At the end of 2013, I had done a first review of the year that passed (in french), and listed some personal goals for 2014.
My 2014 objectives and what really happened
- Stop smoking definitely
Had a full 3 months long stop, with some nice victories (not smoking at a party where most people do), but then I ended up lighting up one. Felt really terrible about it, especially since I did an anti-bet to prevent me to light up one again. Since then, I have had an occasional cigarette at social events with alcoholic drinks, and up to 5-10 cigarettes in one night in bigger parties, about 5 times in the year. I bought myself an e-cigarette for Xmas, I hope it will help me resist smoking dirty ones during parties.
Had a full 3 months long stop, with some nice victories (not smoking at a party where most people do), but then I ended up lighting up one. Felt really terrible about it, especially since I did an anti-bet to prevent me to light up one again. Since then, I have had an occasional cigarette at social events with alcoholic drinks, and up to 5-10 cigarettes in one night in bigger parties, about 5 times in the year. I bought myself an e-cigarette for Xmas, I hope it will help me resist smoking dirty ones during parties.
- Stop Candy Crush, eating up way too much time
Oh yes, I stopped, and I really fell good about it, especially when I see addicted players in the subway who don't realise how much time they are wasting.
- Stop binging on TV series (Suits, House of Cards, etc...)
I believe I watched less of these, especially in the last 2 months of the year due to a faulty TV that I did not replace yet, to my girlfriend's big despair and the benefit of my productivity.
Oh yes, I stopped, and I really fell good about it, especially when I see addicted players in the subway who don't realise how much time they are wasting.
I believe I watched less of these, especially in the last 2 months of the year due to a faulty TV that I did not replace yet, to my girlfriend's big despair and the benefit of my productivity.
- Work hard whilst continuing to identify what drives me the most and my passions. Work on my weaknesses
In retrospect, I did not set this goal properly: too vague. However, I did not remain passive this year. Back in April, I felt really stuck with the startup I was working for. An opportunity came up with a much larger corporation, still in Singapore, still in software and IT services, but in a whole new industry. I used to know everything about mobile commerce, and now I have to learn everything from scratch about the capital markets industry. To help myself with that, I started watching all the trading-related movies ever made.
- Read more, start again to practice sport in the morning
Again, I could have quantified this goal better. I read 6 books this year versus only 2 in 2013, but it is still very very little... I have 2 main issues: I fall asleep too fast (after 2 or 3 pages in general in the week time), and I read too slowly, but hey, english is still not my native language... My plans to tackle those issues: booked a e-learning class about "super learning and speed reading" on Udemy, and will strive to get to bed earlier.
- Meditate more regularly
Yes, goal achieved! I had always been interested but had never taken it to serious practice. This year, i have had a lot of pleasure meditating for 10 - 20 minutes a few times per week, usually first thing when I'm back from work. Plus, I have now discovered Headspace, and have been meditating pretty much everyday since I have tested it.
- Continue learning malay / indonesian
Failed at that one. Beside a little practice during my trips in Lombok and Bali, I did not improve much my vocabulary, grammar or oral understanding, despite having scheduled time in my agenda to sit down and learn at home. Not sure why, because I love learning foreign languages, the only thing I see is that I prefer the class environment...
- Plan better to travel more often than in 2013
Traveled roughly the same amount as last year, planning was either much better, or much worse.
- Stay in close touch with my close relatives, through hand written letters especially
In retrospect, I did not set this goal properly: too vague. However, I did not remain passive this year. Back in April, I felt really stuck with the startup I was working for. An opportunity came up with a much larger corporation, still in Singapore, still in software and IT services, but in a whole new industry. I used to know everything about mobile commerce, and now I have to learn everything from scratch about the capital markets industry. To help myself with that, I started watching all the trading-related movies ever made.
Again, I could have quantified this goal better. I read 6 books this year versus only 2 in 2013, but it is still very very little... I have 2 main issues: I fall asleep too fast (after 2 or 3 pages in general in the week time), and I read too slowly, but hey, english is still not my native language... My plans to tackle those issues: booked a e-learning class about "super learning and speed reading" on Udemy, and will strive to get to bed earlier.
Yes, goal achieved! I had always been interested but had never taken it to serious practice. This year, i have had a lot of pleasure meditating for 10 - 20 minutes a few times per week, usually first thing when I'm back from work. Plus, I have now discovered Headspace, and have been meditating pretty much everyday since I have tested it.
Failed at that one. Beside a little practice during my trips in Lombok and Bali, I did not improve much my vocabulary, grammar or oral understanding, despite having scheduled time in my agenda to sit down and learn at home. Not sure why, because I love learning foreign languages, the only thing I see is that I prefer the class environment...
Traveled roughly the same amount as last year, planning was either much better, or much worse.
Failed at that one miserably. Not a single hand written letter.
- Give a bit of volunteering time to a charitable organisation
Also failed at that one. Did not give time, although I increased my donation: UNICEF & made my first loans on Kiva.
Professional:
Also failed at that one. Did not give time, although I increased my donation: UNICEF & made my first loans on Kiva.
Not too bad all together but I can still largely improve! I believe I started the year well, but got sidetracked, as it happens to most people with their resolution.
Of course, many other things happen this year, some pretty cool achievements (although not so spectacular), and many little things not worth quoting, but that make everyday life what it is.
Other things that happened / My year in bullet points:
- Resigned from start-up and joined a large MNC
- Increased substantially my base salary with a much better potential for additional variable earnings.
- Blog
- Re-branded the obscure yet personal Vecteur de Lutece into TestsAndTastes.com
- Used a remote freelancer from Pakistan through Guru.com for the new logo.
- Reached 3,000 views per month
- Ran my first interview of an entrepreneur
- Conceptualized plenty of product and service ideas, starting a business plan for some of them, sometimes up to the creation of a mock-up... Among them:
- Juice, a take-away powerbank service for smartphone users
- ArtNow, a web platform for museums & galleries to provide an advance self-service art guide experience on mobile for its visitors.
- SaveMyDay, a home delivery service of comfort food, drinks, and more to rescue from the victims of hangover.
- Icone, a range of in-room cosmetic products packed in bottles replicating iconic hotel buildings.
- TruRate, a user-curated product review community evaluating brands and products' sustainability and health consciousness.
- DipInside, a snack-bar specialized in dips and sharing platters, healthy grubs and good times.
- Invest & Indulge, a bespoke travel service for c-suite and high net worth who want to enjoy France through an entirely customized program, beyond the obvious tourist spots, whilst taking the advantage of a bespoke business meetings and/or investor program to expand their business reach in the country.
- Mobil Pasar, a promotional B2B / B2C roadshow service for Indonesia, loaded in a double-decker bus featuring customised roadtrip, in-bus hospitality and meeting arrangement service.
- Took on the role of community & event manager role for Olympique Gaulois Singapore
Health & Fitness
- Played 20+ football match with the Gaulois, scored 5 goals in the league and stabilized position as midfielder
- Sprained my ankle playing football in January
- Torn my ligament playing football in November, and had to watch from the bench, the win of my team at the final of the Equatorial Football League, after an epic 4-3 win.
- Started meditating regularly (15 min /day)
Relationships, Social...
- Navigated through the storms with my girlfriend... 4 years now!
- Lost touch with a few good mates, out of decision, but also because I failed giving up news to others
- Attended a dozen of big parties throughout the year
- Organised 3 "Alumnight" for the Singapore-based alumni of ESCE Business School
Travels & Discoveries
- Returned to Lombok, Indonesia and climbed Gunung Rinjani (3,728m)
- Returned to Bali, Indonesia and showed my parents around.
- Returned to Bangkok, Thailand and discovered Koh
- Discovered Pulau Cubadak, Sumatra, Indonesia
- Tried Karting
Others
- Tracked my daily expenses with Toshl Finance, manage to save 15% of my earnings.
- Read 7 books (only)
- Ben Casnocha & Reid Hoffman - The Start-up of you (read my review)
- Joshua Foer - Moonwalking with Einstein (read my review)
- Didier Van Cauwelaert - Le dictionnaire de l'impossible
- Rene Barjavel - La Nuit des Temps
- Dany Glover - No more Mr Nice Guy
- Jacques Attali - Devenir Soi (in French)
- Mauborgne & Chan - Blue Ocean Strategy
2015 Objectives
1 - Stop Smoking - for real, totally
2 - Recover from injury for returning to football before year end
3 - Read 12 Books min. (1 per month)
4 - Write More (Morning Pages)
5 - Keep Testing New Things
#52NoveltiesChallenge
6 - Travel to at least 1 New country, and 3 New Destinations
7 - Focus learning only on
Bahasa Indonesia, Mandarin, Photoshop & Sketchup
8 - Write more opinionated, great quality content on this blog.
9 - Launch one lean startup
10 - Close a first Multimillion $ sale
(bonus) make awesome plans for 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment