Frugal: Self Improvement Thread.

[rvijay]

Self Improvement/Personal Development in good areas of life is very frugal with long term benefits. Do you fel that there are any areas in your life that you could improve on ? What are they ? How are you doing with regards to your personal development goals ?

Please Share your Experience/Opinions here.

Best Regards,

Vijay

[rvijay]

To start this thread, here is my objective. I have become less active in my life in general. Also get distracted easily. Watching TV and surfing, together with a few other personal factors are the reasons for this.

I plan to increase my activity by 1% every week. ie., every week I plan to be 1% more active than the previous week. Then in 2 years, I will be about 100% more active. However, I expect some bigger breakthru's before that hopefully.

I also need to be focused on my major objectives that I have been procrastinating and put in consistent efforts.

Vijay

[zoebird]

i think surfing counts as a really great activity--unless you mean internet surfing. in which case, that's not so active.

as for me, i'm looking to cut costs in my home by being more efficient in various ways. i'm switching my cleaning products down to only a few products: vinegar, baking soda, laundry detergent, dish washing detergent, and then a general castile soap. I discovered that castile soap can be used for anything--hair care, body cleanser, hand soap, dish soap, all purpose soap for washing walls and what not. That's very helpful. So, it looks like i'm getting rid of "specialty products" in favor of castile soap--assuming it works as i hope it will.

also, i'm looking into moving toward less canned food and canning it myself, cooking more, using more fresh ingredients, perhaps freezing my own stuff instead of canning it or buying it prepared/prepackaged. those are things that save money and are fun and itneresting too. i'm excited about that.

so that's me. i'm already pretty active.

[rvijay]

I am speaking of internet surfing.

Canning is good if you get real low price for fresh veggies or grow your own. I prefer to look for deal for canned veggies.
Did read a book on canning. However, it doesn't seem to be worth the efforts for me. Atleast for now.

Vijay :)

[Red]

I plan to increase my activity by 1% every week. ie., every week I plan to be 1% more active than the previous week. Then in 2 years, I will be about 100% more active. However, I expect some bigger breakthru's before that hopefully.
Vijay

You keep that up, you'll be a ball of fire - (1 + .01)^104 = 2.81 or 281%

The miracle of compound interest. Amazing how quickly tiny changes can add up.

[rvijay]

Thank you for your post. Yes compound interest is great. I overlooked this aspect. I should have been at that level a long time ago. Still it is not too late. All the more motivation for me to get active and keepup the progress.

Vijay :)

[synergy]

my most recent improvement was devoting myself to the use of a travel mug for coffee and tea. I'm not going to buy coffee again without having it in a travel mug. For $$ and the earth!

[rvijay]

In regards to my activity goal, I had a relapse over the weekend(last two days). Maybe my start was a bit too steep, also I decided to relax a little but relaxed waaayyyy too much. This was a failure and I am recording it as I should learn from this and do better in the future.

Vijay

[808veggie]

I would like to improve on my spiritual and physical health......thinking about maybe getting back into Tibetan Buddhism. Also can't wait to start meditating again. First though I'm gonna go back and read all the books about it that I half-assed read before so i can really get a grasp on it...as far my physical health-eating right and exercise.

[rvijay]

I would like to improve on my spiritual and physical health......thinking about maybe getting back into Tibetan Buddhism. Also can't wait to start meditating again. First though I'm gonna go back and read all the books about it that I half-assed read before so i can really get a grasp on it...as far my physical health-eating right and exercise.

These are huge goals. Need to take it in small steps but be consistent. If all these goals are realized, they will greatly contribute to the quality of your life that can't be measure monetarily.

Vijay

[rvijay]

My objective to increase my activity has actually not been realized at all. There were several factors that made me think and reflect greatly reducing my activity. I need to handle these factors first.

Vijay

[DeathOfDecadenc]

hmmm- i hope to improve by first eating more like a normal person. Also, i used to work out, but ever since i got to school i stopped because it is such a hassle to go here. i have signed up for an aerobics class so i will become more active.

[spud]

I find thinking and walking work ok together.

[Vicky]

whoa
where shall we start ?
first of all i need to become more social. i'm doing right now a lot better then i did a couple of years ago but i still want to learn to speak infront of a lot of people and maybe learn to talk to strangers ..... i feek awkward talking to people i don't know about something stupid.
then i need to start doing yoga ..... yeah i think classes would be good for a beginner
i need to learn to manage my time better then i do now

these are my main goals right now, and the most important one is to decide what the heck i wanna do with my life .....and i'm taking it step by step, jsut afraid to waste a lot of time on something i won't be able to find a job in

[Hansbos]

I want to go back to doing Bikram yoga regularly. I also want to E-mail my friends in Holland more often. And I want to watch less TV (that's a hard one for me). I really like the 1% a week approach. Especially if you could figure out a way to really monitor it, it should make a huge difference.

[The Rev]

Great Thread! :up:

I'm hardcore about self-improvement and self-education. My main areas are personal development (self-esteem building and physical health), business and economics (mostly my family business, and it's less than stable economics ;) ), and philosophy/spirituality (which I accomplish through writing, reading, and, naturally, the other two areas).

Right now, I'm following a 31-week program outlined by Nathaniel Branden in his book "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem" comprised of sentence completion exercises. It's very simple, but has had powerful effects for me, mainly in getting me to think about various aspects of my life that I haven't given enough consideration.

I'm also working on a novel, which is improving my writing skills and keeps the grey matter limber. I've only written about 50-60 pages so far, but I'm very happy with where it's going.

:D

The Rev

[rvijay]

Great Thread! :up:

I'm hardcore about self-improvement and self-education.

The Rev

Glad you like this thread. A lot of things you are doing are really frugal and a great true investment in the longer run. Money etc., can be robbed from you but your talent/skills/knowledge can't.

Take a look at all the other threads in this forum here at your leisure. Specially, pleased to meet you here as you were born just 10 days after me, though at that time oceans away.

Vijay :)

[rvijay]

I want to go back to doing Bikram yoga regularly. I also want to E-mail my friends in Holland more often. And I want to watch less TV (that's a hard one for me). I really like the 1% a week approach. Especially if you could figure out a way to really monitor it, it should make a huge difference.

Yoga info. motivation online.
http://yoga.about.com/

anf for lesser TV
http://www.tvturnoff.org/index.htm

Best Regards,

Vijay :)

[organica]

I'm going to try to get a subsidized YMCA membership, & order that book suggested by The Rev, The 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem.
I'm going to keep going to my free therapy at the hospital.
I'm going to try to get a Codependents Anonymous group going around here.
I'll try to be more vegan than freegan, if finances allow.
Maybe I'll try a return to Wicca as well.
And I'll try to get mentally healthy enough to get off disability & work full-time for pay.

[rvijay]

I'm going to try to get a subsidized YMCA membership, & order that book suggested by The Rev, The 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem.
I'm going to keep going to my free therapy at the hospital.
I'm going to try to get a Codependents Anonymous group going around here.
I'll try to be more vegan than freegan, if finances allow.
Maybe I'll try a return to Wicca as well.
And I'll try to get mentally healthy enough to get off disability & work full-time for pay.

Great post/objectives. Good luck with all your efforts. What is Wicca ?

Thanks.

Vijay

[bumble]

Vijay..I really enjoy the way you write/speak....

I need to do some pilates.I have been staring at the video and everyday I say..I am doing it!..and then I dont.

And it's all VB's fault.I often end up reading about food and then going an cooking/eating.

:)

[rvijay]

Vijay..I really enjoy the way you write/speak....

I need to do some pilates.I have been staring at the video and everyday I say..I am doing it!..and then I dont.

And it's all VB's fault.I often end up reading about food and then going an cooking/eating.

:)

Thanks for your post/comments. What you are doing is actually called drifting. I am also guilty of it to quite an extent. Life is Precious. Time is priceless. By drifting we are both throwing away something more valuable than money in the garbage.

Also, overeating is not at all frugal. Specially, considering the time spent in bringing everything home, cokking, the fuel, the added long term costs due to health problems etc., etc., etc., It is rightly said that when we overeat we Dig Our Graves With Our Teeth. Overeating also shows the need for comfort/soothing.

Spirituality and deep internal contentment can greatly help reduce overeating.

Then inorder to exercise everyone needs motivation. A walk thru Hospital wards, sites with obese people, the associated costs/problems can also be used to get the motivation to exercise. Start slowly at the rate of 1% a day. Say 5 minutes everyday and then increase slowly.

Since this is the holiday season I am not going to be online as often. I hope everyone here doesn't spend too much time in front of their PC/TV during the Holiday season. Come January 5, everything will be back normal again. So we all need to enjoy this festive season.

Warm Regards,

Vijay :)