Monthly Goal Review: February 2021

A super late post, because life has been kinda uninspiring lately. I've been finding myself lamenting about how tired and stretched I feel. 

I realised that I tend to put off writing my reflections whenever I go through this 'meh' phase, however writing these reflections posts actually helps me feel better, as it helps me really reflect on what I've done, what I can work on for the next month, and keep myself accountable to my goals. 

Better late than never, better late than never. 

Financial Goals 

1) Save at least 40% of my income every month 

Since it was lockdown most of the time, I managed to save quite a bit, and found myself spending more on groceries! Bought quite a lot of cooking & baking ingredients :) 

Also have been spending a little more on takeouts/dine-in towards the end of the month, when dine-ins were allowed because...I think the lockdown lethargic kicked in. 

2) Establish a side income stream

OBVIOUSLY, nothing happened again. 

Am I disappointed at myself? Yes. But I'll try my best not to beat myself up too much. I signed up as a delivery driver on Lalamove - but I realised it is really hard to accept a job, especially if you're not a motorcycle driver :O (or maybe I didn't try hard enough) 

3) Invest at least 20% of my income

Yes, it's automated, but I'm keeping it here to keep myself accountable! 

Personal Growth / Learnings

1) Listen to at least one podcast every day

In other to ensure that I take away something from the podcasts, I tried logging down learnings from the podcasts BUT I realised this sort of backfired - it worked for the first half of the month, but during the second half of the month, I got tired of logging my learnings and I realised that this exercise made me dread listening to podcasts, simply because I've conditioned myself to log down my learning after every podcast.

So what I am putting in place now is keeping a tracker on my bullet journal - and jotting down my key learnings at the end of the day when I feel like it. So far I find that this method is working better for me :) 

I've shared some of my key learnings from the podcast in my February 2021 Good Reads/Podcasts/Videos post :)

2) Read at least one paragraph of non-fiction/fiction every day

For the month of February, I've only managed to complete one book. I blame it on the shorter month :P 

3) Participate in at least one online events and/or online courses every month

For the month of February, I've completed: 

1. Learning How to Learn by McMaster University & University of California San Diego

2. Psychological First Aid by Johns Hopkins University

Managed to complete quite a bit of learning, thanks to my accountability partner at work :D somehow, it made me motivated to learn, and I look forward to the start/end of the week where we share our learning with each other :D

I really enjoyed the Learning How to Learn course - I find the tips/strategies this course shared are very applicable even to me as a working adult because, let's face it we all learn anywhere, anytime. 

Some tips/strategies I've learnt which I plan to incorporate in my daily learnings are:

- to always re-read your answers because if you're not doing so, you're not engaging a part of your brain

(ahem a reminder to me to re-read my blog post before publishing)

- to imagine yourself as the material you're learning

I do highly recommend that course :)

4) Cook/Bake at least one dish per week

Week 1: I made pork hamburger from scratch (yes, including the bun and patty :)), with a side of portobello fries & kale chips!

Week 2: Chinese Hamburger (Rou Jia Mo), Sourdough bagel + Asian pulled pork + Bakwa

Week 3: Korean fried chicken, Tahini rye chocolate chip Cookies & biang biang noodles

Week 4: Stir fried gochujang and cheese udon & seeded sourdough loaf (though as you can see...it didn't rise as much as I wished it did)

Week 5: Chicken Paprikash (inspired by WandaVision!) & Beef Nikomi Udon

--

That isn't so bad, ain'it?