“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Søren Kierkegaard
During the holidays, many people reflect on their lives for the whole year in review. In turn, some choose to make New Year’s Resolutions.
Personally, I don’t like to make goals that start on New Year’s Day. The holidays can be more fast paced and stressful compared to other days. As a result, I fear that I wouldn’t be able to set aside time to plan for the upcoming year. Now that the pace has slowed down a bit, I have more time to look back and review the year 2017 as a whole. To me, 2017 was a year that consisted of rebuilding as a person, figuring out my limits, and refining my interests. The year also consisted of milestones such as moving to a different country to work and getting certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
Reflecting back, here are a few things that I have learned from 2017:
-
Knowing which friendships are worth maintaining and letting fade away. A lot has changed since graduating from college. I learned that it takes a lot more effort to foster friendships outside of college, but doing so is definitely worth it. Because everyone leads busy lives, I am grateful for the times that I have been able to communicate with friends in person or via messaging. In addition, I have learned to be more mature and courageous when it comes to severing ties with those that I feel uncomfortable being around. Overall, I have learned after college that there are some friendships worth keeping and some that aren’t.
-
Determining Preferences for a Job. I would consider myself pretty flexible as to what duties and conditions I would be willing to put up with. The hardest part was deciding whether or not the job was a good fit after working there for a while. Part of that involves figuring out what part of the job I don’t enjoy so much, let alone tolerate. It’s even harder if it’s a contract because I do not like to break commitments. At the end, I learned that prioritizing physical and mental health is the right thing to do, even if that means leaving a job. Overall, those are stepping stones in figuring out what I want to do later in life.
-
Changing Goals is Acceptable. Before going to university, my teachers and parents have encouraged me to set goals and make a plan to reach them. However, I often get frustrated because something may come up that would affect them. It wasn’t until recently when I realized that goals do not have to be static. With that in mind, I learned that it’s a good idea to review them every so often.
-
Refining My Interests in Writing. Even though I was out of college for about a year, I still get occasional withdrawals from the responsibilities of class by writing, presenting, and researching for academic purposes. When I started blogging, I realized that I enjoy writing posts because that helps me focus more on the subject matter. Besides, I would rather reflect more on the positive aspects than the negative aspects of life. Who knows? Perhaps writing blog posts may help turn into a job that I would enjoy later on. If all else, I have learned a lot about blogging and hope to learn how to be more effective at it.
Looking forward to the rest of 2018, my main goal is to be a little more self reliant. While reaching out to others for assistance and advice on various things helps to an extent, there are times when these may not be available. Also, the only person who knows me the most would be myself. Another goal of mine is to be more consistent. That way, I can establish a better routine.
Here are some ways I will be more self-reliant this year:
-
Continuing to Pay Off Student Loans on a Monthly Basis. Whenever I owe money to someone or some entity, I would want to pay them back as soon as I have the money to do so. However, I realized that having that mindset wasn’t a good idea at this time because there may be something that would come up that would hinder finances as a whole. From this, I have learned to not stretch myself too thin on finances when paying off loans and monthly plans. This leads me to my next goal.
-
Putting Some Money Away Into a Savings Account. I try to save money whenever I can. Recently, I figured out that I didn’t have an actual plan for how to save it. Many times, I would wait until closer to the end of the pay period to see if I can transfer some of the remaining amount into a savings account. Because unexpected things come up, I wouldn’t have much left to transfer into a savings account. One way to motivate myself to save more money is to transfer the same amount of money that I spent on fun things into a savings account. By doing that, I have been more mindful in spending money on things that are worth spending on.
Here are two ways that I will be more consistent this year:
-
Reading a book for 30 minutes a day. I enjoy reading books of any kind. If the book enthralls me, I may stay up all night to read it. Over the past few years, I have made lists of books that I want to read, but I haven’t had the time to read them for pleasure. Luckily, I am supposed to read some novels for work, which is good for now. I don’t have a set number of books that I want to read by the end of 2018, but I plan to set aside at least 30 minutes a day to read a book. That way, I won’t have an excuse for not having time to read books.
-
Writing and Publishing Posts at Least Twice a Month. Since college, I have learned that writing is a process. One interesting thing I have learned about blogging is that despite publishing a post, it can still be edited. Even though I enjoy writing, my biggest problem is being consistent. In order to be more consistent, I plan to write a post at least once every other week. If a significant experience happens, I will do my best to write about it a week before it happened. A tip I have learned from another blogger is to keep a list of ideas and experiences to write about. That way, I would always have something to write about when blogging.
There you have it. Here is my review of the year 2017 and my goals for 2018. Stay tuned for reflections on my time in South Korea later this year!
Whittrails 