01. MY THREE POSITIVES.
1. You can do things you never had time for and look at your usual routine from a distance.
2. A normal winter with snow, skiing.
3. Understanding that your efforts bear fruit.
02. MY REFLECTIONS AND DISCOVERIES.
If you have free time, you can look at your usual way of life from a distance. Step out of the usual routine and consider whether it's time to change something. While you're stuck in this routine, there's not much time to think; you have to act. More precisely, there's time for some optimization, evolution, but without a detached perspective, I don't even really consider whether the usual routine that repeats itself every day, week, month, and now a year has passed, is really necessary. If you add a calendar event to the mix, like New Year's or a birthday, you're more tempted to reassess—what happened this year, is someone on the right path, is it time to change something? Life will pass in this Groundhog Day routine, and did I accomplish everything I planned, and is this really what I wanted?
Maybe I should quit and start over? This is possible if I'm fed up with everything, but more often I want to change something in my life for the better. Say, add more exercise, learn a language, finish the renovations, etc.
Here, there are usually two extremes:
1. This will do; yes, I can do something, but I'm lazy, it's easier to just lie on the couch.
2. Starting in the New Year (as soon as I finish my salads), I'll start doing something healthy, like running every day at 5 a.m. In the first case, we gradually deteriorate on the couch; in the second, we're likely to quickly quit because the workload is inadequate.
There's a trap here: you want the result, not the process of achieving it. You run for a week, barely managing it, then your leg starts hurting, you need to rest for a day or a week, you fool yourself for a while that you'll continue, and then you quietly forget about it.
And as usual, the optimal solution is somewhere in the middle. Moreover, each person has their own current state, which means their own boundaries and the middle ground between them.
The criterion for success is habit.
It's better to do as much as you feel comfortable doing every day, but do it for a year, than to tire out in a week and quit. You can simply add it up and calculate the total.
You just need to honestly assess your abilities, provide an adequate workload, and allow yourself to adapt to that workload (rest is important).
You also need to keep in mind that forming a habit is also a workload, and it also requires resources. If you've decided to exercise or cross-stitch every day in the new year, you need to understand that there's a cost to doing the action and a cost to motivating yourself to start. The first few times, if you're inspired by the goal, it seems achievable, but when you realize it's a long-term commitment, that it's work, you start to slow down.
So what should you do?
I've found that when you're first forming a habit, it's better to do a little less than you'd like. On the one hand, you'll retain your energy, but on the other, you'll have some motivation to finish what you've left unfinished and a pleasant feeling that you could have done more. Then gradually increase the intensity, usually by 10% per week, no more. And if you want more, remember that this is a long game, say, a year.
It's like running a marathon: start slowly, letting your muscles warm up and your joints loosen up, like a warm-up. Then you can build up your pace until you reach a comfortable level. But if you start at top speed from the very beginning, you can immediately injure yourself and drop out of the race. It's important to calculate the speed you need to move to reach the finish line. The first goal is to cover the entire distance, not run as fast as possible.
03. MY YOGA INSPIRATION FOR THE WEEK.
Hatha Yoga
04. MY GRATITUDE AND PRAISE.
For the opportunity.
05. I WANT TO PRAISE MYSELF.
Started the year with a cleanse.
06. PERSONAL YOGA PRACTICE FOR THE WEEK.*
Hatha and Kriya, 6 days a week.
07. DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING.*
Not today.