March Monthly Review
“Don’t downgrade your dreams to match your reality. Upgrade your belief to match your vision.”
Overview:
March was a difficult and emotional month — not just during work but also during at home. I think I may have finally overstayed my welcome at home…in the sense that I am ready to finish this deep work focus for the last 6 months and take a small break and “reintegrate” myself back into society.
Highs from this month was that most of the time, I did enjoy this month much more than before — I took it slow and listened to myself. But the lows were awfully low — work was really volatile and things would fall through all the time.
Overall, thanks to the last couple of months, I finally got my routines down and feel pretty confident that I can still do 4 hours of deep work even when traveling!
REFLECTIONS 🎉
Highlights from the past month
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this month?
Creating a Youtube series for my newsletter readers! It’s a 5 mini video series on the most common questions that are asked during my calls with my clients. This was inspired by thinking about how I can deliver even more value and get more personal with my audience. It was a lot of work behind the scenes (took me wayyyy longer than expected — about a week and half to film and edit). I have so much newfound respect for Youtubers now, and in the end have enjoyed it!
(if you’re curious about the process, it looks something like this: brainstorm topics to write about, write video script, write email drafts, film videos, edit videos, finalize email drafts, and set up backend for emails to be delivered continuously. Phew.)
2. What was your peak experience this month?
Honestly, it was finally being able to get through the day and balance the work-hard mindset with a leisurely pace. I took on more self-care this month, and would stroll in the afternoons to get some sun. Basically living my dream life now instead of waiting for the perfect time in some distant future :)
3. What main challenge did you face this month?
The ups and downs of business. I’m working on something that’s very exciting and would be a HUGE deal if it works out. So fingers crossed and just learning about how to provide value in the best way possible. We’ll see if this pans out. At one point it seems like it would then it didn’t so it’s mostly a waiting game, being patience but also keeping faith in myself, and learning from each experience.
4. What do you want to do less of and more of to balance your life?
I feel pretty balanced right now in terms of routines (it took me about 5 months to get to this point, but so worth it.) I’d like more friends in my life, in terms of being physically close to them. I’ve realized that environment is one of those hidden factors that have a huge impact on your personal growth — being in Silicon Valley has made worlds of difference for me, as well as every conversation has changed the trajectory of life in some way.
And while being at home everything is mostly taken care of. I’m missing out on social connections and community and whatever spontaneous intellectual fireworks that happens. I feel recharged, so my answer would be less of being home and more of being outside.
5. What is your favorite discovery this month?
The book Reach!! Oh my goodness, I CANNOT articulate how amazing this book is. It’s all about getting out of your comfort zone and the magic that happens as a result (this is basically my life story). So if you’ve enjoyed reading about side projects and enjoy engaging stories and scientific evidence like me, then you’d love this book because it highlights the different processes you can use and different stages of comfort zones. Very meta and gave me such a greater understanding of what it was at work behind the scenes.
FUN GOODIES 🎈
Things that have captured my interest
Books I read:
- Reach
- Big Magic (also amazing book!!)
- Trust Me, I’m Lying
Articles I liked:
- Mark Manson’s ultimate guide to personal values: “Our values are constantly reflected in the way we choose to behave. Actions don’t lie. Values are won and lost through life experience. Not through logic or feelings or even beliefs. They have to be lived and experienced to stick. And our values are extensions of ourselves. They are what define us.”
- Mason continued: “ Here’s what people mean when they say they need to “find themselves”: they’re finding new values. This is the “self” you feel you have “lost” — a sense that you are no longer the one navigating the ship of your own existence.” (examples of good values: honesty, building something new, vulnerability, standing up for oneself, standing up for others, self-respect, curiosity, charity, humility, creativity).
- Amy Porterfield’s podcast: the importance of understanding what your safety blanket is and how it’s likely holding you back — “feeling safe and comfortable can be the exact thing that’s holding you back and stuck”.
- From conversations: “All disgust and hate stems from self.”
Productivity experiments:
- Make 3 MIT list and instead of going down systematically, do the one that feels good first depending on my mood or situation
Quotes on careers
- Derek Sivers: “There’s no speed limit: standard rate is only for chumps.”
Questions I’m pondering
- What is success? How does success look like?
- What am I actually working for?
- Am I gonna be able to make it?
MARCH HABIT PROJECT : 30 days of reaching out 🌱
I did also do 30 days of gratitude (and actually finished the whole 30 days!) but because I’ve already been practicing that a lot in my 5 minute journal, It didn’t feel like it was something new, or a difficult habit to pick up. So I decided to focus more on reaching out.
Here are some people I reached out to during month of March: editors at Forbes, HuffPost, Fast Co. as well as guest writers at big publications. I enjoyed this proactive side of me — it’s nice to send people these letters of appreciation and I’ve been amazed by the kind responses I’ve gotten.
As you can tell, I’m really upping my writing and publication game this month :)
PLANNING ✏️
Intentions and goals for the upcoming month
The most important business priority is: experiment with LinkedIn video to reach a wider audience (and yes, getting published in a big publication by June is still something I’m working towards).
The most important personal priority is: savor traveling (I’ll be in D.C., LA and SF for a bit — to see clients, friends and make new ones!) while still keeping up with routines.
My April project is: 30 days of LinkedIn video! (probably the first half will be research and understanding the space, and the second half will be actual implementation).
This is the end of my monthly review for March, thanks so much for reading!
If you’re curious to read more, here’s my:
