2019’s goal
A quick recap on the goal I set up for last year
- Gain a six pack — This fails horribly. I started off the year by signing up for an F45 membership and went there regularly in the first 5 months, then my attendance rates slowly declined until I totally felt out of the gym habit. When I look for the root cause of it, I realized it has come down to my energy level being really low everyday. The reason for that is because I stay late and eat unhealthy food and the compound effects adds up. To remedy this situation, I must pay attention to my sleeping habit and what I eat. More on that in my 2020 plan.
- Have at least 8 hours of sleep everyday — This didn’t go well as well. I often go to bed at around 2 and I have very low energy level when I woke up. This causes me to not be able to perform well at work and I always feel tired when I go on a date with my girl-friend. I was also really tired and don’t felt like to workout after work, and since I workout less, I am less physically fit and I felt more tired. The cycle continues
- Publish 12 articles — I have only published 5 articles. Not that I have nothing to write about, in fact I created a lot of draft in my backlog but was unable to finish them. When my reminder rings I ignored it every time and just continued to do whatever I was doing (usually gaming/ browsing the internet)
- Create 2 side projects —I didn’t work on any side projects. i.e. Fold origami-boar. When I think about this I have invested my energy in 2 games that I really like right now. Dota and Hollowknight. These are extremely good games and my thirst for improvement and overcoming challenge has been injected in these 2 games.
- Bonus: Publish rabbit comic every week — I was actually very proud that I was able to publish a comic for my girl friend as a gift. I forced myself to work on it every day for 2 weeks and I was amazed on how much I accomplished when I was really focused.
Conclusion
2019 was a total disaster for my personal growth. When I reflected on it, I now truly see that the “Power of habit” in reverse, as in the negative habit that I built adds up until it slowly crumbles on me. All is not lost though as I also learned a lot this year in terms of what is important for me in life. As I will turn 30 this year, it is time for me to start building the positive habit to turn me into the kind of person I really want to be.
Mindset
One thing that I learned in gaming is that one must focus on the macro, the long run and not on 1 game itself. For example, if my win-rate is 60% this means that I expects I will lose 4 out of 10 games and that is okay. As long as I have above 50% win rate, I will rise to the top eventually.
To apply this mindset to life, I should constantly ask myself
Am I improving today?
Did I sleep early? Did I workout? Did I create something?
Mechanism
I am going to implement 3 mechanism that will help me. They are:
- Do things NOW — This means that whenever there is something I want to do, I will sit done and set up systems that will make sure I will do it
- Deadlines — Everything must have a deadline to avoid procrastination. Each deadline must then be broken down into small tasks with their own deadline. Implement checkpoints to follow through.
- Focus on ONE thing at a time — Distraction is the main reason that cause me to unable to finish a task.
Goals for 2020
I believe the path to success relies in doing the small things well with consistency, this principle applies to life and work.
What I want to learn
- Learn to drive —Research the best driving school that has the highest pass rate. Deadline: End of February
- Learn drum — Reach out to my musician cousin and ask for recommendations. Deadline: End of February
What habits do I want to build
- Go to bed at 11 everyday. I will do this by printing a big sign in front of my working desk and have a calendar to track my success by putting a cross on every day I went to bed by 11.
- Workout habit. My goal is still to lose my belly, but to kick things off, I will start by doing 10 push ups everyday and use calendar to track my progress.
- Writing. My goal is the same, to publish 12 articles. I will promise myself to write 10 minutes everyday and use calendar to track my progress.