2014/10/31

October tally

So here's the crude summary of my October goals' achievement:

1. Meditate more: Well, funnily, I meditated less, but I read a lot about mindfulness and meditation. I feel that I've moved forward on my spiritual path, but I haven't achieved the actual goal I planned out for myself. While back at the beginning of October I felt modifying my meditations was just one step forward, now I feel it has drifted farther from me and it'll take a real effort to realize this goal.

I think, I'm also afraid.

2. Update CV: At the moment, my contract expired at the 15th October. I'm currently spending my dismissal period. I've updated my LinkedIn profile and worked my way through the book Brand You, but I haven't applied the gained information yet, so I still have to tackle that. October was a month of baby steps, apparently.

3. Travel more: On the last day of October I got myself and tried to realize the goal of travelling to 3 different places. Originally, I wanted to go to Remich only, but I've never been there and the tourist information office is currently closed, so I decided to go to Echternach. I could have gone to Saarbrücken, but I did not want to spend that much money. On my way home I decided to pop in Diekirch, where due to the weekend holidays, almost all the shops were closed. So after half an hour I went to Ettelbrück to catch my train home.

4. Create positive energy: Finally, a goal I feel I've fully achieved. It also helped that I'll soon get rid of the initial negative situation. Lots of positive and rewarding experiences gained here. I'm happy.

5. Walk more: I didn't. But on the rare occasions I was out I really did feel immensely happy and I tried to make the most of my time out. Also, on a single occasion, but nonetheless I made myself stay out longer. It was difficult, but it was worth it.

6. Photograph more: I didn't. And I didn't even take a lot of photos when I did take my camera out. But I had some nice, uplifting experiences and I even discovered a new feature of my camera, though I still have to figure out how to use it and for what.

What were your goals for October? Which achievement are you the proudest of? Let me know in the Comments below!

2014/10/01

6 Goals for October

September has whizzed by, but October feels to be full of energy, so I'm trying to take advantage of it to move my life forward. Here are the goals I hope to achieve this month:

1. Meditate more
2. Update CV
3. Travel more
4. Create positive energy
5. Walk more
6. Photograph more

Meditate more: This seems to be pretty random, something that's difficult to measure, but actually I have a very clear idea of what I want. Usually, I do general meditations; I sink to level Alpha, relax my body from head to toe, but I always feel too tired to practice focused meditation that is devoted to particular goals.

I've always wanted to have my own meditation texts and ceremonies, but I often chicken out and search youtube which most of the time provides disappointing results. Recently, I have allowed myself to linger over images my mind offers up, like walking through a market place and plunging my hands into sacks of colourful spices. (Guess, my mind is sending a memo to spice things up in reality, too?)

But with this, I'm still only halfway there, because it may be more exciting and personalized than the relax my body from head to toe process, but with this I'm still not focusing on my goals nor I am moving forward with them.

So what I want is to practice mindful, personalized meditations.

Update CV: My current contract expires at the end of December. Also, I'm not too happy with my current job, so it's high time to start looking and researching my next dream job, but that requires a killer CV.

I already have the toolkit: Brand You by John Purkiss, but I just can't find the time, energy and the mindset to go through it and create my CV.

So this is one goal I definitely have to tackle in October.

Travel more: Yet another seemingly vague goal, that I can easily make precise. In October, I want to travel to 3 different places: Saarbrucken, Remich and somewhere in Luxembourg, perhaps Echternach.

Travelling is a big lifetime goal for me, but I find it very difficult to realize. I'm always saving up money, not daring to squander on travelling, but it's not right. Also people with less time travel more. I have to be more organized about this. I don't even have any excuses, I just let time pass by without going anywhere.

So I have decided that in October I'm travelling.

Create positive energy: The reason I'm not happy with my current job, is my boss and the negativity coming from my boss that I constantly have to counter-balance. A negativity that comes from insecurity and lack of confidence. Unfortunately, this affects my life in such a great measure, that I have to do something about it.

The solution I've come up with instead of trying to continuously counter-balance is to set out to create positive energy in general. I've been doing this previously on occasion and obviously it makes me very happy when I succeed. So I'll try to be more mindful about it and practice this act more consciously in the hope that it'll affect my life in a positive way on many levels.

It sucks to feel desperate, so in October, I get proactive about ensuring that I don't have to feel that way.

Walk more: Whenever I'm out in the city, I feel immensely happy, yet I hardly ever find the time or energy to get myself out of my tiny box of a room and go for a walk. It'll never cease to awe me how the things we truly love can prove just as difficult to do as the things we hate.

I've also had plans to plan walks, but boy! So I'm starting with just walking. At least 3 times a week in October.

Photograph more: This is closely related to my walking goal. I used to have photography walks, but now I rarely ever take my camera with me. Previously, I had a deep photography crisis of which I'm finally getting over. Recently, I've had some nice success, so I just need to keep going and learning to use my camera again.

In October, it's time to remind myself, how much I love photography.

Do you have monthly goals? What would you like to fill October with? Let me know in the Comments below!