity. There were many communications which were awkward for me to initiate but I nonetheless stuck to it. I had good exposure to telephonic and physical interview and faced my share of difficult questions. I reached out to my ex bosses, Some of them very difficult to get along-with whom I was not very keep to talk to even in my previous company. I reached out to my ex colleagues whom I have not had any discussion in years. I faced difficult , dreaded questions on my ability (since I was applying for difficult profile). And I took lot of leaves (some at very short notice) to attend the interview. Even though everything was not hunky dory. I have to request to postpone some of the interview, as it was not possible for me to take leave at such a short notice. Or something very urgent was planned on that very day. Or I was not in station on that very day. I had enough evidence to point out this has cost me on more than one occasion. I distinctly remember one job opportunity wherein I could not attend the interview on said dates due to some urgency. And the rescheduling call never came after that. Later on I came to know that one of my ex-colleagues is selected for that role.
The efforts are going on this year too to change the job. I do feel depressed and frustrated some time. But fortunately those instances of brooding are few and far in between. Most of the time I concentrate more on creating new opportunity which helps in keeping me away from depression. I still some discussion going on regarding the opportunity. 
Another alternate I"m mulling over for quite some time now is to be an entrepreneur. Which seems like a final resort to come out of the vicious circle. There have been many complication regarding the financial risk attached considered EMI stress. Plus I'm unable to draft a plan or strategy regarding how I will go about staring my own business. 
The third and most important spoke in this wheel is regarding updating yourself with new knowledge, skill or certification. This is like the elephant in the room that I don't want to acknowledge. I do try to convince myself with excuses like amount of overwork. type of profile, long commute to work leaving very little time for anything else. But the harsh truth remains that I'm not adding any appreciable value to myself. I'm not making investment of myself which is going to help me in long term. I have identified many areas for personal and professional enrichment but the progress on the goals is conspicuous by its absence.
Perhaps this (and not my current job) is the primary reason for my frequent bouts of depression. My experience with my previous job (when I had lot more time) and a brief glance over my schedule on vacations / leaves (when again I'm not so busy), tell me that its more a case of lack of willpower than lack to time. In my current job also, I have identified one area where I want to gain professional expertise (simulation). I had the tools (software) and knowledge resource (Internet). But still not able to make any real progress. 
While I'm pretty regular now on seeking for new job opportunities and the dismal result are not due to lack of trying on my part. My failure to learning new skills is more worry-some.

2019

That time is here again. The time when positivism without any basis is shoved down your throat. When everyone is busy painting rosy picture for the future conveniently ignoring the failures of the past. The time when your phone's gallery is choked with greeting cards, best wishes of success, prosperity, happiness. The time when I write at least one blog post pondering upon the goals / vision and relative progress against the same. The time of New Year. 

I'm writing this blog since 2012 (In fact I just realised that its 7 years now since maintaining the blog). I'm averaging around 8-9 blog posts per year, except for 2014 where I wrote only 4 blog-post. That was until last year only, Last year I posted only two blog posts in totality. Which is shockingly low even by my dismal standards? To put things in perspective, my target was 12 blog-posts this year- which translates into 1 post per month. I wrote one post in January (when I was on track), then second in March (when I was just one month late). And then for last nine months, there was no blog-post. All my momentum went down the drain. In fact, last year was the biggest failure where my goals were totally stalled. Writing the blog post was one of my recurring goals for every year and it was not taking much of effort and time. 

The same can be said about my second goal of reading books. Reading books is one of my favourite pass-time. I could and had practically finished books in one sitting or one night. I hit my peak in 2016 when I read 50 books in one year (I took kindle unlimited subscription for that year). As I was free in 2016 with nothing to do in weekends due to a variety of reasons. I followed that up with 30 books in 2017 and set a target of 20 books for last year. But surprisingly I failed in achieving this goal also. Excited and perhaps complacent by my past records in reading books. I had decided to add a bit of variety this year and venture into some non-fiction and books apart from my stable diet of thriller books. The culmination of all this is that I finished with 12 books only last year.

There were some more goals that I listed last year like participating in half marathon, writing my own book. These were not even touched last year.

One of the resolutions made by me last year was that I will not set any goal again if I cannot achieve these goals. I'm maintaining this blog since 2012 (as stated earlier too) and writing one blog on New Year Resolutions (with bells and whistles) since 2015. For last 4 year, I have been trying different takes on motivating myself and convince myself against all proofs that coming year will be different from the one gone by. 

Hence from this year 2019, there will be no new goals anymore. Its more imperative to get to the root of the failure against new year resolutions that creating more resolutions. One of the while elephants in the room that nobody wants to talk about is time for reflection in my daily schedule or the lack of it. For majority of last year, I did not even have enough time to sleep, let alone finding time for anything else.

Proper time management is one thing I need to work upon, however cliché that may sound. The first and foremost thing is to take out slice of time out of 24 hours which currently seems impossible with my job. Changing the job should have been my first goal / resolution from last 2 - 3 years. But I have been afraid to put this explicitly in the list. Even though I'm working continuously for better job. Well its high time I take the bull by the horn and decide that I will be changing my job this year for better salary and better work-life balance. Last year I had two or three serious opportunity to change over but unfortunately could not realise any. Currently also one serious opportunity is under discussion and hopefully I could achieve one major landmark at staring of year itself. Keeping fingers crossed for now.

The second and equally important part is to work on the willpower so that I don't waste the tiny sliver of idle time available in jam packed schedule. I have been guilty of this in past. Wasting time. 

That's all for now. It’s the first few days of the New Year. I'm lucky to have bunch of leaves around near year time. I'm on leave since 29 December. That makes it 5 days on a trot. I feel well rested now. And hopefully will start the new year on high note. And maintain the momentum.

2018

Deja Vu now, time is flying so fast that I find myself at the same juncture again. On the threshold of new year.
Somehow the time is flying so fast that the year gone by is over in a flash. Still for most of time in last year it was a drag, especially the time spend in traveling between office and home.
Going by the most stereotypical of stereotype, I should be euphoric right now, full of positive energy and intent, ready to pounce upon the list of resolutions, with my confidence at all time high.
But this is not the case right now, on the contrary, I'm more into the depressed frame of mind right now, partly as now its around one month since New Year day. And partly because I'm doing this activity for last many years now but not able to get satisfactory results ever. And gradually you realize that you are running out of options . alternatives. Options / alternatives to convince yourself that this year will be different in terms of goals achieved. Options / alternatives to setting the goals or achieving the goals differently.

Since last many years, My goals are more or less same, Its the same topics that are making up the entries. So the good thing is that my priorities are same. The bad thing is that I don't seems to have any clue regarding how to achieve them.
Every year at this crucial juncture of time; I'm faced with this dilemma regarding how to paint a rosy picture whereas all the evidence from last year points otherwise. Now the situation is like that I'm running out of all the excuses. As I said earlier; my goals are more or less, I dont want to change them for the simple reason that I'm unable to achieve them. Hence the fault lies somewhere in my method of achieving them.
Hence my new year goals for this year should also contains some idea regarding what different method I'm going to employ this year for achieving the goals. One of the learning from past years is that I'm tried really complicating the things but It wont work. Hence better to keep it simple and sticking to basics. My goals the good and relevant. I still cant find anything wrong with them. Probably they are too many to concentrate, Probably I have not given a thought regarding how to achieve them. Plus one year is a long time to set and stick to same goals throughout.
Also I make this promise that if I failed this year too. I will not set the same goals next time. It looks really superficial to keep on setting the same goals when you can't fulfill them.
So I'm going to start with small list and probably expand it later depending on the progress made.

So here goes nothing :
Health (Reducing weight / FAT, Participating in Half Marathon)- 

Judging solely by my blog posts at starting of every year. It seems that health is my top priority. Whereas the reality is that the only major effort I had made towards this goal is writing lot of blog post on this topic. Probably a good exercise for the fingers. Regarding the weight fluctuation, As per my height the ideal weight should be around 70kg. I had touched the peak of 80-82 at one point of time when I had no control over my tongue and low of 72-73 when I was in Malaysia and having food related issues. At the staring of this year, I was at 75.5 kg. My goal is same as last year; to reduce it to 70-72.
What different I can do this time -
Major part will be to regularly monitor the same. Simple as it may sound, I was not able to do this last year. Also need to break the goal into smaller segment; i.e total weight reduction target of 5.5 per year translates into around 0.5 weight loss every month. I will be tracking it this time and taking appropriate steps.
The second part of same goals is regarding building stamina as only weight reduction is not enough. Due to my sedantry and unhealthy life-style. Weight increase is an issue but overall lack of health / stamina is a bigger issue. I was able to make some small progress in first part of weight reduction but absolutely nil in second part. I had identified running / half marathon as mean to achieve this goal long time ago but still not able to make any progress. Part lethargy, part genuine shortage of time ; but I cant even start any work on this goal. Not even in the starting month on year when normally I at least make an effort to start some work on my goals. buoyant by the new year motivation (Maybe due to winter conditions).
What different I will do this time -
This is tricky,For once I need to really start this part. Half marathon is 21 km and its variant for beginners is around 10 km. I dont think I can even run 1 km right now. Once I get started, then only further planning makes sense.

Reading / Writing (Blog posts / Books reading target / Writing book)
My book reading target should not even be in this post as I have been achieving this target since last many years without any great difficulty. I love reading books and for this one particular hobby I've been able to find time also (Thanks  to ebooks!). The reason this still figures in my to-do list is that I intend to maintain this hobby and moreover now I seek to move towards quality from quantity. Just meeting the no of books to be read for a particular year is not a big deal. I could literally finish books in one night. But those the books from a particular genre. Thrillers / mythfiction books only. What I want to do is to broaden my horizon. To include books from other genre. To read books that are difficult to read. Hence my book reading target reads 20 books this year. But I'll be keeping close eye to type of books to be read. I may omit books which I have read but not good enough as per me. And at least 6 books will be away from my comfort zone. Only then this target will be deemed completed.
Regarding tracking the progress, We have goodread (https://www.goodreads.com/) which does more than decent gob of tracking the book reading challenge
Second part is writing blog posts. As I love reading books. I look upto the writers and aspire to become one. One of the starting block for the same is Blog posts. Another advantage this platforms offers me to vent out the feeling / opinions / anger that otherwise I keep within myself. Moreover since I'm a very introvert kind of person with very limited friend circle. Blogging offers me a opportunity to sort / introspect myself and remove the cobwebs in my thinking. Here again, if we go by trends from past year. The highest I have achieve is 8-9 posts per year and lowest is 4 posts. My target for some years has been 12 blog posts (one per month) but I'm not yet able to achieve the same. Regarding what different I will go this year. Honestly I dont have answer to this question. The blogger itself does fine job of tracking the monthly progress specially if my goals is also monthly. But still I'm not able to achieve the goals. Major excuse that I give myself is lack of time and mental peace. Last year I started this goal with a bang. I was way ahead of target but then I become complacent and at the end of the year, I was not in right frame of mind for blogging. This year I can only strive to be more disciplined toward this goal.
Another related goal is regarding writing my own book. I'm well aware regarding how difficult this goal is. Perhaps the most difficult of all my goal and definitely not the one, That I could finish in one year. But my main problem is that I have not even started any work on this. Considering the long road to be traveled. It is absolutely imperative to take first few steps at the earliest.
This year. I will be tracking this on monthly basis and force myself to meet some monthly target toward this goal

The Year gone by - 2017

It’s that time of the year again. Time for making resolutions with our motivation at all-time high. The time when you are positive like never - before regarding achieving your goals related to health, carrier among other areas.

It’s the first day of new year. Fortunately, it’s not a working day for me (one small ray of light amongst employee unfriendly policies formulated by my company). Hence, I can afford to be in a somewhat relaxed frame of mind. Have some moments of pause before the usual madness and rat-race starts. For the past few years; I have been following the practice of setting goals / resolution for the new year and striving to follow them. Although the progress is not too great. But like I said before, you get a blank slate this time of the year where-in you can write whatever you want.

But before that, need to look at progress against goals set for last year.

I set a lot of goals last year (Eight! in total) and divided them into two main categories of Physical health and Mental health.

Physical health was regarding improvement in health and stamina. The obvious stereotypes of reducing weight (from 76.5 to 72) was there besides my regular entry for last many years in the form of attending half marathon. The pending two entries was also very much cliché. Those were Yoga and weight training (Though antagonistic to each other; I did not even start either one of them).

Regarding weight reduction target. I made some honest efforts towards achieving this goal. Heck I even tried GM diet plan; which off course did not go well. More about that is covered in another Blog post. In the end the only take away was that I formed a habit of drinking Green tea. Now it tastes less bitter than before. As for tangible results. The weighing scale now reads around 75.4 as per below snapshot. Which is way short of target (70-72) though some improvement from my weight at starting of year.

Regarding my second target of half marathon. It was a big failure just like last year and the year before. Strangely I’m reluctant to drop it from my bucket list even though I’m not able to show any appreciable progress against it (some jogging in room and brisk walk in the park once in the blue moon is not counted as progress)

Yoga and weight training is again big failure. Just like the previous target of half marathon. I could only achieve some stretching and Tadasan (both just before bath) which I’m ashamed to even term as first step. To be able to call it as first step towards achieving the goals. I need to do so much more than just stretching and one simple primary school grad Asan. Somewhere in the middle of the year. I was at the stage of doing Surya-Namaskar and more rigorous stretching including push up. But then I dropped it just like that. Whether you call it Procrastination or any thing else. I was not able to keep up the tempo and take it to next level.

The second category of my goals for last year was Mental Health. And in the category, I have four goals of Blogs, Books, Writing and hobby.

The first target was blogging. This is something which I have started somewhere in 2012. Since then I’m trying to take it to next level. Since 2012 I’ve been averaging 8-9 blog posts per year except for 2014 when I could do only 4. For last year my target as 12-15 posts. And the achievement against target was well… 8 blog posts. The only solace there is that these 8 posts are proper blog posts this time unlike previous some years when I could pass on some random quote as blog posts. Whereas this year I strive to keep at least 1000 words as minimum word-count for the Blog post. It would have been nice to have at-least 9 posts this year so than I could match the maximum limit but alas it was not to be. I did not even have a blog post on my birthday which was a common occurrence since last many years.

The next target was books. The one target that I not only achieve but over exceed. And this the pattern since last many years. In fact, I should not even put this in goals anymore if this is so easy to achieve. The reason I put it there is because it is very important for me to be a well-read person. I tried to shift my focus from quantity to quality this year but that is something very difficult to measure. In nutshell, the books target was revised frequently upwards only and still I was able to complete it.

Similarly, my last two targets of mental health were utter failure. Those were writing my own book and developing one recreational hobby respectively. I don’t even have any excuse or anything to give consolation for these targets. Simply put, there was no progress or start for this aim. Period.

In the hindsight, the year gone by was very eventful no doubt. I was very busy throughout the year even if the priorities and productivity was not right. I also made perhaps one of the biggest decision of my life of buying a house. The experiences involved in house hunting, finalization and buying are so myriad and vivid that it will warrant more than one blog posts. Perhaps I will cover more about that in other post.

But comparing to progress made against the goals. It was very disappointing to say the least.

Right now, my new year goals seem to fulfil the purpose of making up a few entries in target for no of blog posts.

Other than that, its relevance is really in doubt now.

PS: One of the quote that I read very recently was something on the lines of

“Living same year 75 times in not called life”. It stayed with me. It has become sort of pattern now to set goals every year. Next time onward; I need to see what can be done differently to ensure better results.

Arranged Job v/s Love Job

I'm a self confessed book addict or book worm. Off-late I have been reading most of the books which can fall into a particular genre which is Marriage. It an amusing take of Millennials on the very concept of arranged marriage. Normally the plot is like this. The main protagonist in almost all the cases will be an independent working woman (Sexist thinking...) albeit very traditional and family oriented in her outlook. The family is shown as really orthodox in their thinking and gradually the protagonist will mold them. Overall tone of the books is fun and quirky. It has been light and easy read.
One of the noticeable things is the family pushing for arrange marriage and our protagonist rooting for love marriages. However as I was reading these books. It got me thinking into another direction altogether. As I'm already married (arranged marriage) more that 9 year back. Hence I cant really relate with this dilemma between love marriage and arranged marriage. But somehow the situations described in the books and dilemma looks very relatable to me in another aspect. Which is my job.
Even though I'm not a very professional minded person who puts his job above the personal life. Still the job plays a very important role in our life; for a very simple fact that roughly more than 50 percent of our day is spend in the Job. Though in my case the time spent in the job is around 70 percent. Unfortunately , whatever time is left in home is also mostly devoted in thinking about jobs (pending timelines, targets etc) only.
Not only that, What job we choose is the equally important decision as the life partner we choose. For the simple fact that over a period of time,  you job shaped your behavior, your personality among other things. As the selection of wrong life partner can makes your life a living hell. Similarly if you are stuck in wrong job with negativity all around and viciousness in the atmosphere, you will find yourself in a nightmare with no chances of coming out soon.
Even though it seems like that you can change your jobs with much more ease as compared to changing the life partner. However I can say with my personal experience to be not the case anymore. In a way as people keeps on stuck in an unhappy relationship with their life - partner for years, not able to summon enough courage for walking out. In the same manner, people are stuck with same kind of jobs for years not able to move out. And it not only about changing the job and landing up with another. Sometimes the solution is about doing on your own. Being a Entrepreneur. Our society seems to be much more liberal towards love-marriages than starting our own business. Your family, friends and relatives are still somewhat supportive or dont have any problem in case you want to choose your own life partner and even in arranged marriage nowadays people get to choose their own spouse at-least from a the available options.
But on the other end, if you come from service family in middle class. Then becoming a doctor or engineer is your only chance at salvation. And off course dont even dream of doing something ridiculous as staring your own venture. In their eyes, its a cardinal sin forsaking the security and doing something your love. Its very difficult

Personally I'm a very reserve and sober kind of person. The person who always feels awkward with large gathering of people, Not good at first impressions at all. So the template is pretty much set for me as I will fall into the most stereotypical of stereotypes. Arranged marriage off course, That too the girl will be selected by someone in the family and first girl that I'll see will be selected. Similarly on job front also its pretty straightforward, Like every good parent abiding son of society abiding parents, I will take Non-medical in school even if I used to like arts. The choice of taking engineering is also made even before I come of senses.
Obviously the journey has not been easy after that both in marriage and jobs especially as I could not crack the entrance examinations of prestigious few colleges in our country.But that's not the point. I could write much bigger blog posts explaining the struggles being faced by average engineering graduate. But you got to make best use of the cards you are dealt with.
Being unhappy in job or / and being unhappy in marriage place you in quandary. Especially if you are not able to get out of both (due to a variety of reasons). Sometime cheating seems like a very alluring proposition. As I'm still not able to muster courage / make a thorough plan for starting my own venture and off course due to some financial constraints, I have given some serious thoughts on pursuing the "Rocket Singh" model of it i.e. doing on my own while continuing employment.

In the nutshell, I'm pretty faithfully serving my marriage for the last 9 years and it seems like the turbulent period in our relationship is more or less already passed, But the same can't be said about my job prospects. I'm working from the last 13 years now (obviously I was working way before I got married), My struggle is still very much real and on. I'm getting bit comfortable financially. But creative satisfaction and sense of life is still pending. Or perhaps I'm wrong in the first place to look for the same in job in first place. Perhaps I should look for my passions outside the job. The question is, how do I find time for the same. And what is that elusive goal / target by the way ?



PS :
The sum total of your role in marriage and the job make what you are, if you ask him. And in this case sometime the sum of the parts is greater that the total. Unrealistic expectations from both creates dissatisfaction and the sense of longing.If you can find your passion and hobbies outside these two despite being faithful in your roles. Only then you can attain happiness.

Writer's Block

For a nation which in-spite of having tons of mythological anecdotes telling us different ways of attaining Nirvana. Surprisingly we find our way of life in myriad things like cricket and movies. More often than not, our philosophy, vision is driven by these only.

 One such line from cricket that I really believe in is that offense is the best defense. Hence I decide to take this writer's block head on or as they say in cricket analogy On front foot.
Sometimes back I decided to write my own book, I have been a vociferous reader for many years and obviously highly impressed by authors and their craft. It was quiet natural on my part to aspire to be an author.
But unfortunately almost as soon as I decided tho write a book that  I encountered writer's block. I even read a book on how to write a book and I'm writing a blog post on writer's block.
But these one liners are all I could come up with.

I also feel that a book is the work of your creation and it carries some part of yourself. It's your identity statement. Writer's Block is in the way a form of identity crisis only. You need to get sorted out in your mind about what you really are. The book will be your expression only then and atleast you will be clear about your genre and the idea you want to convey

The second crazy conclusion that I draw is that communication and imagination are indicator of your mental health. And stress, frustration are really detrimental for them. 

Hence for able to write you need to be in a peaceful state of mind  Although then how could great writers could come up with such classics and gems while living in adversity is beyond me. Perhaps writing is then a form of salvation for them. A mean to end this struggle. 

Sometimes I also feel is that I'm barking the wrong tree. I had setup myself to write a frictional work but perhaps I would have tried my hand in something non fictional. I also feel inclined to write short stories sometimes as writing a  full fledged story sometimes looks like too steep a hill to climb 

Last but not the least. I really feel paucity of time to pursue this passion. My current job is really stressful and leaves me stretching for time. I barely find time to finish the daily chores leaving practically no time for indulging in writing. Although how much of this is just an elaborate excuse I don't know. As I had this task of writing a book in my To Do list in my previous company too still I made nill progress inspite of having considerably more time on my hands 
Another aspect related to same point is that I've always been a slow starter in all aspects of my life. Not only I'm always relatively late to get on with my life (In fact I wonder if my problems are indicative of mid-life crisis or adolescence issue. Also by the same extension, for every activity I need more time than others. The same holds true for writing too. Very rarely it happens that I sit to write and the thoughts start coming to me immediately and in the flow. On the other hand most of the time, I'm staring at the blank screen for full 10-15 minutes before I could form any coherent thought. I have experienced the same while I was preparing for exams or I was studying too. I need to blankly stare at the book for some time before I could grasp anything. Probably my mind itself is a slow starting engine. The problem is all the more compounded due to scarcity of time for me. 

The good thing though is that I'm still able to keep up with the blogging and on track with the target of one blog per month. The secret is that I mostly write about my aims and experiences. Probably I should follow the same with my book. The problem is that than it will be a non fiction book which I dont think will be that interesting. Moreover I write on a variety of topics and hence these posts does not fulfill the basic requirement of linear , coherent narrative binding the full story. Though I do plan to use my personal experience in writing the book because thats what everybody does.

To sum it up, It seems like its not possible for me to have a well planned, well thought of story even before I start writing the first draft. Perhaps I should just select a protagonist (or more than one also. Create a background and let it go, It will have good and bad days based on my high and lows. Its belief will keep on changing based on my experience and shaped by my prejudices. Whether its story will be interesting in the end or not, I cant say.
But at-least it will be story close to real-life experiences. 

On another note, Of late I'm suffering from yet another anxiety issue mainly because of this social media stuff. I'm unable to form any firm opinion as I dont know whether the facts presented to me and based on which I'm forming my opinion are credible or not. Because in this age of Propaganda and Photoshop Miracles. The reality has become indeed very hard to find.

Goals appraisal - 2017!

"If Procrastination is a religion, I would be god"
I heard this line long time back (don't even remember who said it), But it stays with me as its true in more than one ways in my case. So much so that, I intended to do the goals - review after first quarter of the year. And the way thing are going, it seems that it will be half yearly review by the time I'm able to finish this.

As I try to sum-up the progress for the first few months of this year. One major trend was lack of progress for last few month. The graph or progress was great for Jan and Feb and then hit a major road-block in march and April.

Part of this reason can be attributed to the usual pattern that any new year resolutions follow, As the initial euphoric state subsides and the reality hit home. The progress graph plateau. Which surely happened in my case too. But the bigger reason was our inhuman workload since March causing us to work ungodly hours. In fact; the stress / workload / frustration of this job is now beginning to enervate me. But more on this later (in perhaps another blog past).

But still its the first half of the year only. There is still chance of pulling in back on track. Hence a review of the goals set in beginning of new year might give me the necessary impetus plus some insight on where I'm going wrong.

So, here are the goals plus their status for 2017!

PHYSICAL HEALTH
1) Reducing weight - target 70 - 72 kg from 76.5 kg.
Right now I stands at 74.5. I think from now onward things will get really tough as the inital flab is easier to loose. My schedule plus travelling is making it even tougher. As for learnings, Now I'm concentrating more on physical workout than dieting as there is a limit to how much you can starve. I've started Yoga and plan to start running in morning too.

2) Participate in Delhi half marathon
This is one target where I really needs to buckle up, The half marathon will be in November. Not even six months remaining and I'm yet to start running. This particular goals has been on my to - do list for many year now and I don't want to miss out on this yet again.
Immediate plan - starting running from Monday which is tomorrow

3) Weight training -
I tried to do bit of weight-lifting but still in really initial stages. Needs to really work on my stamina. Hopefully the Yoga and running (still to start) might help.

4) Yoga / Pranayam -
By coincidence I started Yoga. But then you need luck on your side sometimes too :). I pushed my wife to start Yoga and I"m learning from her meanwhile. But not so regular unfortunately which I plan to change.


MENTAL HEALTH

1) Blog - On it , right now too :)
Jokes apart. I had great beginning of this year in terms of number of blog post. The momentum is still helping me even though last few months were really dry. Still on track for at-least one blog post per year. But needs to be wary to slipping behind. One good thing is that now I'm never short of writing topics as I write on my experiments or experiences with new things.
Had five blog post now in this year in five months now.

2) Books
I'm a self confessed bookworm. Reading keeps in on track and away from depression. I've intentionally set very modest target of only 12-15 books for this year (Which I have already revised to 20 books). I have read around 8 books so far; so already ahead of schedule. The thing that I wanted to do differently this year is read more meaningful non fiction books rather than simple thrillers because those I can finish in one night itself. As someone very aptly has said that books are windows to the world. I need to include more variety in my reading lists. I also plan to write some sort of summary / review / my take away / new words added in my vocabulary from these books.

3) Writing my own book -
Here comes the road block. I have experienced writers block even before writing a single chapter of my book. In spite of setting a target of writing an initial draft of my book. All that I have managed to achieve is to read a book on how to write a book and perhaps short listed some topics. At this pace, writing a book is really a distant dream only.
Perhaps I need to track the progress on monthly basis and select the topic and brief outline of the story at the earliest (which is the basic requirement of writing a book)

4) Recreation -
The target selected under this heading was learning to play the guitar. Unfortunately I don't even have a guitar yet. I have been thinking of buying a guitar but perhaps it will be too late by then.
I will try to buy a guitar within next two months only

As if the above targets were not enough, I have added another target based on the circumstances from last few months. Which is to change my job. Based on my last experience. This target itself is so big that it dwarf all other targets. And moreover it consumes lots of time and energy too.
I plan to change this job max by the end of this year.

In the nutshell. All that I need to do now is to exercise daily and try to write something (However inconsequential that may be ) daily so that I have enough writing practice. Hopefully then by next month I will enough writing practice to start draft of my first book. Side by side finding time for buying time to buy guitar and running each morning.

I'm sure its going to be as difficult if not more as it sound !