Day 960

Day 960 Record Keeping
Day 932 Fixed Meditation (DID NOT DO)
Day 806 Writing (8/30 min, HARD)
Day 346 Rowing (DID NOT DO)
Day 87 Mobility/Stretching (DID NOT DO)
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Eating
Day 184 Pantry Check
Day 182 Food Recording
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Early to Rise
Day 115 Water
Day 115 Sleep Recording (12|4|1|2)
Day 86 Bedtime Curfew 71
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Good sleep. Spent almost the entire day working - on a deadline, so did not do a majority of other major habits. On a side note, I did, because of a writing thing, take the Duckworth Grit Scale again, and scored a 4.8/5. 

How much has changed. In October 2013 I blogged about taking it and getting a 3.5, and I’m sure that was inflated. Later I scored a 3.8, then just 5 months ago scored a 4.3. 

Day 804

Day 804 Record Keeping
Day 776 Fixed Meditation (9 min)
Day 650 Writing 
Day 190 Rowing (30 min/5200 m)
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Eating
Day 28 Pantry Check (66)
Day 26 Recording (77)
—–
Great sleep, great wakeup. Low performance in meditation, don’t really know what happened other than I kept falling asleep. Better performance in rowing. Last night I finished doing a read of Angela Duckworth’s book, Grit. Have a bunch of bookmarks I want to go through before writing up my thoughts.

Angela Duckworth →

Looks like Dr. Duckworth has updated her page, no doubt in advance of her book - “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance” which JUST came out a few days ago (I’ll be reading it ASAP.

This link is an automated Grit Scale evaluation, which is really handy in this format.

This time, I scored a 4.30 out of 5.0, a big improvement from my last score of 3.83

The Imagination Institute

I randomly came across this and wondered…”what in the world is an imagination institute?” - The Imagination Institute’s mission is “measurement, growth, and improvement of imagination across all sectors of society”. 

What interested me is their grants competition which seeks to “lay the foundation for the long-term development of an “Imagination Quotient” and how to build imagination.” 

This sounds an awful like what this project is seeking to do with habits and self improvement in general. It joins other groups like Duckworth’s lab for grit and other labs for habituation (like BJ Fogg’s TinyHabit program) in attempting to quantify and measure what were previously thought of as vagaries of the mind.

I love it. But unlike habit formation, their grants are being offered from $150,000 - $200,000!!! Up to 15 of them!

I suppose imagination is a sexier idea than habit formation, because I don’t see that much money being offered up to habit researchers. Though Duckworth did get a MacArthur “Genius” Grant…..I wonder if I could apply for a grant?

Hmm….

Day 309 & Happy New Year!

Day 309 Record Keeping
Day 278 Fixed Meditation 
Day 224 Bodyweight Exercise  (3 bridges, 3 dragon flags)
Day 151 Writing (edited and published blog)
Day 324 Eating = 62
Day 81 Work = 55
Great sleep, great wakeup. 

Happy New Year!
It’s been a fantastic second year for this project. I feel like I’ve really gotten a grasp on what I’ve set out to do, so much more so than the first year. It’s hard to believe that when I started with daily SRHI recordings it was such a struggle to record…just recording.

Now I’ve established 4 superhabits - recording, working out, meditating and writing. I know it’s now possible for me to create something so ingrained that it’s hard for me not to do it.

Yesterday I didn’t have time to write, but at the end of the day, at about 1 am, I found myself writing over 200 words. I just couldn’t NOT do it!

The process of getting here was difficult. I tried and failed at dynamic meditation and attempted a walking habit which petered out. I struggled with dealing with travel. And I’m still working it all, but it’s getting there.

But I’ve also had some great highs:

-I used my writing habit to win National Novel Writing Month in record time. I edited and published it for my mom. And in doing so I’ve gotten rid of a lot of the fear that brought me down about writing.

-I managed to lose 7 notches off my belt through eating. 

-I can do bridges. I’m starting on the dragon flag. I’m starting to do the one arm pushup progression. I never thought I’d get that far in less than a year!

-My emotional control is pretty rock solid, despite not integrating it with dynamic meditation. I’m shifting the balance in my mind noticeably. Bad moments and slumps are correctable. There’s a lot of work to do, but it’s worlds better than it was at the beginning of the year.

-Grit - the ability to do all of this is itself improving. Smaller setbacks just don’t bother me as much as they used to. I know I can start again the next day - the guilt and anger at myself doesn’t kick in as much because I know it’s long term success that’s key.

And this isn’t even a full year!

2015 is going to be even better.