The year I've joined the Army singing

With the ugly things going on around, and with no particular reason for expressing happiness in my existence either, I’m not at all in a mood for singing. I also think that my life has got enough routine and strict structure into it. Practically four days of seven from my week are running according to a detailed diary. However, knowing these very well, I've decided to choose a militarised approach and start singing in the process despite any negative feelings.

Last year it was quite a disastrous one to me. Towards the end of it, I had a few days off, and I took some time to reflect on my goals when I started 2020 and check on the progress I made. The conclusion was that I qualify into that category of people who starts every new year with big ambitious, only to fail a few weeks or a month later – and that has pissed me off.

Why on earth is like that? I take things seriously, work hard, persevere, make efforts, sacrifice, but somewhere on the way something always happens that breaks that chain, and although eventually, I manage to pick up the parts scattered on the floor, I can't glue them back. In the end, the result is the same: failure. What was I doing wrong?

But you know what, that’s fine, no matter the past, I’m not going to give up - I’m not a quitter!

A month has already gone from 2021. I wasn’t ready with a plan and with my goals when this year started. I only had some ideas of what I'd like to look like; therefore, I’ve begun to put in practice only a few things. However, with the chosen ones, I’ve refused to negotiate and question my decisions anymore. I knew from the previous year's experiments that they're the right ones to me and that I have to keep going every day with them. That’s it, end of discussion.

To exemplify, when I wake up, I read something spiritual, inspirational, encouraging, then I meditate and pray. I've also introduced 20-30 minutes of physical exercise, and to make sure it happens, I've joined a team from my workplace to do 100 squats a day for the whole February for a charitable purpose. We’ve got a group on MS Teams, and we monitor the progress daily. That automatically helps me to consolidate the habit of the 30 minutes of daily exercise. Since we're in this together, we motivate each other, and it's quite fun – nobody gives up.

I’ve also started to walk every day in the park, no matter how it looks outside. If people who have dogs can do it every single day even if they like it or not or the weather is nasty or nice, I reckon that I can do it, too. I can take the leash and push myself there as well. No barking on the way, though.

I‘ve added to the walk a few sets of up and down on the six floors of stairs, to get to a total of at least 4,000 steps/day. I’ve got a bottle to measure, and I drink one litre of water before lunch and another litter before the end of the evening. That's another must, and there's no debate with myself about it. Sometimes I squeeze a lemon in it, another time an orange, for a better taste and the sake of diversity, but that’s the only variation I allow to myself at this chapter.

I’ve taken off the meat from my diet, and I don't drink coffee anymore. I've got the Restaurant day every Friday when I cook a new vegetarian recipe, and I enjoy the delicious result (well, let’s be kind with a beginner, it’s at least eatable).

Every Sunday it’s the Pampering day, for all the cosmetic treatments – it’s one of those occasions when my face goes green, white or yellow and I scare to death whoever dares to knock at the door. On the 25th of the month, once the salary comes in, it’s the Thanksgiving day – no, not for slaughtering a turkey, but for counting the blessings and sharing some with others less fortunate during these times.

Some other ideas are waiting patiently to be added: practising the piano daily, doing a sketch every week, reading a book every two weeks, and learning something new every month. I’m bringing into my routine one element after another, and once it’s there, it stays. It has started to look already quite different than all my previous attempts, and I've figured out why.

I think there are some tips that I'd be glad to give you – feel free to take whatever you find useful from them:

Find a motivation bigger than yourself.

Why am I doing these? Is it only because I want to fit into a size 8 of a gorgeous dress? Do I want to be smarter after reading a dozen of good books? Well yes, but how about adding the benefit of others, too? A friend of mine used to say that one more traction in the daily exercise, one day can make for somebody the difference between life and death. A bit dramatic, you may say, but you never know when your muscles or skills will be proven incredibly helpful in a critical moment. The idea is, don't do that only for you, because when one day you’ll be tempted to give up on yourself, you may want to continue for the sake of the other person or for the many others involved, who need you so much to keep going.

Identify who you want to become – meaning, envisage the picture of a different and better you at the end of the year.

Plan your schedule and start implementing. Start with the current day and week, and then continue filling in more activities week after week, month after month. Make it diverse, interesting, creative, challenging, enjoyable and funny.

Join a team or at least one individual with some common objectives. Out there's at least one more idealist like you who believes in the New Year resolutions. These goals may not come under the same name or exact shape. It doesn’t matter, if they fit your purpose, join at least for a while, long enough to build that useful habit into your routine.

Start exercising and increase its toughness progressively. When it's about physical exercise, Yep think yourself as of a recruit who has just been enrolled. You can’t leave because it’s compulsory, and there’s a serious job to do. The environment gets harder day by day, and there’s no negotiation. You must do it as scheduled and planned – period. You don’t make any concessions both with the time for effort and with the time for relaxation – they’re equally important.

Reward yourself periodically, but without spoiling the excellent work. Somebody has said to me recently that it’s all about balance. Careful with that balance, though. Don’t balance 100 squats with a doughnut, please!

Expect stages of defeat. No matter what and how much you're doing right, sooner or later something will break, and you'll be thrown harshly straight into the corner. It’ll take a while to recover, but that’s OK, regroup and restart all over again. You’ll catch up, don’t worry.

Stay connected. Take time to love and be loved by the people you care for. Your engine desperately needs that, and if you don’t have that type of fuel, search for it and get it!

Surround yourself with beauty and immerse into positivity. There’s always something beautiful, small or big, around. You may find it in the park, on the street at a kid passing by, looking at the sky – open the eyes for it. If you feel that you've fallen into negativity, get out, shake it off, run away from it.

Find music to listen to and sing daily. And here is where the music comes in. There must be some songs that make sense to you and align to your soul, something you like a lot, with lyrics that encourage you. Find them, memorise them even, and sing them boldly as a donkey. With that, you're allowed to be selfish (with temperance though, have a bit of mercy for the neighbours). You've got the talent for the national level – believe that! Fortunately, Simon Cowell isn’t around. If you’re more into dancing, try that, too – whatever works better for you.

Smile. No matter what will be thrown on your plate, find reasons to smile, and if they’re not there, invent them. We all look so much nicer with smiles on our faces. When was the last time when you’ve tried that looking in the mirror?

In the end, don’t forget: you’re a soldier, and if you keep yourself in the combat mode, if you persevere and not give up, sooner or later, and hopefully that will include the end of 2021 too, you’ll be a winner. You're not going to be alone into this. I'm going to fight alongside, also, towards the best we can be. So, come on, comrade, let's do it!