January has nearly come to an end, and there are many things which I had planned to do but I found myself scattering away everywhere.
Whether it be Yogic practices or developing certain skill sets everything needs proper planning so that it can be executed well. But the problem with the plans is they are hard to follow or execute. Especially if you are someone who has entire control over 24 hours, maybe because you are unemployed or a freelancer, or someone who is working remotely on his venture which is still in the beginning phase.
Procrastination is natural in this kind of situation and being accountable for what you do becomes very important.
I am a computer engineering dropout, I used to be an entrepreneur where I failed repetitively. Simultaneously I was also on a spiritual journey where I became a yoga practitioner and went for 10 days Vipassanā.
Later I stayed in Sadhguru’s Isha Yoga Center ashram for 5 months, and then I left my home and early-stage startup for which I worked very hard for 2 years. I left all behind in pursuit of spiritual seeking, I went towards the Himalayas. (This one is a failure/learning story, I kept it drafted for some other day.)
When I returned back home after a failed Himalayan journey, I was stagnated. I had nothing to do, and due to covid, I didn't know what to pursue. Neither I was interested in going back to the startup I left, nor did I want to go for any other spiritual seeking, I was already trained and initiated into powerful yogic practices by one of the best masters alive today. All I wanted was to create something worthwhile and go far away from the environment I was currently in.
I started to focus on creating one of the Canada-based startups. I worked for 1 year along with my friend who lived in Canada, and then, the second wave of corona hit much harder, all my plans scattered, and again I had nowhere to go.
I just kept myself in patience, waited to get clouds clear, and hoped for the sun to shine. Till now whatever I had planned in my life, I never succeeded in any one of them, I created a startup risking my college degree, I failed, I left everything behind in order to live the life of a fakir, I failed, but whatever life brought to me was much more. Maybe socially I am a big failure, maybe financially I am still vulnerable, and maybe skillfully I am still incompetent to prove my expertise in one particular area of life but what life has shown to me is precious. I am quite excited, energetic, and willing to throw myself completely into what will be coming next.
Nowadays I am focusing more on being a UX Researcher/Designer, Writing a Book, and supporting my friend in some blockchain/crypto research who is based in Canada.
As the one month of the year 2022 has passed away, I don’t see a major escalation in the skills I had planned to learn or habits I had planned to adopt. Recently I came across the Medium account of Max Deutsch and I got highly inspired by his Month to Mastery blogs. It was inspiring to watch how he planned a SMART Goal and approached it right from day 1 of the month. He wrote down his daily experiences and presented his entire plan of achieving the monthly goal from 1st November 2016 to 31st October 2017.
So I have a similar approach but with some changes:
- Instead of a month, I am going to approach my challenge in the first 28 days of a month. Just because the upcoming month of February has 28day.
I want to stay consistent with the number of days. - Instead of achieving the goal, and leaving it away for the pursuit of the next, I am going to keep on integrating newly learned skills/practices over existing ones. The idea is to get habituated to these skills.
- Instead of focusing on one particular challenge, I am going to focus on multiple challenges at a time by following them in different time blocks. It is possible, as I have divided my challenges into multiple categories like Wrting Blogs, Artistic Skills, and Active Learnings
- Instead of writing a daily new blog, I will keep on updating a single blog related to a particular challenge.
The way I am planning to write these blogs is such that whichever challenge I pursue; I will explain my approach and the reason behind achieving it.
Also, the skill I learned, I will try to use for updating these blogs. For example, if I learn sketching, I will try to create sketches for the blogs I will be writing, If I learn communication then I will integrate videos into the blogs.
The plan is not to achieve any goal, instead, the idea is to form a particular system where I will keep on introducing new skills, practices, and learnings which I will be developing every first 28 days of a month.
Before introducing you to my challenges let me start by answering a few of the questions:
Why are you doing this?
I am doing this because, since the time I have taken a drop from engineering back in 2015, I have acquired tons of skills and done various types of work, whether it was being a part-time lecturer for computer administration, starting a mobile repairing business, or becoming a high school children’s private tuition teacher, and later co-founding a geospatial satellite-based startup along with one friend who was an alumnus of the ISRO. Whenever needed, I acquired new skills, whether it be technical skills for web development, app development, or learning coding languages like PHP, javascript, java, kotlin, dart, python, and having hands-on development frameworks like Django, VueJs, and Flutter.
I also acquired skills related to UX Research and Design, marketing, business model creation, financial estimation and etc. while working on building a startup.
I have reached a stage in my life where I can say that either I know too many things, Or I truly don't know anything because I don't have expertise in any one of them.
The whole attempt with the 28 Days of Month challenge is to structure out everything in a way that I truly focus on skills that I truly wanted to pursue or become a master in, instead of just learning what I was curious about. Of course, I love exploring and adopting new things but the need of the hour is to become a master in what I truly love. (Maybe because at least I can get a proper job..lol)
Are you starting from scratch?
For most of the skills/practices, I am not starting from scratch, I have already learned them, applied them, or achieved them in my life, but now the objective is to remain consistent, accountable, and adopt the system.
Will you be writing about “28 Days of Month” every day?
I might update each blog every day or whenever needed. The main objective is to document the process.
Why are you sharing these blogs?
The only reason is: I really don’t know what to do, I don’t have a specific goal in my mind. I am just pushing myself to do what I am passionate about so that when I go to sleep, I can say that I did some karma!!!
Setting any goal feels like limiting myself to one thing, and missing out on every other thing in existence.
In this process, I just want to offer myself to people, in the form of these sharings that will be documented in form of blogs.
“I am passionate about following the system, instead of goal, so that whatever life will bring to me, I am able to perform.”
In pursuit of goals, we might miss away many things which life has to offer. But if we focus on adopting a system within ourselves, then we are open to life, and can act in every area of life wherever we are needed.
List of challenges, I will be taking based on categories:
Active Learnings
- Practice Communication
- Communication Level Spanish Speaking
- Speed Reading
Artistic Skills
- Portrait Designing Mastery
- Character Designing Mastery
- Character Illustrator Mastery
Writing Blogs
- 28 Blogs on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
- 28 Blogs on Psychology
- 28 Blogs on UX
Other Challenges
- Reading one book a day
- Book Writing
List of months and allocated challenges:
28 Days of February:
Report for 28 Days of February
28 Days of March: (Updated)
- Practicing Communication
- Speed Reading (800 wpm)
- Finishing UX Project.
- Sleeping only 4:30hrs a day.
March Update:(As of 2nd March 2022)
- I actually slept in the early morning at 7 am for 2 hrs. After I woke up I did self-reflection for the 28 days of February. And I realized that I simply can’t learn everything which I want to. Instead, I need to be very calculative about where I put my time and how it will be rewarding me in the upcoming time. So I decided that I will utilize 28 Days of March to build my foundation strong for what I will be pursuing next. That is why I have updated the above objectives.
- I won't be writing a daily blog now, I will prefer “quality over quantity”.
- I will be doing deliberate practice on the above objectives along with finishing up some UX-based projects, from 4th March — 31st March(28 days!!). I will write a few blogs in between based on what I have learned.
28 Days of April:
- Character Designing Mastery
28 Days of May:
- Character Illustrator Mastery
28 Days of June:
- Book reading — Book/Day
I am not yet able to finalize objectives for other months. Maybe I will include learning classical music, dance, silence practice, and many others or keep upgrading existing objectives in the following months after June. Though in the beginning, I chose the challenges which are more important for my career and related to my hobbies. In the future, I have plans to select extreme challenges. But I don’t have any clarity about other months as I don’t know how life will unfold. Whether I will be in India or moving to Canada, whether I will be joining any company or doing my own projects. I am not even certain about the lifespan I have, every day when I wake up, I just think about living just today completely. But of course, if I live, I will keep on challenging myself for an entire year.
Even you can follow the trend: 28 Days of a Month…!!!
