resolutions - part one.

Alhamdullilah, we've reached another end of the year. Alhamdullilah, we've all made it thus far in our lives. Alhamdullilah, is what we should learn to say more often and that comes top in my NEW YEAR RESOLUTION.

#01: Be grateful more often. Say Alhamdullilah.

Things i should be grateful of in 2011:
1. The plenty amount of money I had while I was working.
2. The courage I plucked to submit that letter of resignation to MOE.
3. The screw removal surgery I had to brace for which put me out of training for a week. But it was worth the pain because my knee never felt better.
4. The 3 Bronze medals that I won for the Asia Cup and SEARF Rowing Championships which qualified me for the SEA Games.
5. Passing my driving test after failing it once because I took forever to perform a vertical parking which made me an immediate failure.
6. Having had the means to pay for my own driving lessons.
7. Being able to still stay in my house even though Im supposed to be a working adult and supposedly contributing to the household but obviously I wasnt and am still not.
8. Having a mum who doesnt support me in rowing but still allows me to train every single morning which meant she sees more of her kindergarten kids than her own daughter.
9. Being able to survive financially despite only working as a part-time coach and personal trainer for 8 months.
10. Survived a wisdom teeth surgery where 4 of my teeth were plucked out at once, which also meants survivng my second General Anaesthesia of the year.
11. Recovering miraculously rapidly despite being awfully sick days before the finals for the SEA Games, which brought me to thing to be grateful #12:
12. Bringing home 2 Bronze medals from Jakarta knowing that all the effort Ive put for my sport had been well spent.
13. Having spent a year and 2 months (coming this Jan 4) with my bf who has been the most awesome, most supportive and really really really (finding the perfect word to insert here), someone i will always ask myself, "MasyaAllah, what will I do without him?" Amazing? Incredible? I cant find a word that fits him perfectly but I do know that his presence in my life has made a huge difference to who i am, what i do and where i'll be in the next few years. and no matter how hard i am to handle, he has never left my side. and i pray that he will never leave my side, insyaAllah.
And if 13 had a part b, Im forever grateful that his family is very accepting and welcoming to me being part of them. Alhamdullilah.

And that, being the last in my list doesnt mean he is the least of grateful things im grateful for, would nicely wrap up my list.

And of course there are a thousand other things I should be grateful of such as Singapore being far from any natural disaster, Alhamdullilah. Looking at the flash floods that hit Thailand and the occurences of tsunamis and earthquakes in japan and new zealand, I can never be more than grateful to be living here, although its definitely an expensive city to live in. But for now, lets keep it at 12 things.

#02: Be more organized and stop procrastinating, for goodness sake.

iPad has made my life more organized in a way. not a really huge difference but when it comes to logging in training programmes and keeping track of my clients and the schools that i was coaching, it has played a very important role in taking over the lives of the pen and paper. and yes, i think it has made me more organized to a small extent but change is good. yeah?

but when you look at my room, its not really a disaster. neither is it anywhere close to an IKEA showroom lookalike. i'd call it an organized mess. things are in order, but not in order-kind of thing. you know? and i have these IKEA items i bought ages ago waiting to be drilled onto the walls but instead have been sitting there pretty in the corner of my room collecting immense amounts of dust mites.

so this new year, i want to be more organized and stop procrastinating. ive read somewhere recently that having a daily, "TODAY I WILL ______________" list on my wall with only ONE thing to accomplish per day will help. theres no harm trying!

and yes, i attended a Sports Psychology workshop recently and they sort of taught us how to create Goals and one of the ways to jot down goals and how to get there is to be SPECIFIC (there were others such as MEASURABLE goals, REALISTIC goals, etc. but lets stick to SPECIFIC for now). i know you'll go, "WE ALL KNEW THAT ALREADY." yes, i learnt this back in secondary school days but sometimes it feels good to be reminded of what we learnt before and now, being more mature, older and hopefully wiser, actually do some goal-setting and making them do wonders. thus, my resolutions now arent simply: be more organized. they have to be more like: have a daily list of ONE THING to do and make it happen!
TADA.
i feel smarter already.
and more accomplished.
and im only at #02.

#03: to love my job as much as i love rowing

THIS HAS TO BE #13 THING I AM GRATEFUL FOR:
getting a job, finally. Alhamdullilah.
2 rounds of interviews. 3 candidates. and I emerged as the winner.
honestly, as much confident as i thought i was, i had this little voice inside of me telling me that i should continue hunting for another job while waiting for the results, JUST IN CASE i didnt get this job, and so i did. it was the scariest interviews EVER because clearly i was disadvantaged considering the amount of experience i hardly have as a working adult and my age and the fact that im considered a fresh graduate and the post actually requires someone with plenty of exp (and age) up their sleeves! and the questions i was asked during the interviews were not in the list of common questions asked when i tried to google them.
GASP.
anyways,
it was one of the BEST PHONECALLS IVE EVER RECEIVED IN MY LIFE.
its not really something id call a dream job. but its one of the little steps im planning to take to achieve my career goals (omg this sports psychology workshop has really gotten into my head, hasnt it?)
but really, maybe its not time for me to reveal what the job is yet and it wont make people go OMG YOU GOT THE JOB AS A _________ but im excited as it is because:
1. i'll be earning, Alhamdullilah
2. it has something to do with sports and working with youths.
3. i have a free shuttle bus from woodlands to my workplace and its down the road to my training centre and my bf.

okay, and back to my resolution #03, it sounds like an exciting job and i will learn to love it like how i love rowing. because i cant stand doing what i dont love. so its love it or leave it, and i hope its the latter. i really dont know whats in store for me but whatever it is, insyaAllah it'll be awesome. so i know its hard to love something else besides rowing but i have to share my love sometimes. right?

and since im in the topic of career and goals. what is my ultimate goal in life, really? one thing for sure is that i want to be an Olympian. but thats not a career. not like Spartans. when King Leonadis asked them whats their profession, they go HOOHOO! which meant they are Spartans. Doesnt apply to being an Olympian tho. so, i was thinking about it and what i really want in life and not ashamed to tell the world about it because you shouldnt be ashamed of dreaming big, is to be able to set up my own gym with my own fitness classes and own like my own boathouse under my very own boat club, and have a fleet of trainers and coaches under me. my ultimate goal is to make sure people love sports and fitness and banish the fat people in the world! muahahahahaha.

to be continued...