Category: Food For Thought

Food For Thought

Halfway

Sanjay Sabarwal

d34a2653c294b9df9618d6b78297df58Halfway through the month, and it feels already that 2017 has more to offer than the previous year.  I set my goals for Fitness, Career,  Passions, Friends, Family, and Finances. Each day feels full, and while most days I am satisfied, I am filled with discontentment of not doing it right.  Yet there is also some fear, OK, a lot of fear.  This feeling stays with me daily of not being enough, wasting time, and kidding myself on my talents.

At a hike yesterday with good friends, I got two different perspectives that I think apply at times in my life.  One friend advised to know all the risks, and to ensure I had all the tools to make things happens. The other, told me to just do it to see what sticks. Overthinking was a common problem that hampered most people and did not allow them to live their dreams. Both are right in their own way, and I ask trekked up the Hellman Trail in Whittier, it hit me that there was a time when hikes like this intimidated me, yet I now did it without dread.

Each new thing provides its challenges, some require more information, while others you jump in right away. The goal is to keep growing, and get ahead of the old me because otherwise how else can I be the best version of me?

Food For Thought, Inpsiration, Journal

The week in Review

Sanjay Sabarwal

9626bcc2e5db425aaff8e01956e0ad02Yesterday, I shared with my accountability buddy how I did for the week for my goals and habits. Initially, I felt like a failure because I only got to 80% of the things and missed a few days for daily habits until it hit me that perfection was never the goal. The goal was to do something about the things that bother me. It is very easy to get caught up in failure and beat oneself up, but really the entire point was that I tried, not every day, but it was still 1000 times better than not doing anything at all.

It is not an easy transformation to make from being content to say there is nothing I can do about my goals, habits and results to still giving it a shot. Fear rules that state of mind, but a good fear where I become more comfortable being uncomfortable. It is easy to criticize and point out what I am not going and to see that in others, but much harder to put things into practice. Too often, I look at what I missed rather than what I accomplished. It is a habit I intent to change because while being critical is good, it does me no good to make into a self-worth issue. That said, I am extremely proud of my progress. Just for some perspective, here are my January goals which touch upon New Year resolutions, but are geared towards creating habits. What are yours?

1)Drink 64 oz to gallon of Water Daily

2)Meditate Daily

3)Write Morning Pages Daily

4)Write 300 words daily

5)Date Night Weekly

6)Connect with 2 people Weekly

7)Work on Improving Memory

8)Work on Improving Handwriting

9)Work out 5 days a week

10)             One Hike and/or physical outing

11)              Drink no more than 2 drinks on weekdays

12)             Try a new activity/place this month

13)             2 Legal Blog Posts

14)             Begin Learning on how to do a podcast

15)             Begin learning on how to get more readers for blog

16)             One Boys Night

17)             One Friends Night at least (ideal 2)

18)              Hug and Kiss Daily

19)             Take one Weekday off a month,

20)             Lose 5 pounds

Food For Thought, Inpsiration

First Monday of 2017 (and Resolutions)

Sanjay Sabarwal

imagesI sit in the morning quiet full of gratitude, the coffee still steaming, snow surrounding me while I enjoy the last few hours in Big Bear. Having spent 3 amazing days with family and friends, we got to know each other better and shared our thoughts about life and our future. There was laughter, crying, and a deep gratitude for what life has in store for us.

It is easy to wallow in grief, self-hatred and victim mentality, but the real challenge just like in the movie Rocky how often you rise back up. More often that not, the winner is one who stands one last time over their competitor. So I allow the view to remind me that there is life after death. There are others who need me, and that getting caught up in my thoughts and emotions instead of actions serves no one especially me.

So I breath in the new year, and breath out the what if’s. I live in 2017 as present, calm and loving as possible. Also scared. This is the year, I get so comfortable with fear that it becomes my new best friend. In that spirit, I commit to the following for 2017 (not including a private resolution I set up with my wife).

  1. Get my book ready and have it be accepted for publication.
  2. Run a marathon
  3. Volunteer at least 100 hours this year
  4. Do 5 Pull Ups
  5. Increase my legal revenue by a factor of 10
  6. Connect with loved ones regularly
  7. Visit 2 new countries this year
  8. Hike quarterly
  9. Improve my memory
  10. Learn conversational Spanish
  11. Improve handwriting
  12. Begin a Podcast
  13. Increase Blog subscribers
  14. Be the best self of myself in all aspects of my life
  15. The Secret resolution with my wife.

What are yours for 2017?

 

Family, Food For Thought

First Christmas

Sanjay Sabarwal

dcc6d17ae7b23bff2c76481b1a85052aI don’t say his name, but each morning, his is the first name that pops up while I express gratitude for my life. The morning quiet was his time, and now it has become mine.  Each day could become a struggle if not for the strong network of people in my life. Also my willingness to share, but I gotta tell you, it is still hard not to feel like a fraud when all I feel is a deep regret and sadness that I did not get to say goodbye.

He had a great life. He was loved, and he loved fearlessly. I know that intellectually and even emotionally, but I cannot help wanting that last moment, one last time to tell him how I truly felt.

The holidays are a great reminder about what you have, but they also underscore what you don’t have. It’s a strange time as there are no words to express what’s going inside me at such a beautiful time of the year. My only concern is not to ruin it for the ones who celebrate, to not have my heart and soul get in the way of their happiness.

And so I ground myself by taking a deep breath,  becoming present, and knowing the first Christmas is the hardest, but it will get easier. I will hurt less.  I will speak more about it, and that’s okay. This too shall pass.

For now: One day at a time.

Food For Thought, Inpsiration

Designing 2017

Sanjay Sabarwal

fb60d4afcfd779fa65110c8d8b483733As the  year draws to a close, I feverishly use my mornings to design 2017. From scribbling in my Law of Attraction Planner, reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris, and visualizing my ideal life, I am intent on creating a life worth living. Recently, my leadership group answered the question what regret would we have if tomorrow was the last day on earth for you?  The word that came back to me was Incomplete. And it stung.

It hit me that there was no one responsible for that. It came down to me and my decisions. Blaming others or life events just meant me avoiding the life I’d envisioned. A recent Ted Talk about this really drove it home. If I wanted to live the life I wanted, I had put in the work. It was simple yet not easy. The warmth of the bed would always beckon, the excuses to skip the workout always on my mind, the urge to give in to anger, and frustration easier to take a pause, and ground myself into acceptance and being present.

I gotta tell you, it sucks being responsible, so much easier to blame others, events and things. Yet it always come down to me. That’s not to say life won;t happen to make things interesting, but if I have put in the work, I can ride that wave instead of getting sunk by it.

2017 won’t be just another year that happened to me. I will choose to make it different by design. If nothing else, I will get to learn what worked and what didn’t.

Food For Thought, Inpsiration

What Will Be My Legacy?

Sanjay Sabarwal

1417255825-1188b8d99692f8a1c13fa42de7f3f0f6The morning quiet is precious to me. It is the only time I am with my unfiltered words, thoughts, and emotions. The only time when the sound of my mind takes over the quiet of the house. Where I reflect, and prepare myself for a new a day, and decide what kind of person I wish to be. Each day I have a choice to be a better person. Each day a beginning of the person I can be. Each 24 hour period where I can leave behind my mistakes and start over on creating connection and legacy.

It is not a time for regret, but one of acceptance of the past. I do worry, and I do beat myself up, but not for long because self-pity serves no purpose. It is also a time for checking in with myself to ground myself, to know that there is so much I cannot control, and it is OK.   That first hour is most precious as I go into action and know that I am living my purpose, that I miss loved ones, and that in the end, all will be OK. To needlessly worry about things I cannot change is just a recipe for feeling bad and out of control.

So I sit back, enjoy the quiet, give my thanks to life, a quick I love you to Papa and that he is missed, and I begin my day towards my legacy. What that will be is solely up to me. I create that. Each day is a choice, and I must remember that. Because there will be many, many days where I will not shine, will not be the best version of me, but I just need the other days to outweigh those. And in the end, that’s all that matters.