Monday, May 16, 2011
30DLBL Day 6 - My Life Goals

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland

1. Studies
I graduated with a CGPA of 3.686. It’s lower than what I could’ve done. I know I can do better if only I wasn’t as complacent in my final year. That aside, I haven’t been learning anything new. I’m only regurgitating whatever that was taught. I feel like I haven’t used my brain for a very long time! I will not remain like this forever. This is not what I want, definitely not what I do.
2. Finance/wealth
Coincidentally, I did a budget for my personal finances. I have to say my treasury skills have become… godlike! HAHA! Nowadays, I take less than 15 minutes to draft a flexible yet practical budget. *proud* Back to the topic, I had been working for the last three months and now I have stopped. I feel like I’m doing a direct trade of time with money. That’s not what I want to do so I will stop for the moment. The money I’ve earned is enough to support a few of my trips, i.e. Project Orion, Cambodia-Vietnam, KL trip and etc. Spending money to backpack is an investment. I also have enough to give part of my salary to my parents. It’s a little tight if I was to buy myself a MacBook Pro. If I overspend (fingers crossed that I won’t), I would take up a few more projects and earn approximately $400-500 more.
3. Health/fitness
I have been exercising almost everyday or at least three times a week since the start of this challenge! =D I eat less, avoid oily food and I drink more than 2 litres of water a day (I’m a water tank!). I don’t think I even deserve a rating of 4 for this now, I should get a 7! *estatic* Oh, and surprise, surprise, surprise, I lost 2kg! =.=
4. Social/friends
I’m glad to say I’m surrounded by good friends and I can find a confidant when needed (Mr. Ng should receive honourable mention). I still keep in contact with my friends from Penang and am on good terms with friends in Singapore. That’s something to be happy about. =) On a happy note, I’m meeting Kooi Khin and Samantha in KL next week! Yay.
5. Family
My attempt to stay in Johor for at least 4 days a week has been successful, but I can’t guarantee things are going to be the same when I enrol into university. There are things I disagree with and I haven’t found an ideal way to truly express the disagreement. Nevertheless, I need to understand that this is temporary. Family ties are forever unbreakable. I just have to be more patient, sensible and understanding.
6. Romance/love
Althought it’s my first, but it has been a healthy, fulfilling relationship. He’s my best friend, a loyal confidant and has always been there. That’s why I said Mr. Ng should receive an honourable mention. Heh.
7. Recreation
I’m happily executing my plan to travel all around the world, one step at a time. Come July, Singapore will no longer be the furthest country I’ve ever travelled to. HEHEHE.
8. Contribution
The first meeting for Project Orion got me really excited! The line-up of programs, the people I’ll be meeting and once in a lifetime experience! Listening to the itinerary had my eyes wide opened! Three things we’ll be involved with for sure – friendly locals, naughty but innocent kids and rarely seen turtles. Despite not knowing anyone in the team, I’m glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to take on the challenge. It doesn’t seem that scary meeting new people. I haven’t done this for a long long time. Most of the “new” people I meet are friends’ friends. I’m sure my teammates (whom I’ll spending two weeks with) are gonna be a fun bunch! I’m not sure how much of an impact we will be, but – a little goes a long way.
9. Personal growth
Need. To. Do. More! I need to reignite my passion for designing or whatever new passion I can dig into. I’m just confused over what I’m passionate about. I’m slowly losing it. Ah…
10. Spiritual
At least I found my (temporary) life purpose! Every morning, I would wake up, flip open my organizer and read the mission statement I set for myself. It’s nice to have a goal to work towards.
11. Self-image
If you compare the present me to the young 16-year-old I once was, I am a lot more confident, feel better about myself and more enthusiastic. If life is a piece of graph paper and each aspect is drafted to a graph, the graph for my self image would go up. The only variable is the steepness of the curve, the steeper the better. A steep graph is what I want to see! I want to experience more. I see myself morphing into a confident young (is it?) lady 5 years down the road, not easily deceived and ready to take over the world!

Of course I do not want to remain the way I am now. Nobody likes to remain stagnant. I’d rather be dead. Studies, personal growth, family, health, self-image, spiritual (not in order) are the main categories I would improve. Easier said than done, of course. I have remained stagnant for quite a while and that, again, explains the reason I’m doing this challenge. It’s a good overview of my life in all aspects.

The Challenge So Far

I woke up at 6.45am today! =) 15 more days to go till I’d successfully integrate the habit into my life!

The weather was a little cloudy, just nice for a morning jog. The sun came out when I was about to leave. Woot woot.

And the task today! It said it would take 2 hours to do it and guess what?! I took more than 5 hours (with distractions here and there of course), but it felt nice. =) Now I have an Excel sheet for my goals in one, three and five years. To reflect on what I did today, I have always been doing the same thing every year, setting goals/resolution for myself. Somehow, the goals I set are always all over the place. I think this exercise allowed a bird’s eye view on my goals.

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I started the challenge by writing on a notebook, but it became too tedious so I decided to type instead. I thought my blog would be a good platform as it would make my plan known (to those who wants to know). It is a little embarassing but if I’m set to change myself, I shouldn’t be embarassed. In the event that I fail, please don’t use it against me. =.= Being the fickle minded person that I am, it is highly possible that I’d forget about this challenge in a month or two. I suppose it happens to almost everyone – setting sky-high goals and completely putting them behind your mind the next day. On the other side of the coin, if I don’t try, I wouldn’t even know if I’d fail or succeed. If I’d succeed in religiously following the goals I’ve set for myself, that’s good! If I don’t… well, at least I took the time to think about my life purpose, vision, values, etc. – one (small) step forward in my self discovery journey. =)

There’s a reason why I was skeptical about publishing all these on my blog. I don’t expect much audience to my blog nowadays, which is great. Posting my daily 30DLBL tasks on this blog also means I have to open up to share, and when you share, you are exposing yourself, you have to overcome fear. And by overcoming fears, you become stronger, more resillient. I write whatever I think’s appropriate and adequate. Nothing wrong with that.

I know that I’m doing the right thing. I should the one to decide whether or not this is what I want to do. Criticising is fine, but there’s a limit, especially when I regard you as one of my good friends. I will tune out of whatever sarcasm, criticism you may have. I don’t even bother expressing my discomfort because I doubt you will listen. And I don’t want to be seen as being petty, oversensitive. I don’t know what will doing this leads to, but at least I believe it will lead to something good. It will be life changing, no matter small it is. I might fail in the end, but at least I’ve tried and that I’d have no regrets. I got my answer. =)

Are you asking for their permission to succeed in your goals? If not, no feeling. - Sean Ho, an inspiring friend

Labels: 30DLBL