***...towards REGENERATING my LIFE in 2007*** (New Year's Resolutions)

Member Name: curious_tan

Product:	New Year's Resolutions
Date:	10/01/07 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something that will remind me of enjoying life

Disadvantages: Not be able to sustain in reviving my life into more fulfilling and exciting experience

THIS IS THE TIME when some people feel a little bit down and lazy after the must-awaited holiday season of the year, but the rest of us have the full energy and vitality to face the New Year with a big bang!

For the past 40 years of my existence, I did not train myself to have an annual list of New Year’s resolution. I don’t know why I was not expressive enough to come-up my own ‘pledge’ to do better things for the new year and do something ‘new’ that will improve my personality and outlook in life. Fortunately, even without this list, I could proudly say that I am happy and contented for what I have achieved in the past years.

As the saying goes, ‘Life begins at 40!’ So, literally I embarked the journey of life last year and rephrased that saying… ‘There’s better life after 40’. To maintain a simple life in a big family of 10 is not easy. Fortunately, I am successfully enough to have an ordinary living through the love and care of my parents which they raised me and my siblings to be responsible human beings.

REDISCOVERING my own self for 2007 is an initial step to ‘renew’ the invaluable bits and pieces that I have started last year which I grouped into four (4) facets of my human existence as discussed below. Not to forget them, I came up with an acronym: ‘Spimenemophy’ – which constitutes the first 3 letters from SPIritually, MENtally, EMOtionally, and PHYsically and this is a continuing process in the years to come.


***SPIRITUALLY. This is rediscovering my faith and beliefs in God – allowing myself to renew/revive my relationship with the Creator. Frankly, I am not a religious person, but I truly believe that everything that we have now is a gift from God and a way of acknowledging is to return it back to Him by community service. It is a daily struggle to sustain my faith but having a community that I could cling to is much a comfort. With my small prayer group in the university, it is an effective channel for me to bond/unite with others having the same spiritual need and at the same time to reach out with other students. I am not exempted to question our human existence - why there are pain, suffering, war, poverty, discrimination and inequality in the society nowadays. Despite these bad conditions, I am very optimistic that these difficulties and struggles are temporary, and whatever little improvement we have contributed in the present time is not in futile for the generation to come.

HAVING THIS, I THINK IT IS EASIER FOR ME TO ACHIEVE THE REST IN ‘REGENERATING’ MY MENTAL, EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL STATE.


***MENTALLY. This is also a challenging undertaking to achieve by not allowing myself to feel idle, bore and lazy for the whole year. I am quite lucky to have the opportunity to go back to the university and do further research in the field of real estate development. I don’t have any plan before to pursue further studies after I completed my research program in Environmental Engineering in Australia back in 2004. But with the current demand for people who got higher graduate degree programs is attractive, I took the challenge in investing my time and talents to be more competitive professional two years from now.

Being a full time researcher, I need to have more patience and perseverance to be able to meet my deadlines with my supervisors. Honestly, I am currently engaged with a piece of research that I have little knowledge/background and applying a methodology which I have not done it before or no any idea at all. Well, I think that is a valid reason why I want to go back to school after working for almost 17 years. My ultimate goal at the later part of the year as the results of my research is to submit journal and conference papers and to be recognised my contribution in the body of knowledge.

Inspiration is the key factor in regenerating my mental abilities through my hobbies and extra job. Firstly by having the resources to acquire reading materials such as books and magazines are providing me the venue to sharpen my memory, comprehension; to think analytically, and to learn new skills and at the same to improve my writing skills. Secondly, being a member of Dooyoo, it is an effective way to express myself and share my experiences to others thru my reviews. I do hope that I could maintain the frequency reading of 1-2 books per month, and the time to post at least 1 review per week. To date, I can manage to post in the site an average of 5 reviews a month which is equivalent to 1 review per week! It is also my wish to increase my readership and ratings/comments to the rest of the members. So far, my rating speed is only 5-6 reviews per day in the span of 6 months membership (quite low). But believe it or not, my rating speed is higher than some of the respected senior members of Dooyoo (since 2000) which they have an average rating speed of approximately 4 per day.

Thirdly, prior to my registration with Dooyoo, I already created my personal blogs and keep a record of my thoughts (in my poems), insights, and invaluable experiences. Getting feedbacks/testimonials are the main motivations for me to maintain these journals and having new posts in the few months to come could somehow inspire more people to read them. Fourthly, I am still looking forward to getting more interesting photographs during my travels which offer me the chance to be ‘creative’ and to see things differently which is evident through the images taken from my digital camera. It is my ultimate goal this year to visit some exciting places in Europe and Africa. I will try to work it out during the school holiday period to prepare the necessary documents in securing ‘Shingen’ multiple entry visas.

Fortunately, I am looking forward to my short vacation in my home country this coming March which I prepared an exhilarating itinerary both local and abroad. Visiting Thailand for the 4th time is emotional because I intend to visit the coastal areas being struck by the tsunami two years ago, and at the same time seeing my friend who did a by-pass operation last November. My local travel will focus mainly in the southern part of the Philippines which is very popular for beautiful beaches, pineapple plantation and horse riding. And of course visiting my hometown will be a thrilling experience as well considering that I intend to do mountain climbing and island hopping.

Lastly but not the least is my part time teaching job at the university which gives me additional income. And I am looking forward to be offered extra hours as research demonstrators/tutors to keep my mind working and inspiring more young people to be responsible future engineers/managers.


***EMOTIONALLY. Honestly, I don’t have any difficulty in dealing with people. But I think it goes back to ‘moderation’ by not allowing myself to dwell too much with ‘socialising’ and other extra-curricular activities that will affect my focus in my research. Sometimes, it is tempting to accept invitation from friends to have parties at night or even weekend escapades. Sometimes I can handle those offers but I can not resist saying ‘no, thank you’. I am a very friendly person and I will always go out from my comfort zone to mingle with different people in my workplace or even outside my university circle. It also my nature to dwell on things that you need ‘emotional’ back-up like helping other students in their research, or a colleague that need a hand in searching for valuable reference materials in the library or in the internet. With my little contribution in the prayer group is also helps me feel the sense of ‘belongingness’ and fulfilment to take part in the spiritual growth of every member.

Having access to internet and other telecommunications, this year is quite a busy year in responding email and text messages from abroad especially from my family and friends back home, not to mention my correspondence with people who are valuable in my case study areas for my research.

I will also include my emotional inclination to shopping! Frankly, I am an impulsive buyer, but I make it a point that everything that I purchased is valuable in the sense that I will benefit from it, maybe not on that very moment, but in the near future. Again, it goes back to moderation, by having a self-control to dwell on material things and refrain myself in using my credit cards all the time. I think paying ‘cash’ is still convenient for minor purchases!


***PHYSICALLY. This involves maintaining healthy and stress-free living. I am not an athletic person, but I maintain a simple healthy habit for the past years. There are four major things that I do to sustain my energy and stamina: walking, swimming and playing badminton, and having a balanced diet. Last year, I could probably maintain a once a week swimming, but this time I intend to do it at least twice a week especially during summer time. My main health problems are: I am quite receptive to colds due to the rapid change in weather, and my occasional stomach pain due to hyper acidity. I think it is only a matter of reminding me to drink plenty of water and fruit juices, and less of spicy foods (which is difficult to resist). I do hope that this year will offer more possibilities of doing mountain climbing and walking which also allow me to socialise with the rest of the members of community (church). Playing badminton is a little bit conditional in the sense that it is dependent to school terms, and it also falls on Tuesdays where I have the chance to avail the ‘crazy Tuesdays’ discounted movie offer (half price). Nevertheless, I will ensure that I will get sufficient rest and relaxation for the rest of the year (not much as the ‘pig’ does).


***OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR OF THE PIG (RED)***
I do hope that being a Sagittarian and born in the year of Snake, this year will bring prosperity for my university research and spiritual being. I do believe that any person who has a strong determination to achieve something, at the end of the day he/she will be able to accomplished them with flying colours.

Based from the Chinese zodiac calendar, I will be lucky for this year for having a ‘fire’ element which does compatible for this year’s elements: water and wood. And at the same time, it is a ‘red’ pig so it is also related to the ‘fire’ element.

Regenerating spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically is not simple but it is achievable having a mind, heart and body that capable of doing little things differently for not only his/her own happiness/fulfilment but for the betterment of the community that he/she belong as a whole.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!

Summary: Just my simple plan in life for the Year of the Red Pig