Reflection on 2016: Building Habits
“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements” -Napoleon Hill
I have been meaning to reflect on last year, but have been so busy these past two months that I couldn’t find the time and space. Now that I found it, I am able to look back at last year’s calendar and written monthly reflections. And wow! 2016 was a year of building, building, building. I want to call it a year of building new habits.
Why I started creating goals and habits
I want to give you a little background on why I started creating monthly goals and reflecting on my accomplishments each month. In 2014 and 2015, I felt very lost. I had transitioned from the college life and into a 9 to 5 job. Even though I was still traveling and attending music festivals, I didn’t have time for much besides work during the weekdays. In the end, I felt like I wasn’t accomplishing much. I needed a system for myself. A system where I could stay true to my values and work towards my lifetime dreams.
It took me a couple of months to figure out a road map that would work for me. My aha moment was realizing I was looking at my todo lists the wrong way. I had a reason for them, but why? I noticed that my todos were geared towards meeting a goal I subconsciously had. But I needed these goals to align with my values, interests and hopes. So every month I started writing goals for different categories in my life. And by the end of the month I started reflecting on the accomplishments made and the things I still had to continue working on.
Through this process, I also realized I needed to create good long term habits. Habits that would provide me a foundation for continuous learning and a healthy lifestyle through this busy life. To build these habits I had to set each up as metric based goals to be able to track my progress. I wish I could go on more about how I determine and prioritize my goals, but I will try to write about it in another story.
New Habits
Below is a foundation of new habits that I worked towards each month. Many of these came from reading about what successful people do in their daily routines, inspirational blogs, and through friends.
Running — I set up a goal to run an average of 30 miles.
Reading — Setup a goal to read before bed or while traveling.
Coding — Aimed to code everyday. This took almost all year to get used to.
Daily Meditation — Tried to meditate 5–10 minutes daily.
Attending Tech Meetups — Created a monthly goal to sign up at for at least one meetup.
Listening to Tech Podcasts — Aimed at listening to podcasts on the way to work. Took a couple of months to figure out what podcasts were available and which interested me.
Drinking More Water — Had to log how much I drank daily to achieve 100–120 oz a day. Today, I still tally my water consumption while in the office.
Hiking — Tried to plan a hike each month.
Meal Prep — Aimed at meal prepping every Monday.
I had to be patient and kind with myself. During the first half of the year, there were months where I lacked drinking enough water or didn’t wake up early enough to meditate. There were weeks where I didn’t get to read and ran a little less. But I kept writing down my goals and continued to log my progress. Now most of these habits come more natural to me. I wake up in the morning and the first thing I do is meditate and drink a glass of water. However, there are some habits where I have to continue working at every day. An example is coding where I have to make sure I adjust my schedule and plan ahead.
What I was able to accomplish
My new habits have allowed me to do the things that I have a passion for and allow me to work towards my dreams and aspirations. These habits and the process of setting up monthly goals has helped me focus during the work weeks so that I can enjoy guilt free play with friends and family.
Here are some accomplishments that I am proud of and get me excited for what I can accomplish next:
Traveled to 1 new continent, 1 new country, and 4 US States
Celebrated 3 years with BAE
Read 7 inspirational books
Attended 27 music events
Attended 14 tech meetups
Ran 400 miles. Through this, I completed 3 half marathons in 2016
Raised $790 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and $376 for the Girls In Tech
Took family out on a few trips
Completed Watch and Code Practical JS course
Completed a MongoDB for Node.js Developers course
Built 5 small single webpage applications
Learned how to snowboard
Simple things that make my ❤ happy
And through my monthly reflections I learned what simple things in life make me extremely happy.
- Visiting family and friends
- Adventures with BAE
- AYCE Hot Pot
- Cut the Crab (same as Boiling Crab, but without the 3–4 hour wait)
- Building applications (Simple enough to do in a laptop, but not so much a simple process)
- Physical activities
Hopes for 2017
For 2017, I hope to maintain the good habits I have built. I want to use these habits to build momentum on some really important goals I have for my career and personal life.
As a bonus, I also hope to one day be able to turn the system I just explained to you into a website so that others can become motivated.
I hope this inspires you to build or find a system that motivates you every day. A system that allows you to become a better version of yourself ❤
