The New You for the New Year

(photo credit : Sky Lacea, Instagram)

New year. Fresh start. New beginnings. New challenges. New  you.

People may  be  tired of hearing the words "new year resolutions", an overrated words most people use every time a new year approaches. But hey, making  new year resolutions is not that bad though, after all, keeping and maintaining your promises are  reflections of your character.   This year, I won't use those words but just listing out a few improvements or easily doable bucketlist for the incoming year and these would sum up in four words --- Enjoy.  Improve. Convenience. Explore.

< ENJOY >

Life has a lot of challenges for us to beat up. Surviving it all makes it a fulfillment  but being grateful why it happened is another thing. This year, time management is essential when doing our daily work-life balance. Enjoy simple things in life. Your main purpose in the world is not just to live in God's glory but being a blessing to others.

• Be grateful
• Spend more time with nature
• Gain positivity by giving out more
• Less time on Social Media, more time with Books
• Reward yourself with every gained achievements
• As much as possible, spend a lot of time with  family
• Cultivate your spiritual relationship with your Creator
• Share your blessings not just with your family but with strangers
• Appreciate every sunrise and every sunset, make sure to see it before the  day ends
• Change your idea of having fun (from heavy partying to enjoying solitude)
• Make a usual daily encounter with an elderly of at least 60+ year old and as young as 5-year old child

< IMPROVE >

Working in a  manufacturing company, I have been teaching people to implement KAIZEN, a Japanese term for "continuous improvement". Get into the habit of  improving yourself each day. For me, why not practice Kaizen daily then? 

• Plan, Do, Check, Act, Evaluate  
• Hold your temper, always
• Get into a fitness program to stay in shape
• Know the things you're best at and enhance it
• Read self-improvement and inspirational books, listen to TED Talks
• Tidy things ups up, set things in order, set standards of clearing everything up
• Enhance discipline by asking someone to push you when you're "tempted" to quit
• Save and spend wisely (set aside at least 20% of your earnings and invest)
• Set long-term goals and plan ahead (financial, career goals, personal goals, etc.)

< CONVENIENCE >

As mentioned earlier, time management is very essential  in everything  we do. Simplify things to get the work done. Do not be afraid to try new things, especially those innovations that are useful to our daily life.

• Embrace  practicality
• Focus on quality, not on quantity
• Sell or give away the things you no longer use
• Learn the art of recycling and do-it-yourself projects
• Learn to embrace the "all-in-one" tagline on products
• Automate your usual work, things, etc.  for easy control
• Go online (banking, bills payment, transportation bookings, hotel reservations, etc)
• Invest on things you are interested in (like perhaps selling make-ups to get free ones for yourself)
• Get into online shopping -- just make sure they are reliable (like ZALORA,WEEMALL, Lazada, etc)

< EXPLORE >

Life is short. It is meant to be explored. You are limitless. Know and enhance yourself more.  Discover what life has to offer. A lot of wonderful opportunities are waiting for you. Take risks. Take a lot of chances or you may never get it again.

• Try to travel alone
• Get into at least one place you've never been to
• Discover local culture first before learning other countries'
• Travel as much as you can (do research on travel websites, magazines, consider recommendations from friends when planning a vacation)
• Create an online journal or blog like Medium or Blogspot (who knows, you have a thing for writing and create a site where people can relate to or this could be a piece of you where your future great grandchildren would refer to)
• Learn another foreign language (trust me, it helps)
• List your Top 3 adventures you've been dying to do and make it a reality

At the end of the year, let's see if these things are being done. Have a great year ahead!


Also published on Medium.com |The New You for the New Year|