Sunday, January 04, 2015

Time

Given that I was away from the blog for most part of 2014 and that December was fairly busy itself, I never got to pen my year-end post. And then I came across this feature on HuffPost which served as a good starting point for this post. Thinking through the below 30 questions about the year that went by and the year ahead put things in perspective – some a little late in the day and some just in time before I start a new life. 

Here we go…

2014 in review

1. Describe your 2014 in three words
# Stable
# New
# Challenging

2. What was your most common mental state this year?
Happy

3. What was the biggest event in your life this year?
The engagement

4. What were your three happiest moments?
# The couplet night
# Telling Mom about Chetak
# The birthday dinner 

5. What new skills did you learn?
# Cooking
# Work processes-related things

6. What personal qualities or habits did you develop, cultivate, or strengthen?
# Started to articulate thoughts more clearly
# Introduced more fibre intake

7. What new things did you discover about yourself?
After pondering over this question for a few minutes, I feel old. There’s nothing new I discovered about myself. What I did discover about life is that 100 per cent happiness is a myth. 

8. What little things did you most enjoy doing on a daily basis?
Chatting with cabbies

9. What out-of-the-ordinary things did you do this year?
Most part of life this year was out of the ordinary

10. What cool things did you create?
All the food! Rajma, chhole, kadi, pasta, etc

11. What big things did you do that you had to get out of your comfort zone?
# Moved countries
# Worked with people from a completely different culture (inter-personal and professional)
# Swam in the ocean 

12. What achievements are you most proud of?
Living on my own

13. What was the most memorable moment this year?
The proposal

14. What are you most thankful for?
Love

15. Who are you most thankful for?
Chetak

16. How did you spend time with your family and how did the relationship evolve?
Technology-dependent bonds 

17. What or who had the biggest positive impact on your life this year?
Chetak did

18. What was the most important lesson you learnt in 2014?
You need a lot of patience and discipline to move the needle beyond a point

19. If you could turn back time, what would you have done differently?
Tackled the new role at work differently

20. What advice would you give to other people about what you have learned this year?
Ask more questions, do more research before jumping into anything

2015

21. What new things do you want to try in 2015?
# Regular exercise
# Euro travel
# Better cooking

22. What or where do you want to see, discover, and explore in 2015?
I don’t think this one is applicable given the year’s planned schedule

23. What do you want to achieve career-wise?
Discipline and independence

24. What new skills do you want to learn, improve, and master?
# Cooking is important!
# And maybe see through the Urdu plan

25. What personal qualities or habits do you want to develop, cultivate, or strengthen?
# Assertiveness
# Discipline

26. Who do you want to spend more time with?
The family before I move

27. What do you want to "feel" most of the time in 2015 (happy, content, excited, relaxed, busy, productive, creative)?
Happy and productive

28. What do you want your day-to-day life to be like in 2015?
Relaxed breakfast. Decent office hours. Productive conversations at home. Date nights. Cookouts. Travel. Socializing.  

29. What do you want to completely get rid of in your life and in 2015 you will make it happen?
Nothing really

30. What is your number one goal in 2015 and how are you planning to achieve it?
Active lifestyle - hopefully with some consistent help