Hey there,
Hope you are doing well.
Last few weeks, I have been on and off in writing here, if you have noticed. That is because of rain. No, really? Pune had intermittent rains in the last few weeks. It disappeared and now it is back again. I had a work at the passport seva kendra regarding renewal of my passport. A couple of weeks back, I got drenched in the rain which caused me to have a bad fit of cough and cold. That resulted in a fever. So I was down and out for a week. I don’t want to boast but I didn’t fall sick for more than a year and it was inevitable that my body needed a downtime.
This downtime couldn’t have come at a worse time. I had a ton of work to finish and I was alone at home. Bad health is a big demotivator for everything. I had no mood to do anything including my habits. So my score plummeted.
Okay, a quick background. I have been tracking my habits in an app called Habit. I have 6 critical habits – waking up on time, health-related habits, meditation, reading, and writing habits. It calculates a score based on the completeness of the habit and repeatability. Based on the scores, I have been tracking my performance in zones.
– Scores less than 80%, would be in RED.
– Scores between 80%-85%, would be in Amber.
– Scores more than 85%, would be in Green.
Apart from this, I do a quarterly review. so For Q1 and Q2, I was in the deep red zone and I wanted to move myself in the green zone before the end of Q3.
When analyzing the red zone scores of Q1 and Q2, I realized that most of the time “lack of motivation” was the main cause. I went back to the Atomic Habits book where the author recommends a way to deal with such a situation. The simple solution is to just show up, don’t think of completing the habit, just think of showing up. If you show up to do the habit, most likely you’d complete the habit. The more you complete the habit, the more you are likely to repeat it. So just showing up is the key. The first 2 minutes of any habit are crucial.
Therefore, in Q3, I made sure I showed up for my habits, and lo and behold, my scores steadily moved into Amber and eventually into the green zone. I was in the green zone for 5 weeks.
Until I fell sick.
Obviously, the repeatability was missed in the last week and my scores plummeted. Plummeted to the RED zone. I have now only 2 weeks before Q3 concludes. 1st Oct would be my Q3 review date and I wish to be back in at least the amber zone if not in the Green.
To achieve that, my strategy is simple. – Just show up for the habits.
I mentioned my recent experience at the Passport Seva Kendra. It was 2nd Sept when my appointment was fixed, Yes, now the Passport Seva Kendra gives appointments for Saturdays as well. It was raining heavily the night before in Pune and was still raining. I had to travel 30 KM before reaching Passport Seva Kendra. I held my nerves while navigating the water-logged roads to reach to office well before the appointment time. I was very worried about parking my car, assembling my wheelchair, and reaching the office with critical original documents, without getting wet. However, the watchman at the gate was a very benevolent man. He quickly understood my plight and allowed me to park my car right in front of the busy gate. The speed of the rain didn’t spare me from getting soaking wet but it really helped me to save my original documents. The experience at the Passport Seva Kendra was delightful. Looking at a clueless man in a wheelchair, one staff member came forward to help me. I passed through the A, B, and C sections with a breeze.
With a running nose and a wide smile, I came home satisfied knowing that my work was done.
So a big shout out to the watchman at the passport office and all the staff members who were kind to prioritize the need of a wheelchair citizen. Thank you so much to those unknown faces.
And with that, I come to the most exciting bit of the newsletter, Ganpati bappa is coming next week. I will be sharing with you (even if you don’t need to know or want to know) all the details of the decorations that we are making to welcome our Bappa.
Until next week…