sure. wait. what?

Ohhh March. The month when the shimmer of the new year starts to dull and 2025 stops feeling, um, fresh?

Money

Money was abundant in March. I got a raise and a bonus at work, and I also ended up qualifying for a tax refund. I thought I was going to end up owing in taxes so I parked some cash in the bank — turned out it’s the government who owed me money. Ha!

I also did the responsible thing by saving and investing the extra money that I got. Just like in the previous months, I hit all my monthly savings goals in March.

Savings Bucket	Savings Goals Met %
Long-Term	100%
Travel	100%
Gifts	100%

Investments-wise, I ended up buying shares when the stock prices were plummeting by over 10%. The prices are even lower now, but it’s fine. I’m just happy that I can start putting more money aside, now that I have enough in emergency funds and other potential big purchases.

Fitness

This is where things start to look meh.

Actually, no, scratch that. Stats-wise, I still met my 15-day fitness goal in March.

Exercise Days	19
Run	5
Walk	4
Barre	6
Lift	4

Those 19 days are mostly from the first three weeks of March. I started losing steam towards the final stretch, and to this day, even though I have beaten my slump and started exercising again, I no longer feel the same motivation that I used to have at the beginning of the year.

Aaah well. We’ll see how the numbers look in April.

Reading

I’m a self-help skeptic, but I read a self-help book in March. It’s called The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, and it’s about the different tendencies people have when responding to internal and external expectations.

People who don’t have any issues with meeting internal and external expectations are Upholders. If they tell themselves that they’re going to work out today, they will work out today. And if, for instance, they are a member of a running group and the group decided that they will run again tomorrow, an Upholder will have no issues running again tomorrow. Upholders like rules and order.

People who can meet internal expectations but struggle to meet external expectations unless the expectations make sense to them — they are the Questioners. Any expectation, whether it’s from themselves or from others, must be logical to a Questioner before they can will themselves to uphold it.

People who are the inverse of Questioners — those who struggle to meet the expectations they set on themselves but can easily meet the expectations set onto them by others — they are called Obligers. These are the people who can’t push themselves to do anything unless there’s an external element, like a deadline or a boss, that expects them to do that thing.

Lastly, people who struggle to meet both internal and external expectations are Rebels. They hate being told what to do. They only do things when they want to, and sometimes, even when they’ve decided that they want to do something, they can easily change their minds as soon as somebody instructs them to do that thing. (I am not a Rebel.)

So the thesis of the book says that the key to happiness is self-awareness. If you know how you respond to internal and external expectations, you can set yourself up for success and consequently live with happiness and contentment.

The book was interesting, but I don’t recommend you read it. As with any self-help literature, you can easily get the same nuggets of insight even if you just listen to a podcast (the author has one!).

Social

I met with the Diazes one Sunday for lunch (hi Gleniz!) and they introduced me to this really nice food hall south of the city. And then there was one night when I met up with some friends from uni because H was back in town and he gathered a few of us for pho and board games. Fun!

Other than that, I didn’t do much socializing in March.

Finds and Firsts

There’s a tower in the city that offered discounted entrance fees in March for people who are willing to take the stairs instead of riding the elevator. It was approximately 30 floors and over 800 steps, and I huffed and puffed all the way to the top.

I also started using the Ninja Creami in March, and so far I have made sour cream gelato and cookies and cream ice cream. One day I want to host ice cream parties and get my friends to each make their own ice cream and we all do a show-and-tell of the flavors we made. Weee!

There’s also the Audio Logs that I started, which I really enjoy making. Recording the logs keeps me from doomscrolling, so that’s a plus.

Fails and Flops

My biggest flop was losing the momentum that I had when it comes to working out. I feel low and lethargic these past couple weeks, and I don’t have the energy to show up to the fitness classes that I signed up for. I have already paid at least $50 in fees for missing the classes. Ugh.

Looking Ahead

I hope I meet my 15-day fitness goal in April. The odds are looking a bit bleak, but 15 days is all I want. No more, no less. (More would be good though.)

I’m also looking forward to ice cream parties with friends and maybe playing tennis when the weather starts getting warmer (Alex Eala yarn?).