Last year highlights

Every day of every month of all the years we have lived, we keep growing in some aspect of our lives. Everyone has their own definition of Life, and I had my own way of defining life too. Although that definition kept on taking new forms over time. It was never easy for me to keep track of how and what influenced these changes. Sometimes it feels there are some huge changes in the way I perceive things, people or situations, but we all know that small changes make up for bigger ones. I am writing this blog to keep track of my highlights from the last year and what changes are made in my life definition.

Physical Awareness

My timeline started in July of 2018. I had just switched my job, moved to a new country(Indonesia) and full of excitement. I had one of my very good friend who referred me to the company. Everything was normal about the people I was surrounded by this new place. But I felt strange. Everything was in place except for me.
All the people I could see, were all fit and well-built. I don’t know if it was my insecurity or the conspiracy of the universe, but I felt unfit and out of order. My friend who referred me to this place, he was among the fittest person I knew here. First couple of weeks were not exactly going as what I had planned. This gave me the motivation to be more Physically Aware of myself.

Fitness: if it came in a bottle, everyone would be in good shape.

Food Awareness

Next came August. The month when I started being physically active. I started running for as much as I could (1 km @ 7:30min/km). I even joined a fitness club nearby for weight training. This was the result of beginner-rush you feel when you start out something new. With this excitement, I started reading more and more about healthy living and healthy eating, because Healthy Food = Healthy Body. My Awareness for Food rose like never before. I would read about the pros and cons of each ingredient of my food. This was the beginning of my new healthy lifestyle.

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

Healthy Diet

By September, I had started seeing the results of my physical awareness and they were great(Running improved to 2.5km @ 7.00 min/km). Higher metabolism, Less procrastination, and almost zero laziness in day-to-day tasks. Seeing these positive changes, I took it a step further when I started measuring the calories and nutritional value of my food intake. Initially, I did not realize it, measuring the nutritional value of my food helped me improve my Diet with Healthy options. This continued for 2 months.

You don’t need to eat less. You just need to eat RIGHT.

Money Management

November and December were months where I spent money with no worries of tomorrow (Hakuna Matata Style). I traveled to Angkor Wat(Cambodia 🇰🇭), Pari Island (Indonesia 🇮🇩 ) and Yogyakarta (Indonesia 🇮🇩 ). Apart from traveling, there were other expenses too which include Movies, Outside food every weekend, Shopping, etc. Even bought a new smart watch. To boil it down, I was in no control of my money expenditure. End of the year, my bank account had crippled down. That’s when realization grew on me - Money Saving is important.

Balancing your money is the key to having enough.

Value of Time

The beginning of 2019 was full of marriages and travels. I traveled back to India(my home country) for my sister’s marriage. In the span of two months, I attended 4 weddings. Almost every 3 days I was in a different city. But that’s when I learned about Value of Time. I had to plan carefully for these two months given there were so many events that I had to take care of. Plans changed, new plans made on the go but it all worked out well in the end.

Time is free, but its priceless
You can’t own it, but you can use it
You can’t keep it, but you can spend it
Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.

Importance of Reading

I came back from India in the beginning of March. After satisfactory execution of my plans for the last couple of months, It felt relaxing to come back to work life. With me, I had a business idea in my head (from all the money-saving mindset) which involved collaboration with my relatives. I started pursuing that idea. I started reading about the unknowns of that idea. I would ask others who might be able to help me out. And to my amaze, every piece of puzzle started falling in place. I was able to get gather much needed data about the business, I was able to make time from my office schedule. It was all thanks to reading, reading and reading and taking it up in practical life.

Think before you speak. Read before you think.

Problem Analysis

Month of April followed pursuing the latter idea. As motivated as I was for this idea, it broke my heart when things stopped moving and this idea eventually died out. It made me think about what had I done wrong? What would be my improvement areas? Instead of thinking about my dead idea and what could have happened if it had worked out, I focused on improving myself and started Analyzing Problems rather than hoping for a miracle.

If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

Self-Improvement

Self-improvement came like a drug I liked being high on. On 1 May 2019, I started a 30-day challenge which focused majorly on the tasks which I wanted to see myself improving on but did not because Procrastination! Tasks such as getting up early, being physically active and quitting social media. Before starting this, I had come across a performance measuring approach called ‘Kaizen’. I implemented this approach by creating a google sheet and tracking my wake-up time, my physical activity and social media durations. I would update this sheet everyday. Whenever I will complete a task, I marked it as done and that made me feel positive. Giving me a win for the day. Those small wins helped me to push myself out of my comfort zone and do the tasks with even more motivation. Now waking up early and going to the gym every day was not as hard as it felt last month.

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

Last year taught me a great deal. I am grateful for all the people and factors that helped me learn these lessons. I don’t know if I have all the lessons in my life, but I know for sure that I am a step closer to implementing them. I wish to keep improving myself with each passing year.

Please share your experiences of getting fit and healthier lifestyle. Any suggestions or thoughts, let me know:
Insta + Twitter + LinkedIn + Medium | Shivam Aggarwal