And the next month to fall in the long line of forgettable time this year is June.

Work wise, it's been great I think. Managed to finally hit my targets at the new job. But on a personal basis, it has been very.. meh. I let up alot on the disciplined habits I tried to maintain throughout April and May, and I made some big decisions in life.

Well, moving on what I think I learnt over June. Its a lesson revolving around focus. Not that I have fully learnt it, but its something I found out more about and something I really want to well.. focus on. Its a critical thing many successful people talk about but its really so, so much easier said than done. Its about focusing on one thing at one time and completing it before moving on. Its about finishing one task at a time instead of trying to "multi task" 5 tasks at a time. Might purely be my opinion, but maybe multitasking isnt about doing 5 tasks at one time, but about being able to complete and focusing on each task efficiently and end up leading you to complete Multiple tasks in a given time. And I learnt to just say fuck it and do it, instead of thinking so much.

Its abit haphazard (my thoughts about this) so I am going to summarize them up pretty much in point form.

-One at a time
At work, to focus on one task at a time and to complete it before moving on to the next thing. Yes there will be times when it wont be so easy, when a call comes in or certain interruptions happen. But AS MUCH AS possible, focus on that one damn task on your hand. As I understand myself pretty well by now, I know my brain flits to many different things and then I guess my body reacts to whichever is most interesting, and then steers my attention there. But abit into task B, I feel that "oh no, the importance of task A is definitely an overriding factor", then I move back to Task A. And then I remember something from yesterday about Task C that I promised to send/do... then it goes on. So one at a time.

-Fuck it, just do it
Yes, seems like just an adding on of a fuck it to Nike's tagline. But I think its necessary, cause evidently, just do it isnt enough for my procrastinating ass. I know that lots of people laze around outside of work and stuff they do, I dont call that procrastinating per se, thats simply lazing. Procrastinating is when I have a ton of ambitions and a ton of stuff I set out to do, and then proceed to laze around. So its something I try to keep in mind to make it a habit from now on. I cant prevent procrastination from happening, but it is to when I suddenly snap back to focus and realize, oh I SHOULD be doing so and so, that I dont wait for "this video to finish" or "ok after next episode", I stop doing whatever the fuck it is, and get right back into what I set out to do. I cant say its been great so far, but I am trying.
Reminds me of what I read in James Clear's Atomic Habit last month. Our days are made up on decisive moments. Theres a good and bad action to each decisive moment, and how we feel at the end of the day is an accumulation of our decisive moments, you can make one bad decision during a decisive moment, but make the rest of them good, and you will feel good about yourself at the end of the day. I am looking forward to feeling good.

I actually kinda procrastinated off the book of the month for June and started only reading in the middle of the last week of June. Turned out it was quite a digestible book and I cleared it only one or two days late into July. So here goes, Failing Forward by John Maxwell. Kinda an old book, I think 2020, but Unlike the more technical books, I think its still relevant today.

So Failing Forward is basically a book on 15 steps to take for you to learn how to fail properly. At the end of it, you wont cease to fail, but you should learn how to fail, enjoy failing, and then moving on to fail more. With a key hope of us enjoying success along the way of failing. I wouldnt say I like all 15 steps portrayed, but I will write out those that I think are relevant to me.

1: Realizing the difference between average and amazing people - The difference is that they learn from failing, they dont give up blabla. Pretty standard stuff, abit corny but I will still say relevant.
2: Learning a new definition of failure - Defining failure not when you screwed up a task. That is merely a setback. But that particular task becomes a failure when you did not learn from it. So make it clear to yourself that things are setbacks, only when you fail to learn from it does it constitute as a failure.
3: Removing the "you" from failure - I like this one too. Basically even after you failed according to layman terms or according to the failure in point 2, thats all there is to it. You failed. Failing doesnt make you a failure, failing 99 times doesnt make you a failure. The only time you can judge whether you are a failure is at your deathbed. If you regret, then yes, it is a failure of a life, if you don't that is enough.
4. Take action - Basically its along the line of fuck it and just do it. But its on the back of a different theory that people dont do things because they are scared (think entrepreneurs). But fear is a cycle, you dont do it because you are scared, and because you dont do it, you dont experience it, and hence you dont get the knowledge of it, and hence you are scared... So basically, dont be paralyzed by fear of failure, just do it. A nice learning quote I got from here was. Not realize what you want is a matter of knowledge. Not pursuing what you want is a matter of motivation. Not achieving what you want is a matter of persistence.
5. Accepting responsibility - Something I do understand but sadly, people still dont do. To accept responsibility of your faults once you realized them. If you havent realized them, its a different situation, that is a lacking of knowledge.
6. Dont let failure from the outside get into you - To not let failures from external sources dampen your abilities and motivation. Example, physical handicaps, lower income family etc. It is what it is, but it doesnt make you something you are not.
7. Not letting past failure get to you - Simple enough, well preached enough. Learn from past failure, but dont let them define you.
8. Changing yourself - Its not as simple as just to change yourself, in my opinion, its 3 main things. The Honesty to understand yourself, the courage to accept it, the will to change it, all 3 equally important.
9. To give - Basically to start learning to do stuff for other people, and not just for yourself
10. Finding the good in every bad - To find the good things in everything bad. Its not as simple as being an optimist. Yes abit of optimism involved, but I think its more of making the best of the worst already. Finding out things like what have you learnt, what should you have done better, what steps are to be taken to make it better in the future, who can you ask for help from. If you have these questions answered, its a great start to make the good out of the bad. Yes bad things happened, but if you became better in some ways from them like being more resilient, more knowledgeable etc.. then there is something coming out of it isnt it?
11. Taking risks - To not always do things that dont challenge us. To risk more, to step out of our comfort zone constantly.
12. The difference between failure and success - They arent that different, just like what we read in atomic habits, they probably have the same goal. But to make things a success, you need 3 things to make it happen. 1) Purpose 2) Excuses (eliminate them) 3) Incentives
13. Its not about getting up after you fall, its about what you do after you get up - I like this one alot alot alot, getting up after you fall forever without a new plan is just a fucking punching bag. But what you do from there. What you learn, what do you do differently, that determines everything.