Welcoming 2014 as an adult

my $2 notebook for 2013

This year, my plans are pretty personal which makes it awkward for a public platform. But I strongly feel about a few things that so Im writing them down here.

To STOP READING PSYCHOLOGICAL/SELF-HELP articles/blogs/books. Except for Mark Manson’s.  I think a huge part of 2013’s challenges were due to these stuff.  I wanted to become a better person so I read those kinds of literature.  But at the end, I realised that they were not for me.  Sure, I may have picked up a thing or two.  But for the most part, the effect on me was not what I hoped for.  I became cautious and paranoid about some of my interactions because I was always thinking of how my action would impact on other people.  I became more judgmental on myself and other people because I was trying to label people based on those books’ categories.  (this is my biggest problem with self-help books. They put people into boxes and put label as if the personality of an individual can be summed up in just one label.  They tell you to stay away from such and such kind of people and be like this and that that you sometimes tend to forget who you really are).   And I didn’t like that.  I prefer hanging out with people because I genuinely like them and not because I could get something from them or they could help me with something.  And I will still hang out with sad people because if positive/normal people (pun intended) would always avoid them, what good does it do?  Which brings me to the point that Mark Manson’s blog is an exception.  Because he stresses that it’s ok to be sad, and critical, and imperfect, and flawed at times because that’s life. We cant always be happy, and positive, and perfect! And that’s perfectly ok!

Deal with things that I have been putting off for a few years now.  I have to prove to myself that I can deal with life.  Avoiding difficult situations in my 20s can be forgiveable.  But I think that doing the same in my 30s is a bit off. I will forever be stuck in a 20s mind set if I keep on doing such.  And it is a terrible  injustice to the One who has been giving me countless number of chances.

To write something about living abroad/being an OFW.  Not about one of those how-travel-has-changed-my-life stories but about living outside of the country itself.  And have it published in Rappler, or Inquirer, or somewhere where articles are screened by an editor.  I know that I can write decent materials but I never considered myself as a very good writer.  So when I heard straight from my boss’ mouth that I write very good *blush* (I can be gullible about compliments), I thought that hey, I need to be more serious about this skill and improve it J

To publish at least one blog post in a week

Learn something technical that could help me with my job.  Be it in writing, or advanced Excel analysis, or coding, or LaTeX. As long as it is something technical that I can write in my CV.

Build a decent wardrobe.  Since maybe half or 2/3 of what I wear are my sister’s clothes, I think that it is time that I buy my own.

To limit idle weekends to at least once a month.  I have had weekends that didn’t feel like weekends at all because  I was busy.  And I also had those which I cherished because I did nothing but listen to bossa nova-jazz mixes on 8tracks.  But I noticed that if I have the latter in two consecutive weeks, it doesn’t feel so good at all.  So, I better minimize it.

So there, may 2014 be a productive, happy, sad, big, and perfectly ok year!