Every year I make my New Year Resolutions, which I pen down on a little scrap of paper and carry around the folded scrap in my wallet for the entire year. Usually in early December, I extricate the secret list and invariably admit guiltily to myself that I haven't achieved half as much as I'd have liked. Some resolutions then get carried forward to the following year, some get redefined in much less ambitious terms, and still others are quietly dropped :-(This year, I'm going to take a rather different approach. For starters, I won't burden myself with an unrealistic list of 46 items, like what I did one year not too long ago. I'll keep it a much shorter list. Maybe 12-15 items at most. And secondly, it won't be a secret list any more as I will be displaying it in this blog entry for the whole world ... well, at least the dozen or so kind souls who actually bother to read my online rants. Ha! That should introduce a little more pressure on myself to keep my resolutions real and to put more effort into trying to attain them.
So here are my resolutions for 2009 ... (drum roll please)
Health
- reduce weight by 10 lbs & get more physically fit thru gym or other sport
(building abs was one of my previous resolutions, long discarded & I'm not putting it back in!)
- undergo medical & dental checks
Personal
- increase my Mandarin vocab by 500 characters
- learn a new language (to basic level)
- read at least 2 books a month, with more focus on humanities (esp history & classics)
Professional
- make a real sales impact in at least 3 countries
- deepen & extend domain expertise
- get one book published or at least manuscript-ready
(out of the several I've been working on & off for the past three years)
- put "E-Gov in Asia" online
Family
- get Family Journal + Book 2 typed & collated
- take two family holidays (one preferably to somewhere we've never visited)
- visit Sabah & Brunei on family tree exploration
Financial
- improve financial position
Social & Spiritual
- improve ties with family & friends (eg organise a re-union of ex-schoolmates)
- get actively involved with a charity organisation
Well, that's it folks. A very happy new year to all !
And be sure to watch out for my end-2009 review of these resolutions.
