Quarterly Reflection 2 - halfway there

I have completed eleven activities so far in the project, and I have to say that I am slightly exhausted by the whole thing, hence the current two week break. Like the quarterly post, this reflection won't include Activity 11, since it has only just finished.

30 days of an Asian diet

From this activity I have learned to that a reduction in bread, pasta and red meat does have an impact on how I feel.

The food part of this activity was a total success and very enjoyable. We've found a couple of dishes that have become part of our standard recipe mix, which has been great. It also helped me finally developed a taste for tofu, which became very important for weekday vegetarian.

This common theme for me in a lot of these activities though is that the physical aspect of this was less successful, both meditation and exercise. I started off quite well, but this is always the aspect of things that will taper off as life gets busy.

Thank you Dean Ornish for an inspiring talk that did contribute to some positive changes in my life.

30 days of drive

From this activity I have finally found a way of working out some of the important things around my why and how I want to contribute to the world.

Like most people, this is something that I have struggled with for a very long time - what is my purpose in life and what can I be doing to satisfy that nagging feeling inside me that I should be doing more for the world. By focusing on this and using some expert advice and directions I have developed a draft purpose, beliefs and values.

I am continuing to validate these as I go through the remainder of the project, and I know that there are even more activities to come that will help me understand this further.

The process was quite arduous, and there were some things that I went through about by past that I probably could have lived without revisiting. But it got be to the point I wanted to reach, so all worth it in the end.

Thank you Simon and Tony for the TED talks, web content and for Simon's book. You have helped me reach a greater understanding about what drives me and what my why in this world may actually be. Now to work out the how and what and I'll be set.

30 days of slowing down

This activity really helped me recharge my batteries and taught me not to underestimate the power of savouring time instead of counting it.

This is such a simple concept and makes so much sense, slow your life down and you will enjoy it more and be less stressed. It's one of those things that in theory seems so simple it can't work. But there are two things wrong with that statement: it is not simple and it does work.

I did well at ceasing the multi-tasking during this 30 days, as well as taking time away from my desk and even enjoying more slow food. But as usual the meditation and exercise aspects could have been a lot better.

I did come to a happy compromise with meditation in this activity though, where it became a sheer mindfulness exercise that I would do for short periods whilst doing mundane tasks - I call it pragmatic meditation.

Thank you Carl for the wonderful talk, and the tweets I should add. This activity was much like the 3 As, something that everybody should take time out of their lives to try. It will change things, and having said that I need to refocus on it for a little while so I can get some of that peace and relaxation back.

30 days of simplicity

From this activity I learned that simplicity is very seldom simple, especially when you work in government.

I was really looking forward to this activity, since I seem to have made a career for myself in simplifying and explaining things to people. And I love design, I struggle with it at times but love it all the same.I

n the reflection post a spent a bit of space explaining why I think this is so hard to do in government, and my opinion about all of that has not changed. If anything, as we are going through the highly political budget estimates process at the moment I think it has reinforced all of those musings.I'm trying to maintain the principles of simplicity in my work though, as much as I am allowed. I have continued to have some wins, particularly around a recent task which was trying to explain some rather complex modelling to senior staff. I am also trying to keep John's laws in mind, and have recently ordered his book so I can learn more about these, and hopefully apply them more successfully in the future.

Thank you to all of the speakers (John Maeda, Rory Sutherland, Alan Siegel and Sandra Fisher-Martins). Your talks all contained a spark of inspiration for me and I hope that one day I feel like I am achieving the simplicity in my life and my work that you espouse.

30 days with less meat

This activity taught me that it is very possible, and quite enjoyable, to be a weekday vegetarian.

This is probably the most simplistic activity so far, being a weekday vegetarian. The concept being that for many people it is not possible to give up meat entirely, but if you give it up during the week then you significantly reduce your impact on the environment and improve your overall health.I enjoyed this activity a lot, so much so that I have kept it, well pretty much. I am a Monday to Thursday vegetarian, and sometimes that goes over to Friday but sometimes it doesn't.

This change has also been beneficial on our bank balance, so it's wins all round.

Thank you for such an inspirational, yet very short, talk Graham. It proves that sometimes the simplest suggestions can be the most powerful.

30 days of more happiness

This reinforced that focusing on something is often the key to bringing about change, but that sometimes the focus can have an adverse effect.

I don't really know that I have that much more to say about this activity since the initial reflection post. The thing is that during this activity we went to visit my father-in-law who was dying of cancer, and then six days after we left he passed away. So I don't really feel that I can evaluate this fairly given the circumstances. However I will say that with a little more time I think that this was a very well timed activity that maybe was another sub-conscious choice to make a really difficult time a little easier.

The thing that I did struggle a bit with was the daily gratitudes and journalling, but in hindsight I think that this did have a lot to do with the fact that I was doing that online - and whilst I am being pretty honest and open about this whole process, there has to be some sort of filter.

Thank you Shawn, Ric and Nic for very practical talks that had some very insightful points to focus on. Whilst I didn't take them all and do them equally as well, they have certainly been added to my growing repertoire of skills and tasks to improve my life generally.

Feelings after 6 months

If you've been following along at home you know that I took a two week break after finishing Activity 11 - 30 days of preconceptions (which has only recently ended so it is not in this reflection). I think that is probably evidence enough about how I am feeling at the halfway mark in the project.

But let's break that down a little more because it isn't a very fair assessment of the first six months, and is probably more indicative of some poor activity choices around and already emotionally draining time.

I don't think I can put into words how different I feel at this part in the process to how I felt before I started. I certainly have a renewed confidence in myself and feel quietly optimistic for where the entire project will lead me in the end. There have been so many good points, so many things that I have learned about myself: both major and minor epiphanies.

There is a lot more to do, and in many ways the second part of this project is going to be more intense and challenging than the first. I made the comment that I needed the break because I was feeling overloaded, and in particular I was feeling introversion overload (which reminds me I still want to write a review of Susan Cain's brilliant and life changing book for this blog.) The thing is that following on from the last two activities - preconceptions and letters - I'm going to be trying to start something and promoting that something quite hard. And one of the things I am least comfortable doing is pushing myself, putting myself out there.

But at the same time I feel prepared for the next lot of challenges because of everything I had learned over the last six months. It has been hard and tiring, but it has been a rewarding and satisfying process to go through so far. Let's see if I can't keep the enthusiasm to step it up a notch for the last six months.