New Year’s Resolutions

Every new year you hear people making a list of their new years resolutions. It may be going to the gym, or eating healthy, or maybe saving up money, or doing good at work to get promoted. 

To be honest, I haven’t done any New Years resolutions for my self ever. This is for the sole reason than I’m not going to follow it anyway. But if you want something to be changed in your life you have to do something. By the definition of the word “Resolution” - It’s a firm decision to do or not to do something. 

I just wanted to share to you the resolutions I made for this year. 

1. To keep on chasing my passion - I always knew that I am passionate about teaching. I always thought that teaching can only be done in schools, but I can also apply my passion in teaching with my colleagues at work or my friends or by blogging. 

2. Exercising - this is probably one of the most difficult thing to do. I need to spend 30 minutes to and hour of walking in the first quarter of the year, go back to the gym, or do boxing again. Aside from its health benefits, exercising produces happy hormones, which help us avoid sadness or even depression. Based on an article I read, research found that exercising helps us improve our capacity to focus. To add, walking enforces our brain to think creatively, yes this is true indeed, I often get my ideas during my walking time 

3. Read more books - I am not really a fan of reading. But last year I read about 3 books. These books helped to get back into my feet. The first book I read was “Grit to Great” by Jonathan Yabut- this book helped me how I can work smarter and how can I increase my “Grit” at work. I also read a book about prayers by St. Augustine, this book helped me to hold on to my faith amid of the challenges I was facing. I also read a book by Father Sequia about exorcism and discernment. I read this book not because of I am curious about supernatural phenomenon, this book helped me to understand God’s purpose with all the challenges he is giving us. Right now I am reading Mark Manson‘s “Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck” I am half way of finishing the book but it made a lot of impact in my life. I will post another blog entry after I finished the book.

4. Schedules and Timelines - The other day, I was whining about having only 24 hours a day, because I have so many things to do and it is not enough. Since I cannot do anything about increasing the time to 36 hours a day, I should utilize my time properly by planning my day, and my calendar so I will not missed out anything. I should put time to accomplish all my work, to exercise and to read books.

5. Planning and sticking to it - I am poor in planning, I don’t plan at all. Probably that’s the reason why I struggled with my finances and career or in some aspects of my life. One thing I’ve learned about project management is to list down all the things you need to do to execute your project, putting deadlines to every tasks and incase you are not able to achieve it, you should put reasons and action plans to make up to it. It’s like a navigator to help you achieve your goals. In order to achieve this, I should make it a routine schedule to check the status of my plans (including this resolution list) 

6. Never stop learning - I realized that I spent a lot of my free time doing either sleeping or Facebook. They are unnecessary distractions that eats up my time. This year, I want to spend more time learning about how can I be successful so I can help others. I’ve started to cook and I want to learn new recipes. 

7. The 5:30 routine - I am not a morning person, and it is a struggle for me to wake up early, but based on an article I read, people who wake up early are more productive that who rise up late. I want to utilize my 5:30 AM to 6:00 AM for meditation, exercise and planning my day. Most of successful people does this (ex: Manny Paquiao runs as early as 5:00 AM, also Richard Branson uses this hour for surfing, kite flying or exercising)

8. To give back - To consistently pledge an amount to my church by tithing, it is true that when I tithe, I always have enough money for all my needs. I also pray in return for my family’s good health and long life. It is written in the scriptures. Testing God in the tithe (Mal. 3:10–12) Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need”

9. Law of budgeting - This is to plan out where I should allocate my money, from bills, savings, everyday needs etc. To stick to it and never spend more than my means

10. Savings - aside from the usual savings amount I should put in my bank on a monthly basis, I challenge myself to add more, like saving 20 pesos a day on the first month and 30 pesos a day on the second month and increases every month. With this I expect to have around 50,000 - 60,000 by the end of the year.

11. Eat healthy - yes this is difficult to do, but this time i have to eat more healthy like vegetables and fruits and have to stop eating at fast foods

By failing to plan means preparing to fail. These resolutions are like the list of my my plans that will help me achieve my goals. Good planning without good working is useless. Journey with me this year to achieve my plans