This is a part of my Year in Review 2020.
I planned to post this last month, in December 2020, but there was the whole COVID isolation thing.
My Project to reshape my identity hit a road block in the fall. And then it shattered.
A Primer
To those who did not read my original post, I had set 3 goals for myself at the start of the year:
- To spend at least 5 minutes on the treadmill every day.
- To write at least one word in a journal.
- To read at least 15 minutes a day.
These were not resolutions. These were measurable changes to my life. I could use these to make myself accountable. The goal was to change my identity to be the person who exercises, a reader and a journal writer.
What Happened?
It went well. I was consistent. Not 100% everyday, but I was mostly consistent(except the journaling), until the fall. In the Fall, I had to take a trip to the US. Now traveling during this COVID19 pandemic is awful in itself. And traveling 8000 miles away from your family when you can’t go anywhere is even worse. Exercise fell by the wayside, I had no desire to read, and my journaling was already in decline.
Those 3 weeks were worse than the isolation I had to go through when I contracted the coronavirus.
The Recovery
Once back home, I decided to jump back into my good habits. It was difficult. I did not journal once. More on that later. I did get back on to reading books, and slowly built up my stamina on the treadmill. I also started doing more body-weight and resistance exercises, and I believed I had managed to make up my loses but then…
M-M-My My My CORONA!
Well being in isolation is difficult. I have already written a lot of words on how I felt during this period. It ran a bulldozer through this project. Finding the energy to work out and read in a enclosed environment is very difficult. Ironically my Isolation Diaries became the journal habit that I had lost. There are silver linings in everything. However, overall, the year ended with a whimper, not with a bang.
Giving up?
Never. Well not until I am blind, incapable and/or senile. The end goal was not to be, not to do. I can safely say that I am a reader and a person who exercises. I a not a journaling person, but I wrote more words this year than ever. More than even university. I did it not only in journal but on this blog and on medium.
I did make a huge mistake. I never committed to an accountability system. Accountability is the most important aspect of good habit forming.
The Specifics
I plan to break down what specifically how it these habits changed me, what I wanted to get out of all of it and what I ended up getting for all of it. Check back here in the next few days as I write about what improved in my running, reading and writing. Also some super secret mini-goals that weren’t meant to be.