Life Focus for 2009

My primary focus for this year is BALANCE. Trying to get the aspects of life I have been ignoring up to speed while maintaining the areas in life that are already good.

I have just listened to Oprah's webcast the other day. Although, fitnesswise, there's nothing new said in their program, I got some valuable lessons out of it. There's something that drives me to add another post to this blog and takes myself seriously again. Maybe that something is to see other people struggle with the same problems and to know that they try so hard to get out of it. It really makes me think about my own life.

So based on Bob Greene's little thought exercise, I'm journaling my modification of the exercise here.

These are the areas of my life that are important to me and how I rate them in the scale of 0 to 10.
- Health and Fitness [taking vitamins, getting some exercise, take enough rest, hygiene, etc.] -- 4
- Family [my interactions with mom, dad, sister, and brother] --10
- Beauty and Weight Management [seems to be the same thing as health and fitness but it's not. This area cover body image, fashion, overall physical appearance.] -- 6
- Career [college and grad school, other jobs] -- 10
- Finance [no description needed :)] -- 7
- Romantic Relationship [all for my lovely boyfriend] -- 10
- Friends and other relationships [including relationships with colleagues, professors, those who I don't consider friends (they need to be managed too, don't they?)] -- 4
- Spirituality [how close am I to awakening mind, to inner peace, and freedom from the ego] -- 6
- Fun and Recreation [traveling, socialization, partying, or other activities] -- 4
- Skills and Intellect [playing piano, learning about the world, learning life wisdoms] -- 5

So there are some certain areas I obviously should pay attention to. I have the tendency to pour all my effort to maintain one single area that is already good (academic work, in this case.) Now it's time to get other areas up to speed. The real challenge is to keep up with everyday actions, really. It is easy to fall back to the old pattern I'm comfortable and familiar with.

My general goals of 2009
1. Be comfortable in my own skin. My self-esteem has been heading to the positive direction, but I would like to nail it, once and for all.
2. Go out and experience life. Spend more time with others. Stay out of my comfort zone.
3. Improve health and hygiene. I'm worth taking care of. Make exercise a routine. Always keep my surroundings clean.
4. Improve physical appearance. Get rid of geeky clothes. Look in the mirror before going out of the apartment etc.
5. Make my website grand! I'm working on a new website. It will be one of the primary focus for a while.
6. Spend a portion of time everyday to raise my consciousness.
7. Improve desirable skills. Get back to piano practicing. Read stuff I should.
8. Minimize procrastination. Increase my productivity.

I think I will spend a period of time focusing on a set of actions or intentions. Trying to make all these goals work overnight is simply impossible. For the first month I will focus on the most urgent area. Here are my first baby steps.

2009 - Season I - 19 Jan - Feb 28
Daily Actions
- Balance diet. 1300-1500 calories, lots of veggies and fruits. I might do a 7-day juice feast during this period. Drink a lot of water.
- Good hygiene. Keep everything clean everyday. House cleaning at the very least once a week.
- Taking vitamins daily.
- Reduce procrastination. Minimize email checking, Youtube time, and TV time.
- Meditate at least 15 mins a day.
Weekly Actions
- Exercise at the very least 3 times a week.
- Learn about spirituality, at least 1-2 hour a week.
- Spend at least a few hours a week on the website.
Other actions
- Don't say no to social invitations.
- Apply spiritual practice to daily life when situations arise.
- Journal regularly.

As to whether I have conquered overeating, I'm proud to say I'm over it. I still eat more than I need from time to time, but I don't see it as a problem anymore. I want to focus on improving my life in general. This might be the only way to win it actually. If I'm happy inside, why would I ever binge?