Another year complete. Time for a year in review post! This is the first of what I hope to be many review posts. I want to actively assess my life rather than just watching years slip by.
What Went Well
Health
I signed up from a gym member ship this year and I have been consistently going to gym 2 times a week. It is a good thing that it has now become part of my life and stuck as a hobby.
Gym 2 time/week @ Tue/Thur
Relationship
I am involved in a romantic relationship this year. My girl friend and I are currently been together for 9 months and is currently very stable. I consider having a healthy relationship as part of my Tripod of stability (Health, Relationship, Work), without those, I cannot pursue something greater.
Travel
This year, I went to Japan with my girl friend. This is the first time I plan a trip without my parents help. I enjoyed the time in Japan and I learned a great deal about what my GF likes and dislike, I believe this trip and strengthen our understanding with each other.
Finance Automation
I finally got my finance automated. It might come as a shock to someone that I did not hold a credit card under my name as I was 26 of age. The truth is I have been procrastinating about this since I was 21. The effect it has on me has been daunting. Liberating would not be enough to describe how I feel to finally did something that I should have done long time ago. Here is what I did:
- Set up credit card.
- Set up auto-pay for credit card.
- Set up auto-pay for Octopus.
- Set up auto saving account.
Writing
This year, I have published 3 articles on Medium that got quite a few attentions from the readers. I spent a lot of effort to write those articles and I consider them high quality. I am happy that someone actually read it, gave comments and liked my post, that made me feel happy and I am actually more motivated to write more this year.
Cooking
This is a great year for cooking. I started to take my cooking passion more seriously and committed to cook twice per week. The arrangement of aligning when the house maid is off (such that no one will cook at home) and my cooking schedule made it harder for me to slack off. I also met someone from the card game I played who happened to be a cook. I should consider asking for guidance from him from time to time.
What Did Not Go Well
You will see that a lot of things that didn’t go well is overlapped with things that go well, as I see there is always areas that I can do better if I push myself harder. This is the only way to be a top performer and become world class in my life.
Health
I have been staying up too late at night, for more than I wanted. I am most efficient when I get at least 8 hours of sleep and my current sleeping habit fails to achieve my goal.
Writing
In this year I have only published 6 articles. Far less than the ideal goal of 2 articles per week, and is only slightly better than last year’s 5 articles. The truth is that I had a lot of articles that I started in my backlog, but I lacked the discipline to finish them. Good things is that I do receive some positive responds from my reader.
This would be something I would continue to improve this year. I aim to double the amount of articles I published.
Origami
This was a poor year for Origami. I only created 2 turtle when my girl friend is around. When I look back I believe the reason for this is because I didn’t delegate specific time for this hobby. I should put origami as part of my calendar if I want to continue to pursuit this passion.
Work
Non of my goals of increasing salary nor getting a promotion has been met. To be honest I felt a little bit set back by the fact that the work I did was’t being valued.
I no longer feel passionate about going to work. Everyday I feel frustrated, annoyed and sometimes angry. The truth is, I have already decided that I wanted to move on, so whether I can reach my goal was more as a pride than something I really want.
On a plus side, I did learn a great deal of how to run projects and how to apply design principles in my work. I have been growing a lot in terms of design, and I do hope that the knowledge I have acquired is going to help me to find a job that I would enjoy.
Goals for 2018
- Find a new job — Update portfolio, actively looking for jobs/ natural networking, prepare interview questions.
- Gain a six pack —Work out 3 times/week, hire personal trainer.
- Have at least 8 hours of sleep, every day — Set up alarm clock at 23:00. Make myself accountable and have to lose something if I didn’t meet this goal.
- Publish 12 articles — Set up schedule on calendar to publish every month.
- Make 24 Origami models — Set up Origami time on my calendar.
- Start a UX teaching business — Go through ZTL course.
