Thanks for the comments!

I agree about the first point. I’ve explored a number of different ways to track my goal-oriented behavior throughout the day, but some goal categories continue to elude capture by a simple, well-defined tracking system. I find schoolwork goal-seeking and social goal-seeking to be particular hard to track… things like diet and exercise can be quantified up the wazoo, but academics and relationships less so.

The problem with tracking work done by recording the number of hours spent is that it seems to imply that the amount of progress I made in X hours is less important than the fact that I sat at my desk and stared at my computer for X hours… it quantifies the input instead of the output, which doesn’t really promote “working smart.”

On the other hand, the notion of “progress” differs from project to project, so it’s tough to think of a single metric one could use to measure work across all projects, besides hours spent.

As far as the sleep thing goes, I hear you. Maybe I’m just not meant to be an early riser. But I’ll keep trying! It’s just a stubborn desire that I have, to say that I wake up at 7am every day.

Are you a programmer?

J

Checked out your blog. I feel your power, especially because C++ is a tough tough language to master.

Anyway, a couple more thoughts:

(1) I’m not sure how useful it is just to grade yourself on a binary scale. If your goal is 6 hours of work and you do 4, that is still better than doing 0 or 2 hours.

(2) If you are having trouble getting up when you want to, there might be a good reason for it: Your body needs sleep and adequate amounts of it, just as it needs food and water. Sleep is not just for the lazy or weak, even though in our culture we often view it that way, even on a subconscious level. It is a ‘hard’ need, not a ‘soft’ one, even though for short periods we can do with less. So do what you can to get your rest!

http://www.jordanevolves.com/?page_id=181

I’m planning on keeping one of these every month… hopefully it will help keep me on task.

The objective was to invite them to concerts, although at first they seemed to be interested in joining me when I go to a concert, at the end of the month very few of them went with me, actually only three people (not as many as I would expected) I have to say that there were many of my friends from university who had exams this month… that could be a reason.
I realized that it would be useful if I expand my social circle beyond my degree classmates, that’s why since last week I started having lunch in cafeteria rather than eating at home alone, in that place I can meet more people.
Other things I learned are to plan with anticipation, before everybody’s schedules fills with other things to do, especially on weekends,

There is a quote by Luciano Pavarotti: “Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.” I agree, and trying to make people love it by just talking about it is not enough. What seems to work fine is making people listen to some pieces with my MP3 player. I make them say a random number and then I explain something about that piece, (if I don’t know about the piece, well, I say something about the composer, or the period, or… I make up anything on the go. Hahaha, no, not really) usually I never run out of things to share.

So in general, I can say that I barely accomplished some of the objectives that I proposed to myself, but now I have many phone #s and emails, and in the following weeks I will send invitations to them, this also means that my social circle expanded a lot.

I am thinking in making a newsletter listing all events on the month related to classical music and sending it by email, because most people who like classical usually are not aware… and many other things that I need to put in practice. Hopefully this will make more people join to that immense minority who love classical music.

Thanks Stephen for the little boost, I really needed something like this, Congratulations to all those who participated!
Keep learning and stepping out of your comfort zone just like you did in April, it was great!

I will finish this post with another quote; the most common thing I hear about classical music is that it’s for upper class or selected people, but…

“Why should be elite, music? Excuse me. Music must be for everybody.” ~ Luciano Pavarotti

Thank you for having this contest and allowing the posters to see themselves in a self-discovery mode.

To my fellow posters:

I commend you guys for your journeys through self-discovery and learning what it takes to better yourselves. I also commend you guys for being conscience of literacy and grammar. For the most part, the postings have been grammatically correct.

As for my own journey, I have learned that, overall, if I want something done, I’ve got to do it. What ever the task is, just get it done. That and, I lust after someone that I have sexual tension with!

Bob

My final stats:

- Exercise: 11 out of 25 days
- Healthy eating: 13 out of 25 days
- 7am wakeup: 0 out of 25 days :p
- Substantial work completed: 13 out of 25 days

Overall, I have to admit that I am proud of my performance. I think just tracking my behavior for the entire month was a positive exercise. I’ve tried to do this before and only gotten through two weeks at most… I definitely owe my success this month to the motivation provided by everyone in the contest.

The stats above bring me to wonder: what was I thinking on the days when I didn’t exercise, or ate a pint of Ben & Jerry’s instead of my five healthy meals, or skipped schoolwork to watch Sober House with Dr. Drew? Without a doubt, I was concentrating only on the immediate in these moments: how good the ice cream would taste, or how nice relaxing on the couch would feel, for the next few hours only… and not how doing these things would impact me on a longer-term basis.

I am happy to report that, towards the end of the month, I began actually catching myself in the act of committing some of these goal-related transgressions, and a few times I was able to talk myself out of going through with it. Just yesterday, I ordered a stuffed crust pizza with chicken and pineapple (delish!), which I would have undoubtedly shoved whole down my gullet shortly after delivery, but then, a few minutes after the call, I called to cancel the order. Every choice is a battle, and winning these battles consistently calls for self-discipline. The good news is that each time we make the right choice, we become more likely to make positive choices in the future, in all areas of discipline.

Thanks to Stephen and to all the rest of the guys. It was fun to check the page each day and be involved in a little sliver of your lives for the month. Maybe we could do this every month… say, in Playboy’s Lounge?

Anyway, bravo to all. Upward and onward in May!

My fear which I wanted to overcome was my social anxiety and my isolation from social situations. In this. month, I have started volunteering in the ER, and danced a bit of salsa.Also went out every now and then with a bit little bit success.

As a result, I didn’t get 8 numbers this month, but through dancing and volunteering, I have put my self on the right path to get out of isolation and start contributing. I’ve learned that even if I think I have nothing to give, I surprised myself by challenging myself socially and mentally.

For May, I will continue to volunteer at the hospital and maintain my video game limit. Best of luck to all and have your momentum carry over to the next month.

Cheers,

Aexl

My challenge was bulding a social circle after living in Berlin for about eight months now and not really having any buddies here.

Here is what I’ve done: Since I’m running the marathon in Berlin this year, I thought it would be a good idea to meet people who are interested in running as well and I decided to volunteer at running events. I registered on the website of the company that is organizing all the major running events in Berlin and applied for severeal runs. Unfortunately they seem to have more volunteers than they need, so I couldn’t help at any event yet, but I have applied for several dates down the line.

Moreover I contacted many people on facebook at the beginning in order to meet new people that way. I started looking in groups that interested me and asked them a short question how they were involved. The feedback was okay, but I’m not in touch with any of these persons anymore.

Moreover I started to look for people in the business context who I would like to get to know and had one lunch date with an interesting, a little more seasoned entrepreneu. It was very interesting and we learned a lot. He even proposed the become our mentor and form something like an advisory board.

However, I am very dissatisfied with the last three weeks. We hired four new employees and had to find new customers to use all capacities. This meant doing dozens or even hundreds of sales calls. This was a challenge for itself, but I used it as an excuse not to push any further and put any more effort into building my social circle.

So basically now I’m sitting here on a friday night and I’m alone in front of my computer. So has there been any change at all? I think for the largest part I’ve done what I’ve always been good at. I’ve found excuses to stay in my comfort zone. I’m not saying I didn’t leave my comfort zone at all, but I did not closely push myself as much as I should have.

So the mission continues. I’m not a hundred percent sure though how to make any real progress. I’ve been struggling with this for so long now, so it has become a real habit. I appreciate any advice!

Finally I want to say Thank you to all the other participants. I has been great to follow some of the stories here. Prasheen has been very inspiring. I love your blog. In August we want to have our company on autopilot as well to travel the world without caring about money.

Bastian