This year, unlike before, I have decided to take a few new year resolutions and test my tenacity for sticking to them. They are quite modest but if I do succeed in following them I hope to develop a strong discipline and to experience a sense of achievement. These resolutions will be added as a separate page on my blog so that they are not lost in time and space. It is my hope that I will be able to take a quarterly check and monitor my progress. Any bit of encouragement will surely help. So here they are:

1. Practice my Pranayam, Kriya, and Meditation daily – I consider them very important to achieve a calm and serene mind and I am sure regular practice will help me deal with worldly issues in the best possible way.
2. Read at least one book a month – I am not talking about fiction here. There are so many good books out there that even a life time is less to accumulate all the knowledge. Reading good books does help broaden one’s mind and build different perspectives and that is what I seek to achieve. This will also ensure that my education continues even after my MBA is complete.
3. Blog regularly – Blogging has become a great way to share ideas and make good friends all over the world. I wish to build a platform through which I can share meaningful thoughts and learn from others in the process.
4. Start investing in the stock market with a disciplined approach – Soon my formal MBA will end and I will have no reason to avoid money management, one of them through building a robust long term stock portfolio. I have all the necessary tools and the knowledge so I will make the best use of that to invest intelligently. There will soon be a stock tracker on my site that you will see with my positions and related gains or losses.
5. Take photos more often and build a flickr portfolio – There are a few things that I really enjoy one of them being photography. This year I resolve to take more photographs and build a small portfolio of my photographs on flickr to share with all of you.
6. Do “Seva” (service) – As a citizen of this world, I have some duties towards my community. Hence I will try to find opportunities to take up some activities that will help me connect with people and help them in whatever way I can.
7. Use my time productively – 24hrs in a day should be well spent. My assessment of the previous years begs to remind me that I do waste a considerable amount of time doing things that are merely recreational with no productive outcome. I need to minimize that.

So, as you can see, my resolutions are quite simple and nothing extraordinarily out-of-the-box. They also have nothing to do with work or career. The above list consists of those items that I need to do anyways but I always find an excuse of not doing. But these are also the things that I really consider enriching and fulfilling. Surely, I have to do good in my work, build a great career, and I will definitely work towards that. But doing so is just an order qualifier. To be in control and being able to build a discipline to follow the above seven items will constitute, for me, an order winner.