Hold the space for your cravings.

Here is a quote from Tamara Levitt, a mindfulness instructor in the Calm app.

Hold the space for your cravings, observing them until they pass. To heal, we must bravely stay, rather than run. 

This is a great idea and as always it requires a lot of practice. The author also asks us to focus on our breath while observing the craving. Hope this helps.

She has a lovely video up on her website with the message that failure is a brave effort that should be celebrated. We all need that reminder once in a while.

Year of articulation

This year I want to focus on articulating my thoughts. I want to have and express an opinion on things that are relevant to my work. I want to be able to persuade people to see my point of view. I want to practice using logos, ethos, and pathos to be an effective communicator. This will be the focus of my speaking, reading, listening and writing practice. 

I to use this to communicate my thoughts, persuade people to use my design, debate the merits and demerits of my architectures. I want to use this to make allies, to motivate people and generally be an effective communicator. 

I want to do this so that I don't try to translate things from my mother tongue and waste precious time or create awkward pauses when speaking. I want to do this to sound confident and fluent. 

I want to be able to do this to move to a better role and to make a bigger difference in the world. All my heroes are very articulate and great speakers. In the direction where my work is taking me, this is a superpower and I want to learn that and wield that. 

Year of Focus - Update

Last year my main goal was to work with focus. Though I cannot say I have achieved it 100% of the time, having that goal helped. I was able to work with focus when I was intentional about the work I wanted to do.

I also found that the Deep Work Manual helped a lot in maintaining the focus. I also found out ways I can overcome getting distracted. This is still though a work in progress. The top things that helped me stay focussed were

1. Being intentional about what I  do
2. Periodic check-ins to see what I focused on
3. Eliminating distractions in the environment as much as possible.
4. Ritualizing and having strict rules about using the internet
5. Recommitting every time I slip out of focus
6. Performing regular self-care maintenance - sleep, water, exercise, and meditation

I built up a focus routine that I can enter into whenever I can create the intention for focus.
This year, I will improve further by starting every task with intention.