I know this post is a little late, being that we are nearly one quarter, or 25% done with the year.
However, I can say that I set my goals early on in the year, and have been sticking to them in a way that I am happy with, which I guess is better than writing them out and not doing them. I composed this post in my head in late January, and please assume that this is still the case when reading it; I will write a secondary update post soon enough (in sha Allah - God Willing, Always).
This year, I have 4 MAJOR goals. These I will keep with me, and let’s see what happens. I am sorry if you wanted to read about these, but not sorry enough that I will share them now. I may decide to share them at the end of the year. The 4 major goals have a defined endpoint; at the end of the year, I will either have achieved them, or I will not.
Around those major goals, however, I have 6 smaller goals. If you follow me on Instagram, I posted these in early and mid-January, and I see these goals as in a different way. Instead of having a defined endpoint, they are more additive. The more I do them, the more I will gain/grow, and the amount that I am able to do them is influenced by the vagaries of life such as they may be. However, if I don’t get to do that much of them, then it’s not a bad thing, because, even a little will benefit me, plus I have the main 4 goals to worry about, which are orders of magnitude more important.
In the order in which I posted them on Instagram, they are:
I - MORE TRAVEL
2012 is the point of inflection in my life as far as travel is concerned. Before 2012, the last time I left the country was way back in 2004, and that wasn’t a holiday. However, since then, I have been extremely lucky:
2012: Sweden, Wales & Iraq
2013: Morocco, Scotland
2014: Switzerland, Dubai
2015: Sweden, Iran, Layover in Dubai
Analysing the above, it seems to me that I have a pattern of going to at least one MENA (Middle East / North Africa) country and one European country a year. If I can manage that this year as well, then I will be happy. If I exceed that, I will be over the moon. I love travelling; I am happy to admit that I have a serious case of Wanderlust, and furthermore that it is a disease which I am happy to have.
II - READ 25 BOOKS
I read a lovely amount of books last year. And they were lovely books too, so a double win; quality and quantity. Some that I have read have now become firm favourites of mine that are wholeheartedly recommended.
I know that my life is becoming crazy busy from a professional point of view, and also that as I pursue the other goals that I will not have time to read much more, but I have set myself an achievable (I hope!) target of reading one book every 2 weeks, or, 25/26 books a year. If I only read 10 or 15, well, thats ok; I won’t be disappointed - as mentioned before, these are additive goals.
I’m keeping myself in check by steadfastly refusing to buy any more books until 10 from the pile I start with at the beginning of the year have not only been read, but also given away.
I also have a to-read list now spanning well over 700+ books; if I add nothing to it and only manage to read 50 books/year, I need never ask anyone else for a recommendation for 14 years!
Side note; I am really getting into Historical Islamic / Middle Eastern fiction - best examples of these being Samarkand, Alif the Unseen, Leo the African, and Alamut - I love these books so very much, and wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone.
When I clean it up enough, I will post my to-read list here. It may take a while.
III - BROADEN MY HORIZONS.
The actual caption I put on Instagram was this:
My good friend Dave (not his real name) is the only person who has told me I need to increase my general knowledge and broaden my horizons, and he suggested I take up reading a quality newspaper. Then, he actually gave me 6-months worth of prepaid vouchers to the “i” newspaper in a “Project Imran 2.0” envelope; thus following his advice with concrete action. I think it would be wrong of me to refuse to follow his advice now.
I don’t think there is any more to add; we shall see.
IV - CAPTURE MORE BEAUTY
I love taking photos. Genuinely, really, love it; capturing fragments of life, moments frozen in time, and looking back on them as time passes. From that point of view, Instagram is a great fit for me. I am always, always looking for a good shot; its like a second nature now.
I have been lucky to always have a good (iPhone 4) to really good (iPhone 5C) to great (iPhone 6) camera always with me from the start, and I don’t even like to use filters anymore; just the plain picture as taken will suffice. As a result, if you follow me on Instagram, (and to a lesser extent on Twitter) expect me to post more of what I find beautiful, not just freshly captured, but also from my archive as well.
V - DECLUTTER MORE
I will always be trying to do this, and I will never be 100% happy with my progress, but genuinely now I feel that whatever little I can do will benefit myself, and anything else is a bonus.
If it’s not self evident, or you do not see why this would be a goal for me, then I recommend reading Walden, by Henry David Thoreau - one of my favourite non-fiction books ever. The answer is there, implicit throughout the whole book, and explicit in some places as well.
VI - UTILISE UPSTREAM EFFECTS
The idea is that we are constantly building our future selves, and whilst we may not have everything right at this moment in time, sending the right assets, tools, habits, and strengths downstream to our future selves will be of invaluable use.
Its easy to explain, and extremely hard to implement, and I have so much I need to tackle in my life, that figuring out the best way to use this gem of insight is going to be a mission in itself. Of all of the mini goals set for this year, this is the most abstract, least specific, least measurable, and yet the one with the ability to have the most impact. Wish me luck!
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I am way, WAY behind on my self-imposed target of posting once a week. Dave (not his real name) is most disappointed in me. I will do my best to catch up, which means you may see a lot more frequency of posting, at least until I hit my goal. The good thing is that I already have 5/6 ideas that are ready to post; all I need now is the time to write them out.
Hope my handful of readers are all doing well, iA
6 years ago
