Hello! Welcome to my blog. I’m Louise P (an alias based in reality), a 25-year-old graduate student working towards her PhD, a part-time teacher, a lover of food, beauty and personal growth. Self-improvement has always been one of my chief values, and there are periods in my life where I remember really being at the top of my game: having a clear sense of my guiding principles and living life in alignment with these. These past few years, I’ve been in a rut more often than not, though I can’t really put my finger on what’s troubling me. This blog is an experiment, a challenge, and a document. I hope that it will help give me the push I need to transform myself.
So….I still don’t understand exactly what “24000 minutes” means…
I know from reading the advice of successful people, observation and my own experience accomplishing goals that to achieve anything, you need to consistently put in focused effort towards that goal. 24000 minutes is both a challenge and a chronicle. In a nutshell, I am giving myself 100 days to make my life resemble more closely the FABULOUS image I have in my head.
I’m committing to using 240 minutes of my day towards the various goals that would make my life “fabulous” if I achieved them. 240 minutes, with my current schedule, really is a “baby step”. I could easily do twice as much, but the idea here is to commit to small changes which lead to new habits practiced consistently. Some days I may do more, and that time will also count towards the 240000 minutes.
This blog will serve as a chronicle, counting “up” towards 24000. I’m certain that I’ll be including the “failure” days, lazy days, pessimistic rants, and overall struggles as well as motivational posts to myself and advice to people who may be interested (once I’ve made some progress). Hopefully, this is a project I’ll stick to, and if that happens, I will probably add pictures showing my progress. I love visuals but need more confidence and more accomplished to share them.
How do I define “fabulous”?
- Excellent reputation and record in my field (academia)
- Excellent health and fitness, with a toned body to reflect the lifestyle (let’s not lie, I like pretty. There’s a huge confidence boost that comes from knowing you have an amazing body)
- Diverse and strong social circle, with regular events in my schedule
- A romantic relationship. I want a committed relationship with someone who thinks I’m amazing in every way. I want to feel like this came out of a healthy dating life where I could have chosen from a variety of great people.
What are “baby steps” towards these goals?
- Read and watch films related to my discipline, spend time preparing lessons & materials for classes I teach, meet with advisors, submit articles to conferences, work on getting published in a respected journal. *Time spent teaching/in class does NOT count. This is the bare minimum. The preparation, especially if thorough and careful is much more important, as is the “extra” work.
- Exercise 5-6 days a week for at least half an hour at time – intense workouts that combine cardio and strength, do yoga, go to the gym, cook my own meals, make healthier choices at the grocery store.
- Join a group, be more active in the organizations I am part of, make plans with friends, talk to new people every day.
- This will come from building a better social circle, being more committed to making myself an interesting person, being more comfortable being flirtatious and playful, being open to going on dates and not seeing rejection as a catastrophe.
None of my goals is unusual, very difficult or awe-inspiring. These are common goals found on lists all over the world. But I really think that getting these areas (health, work, social life, romance) to be vibrant is a key to being happy and feeling fulfilled, neither of which is something I can honestly say I feel right now. Being committed to small changes can lead to great things, and having the discipline to stick to a practice once the spirit of initial excitement has passed is what defines exceptional people.
24000 minutes to Fabulous 