Chanda: Living the Good Life I

[Chanda]

Chanda steps into the forrest clearing. She breaths a sigh of relief. She is home. She is alive. Now is the time to regenerate. Now is the time to grow stronger. Now is the time to live.

 

2014 was not the best of years for me or my family. If we were talking wine, the vintage of 2014 wouldn't be worth bottling. 

 

2015 is likely to bring more upheaval to our lives. I need to be able to grow stronger and still enjoy life while dealing with all the challenges life throws our way.

 

I turn 42 in 2015. We all know 42 is the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything"  . By the time I turn 42, I hope to have figured out what it means to me to be living the good life. I made a 12 point list which comes pretty close to what it means to me at the moment, it also has a couple of more objective goals of things I would like to achieve by then. This list is not final and it will be adjusted as I figure it out throughout the year.

 

Main Quest: 42 or “Living the Good Lifeâ€

1. I am capable, loving and relaxed.
2. I have daily meaningful contact with my husband and my 2 daughters 
3. Looking after my health and appearance is a habit
4. Our home is organised and decluttered
5. I am organised at work
6. Regular contact with family (every 1 to 2 weeks)
7. Regular contact with friends (monthly)
8. Perfect day/week is a habit (includes eldest daughter school start)
9. I lost 6-7kg 
10. Released 6 CB patterns + hobby business setup. + Blog every 2-4weeks / CB weekly posts
11. I don't make a big deal out of everything in life, feel joy and laugh.
12. I have dreams for the future.

 

Obviously this will take sometime. Plus its been awhile since I completed a challenge. For the next 6 weeks, I plan to:

 

1 Fuel: First things first, my goal is to get a good start to each day... so I will be eating a good breakfast in the morning.  

2 Body: After months of inactivity I need to start gently moving again. Yoga at least 60min per week.

3 Mind: Messy House = Messy Mind... Do the "20 days to organise & clean your home" tasks.

 

4 Life: Continue shifting into living my "perfect day" on work days. On non-work days, I will not track but will aim to not deviate by more than a couple of hours. This I call: Phase 1: The framework

• My Morning 6:00-6:45 (yoga?/mindfulness?/breakfast/get ready)
• Morning routine 6:45-8:00 (girls up and ready, clear the decks, lunch prep, drop off and go to work)
• Evening routine 17:30-20:30 (dinner, clear the decks, tomorrow prep, girls in bed)
• My bed time 22:30

Attribute points will be worked out at the end of the challenge based on where I see the most improvement/benefit.

 

“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.â€

Aristotle

 

[LittleTurtle]

I find, the more I do yoga, the less "little things" get to me.  

 

I like how you've broken it down and structured your goals.  This looks like a very solid foundation for success!

 

Good luck!  

[cavemom]

I love your challenge, Chanda!  I'll be following you.

[Sunmage]

Chanda!

 

 

Welcome back!

 

 

Good to see you!

 

And extremely good that you noticed the 42

 

Good luck =)

[Chanda]

Thank you everyone for your welcoming words.

 

Although I was absent from the forums… I did not forget about pursuing my goals.

 

1 Fuel: First things first, my goal is to get a good start to each day... so I will be eating a good breakfast in the morning.

 

 

RESULT: On 39 out of 42 possible days I did great... On 3 of the days I reverted back to my old habit of picking up a pretzel and coffee on the way to work. On the other 39 days I either had breakfast at home or prepared a breakfast that I brought with me to work. I had a wide range of foods for breakfast, thus ensuring variety of nutrients for my body to pull from. Score A (4 of 4 attribute points earned: STA +2, CON +2).

 

2 Body: After months of inactivity I need to start gently moving again. Yoga at least 60min per week.

 

 

 

RESULT: Overall I did a total of 6 hours of yoga. The first 2 weeks I did nothing, but I got better in the last 4 weeks and overall I did a total of 6 hours of yoga. That averages out to 60min per week. Score A (4 of 4 attribute points earned: STR +2, DEX +2).

 

3 Mind: Messy House = Messy Mind... Do the "20 days to organise & clean your home" tasks.

 

 

 

RESULT: After 3 weeks of trying to get started I had not actually started yet. After giving it some thought, I found that the reason for my inactivity was that the tasks prescribed in the “20 days to organise & clean your home†did not align with what my home really needed. So halfway through the challenge I changed this goal to decluttering, cleaning and organizing 20 small areas around the home (selection of activity was based on answering the question “what is bugging me the most right now that I can actually changeâ€). Overall I did 18 out of 20. Score B (3 of 4 attribute points earned: WIS +1, CHA +2).

 

4 Life: Continue shifting into living my "perfect day" on work days. On non-work days, I will not track but will aim to not deviate by more than a couple of hours. This I call: Phase 1: The framework

• My Morning 6:00-6:45 (yoga?/mindfulness?/breakfast/get ready)
• Morning routine 6:45-8:00 (girls up and ready, clear the decks, lunch prep, drop off and go to work)
• Evening routine 17:30-20:30 (dinner, clear the decks, tomorrow prep, girls in bed)
• My bed time 22:30

 

 

 

RESULT: I was surprised with my performance in this one. I did great on my morning and evening routines… while I am not yet getting to work by 8am (on average I got to work before 8:15 so its close), I did manage to get the girls to the kindergarden just before 8am every morning and as the weeks went by it got easier. In the evening, dinner/prep for tomorrow/girls in bed is running a lot better. I only got up at 6am a couple of times (one of those was actually on a Saturday and I did 60min of yoga, it was heavenly!). And I only went to bed by 22:30 a handful of times and I still get woken up in the middle of the night by my youngest daughter. Overall I was waking up slightly earlier by the end of the challenge than at the start. Other aspects of the “perfect day†have also run better than in the past. Considering those things and the fact that the evening/morning routines were great, I am going to give myself a pass on the getting up time. Getting up earlier is purely for my own benefit of getting a few things done for myself before the day starts, at the moment I do those in the evening so its not like I am missing out. The spirit of the goal is to shift toward living my “perfect day†on work days and I am a lot closer to that now than I was 6 weeks ago. Score B+ (2 of 3 attribute points earned: WIS +1, CHA +1).

 

Positive changes in each of my 12 areas of focus:

1. I am capable, loving and relaxed: I feel more relaxed.
2. I have daily meaningful contact with my husband and my 2 daughters: I haven’t been tracking this, but I have consciously made an effort to do more activities with my husband and daughters.
3. Looking after my health and appearance is a habit: I had my first ever massage, started applying a face mask once a week, moisturise regularly and even wear some light makeup some days (lipstich and eyeshadow).
4. Our home is organised and decluttered: started a new challenge “1001 steps in 1001 days†and did the first 18 steps.
5. I am organised at work: sorted through a massive pile of paper that had been building up (99% of it was shredded) and got rid of samples I no longer need.
6. Regular contact with family (every 1 to 2 weeks): been sending more emails.
7. Regular contact with friends (monthly): had breakfast with a friend, plus a day long visit from another friend.
8. Perfect day/week is a habit (includes eldest daughter school start): see result from Life goal above
9. I lost 6-7kg: this needs updating since what I actually meant is that I want to be between 56 and 57kg. But I put on 2kg in December. So its actually "I lost 8-9kg". Overall the target may change again as my end goal is to feel good within my skin… so if I run out of fat to lose earlier than that… then I reached the target (I will not sacrifice lean body mass to reach a weight goal). Anyway, I lost 1.3kg in the past 6 weeks.
10. Released 6 CB patterns + hobby business setup. + Blog every 2-4weeks / CB weekly posts: No measurable progress, but I am starting to feel creative and motivated again… which is progress.
11. I don't make a big deal out of everything in life, feel joy and laugh: At the end of each day I’ve been writing down 3 good/positive things about the day and if anything is really bugging me then I write it down also and think of at least 1 thing I can do to change it (this might be an actual action or sometimes a reminder to myself that in the larger scheme of things that thing is not so important). I've caught myself smiling and even laughing a few times. 
12. I have dreams for the future: no dreams yet, but I feel a little seed of an urge to learn again… I even signed up and started language lessons. I have been watching TEDx talks to get inspired.

Overall I did not push myself hard, I went about my daily business while keeping mindful of the goals I had set for myself. I am pleased with the results.

 

New Level and Attribute points are:

Lusitanian Druid, Level 9
STR: 13 | DEX: 15 | STA: 17 | CON: 22 | WIS: 25 | CHA: 25

[LittleTurtle]

Very nice!  Congrats!