Decision helps us start. Discipline helps us finish.

It has been a busy 1st week in 2008 – both at home and at work. I wanted to find some quiet time for myself – to reflect on 2007 and to plan for 2008, but have not been able to do so. I finally managed to do it this morning while the workshop is going on :-)

I look at the 2 mind maps that I have drawn up – one for 2007 and one for 2008. I have not completed them yet, especially for the 2007 as I could not recall much about what I had done and what goals I had set for myself, but when I look at the 2008 mind map, all I could say is I am too ambitious. There are just too much that I want to do, some are new goals and some are brought forward from 2007.

When I look at some of the goals that are brought forward from 2007, I feel guilty. A year ago, when I first set them as my goals, I was very enthusiastic and determined to achieve them, so I started to work towards them and track my progress regularly. After a while, my enthusiasm died down, I spent less and less time and finally they got squeezed out of my radar screen.

When the year end got closer, I then realized that there was not much time left, and I regretted not having enough discipline. When the new year began, I asked myself if these goals were still relevant, and the answer was yes, so the goals remained on my list.

This year, I decide to do it differently as I do not want to feel miserable at the end of the year that I have not achieved my goals. I am not prepared to drop any of these goals even though some of them have been on my list for many years, so what I plan to do is to prioritize my goals and focus on those top priority ones (or what I call KPIs). At the end of the year, as long as I achieve these KPIs, I will consider it as targets achieved. Anything more than these KPIs will be a bonus to me.

Well, I do recognize that at the end of the day, what is important is I must have the discipline to finish what I start. While I can identify a few KPIs, but if I do not have the discipline to follow through, at the end of the year I will still be lamenting about not achieving my goals.

The following is what I wrote on the board to remind myself about my commitment:
“Decision helps us start. Decision helps us finish. Start early, start small, start now!”

Keeping in Touch

Last Friday, I had lunch with Jack, one of my ex-colleagues. He wanted to thank me for acting as his referee for his new job, thus he gave me a lunch treat.

It was nice meeting up with him and I truly appreciate his effort in arranging for the lunch. Since he left the company, we have kept in touch through e-mail and SMS, and this was the first time that we met up. We had a nice chat while enjoying the food.

The lunch reminded me of the other 3 meals I had in the last one month – 2 with my old friends and the other one with a group of ex-colleagues. The feeling of catching up was really great and I am glad that I made an effort to meet up with them. Truly enjoy the fun, laughter, gossips, jokes, etc. They really made my day! Ha, I also discovered that TCC serves good food other than good coffee, and I finally visited Dempsey Hill – a place that I had always wanted to check out.

When I reflect on these get-togethers I had, I am really grateful that I still have friends around me after all these years. I am thankful to those friends who made an effort to organize the event and I am glad to say that I did my part too. Of course, there are friends whom I would like to meet up more frequent and friends that I have lost touch, it is therefore my commitment in 2008 that I would make a conscious effort to maintain the friendship that I have, especially those that I treasure a lot.

Not the usual New Year's Resolution

Today is the 2nd calendar day of 2008, 1st working day of 2008, yet I do not feel like I have crossed the year. Unlike the previous years where I normally spent the last few days of the “old” year and 1st few days of the “new” year on reflection and planning, this year the crossover was just like any other normal day.

So I thought I should spend the morning on reflection and planning for the new year, but I was swamped by work – phone calls, e-mails, etc.

Nevertheless, I told myself that no matter what, I must still set myself a few key goals within these few days, not the usual new year resolution (which will not be kept anyway), but some goals that will guide me towards living my desired 2nd half.

Here's my initial thoughts on the top 5 goals (subject to changes of course, haha):

1) Manage my personal finance better – apply what I learnt from the Millionaire Mind Intensive seminar by T Harv Eker. One area that I am committed to pick up is stock investment. The other area is finding my niche area in the internet marketing space.

2) Attain the professional qualifications that are relevant and key to my 2nd career – have identified 3-4 relevant qualifications in total. Started one of them last year, but have not completed it as I kept procrastinating! The other one is one that I have put off for years!

3) Active networking, expand both my social and professional circle, get to know a few of my new friends better. Participate actively and enthusiastically in the alumni and professional society that I am currently in – at least 1-2 activities per month.

4) Spend time in nurturing my body, mind and soul. Live a healthy lifestyle, get in touch with the nature, attend to my garden, read at least 2 books per month, attend 4 self-improvement seminar, etc. There is a whole lot that I want to achieve here, but think I need to focus and be more specific :-)

5) Community involvement - contribute something back to the society, going beyond the “bread delivery routine”

Most important of all, I am committed to develop a deeper level of understanding of my life purpose and my 2nd half.

Quotes to live by in 2008

A friend gave me a 2008 corporate planner diary today. I flipped through the diary and I fell in love with it immediately. In addition to the practical use of the diary, there is a meaningful quotation with a nice picture printed on every month.

I read through the 12-month quotations and I really enjoyed it. I am sure you will too.

Jan 08 - You don’t pay the price for success. You enjoy the price for success.

Feb 08 - You will either find a way or make one.

Mar 08 - Seek first to understand then to be understood.

Apr 08 - Well done is better than well said.

May 08 - Cooperation and love together – make everything go smoothly in this world.

Jun 08 - Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

Jul 08 - Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

Aug 08 - Knowing is not enough; we must apply.

Sep 08 - You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

Oct 08 - The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.

Nov 08 - When we have done our best, we should wait for the result in peace.

Dec 08 - It is not the mountains that we conquer, but ourselves.