Journey of 40 Days

In one of my blog posts “Is it really a lockdown?” on https://riyaom.wordpress.com/, I had written about working on my one bad habit of not waking up early in the morning. I had promised to sort it out and to write about the outcome after 40 days, if I got successful. I took some extra days to test myself, if I was faltering again. Yes, it was a beautiful journey. I cannot sleep up to late in the morning now, even if I keep lying down on the bed for a little longer. I get up without the music of my alarm and sometimes very early. I cannot say that I make it 100% of the times, but yes, more than 90% I have achieved.

Here, I will share some of the tricks which I adopted to improve myself and hope these will be helpful for all of you also:

• First, I set up my schedule for the whole week and then divide my tasks for individual day’s also.
• I make a checklist on daily basis and keep it in front of my eyes, so that I do not forget.
• I highlight my completed tasks with a green highlighter and incomplete tasks with a pink one, for becoming aware, wherever I am faltering.
• Then, after completing a week, I rate my outcomes and analyse my mistakes and keep them in mind for the next schedule.
• I do take breaks and honestly speaking, we need them if we do not want to give up soon.
• I try to bring something new in every schedule.
• I make sure that my morning schedule is fixed so that I have a reason to come out of the bed.

So these are the thumb rules that we all can adopt. I cannot say these are mine; I just picked them up from the writings of different achievers. I cannot say that I followed them perfectly, and even now, days come when I do not want to do anything. Many times, I do waste my time on Netflix, but not that much. I do some things wrong, from time to time, which also I will share so that you do not repeat those mistakes. Even I will be taking care of the goof-ups when I re- read this write up. Yeah, I do learn from myself, most of the times.

Ok, so here are some major mistakes which you can avoid with mindfulness:

• Pick one major goal at a time. I picked two or more sometimes, and attained none, so please don’t do that. You may achieve all but will not get perfect at that.
• When you skip any task don’t say it is ok, I will cover it up by tomorrow. No, that tomorrow never comes. So, please don’t postpone your commitments.
• Sometimes, you are guilty about skipping your task and people says it is ok as long as overall improvement takes place. Yeah, you can be happy by seeing your achievements but don’t let it make you slack.
• Guilt is important. That pushes us to do better. Take it easy but don’t forget your commitments.
• Give time to yourself. Don’t be in a rush. Just be little organised.
• Try to fix a schedule for social media and if you can, please shut down all useless notifications on your phone.
  
  I would like to recommend a book also which Kritika didi recommended me and that is “Atomic Habits by James Clear”. Audio book is also available on audible App.

So, this is all. I swear it is not easy. It requires strong will power and do ask yourself why you want to do all this. If you have that answer, then you will be unstoppable. Keep working on yourself.  Working on oneself is really a great thing anyone can do. When I will start working on my other bad habits, I will keep in mind all my mistakes and guidelines. Mistakes are great teachers, that is why I shared mine. If I find anything new I will share for sure. Just remember one thing, we can change our selves for the better and that can only be done by us. Nobody can change us till we want. I hope this will be helpful. All the best to all of you, for a new journey.

Please Note:  This is one of the most liked posts from my site. I hope this will be helpful for some of you here also. 

Gratitude Note: Thank you RIS Sidhu uncle ji for helping me in editing my work.

Thank you,

Riya om