Life Goals: Follow Up, Follow Through & Misc.

In May, I made a Happiness/To-Do List.  Was I right? Am I actually happier?  The answer is a resounding YES.

I moved to Hubli and created a house that I absolutely love and I am lightyears happier.  I’m still trying to get Wi-Fi in my house, but after that happens, I think I’ll be absolutely set.  In conclusion, I am exactly that materialistic.  And I’m ok with that.

I’ve been thinking about the programming goal, but I just don’t know how stoked I am about learning Python.  I mean in theory I do, but when I actually sit down to learn it…oh wait.  Let me rephrase that.  I can’t get myself to actually sit down and learn it. So I have decided to make a list of things that I can actually get myself to sit down and do:

• Reading really good books (mostly about business, but also other non fiction/fiction).  Current Reading List (% completed) by category:

• Personal Development:

1. The Power of Habit (1%)
2. The 4-Hour Workweek (42%)
3. A Year of Living Consciously
4. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity (45%)
5. HBR’s 10 Must Reads: On Managing Yourself (6%)
6. The Greatness Guide (20%)
7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Haven’t Started)

• General Non Fiction:

1. Mrs. Kennedy and Me (10%)
2. Wild (4%)
3. In the Garden of Beasts (4%)
4. Growing Up Bin Laden (3%)
5. Catherine the Great (6%)
6. Steve Jobs (5%)
7. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (15%)
8. My Spiritual Journey (Haven’t Started)
9. Lets Pretend this Never Happened (Haven’t Started)

• Business:

1. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (22%)
2. HBR’s 10 Must Reads: Strategy (4%)
3. Good To Great (54%)
4. Stop Workplace Drama (39%)
5. Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way (36%)
6. The Brand Gap (17%)
7. Founders at Work (70%)
8. The Lean Startup (52%)
9. The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success (Haven’t Started)
10. The Future Beyond Brands: Lovemarks (haven’t started)
11. The Essential Drucker (Haven’t Started)
12. HR Transformation (haven’t started)

• Fiction:

1. I Suck at Girls (35%)
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (12%)
3. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (haven’t started)

• Financial Planning: I want to make my money work for me.  What I really want to do is maintain a certain standard of living while still pursuing the things I care about (which typically don’t make a ton of money).  That way, I can buy the things I like AND still be happy.  I’m currently learning more about the Indian Debt market, Mutual Fund Options, and Insurance plans (which really turn out to be somewhat of a scam).  I’m hoping to gain some basic financial literacy (because I’m actually quite clueless about these things).

There are some things that I haven’t tried yet, and want to see if I like it or not:

• Start making a list of interesting people to meet: I was reading the Guide To Greatness, and in it Robin Sharma talks about making it a weekly goal to talk to one interesting person a week.  I think that will be difficult for me to follow through with, but I want to try it.  I think meeting interesting people will expose you to new ideas, and will stretch you intellectually.

• Researching how India Recycles: After being here almost a year, I know that one thing America can learn from India is the way they recycle EVERYTHING.  I think when I go back to the US, I want to try and bring back best practices from here- and hey, maybe even start a business around that back in the States.