New year 2016 – Project 365 completion and new goals

So 2015 is over and new year has arrived. This is the time people reflect on the past year and create new year resolutions. I too have been doing them for the last many years on this blog. But I rarely do try to do the postmortem of my previous wish list. What matters is the memory milestones, which I carry forward as appreciation and medals, to hang in my mental cupboard.

Last year 2015 I completed my first project 365 on photography. I did not cheat. I did take photo each day and posted on Instagram. This means I had to post pathetic photos on some days and that too the single photo I would have taken that day. When I started I did not have much hopes on me, and I had given the relaxed rules that if I ever I fail to take a photo, I could always post something from the past or leave it blank. But I did not had to. Is that what you call the conspiracy from the universe? It seemed that I had to do nothing much apart from not giving up each day. The rest was taken care of. Something or the other appeared before me, inviting me to click it to make it photo for the day. Taking photo was sometimes easy, as even an abstract image which people do not understand qualify as an image. Some people just call them more artistic than others though.

The tough times arrived in form of uploading to Instagram. I realised Internet was still not available as easily it should be, in many remote places. I can be actually grateful to the unfortunate timing of not being able to have many vacations this year, since if that had happened, I would not have had access to Internet many days and it would have stressed me more.

The second difficulty was Instagram itself. There were times when I couldn’t upload to Instagram from phone, but was able to do online. But there comes the big issue of uploading to Instagram through web. That was something of a tradeoff for DSLR pics, as they had to be scaled down for mobile/tablet uploads, and also transferred to the devices, rather than directly upload from laptop.

The third was the editing part. Seeing some of the images on Instagram and a many other social networks you wonder how they create such beautiful filters. Do they really pay for the innumerous filter apps out there? And does #iphoneography really does make a difference? As I saw more and more mobile photos, there were many times, like other noobs, to fall into the trap of upgrading the phone. I have still not found the answer of best mobile camera phone. Some say, its the mobile you have in your hand, and some say its iPhone.

Now that 2015 was over, I really wondered what could be my next year challenge. Though it was hard, the photo challenge did became a daily inspiration to me. There was something I could look forward to. It was similar to having a daily hobby class, though the class duration was very less.

In the last year, I came across several articles regarding gratitude, and how it transforms our life. Every year, the resolutions we keep are aimed at improving our life, and such articles scream again and again that yoga, meditation, practicing gratitude are the keys to happiness. Though I have not fully believed in these concepts, and how to incorporate these practices into my life, I thought why not start with something which I can correlate to.

Saying thank you is a practice we have been learning from childhood and I thought that would be much more easier than doing flexible physical exercises or being in silence. We just have to mould it into proper gratitude, or to be grateful for whatever we have every day and then slowly every moment, rather than saying thank you only when required. So this year’s word is going to be GRATITUDE.

Another target I have kept is to be healthy. This does not mean I want to lose weight or fat belly. I just want to be healthy. This can mean incorporating healthy eating habits or indulging in some form of exercise. Be it mere walking for half hour around my apartment or the terrace. Be it in being regular at night teeth brushing. Be it in having more salads and proteins. Cooking has not been my favourite department ever since I was born. But I need to realize its importance in our sustenance and health. It’s like a survival skill which needs to be taught in school, but unlike many other important survival skills, our education unfortunately doesn’t have that in our curriculum.

The last target is to read more books. In the last two years, without having any challenge, or any dedication towards reading books, I realized I read almost 10 books per year. So I am sure, that with proper attention, I could increase the number of the books and the quality of the books too.

What are your new year thoughts?