Happy December 1st! Ah, the first of every month does bring a fresh energy to me. Especially now as we edge closer to the new year.
It’s difficult to imagine life after May. Life after I graduate. Life after I move back to Canada. It is a significant life change, a new chapter of my life, and I wonder what new desires it may stir up in my heart, or old plans it may put to rest. But I am open, I am open to life. I am open to changing my mind and changing my heart about things.
So I write this list more like a list of possibilities that might evolve into something different. Let’s see. Let’s see what life has in store.
Magic moments
Live deep.
❤ Reunite with Marie and Michelle (my roommates from my first year in Ireland)
❤ Have a picnic somewhere gorgeous with my husband.
❤ Reunite with best friends Emma, Becky and Choyi again.
❤ Camp in the Sahara Desert.
❤ Take part in a flashmob.
❤ Cut my hair.
❤ Go on a road trip to the Ring of Kerry, before leaving Ireland.
❤ Move back to Canada and make a beautiful home for my husband.
❤ Go camping.
Freedom
“With freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?” Oscar Wilde
❤ Quit chocolate completely for a period of time (minimum 1 month). Reduce intake thereafter.
❤ Give up refined sugar for a period of time. (minimum 2 weeks)
❤ Quit Facebook for a period of time (minimum 1 month)
Create
Life is art is life is art is life is art.
❤ Make a photobook.
❤ Make a video for my blog!
❤ Write one letter a month
❤ Make a beautiful video to music. Like moving photography.
❤ Put together my first book of poetry and/or short stories. Self publish for myself and my coffee table.
Soul
Cultivate Grace
❤ Complete a 40 day cycle of Surya Kriya practiced twice a day.
❤ Learn Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya.
❤ Spend 3 weeks in an ashram.
❤ Keep a consistent yoga practice and deepen my Hanumanasana.
❤ Observe Ekadashi.
❤ Honour the full moon every month though yoga, lighting a candle, and meditation.
Learn
Acquire, refine & nurture abilities, skills, talents
❤ Graduate medicine
❤ Ease back into reading for pleasure: Read 10 books
❤ Do my Step 1 USMLE’s
❤ Learn 5 new piano pieces to play form memory.
❤ Add 5 main courses, 3 appetizers and 3 desserts to my repertoire.
❤ Start learning the guitar / ukulele
❤ Make my own yogurt and granola.
❤ Apply for a research job in the US.
❤ Read/watch the news consistently.
❤ Learn to do the Rubik’s cube
❤ Learn 5 poems from memory
I had initially planned to write my thoughts on each of these areas; thoughts on freedom, moments, creation etc, to give some insight into why I have selected these particular goals for myself. But I think I will save them for when I write and document each of these goals as blog posts.
As for now, what I will say is that this list is a beautiful guideline for where I think my life is taking me. The goal I am most apprehensive about completing is giving up chocolate and refined sugar. My addiction runs deep, people. How sweet it will be to be free of that. Pun intended.
Here are some things I like to keep in mind for implementing new goals and habits:
Review your goals monthly
If I didn’t review my goals every month, they would be long gone after about 2. Looking over your goals, and the progress you have made every month is good to keep them fresh in your mind and keep you on track.
Weekly focuses and intentions
I used to do a thing where every week I had a “theme” for my life. An area of focus. Some weeks it was something practical and external (examples: De-clutter, organize, volunteer, friendships, cooking, updating systems, waking up early etc) and some weeks it was more internal (giving, openness, honesty, communication, love, affection, peace, non-violence). I found this to be a great way to implement personal development into my every day life, rather than keeping it as a lofty and intangible thing I couldn’t really access.
To try list
Is there something you are curious about, but not quite sure if you can or even want to commit to it? Why not put it on a “To try” list and see if it makes the cut? We can all try something for a short period of time, a week, or a month and see if it’s something we would like to commit to for a longer period of time. I have a few things on my to-try list too.
Make a Win list
This is so important! This is something I used to do a couple of years ago, and somewhere along the line, I stopped. I would like to pick this up again. Basically, it involves making a list of all the things in your life that you do accomplish, and good experiences you have. Basically, an account of all your wins, from small tiny wins to big life-changing wins. It all counts and gives you a sense of all the goodness that you have cultivated through intention, creation, and perseverance in your life. It serves as a reminder of all that is good!
I hope to document with you these stories and experiences with you.
How about you? What are your goals for new year? Have you shared them on your blog? I would love to read it!
My exams are coming up on December 17th, so things might be a little bit quiet on my blog for now. Or I might decide to procrastinate from studying and be more active than ever on my blog. I can’t say for sure 😉 Haha.
Love,
Malavika
PS. I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge another reason that makes December 1st so special. It’s my mom’s birthday! Happy birthday to my warm hearted mother.
Happy birthday mom,
It’s quiet a big list my friend. Although there is one request please please please remove the news thing from the list. Watching news is like damning yourself everyday…”why the hell I was born in this god forsaken planet?”. I myself was so hungry for news. Used to open Google news every 30 min. I can tell you the history, geography or any country you want to know. But it’s useless 99% of the time.
Better have a quiet time, do yoga, meditate but no news. Once a day just to know the headlines that’s more than enough. That’s my experience. Best wishes!
Hello!
You’re right, it is a big list. A lot of these things are already in place though. For example, my husband and I are traveling to Morocco for the New year, I am planning to spend 3 weeks at an ashram after I graduate etc. So all the big things are already set in place. Honestly, as I mentioned, my biggest worry is that I am going to have a really hard time giving up/ cutting down on chocolate!
The goal on news reading. That was one I wasn’t sure about for some time, but eventually decided to commit to it. Mostly because, for a long time I believed that the news was, just as you said, not always beneficial, and sometimes even just gossip on a large scale. So I never read or watched it. But now, I would like to spend a year doing the opposite, and then come to my own decision as to how I feel about it. Thank you for your concern though 🙂
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Many different kinds of things happen in the world at one time, and different news sources will focus on different things. Some sources are less biased or depressing.
I personally like these:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UpliftingNews/
https://www.reddit.com/r/science
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/#newlink
Thanks a lot for the links Jules! I definitely need some direction as to where to look for news-sources. Not just the bad, but also the good, and not just the good but also the bad. And not just good and bad, but all the stuff in between too. I’ll go check out those links you shared with me now!
Thank you for sharing Malavika! I love the weekly focus and intention.
Hey Marmel! Thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂 You know, I usually set goals for myself every year, but last year I didn’t, so I decided that this year I would get back to it. I feel it serves me well. I wanted to share my goals on my blog too, party for the accountability that comes with it, and also for my blog to be a place where I can share my experiences and lessons learned from achieving and doing these different things throughout the year.
Happy to hear from you and wish you well!
Ps. Your daughter is adorable!
Inspiring list:)
Thanks Khaya 🙂 have you made any goals for yourself for 2016 or do you plan to?
I’ve not made any new goals. I will continue with ones at hand:-)
Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often and commented:
This is quite a list for 2016! To my readers: what are your goals or resolutions for next year??
Thanks!
You are welcome!
This year is a banner birthday year, 2016, and I come back often to the wisdom and courage I see in your posts and blog. It is frequently in the early morning hours as I hear the mourning doves cry that I read and reread what you have written. Thank you for the goodness and mercy of your exploration of your heart you pour out to us. Peace be with you..
Dear Carol, your kind comment inspires me to keep growing, to keep learning, to keep writing and to keep sharing. I cannot thank you enough for that.
With love,
Malavika