6 Lessons learnt from sticking to resolutions in April

April is gone.
Here comes May.

How did April go?

What is April teaching May?

Last month I introduced you to the idea of Monthly resolutions. I declared my resolutions for April. Was I able to stick with all of them?

The one thing I wanted to change: Wake up at 6 AM

The one thing which I could do diligently was waking up early. I did not use an alarm to wake up early. So in the first week, I was waking up as early as 4:40 for the fear of not waking up by 6. But slowly I could convince my brain that it can wake up by 6 without oversleeping.

I give the credit of this success to public accountability. I felt accountable for the promise I made.

Good : I could tap into my natural alarm clock and did not depend on external alarm clocks.

Bad : I was not getting enough sleep as I was waking up early irrespective of when I went to sleep.

The other things I wanted to improve:

Physical Fitness:

On the days I exercised, I could do 25 push-ups by pushing myself a little more. But I had to discontinue exercise due to my knee pain. The pain became worse that I was afraid to do any sort of exercise. But later I realised that there was not much harm in doing knee strengthening exercises.

Good: On the days I did not exercise, I made use of the time for cooking. I also learnt five new yoga postures which helped me to strengthen my knee. I gathered back the courage to exercise within a week.

Bad: I did not exercise for a week for the fear of hurting myself more. I should have taken an expert’s advice without taking such a long break.

Meditation:

I am not happy with the progress I made. I sat for the extra time but I was doing that with great difficulty. There is a huge scope to improve on this.

Reading:

I spent 18 hours on reading last month which is more than my target of 15 hours a month. The books I completed are:

The one thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

Do the work by Steven Pressfield

Re-awaken the giant within by Tony Robbins

The books I am reading right now are:

Talent code by Daniel Coyle

Never Split the difference by Chris Voss

Writing:

I failed terribly in this. I find it easier to stick with writing an answer a day on Quora but the same logic does not work for writing a blog. I need a writing prompt for blog. I should also be equipped with enough practical knowledge on it to write. For the practical knowledge, I need to do the experiments first. The faster I improve myself, the better my posts get.

I realized that the target I set for myself was unrealistic. I will stop putting a target on the number of articles and only work on improving the quality of my articles.

Course:

I was on schedule for the first week but missed the schedule in the second week as my laptop was not working. The internet speed was too slow to watch it on my phone. But I plan on finishing the course on time by doing it 30 minutes a day for the next 10 days. Catching up is more important than complaining.

Lessons learnt:

• ·        Concentrating on only one thing definitely brings the change (Waking up)
• ·        Public accountability helps (Waking up)
• ·        Obstacles are there all the time. It is about how quickly you can get rid of the obstacles.            (Exercise & Course)
• ·        It is okay to set unrealistic targets. That is the only way you will learn what realistic is.             (Writing)
• ·        When you love something, you tend to over perform. (Reading)
• ·        The tougher it is to do, greater is the resistance. (Meditation)

Plans for next month:

The one thing I want to concentrate on this month is Meditation. Apart from that I will spend 5 minutes watching a Tamil movie and learn the conversations. The plans of April will continue as it is.

How did your April resolutions go?

What are your plans for May?

Comment below.

Happy planning for May!