Installing Foundations (take 2)

[Guest]

Last year, I began a journal to document my progress installing a set of foundational habits and infrastructure into my life, in the interest of having some public accountability. The project followed a long period of unsuccessfully installing permanent, no-exceptions habits.

I recognized then, as I do now, that the issues behind this were

• Shaky commitment
• Not having built enough trust in myself
• Trying to do too much at once
• Instability in motivation, fluctuating between being passionately driven and relatively unmotivated.

A lot happened in my life and the project was lost. I won't go into the details but I am now ready to try again.

The Plan

The structure of my plan will be slightly different this time round. The operating principles will be:

• Each habit has a minimum duration, I can do longer if I want (and indeed, I usually already do), but not less than the minimum
• Consistency must be rock solid before minimum durations are extended. Very short minimum durations at first
• Absolutely no exceptions unless previously stated
• New minimum times and new habits introduced monthly (to think of as series of 30day challenges)
• If month's goals have not been accomplished, the month is repeated
• Monthly review, reward, and accountability update (post here)
• Use of NLP-related technique The Lightning Process to intervene when motivation is flagging
• Inspiration, not guilt (visualization may help)
• Long term view, not being overly ambitious

1 year goals

In the interest of the last point, I will make this modest in comparison to previous longer term goals. I recognize that goals may shift over time, but I am setting an intention to remain consistent where possible.

• Four yoga sessions a day (3 kriya @ 40mins, 1 hatha @ 60mins)
• Italian study (a form of karma yoga for me) daily @30mins
• Use Lightning Process consistently to maintain healthy energy and calmness
• Practical habits (weekly review, daily checklist, 'key point reflections')
• Brahmacharya (sublimate desires for sex, food gratification, etc)
• Quit: sugar, excessive youtube, etc

January 2018 challenge

Four yoga sessions a day. Minimum duration: 2 minutes.

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by Stretch

[Guest]

Week 1 update

Things have been going very well, 100% success with meeting my (extremely modest) targets, and as expected the norm is to far exceed them. More often that not, I have achieved the durations in their finalized forms (see 1 year goals).

I am, however, meeting some challenges, which will be necessary to address and focus on. 

• The first is maintaining consistent sleeping hours, getting up early enough to get the bulk of my habits done before work (my experience is that early completion dramatically improves my success rate). I have added a gradual adjustment of sleeping times (required to accommodate longer yoga sessions) to my project goals, as going too quickly on this has been challenging.
• The second, related, is improving sleep quality, particularly waking up at night (this throws my sleeping times into imbalance and affects my motivation). I have some ideas for this to experiment with.
• Thirdly, I need to maintain a mental state of energy and motivation using the lightning process as a top priority foundation, and spend more time nurturing this. 
• And finally, occasionally lunchtime yoga sessions are jeopardized by a lack of organization resulting in not having a packed lunch and needing to shop.

[Guest]

Week 3 update

The last two weeks have been excellent. I haven't missed a single instance, since the start of the whole project, of any of my 4 daily yoga sessions or my Italian practice, except for a negligible scattering of exceptions that met pre-agreed criteria or an exceptional circumstance. Generally my kriya sessions have been final target 40mins, although occasionally as low as 10 (although never lower). Hatha has often been final target 60 but, again, sometimes lower. Italian has been final target 30 almost without exception.

Areas of weakness to concentrate on:

• When I get up later than 6am, it generally  negatively affects durations
• Food shopping in the evening
• PMO negatively affects

Edited January 21, 2019 by Stretch

[Guest]

January Review

First month completed, and generally it was very successful. Of 136 total sessions,

• I met my minimum for 124 (exceeded minimum for 121)
• Circumstances excused me for 9
• Unfortunately I skipped 3 out of laziness

Average durations:

• Kriya 1: 31mins (vs ultimate goal 40mins)
• Kriya 2: 34 mins (vs ultimate goal 40mins)
• Kriya 3: 20mins (vs ultimate goal 40mins)
• Hatha: 38mins (vs ultimate goal 60mins)
• Italian: 28mins (vs ultimate goal 30mins)

February challenge

My no.1 goal for February is to miss 0 sessions, circumstances permitting. Due to a few sessions missed in January I am only increasing the minimum duration to Yoga 3mins each, Italian 2mins, although I will try to think of both as 10. I will achieve this by:

1. Getting up consistently at 6am
2. Continuing focus on Lightning Process to support inner resources (calm energy, motivation, etc)

These strategies, properly executed, should be enough to guarantee an improved February. On the whole, things seem to be moving in a positive direction and it looks like the overall project strategy is solid.