Reflecting on March 2023
After a very eventful February, this month felt less exciting. There were some highlights, new learnings and eventful days that I’m grateful for and want to share.
Lessons
Sometimes, routines and habits stop having a net positive impact in your life and it’s ok to not do them anymore.
In February, I was up at 5 am everyday to get to my 6am fitness class. When I was back in San Francisco, the weather was cold and rainy and I didn’t find a purpose to wake up that early because I didn’t have a class to go to. I intentionally forced myself to wake up and felt miserable because I hadn’t given my body enough time to rest. It felt like I was trying to force a habit that had worked great in different circumstances but wasn’t working for me at all now. Last month, I didn’t have a full time job, and was on holiday , so I often was able to take a nap after my early fitness class on days I wasn’t feeling rested enough. Now, I have a new job that I’m on-boarding to and takes a lot of mental energy and it didn’t make any sense for me to force myself to do something that simply wasn’t working.
When I reflected on why I couldn’t push myself to be the morning person I so deeply aspire to be, I realized, it wasn’t the early routine that was so powerful the last month but my lifestyle of being active every day that created an opportunity to wake up early. I hit an aha moment. I still am working out everyday and on days I was well rested, it felt even better! I stopped waking up at 5 am. It just doesn’t make sense in my current routine anymore and my purpose last month and now is to lead an active and healthy lifestyle which I’ve been successful at. Waking up early was simply a side effect / gain to that purpose.
Always create time (even 5 minutes goes a long way) to learn something you don’t know everyday. Books are very powerful and offer perspectives that you didn’t know you needed.
I read every single day in March. Most days it was only for 5 minutes, some days it was for several hours. It feels powerful to gain perspectives you’ve never had before and i felt like I can take on all the challenges i had read about in the book (although not true, it takes knowledge and practice to implement what you learnt). I read a book called “Five dysfunctions of a team”, which greatly helped me frame my thinking as a leader and how to lead teams. Just a few chapters in, I was able to draw a mental map on how I can implement my learnings at work.
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I also read a Colleen Hoover book that I greatly enjoyed. There were no learnings necessarily here and I wasn’t looking for one but had fun reading it! I am very excited to read more books this year!
Stretching for a few minutes everyday is the best thing you can do for your body.
I’ve been stretching for 8 mins every single day in the morning this past month before I start work. That’s all you need. My body is thanking me and my mind feels ready to take on anything . Starting your day with a little bit of mobility is the best thing you can do for yourself. Your knees and hips will thank you later.
Things I tried but didn’t stick
Journaling
I tried journaling this month , well I guess I didn’t try hard enough because it didn’t last too long. I however greatly enjoyed thinking about what I’m grateful for everyday. I’m going to keep trying to make this consistent.
Thanks for reading. I’m looking forward to writing about April! It’s an exciting month of travel and I can’t wait to share what I learnt!
