How are your new year resolutions coming along?

It's now the second month of 2013, and a timely checkpoint on how our new year resolutions are panning out.

For me, I think I've been consistent with what I've set out to do so far.

1) Get my driving license

I signed myself up for driving lessons again and have been making good progress, partially thanks to understanding instructors from the driving school who try to clear as much as possible for each lesson upon knowing that I was a student with the school before. I'm now waiting to book my practical test and really hope I'll do well this time. Fingers crossed!

2) Join the O School Recital

No updates for this as the auditions and trainings for the recital only start in the second half of the year.

3) Read more, 2 books a months

Have been sticking to this too. The first two books I read this year were The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom, and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire. I might as well do a short review on them too.

The Timekeeper

I liked how the story was written quite simply, as if you're reading a script for a play. I always thought it would be difficult to describe or write about something so intangible such as time, even more so as we experience 'time' every moment of our lives. Therefore, I loved how the author brought a fresh perspective to such an abstract and everyday concept - he essentially gave life to something that we in reality, find so simple and universal.

In particular, I liked how the process of Dor's discovery of time, and the development of time measurement was described. It gets better when we find out how Dor controls time, and uses it at the climax of the story - where he, Sarah's and Victor's lived get entwined. The interjection of fantasy with everyday reality makes this a refreshing and creative novel.

Beautiful Disaster

A typical story of good girl meets bad playboy and he falls madly in love with her and she changes his life forever. This story started off with a splendid portrayal of how both were hopelessly attracted to each other, but were trying in vain to stay away from each other. It gets rosy when the female protagonist finally submits to her desire and emotions - but only to leave him the very next day. It is revealed that she was deeply unsure and apprehensive about their relationship due to her emotional baggage from a broken family. However, to me, it seemed like she was merely being indecisive, leading to a series of dramatic break ups and getting back together in the later part of the novel. I found this extremely annoying.

In addition, the book reeks too much of idealism. Yes, some of that is good in a tale of romance, but this was just overboard. For example, Travis reverts to his violent behavior whenever he is heartbroken, or does not hesitate to punch the daylights of out men who try to get funny with Abby. Personally, I wouldn't accept someone who uses physical violence to seek comfort or scare people away as you never know if he could one day use it on you too. The conservative side of me also shakes a disdainful at how quickly they got married too. Seemed like a lifetime decision made on flitting teenage love to me.

I'm not sure why this was one of the bestsellers when I visited Times. I would advise interested readers not to expect too much from this book.

My next read will be The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling. It's another best seller and I'm looking forward to find out if she still delivers as well as her Harry Potter series.

Actually, maybe I'll read the hotly debated Population White Paper first. ;)

4) Gym at least once every two weeks

I've actually managed to hit the gym once a week! I'm proud of my progress so far..

Ta-dah!

I'm not insanely fit - I can't do 5-minute planks nor run a marathon, but the progress I see is encouraging. *beams happily*

It feels good to be working out, knowing that I will definitely see some progress every time I exercise, be it in terms of physical fitness or energy level. Exercising does improve one's psychological well-being indeed, as you take your mind off a day's or week's work and refresh yourself with a good night's sleep for the next day.

Regular exercise also on the overall, result in a long list of health benefits.


Enough about me. Now, how are your new year resolutions coming along? :)

New Year Resolutions

New Year's Day is a few weeks over but it's never too late to make one's resolutions, yes?

I would use to make overly-ambitious resolutions such as, learning 4 new dance genres for the year or eating healthily. Needless to say, they never came to pass. In my mind, to learn and master a new dance genre takes A LOT of time, practice and money to go for dance classes, a commitment which I couldn't fully afford. As for eating healthily, my expectation was having fruits and vegetables in my diet everyday and I don't fervently note what I eat for every meal.

I guess the approach should be to set realistic and clearly defined expectations for our resolutions. By realistic I mean for example, learning 1 new dance genre for the year. Definitely far more possible than learning 4. To clearly define would be to tell myself, I will have fruits at least 3 times a week and a salad at least once a week, instead of leaving definition "eating healthily" open-ended. By doing so, I would be able to gauge how I was doing, and setting a realistic goal is motivating as you know you have a good chance of achieving it.

So what are my resolutions for 2013? Like I've said, I want them to be rational. I've divided them into 'major' and 'minor' goals.

Major goals

1) Get my driving license. However long the process may be, it's undeniably a very useful skill to have. The cost of driving lessons have increased significantly since I last failed my first test in 2011. I have to get that license ASAP before they become any more expensive.

2) Join the O School Recital. I've always wanted to do this, but back in school, it would always clash with my exams. When it was finally scheduled on a non-exam period, I had started working and thought I couldn't commit the time and effort. Nevertheless, I want to have this experience at least once.

Minor goals

1) Read more, 2 books a month. This was inspired by Thought Catalog's 6 New Year's Resolutions That Are Worth Keeping. I do agree that reading is brain food.

2) Gym at least once every 2 weeks. I do need to condition my body more to dance better.

So this is how I made my resolutions - whether I meet them or not will be a clear 'yes' or 'no'.

I also want to find myself and find my dance self. I'm not making these two official because I still don't know how to define how to get there. It's somewhat like discovering what you love to do or what you're really good at, and developing it, especially as a career (because would we want to spend the rest of our working lives doing something that we're not passionate about?). It's something intangible and deep, but I think many people my age want or need to do this. Dance-wise, let's just say I'm experiencing Diminishing Marginal Returns to dance, and I need a breakthrough in this area too.

What are your new year resolutions? :)