Do you ever have those weeks where you thought you were prepared and braced yourself for the busy period, only for it to turn out so much differently from what you had expected?

I thought I was all geared up for the rush this month, but never would I have anticipated what was to come. It was quite an emotional one, especially the last two weeks. For me, November was filled with many interesting experiences and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Struggles and Revelations

Planning and Being Open To Change

You may have heard of the phrase, “Embrace change, because it is the only thing constant.” But do you actually know how to do that?

Given that I tend to want to do or accomplish something at every given hour, I often over-plan. As the day progresses, I start to get behind my schedule. Eventually, I feel overwhelmed and give up on follow through with my plans.

The next day, I under-plan but let my brain go into auto-pilot mode. I start ‘reacting’ rather than ‘responding’. Since there are no hard deadlines or sense of urgency in the day, I get easily distracted by notifications and browse social media whenever I have the urge to do so.

Do you struggle with this too? Well, the trick is to plan, but be open to change. Your need to plan stems from your desire to feel in control. When something doesn’t go according to what you planned, your brain doesn’t feel safe. However, there are times where you have to listen to your body and intuition to tell you if you should deviate from the plan or not. You’d be surprised at what they say.

Unfortunately, there have been things that came up for me that threw my plans out of the window this month. I decided to give myself grace to not be doing something (productive) at every given hour. I listened to my body and rested if I had to. For instance, I fell sick during the busy project period in school. Even though I still had many things to do on that day, I listened to my body to rest and took a nap (which I normally do not do.) I felt better after that and recovered the next day.

In terms of scheduling, I am still figuring out how to balance planning and being open to change. On some days, I fill my calendar with back-to-back activities while other days there is no structure. How do you find that balance with just enough structure and spontaneity?

If you think back to all the memorable moments you had, most were probably not planned, right?

Reconnecting With My Family Roots

This month, I got to meet many relatives and friends whom I haven’t been in touch with for some time. My grand-uncle showed me old photographs of my ancestors and helped fill in my family tree. I was intrigued by it and am grateful to be able to listen to him share stories about how life was like back then. (Who knew I have royal blood?)

If you are also curious about your ancestors, reach out to your relatives. You may never know what you can discover. Besides, it’s always fun to hear anecdotes about the generations that have come before you.

November Favourite Tool

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I love a good self-help/personal development book. However, there are just so many books to read but not enough time to get through all of them. Perhaps I do not even need to read all of them.

I discovered a Youtube channel, The Productivity Game, that helps in summarising core themes of non-fiction books in an easily digestible format. There are even one-page summaries included. Although it doesn’t completely replace reading the actual book, it provides enough detail to help me decide if I really want to invest time in reading the book or not.

Besides, the important thing about reading these types of books is actually applying the knowledge you’ve learnt from it. So, once you’ve got the learning points, pick one thing you can incorporate into your daily life. The simpler the better.

What I’m Working On In December 2020

Taking into account my tendencies to keep doing things, I am intentionally setting my theme for the month to just be present and enjoy the holiday season. I encourage you to take this time to have fun as well and reflect on how you want to remember 2020.

Don’t forget that you can always download my free journal prompts to help you review your term. (It works for any project or goal too.)

I’m off to fill in my answers to the prompts!