Aside from that, this year will be something that wil define who I really am as a person. I want 2012 to sculpt a new and improved human being in me. All those values that I’ve been holding on for years, will be lived by to the fullest. I shall impose my virtues and advocacies in every single day of 2012.

God has been very kind to me this 2011. He has provided me with lots of blessings. It’s time for me to bring back the goodness by living a clean, righteous and honorable life.

2012 will witness the emergence of a person with great willpower and self discipline, a person who lives simply and mindfully, a person who is very focused and determined to achieve whatever goal that he has in front of him. That person is me. This 2012, I am going to be the best that I have ever been in my entire life.

I know I have a hard and huge task in front of me. But I am not backing down. I will own 2012!

I haven’t been writing on this blog for almost half a year. I took some time to visit this blog and I skimmed through some of the old articles that I wrote for the past year. I felt the emotions that I had during the exact moments when I was writing these articles. Some were written out of negative emotions, but most were fired up by uplifted feelings and motivation.

Looking back at the things that transpired this year, I can say that I was able to accomplish lots of things. One major move was when I changed jobs and went back to what I love to do, software development. It was a career defining stage of my life, at least for this year.

I have put mindfulness, simplicity and slow living to the next level. However, that level rise was very negligible. But still, it was a notch higher. And I am happy I was able to achieve that. I expect to become more attached to these values this coming 2012. I will take things to an ultimately higher level.

2012 will be a huge turning point as far as my life is concerned. I am planning to settle down this year with the person I love. I expect this year to be filled with stress and buzz. But I will do my best to take things one step at a time. I have almost a year to prepare for the big day. With all the values ingrained into my system, this year will definitely bring out the best in me.

6 months ago, I started the life changing process. If you go back through my older posts, I even had a 60 day preparation period. I think over-all my life has improved but I still lack the discipline to work on my goals. Should I drop and lose those goals? Leo Babauta of Zen Habits taught us to let go of goals. He doesn’t even believe in discipline because it is merely a form of motivation. So going back to the question, should I lose these goal making sessions? Personally, I don’t think so.

So for this month of July, my birthday month, I will set another list of goals. Well this time, I’ll make things simpler.

My July Goals: Simpler, Less, More Focused

I have learned that if I focus on less things at a given time, I will be more successful with those things. So for the month of July, I will focus on 2 things.
1. 300 blog posts for one of my new websites and 30 posts for the other one. By the end of July, I should have accomplished this. Very simple task right? How to I keep the motivation flowing? Simple. These websites were tailor-made to earn a considerable amount of adsense income. Mass posting will easily boost the traffic of my websites.

2. Take single tasking, mindfulness and slow living to the next level. I have been an advocate of these three concepts. I’ve been trying to live my life in accordance to these principles. But sad to say I am still in the take off process. I haven’t ingrained those principles into my system yet. And for this month, I will take things to the next level. I will focus on engraving these virtues into my soul. I will live and breath single tasking, mindfulness and slow living.

I began to think, if I only focus on these tasks, it may harm the other areas of my life. Then of course I realized, yes I have these two major goals for the month, but I should not put aside quality habits that I should slowly/gradually acquire. So here is a list. I’m calling this the Habits List.

• running routine – This was one of my failed June goals. So I am putting this in the Habits List. My goal for now is to run once a week. Visit the gym once a week and hit the machine, or go the the track oval or simply do it at home using my old cycling machine.
• 1/2 rice diet – Funny isn’t it? I have been doing this regularly for almost more than a week. So I’ll just need to keep this going.

Today is Monday, and it is the start of another week. I want to say that it is a beautiful week but my head kept thinking of the work days ahead of me. No more leaves for this week. I am facing this work-week for five long days.

I need to refocus. That’s what I need to do. Being in a huge slump fills me up with guilt. I wasn’t productive. Though I enjoyed and was able to spend some good times during the week-end, the over-all turn-out still boils down to a slump.

Have a fresh start. That is the only thing that I can think of right now. I should be motivated enough to do the things that I need to do. I need to come back from this huge slump. Come on man, give me specific details here! I’am not going anywhere with these vague rants!

Here’s my game plan:

• Get back to alignment. Get my head into the game. Refocus for a lack of better term. Breathe in and breathe out. Meditate. Pull out all the positive vibes and turn it into something that will fuel my mind and body towards a better lifestyle.
• One thing at a time. Single tasking. If I have a list of things to do, then go through the list on by one. Do not multitask and jump from one task to another. It is very distracting. I’ll pick myself up one bit at a time.
• Relax. Move slowly. Be mindful. Enjoy every second of your life. Every day is a beautiful gift from God. Be thankful for every single day. It was created for you to live your life to the fullest. Mindfulness is the key.
• Do the right things. Self-discipline. Take time to make better judgments or decisions. Analyze every choices that you have and make a good decision. Stand by your decisions and focus on them.
• Pray. Ask for strength from God. Prayer is very powerful. Be very mindful while praying, putting all sincerity in every word.

Remember, life is a gift. Every day is something to cherish and enjoy. Every day is a new day that gives us an opportunity to do the right things, to do good things, to improve in life.

I am writing this post to make a promise that from now on, I will stop abusing my body. I will aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per day. Having enough sleep will help improve my performance at work.

I want to be able to do many things outside work. But I need to keep in mind that sleep should come first. All the other personal activities that I have must not interfere with my precious sleep.

Some of the benefits of having enough sleep:

• Sleep enhances memory and alertness.
• People who get enough sleep everyday are happier than those who lack sleep.
• Sleep will keep your heart healthy.
• Enough sleep reduces stress levels.
• And guess what, sleep can also help in losing weight!

I’m not saying that I am not satisfied with my life right now. I am totally satisfied and contented with what I have. But I just had this realization that I should redefine my lifestyle.

My typical week day consists of 9-10 hours in the office, around 1-2 hours of travel time, 5-6 hours of sleep, 1-2 hours for basic activities such as eating and cleaning and 2-3 hours for “me-time” such as blogging, reading, video games, and watching movies/television. Then I go to the gym or mall at least once or twice a week (2 hrs).

During weekends, I spend around 10-12 hours of sleep, 2-3 hours of basic activities and 9-10 hours “me-time”. Weekends are diamonds. Rest is priceless.

How will I revamp this? That’s my ultimate question. My weekdays seem to be cluttered. 9-10 hours of work time sucks but I have to face that for now because I need money. 5-6 hours of sleep isn’t enough so I may need to change that to 7-8 hours. How many hours left for my “me-time” then? Around 2 hours. I am trying to save time by leaving office as early as I can and by minimizing travel time. What else can I do?

I want to play basketball at least once a week or every other week. I am also planning to go to the gym at least three times a week. I want to increase my reading time as well as blogging time. I want to make blogging a serious online business. Perhaps I can set individual days per week or I can simply plan my days by making a schedule of activities. I am also planning to take up masters in IT. How can I fit all of these things in my fully-packed schedule? I better say goodbye to idle times. Lol.

I am welcoming the new year peacefully. My heart is at peace as I enter 2011. I can say that I have accomplished lots of things in the past year. And I am very thankful for that.

I just got back from outside our house. The firecracker frenzy is slowly settling down. Everyone’s going back to their homes to enjoy sumptuous feasts. I am here, back in front of my laptop, nibbling on the keys to make a year-end article for Life Lessons. How mindful can that be? Lol.

And the two-month/60-day preparation period has ended. Day 1 begins NOW. I am very positive about this year. Hopefully this year has lots of good things to offer. Well, I need to make things happen. I can’t just sit down and wait. I’ll make sure that every day of 2011 is worth reliving.

It’s day 1 of 2011! Have a blessed and wonderful year everyone! Cheers!

My preparation period will soon come into conclusion. I will be evaluating myself as I face a new year. Have I achieved my goals? Have I made some progress? Did I improve on something? I guess only I can answer those questions.

As we head to 2011, let’s reflect on the previous year, 2010. Let’s list down our accomplishments and failures. Yes I included failures because from these, we learn a lot of things. I won’t be putting specific details on my blog. Perhaps I’ll just have to make my personal and confidential list of accomplishments and failures.

In this post, I shall reenforce my goals. I will make 2011 as the turning point of my life. Here are my goals once again:

Slow living – A slow life for me this 2011. This year I will be catering to less stress and less burdens. More of happiness and inner peace. I will act slowly, I shall embrace slowness in almost every aspect of my life.

Mindfulness – In accordance to slow living, I will be mindful of all my actions. I will be mindful of everything that is happening to my life every single moment of every single day of 2011. That is a very tall order, but I will do my best.

Single tasking – This works hand in hand with the first two goals. I will avoid multi-tasking as much as I can. I will focus on one single task at a time, dealing with it slowly and mindfully.

Minimalism and simplicity – I shall live a simple life. I will try to become a minimalist when it comes to my material belongings and activities. I’ll go for the most important and worthy things and activities. Less is beautiful, if you focus on the essential things.

Clean mind, pure spirit – We are just humans. We make tons of mistakes. But I shall make this my goal anyway. I will lead a clean life. I shall have a pure and kind heart. I will avoid thinking and doing bad things that will put stains in my mind, heart and soul. I highly encourage everyone to join me in my quest for a clean mind and pure spirit.

Healthy body – I’m getting older. I should not take for granted my healthy body. I need to put more time and effort in obtaining a healthier body. That means dealing with different kinds of food that I don’t like and spending more hours in the gym.

Career development – I shall love my work. I will give my 100% in everything I do. I will research, study and gain more knowledge.

If we practice will power along with motivation, we are unstoppable. How are we going to do this?

When faced with great amounts of tasks and responsibilities, we should put in our minds the value of these things. What are the benefits of performing these tasks? What positive things can we get from these? When we’ve collected all the necessary information, roll it up in a ball and use it as our motivation, then the will power enters the scene. Be strong enough to push yourself to start doing. Just start. That’s the key. And with enough motivation (the ball), we’ll flow through the task.

It is also advised that when practicing will power and motivation, be sure to focus on a single task. Don’t be distracted by the other tasks at hand. Single tasking or focusing on one task will lead to carefully executed efforts and quality output.