Happy New Year!

This year is full of possibilities especially viewing everything from the threshold like this, don't you think? Sure time is an illusion, December 31 ain't all that different from today, but one can't help but get swept in to the excitement of it all. Imagine, every one gets to have a fresh start (if only our debts get wiped clean every start of the year eh?) and we see all the milestones we can achieve this year! This, I supposed, is why new year's resolutions are very popular. We want to become better versions of ourselves each year. A re-invention of ourselves. And while we are unable to fulfill all of them, its always a good idea to at least try.

Writing them down helps us focus on what's important for us. With that said, it's always a good idea to write down achievable goals--not just mere fantasies like this year I will resolve to have the a body like Brad Pitt(or Angelina Jolie depending on your preference). And make sure that they're measurable, otherwise we are bound to fail or succeed without knowing we have succeeded. Oh, and it's also useful to write down your reason for wanting to achieve your goal, how you're going to do it and a date for when this should be achieved or at least when it should be reassessed.

I personally dislike new year's resolution though because I lack the discipline to see it through. I've made several resolutions of at different junctions of my life (not always new year) and I have yet to be successful in keeping them for longer than a few weeks. (It doesn't help that I've never made it measurable). This year however, I will have another crack at it. Hmm... A couple for now should do it, and if I'm successful, I'll add a couple more after the end of the first quarter.

1. I resolve to decrease my tardiness this year by at least 50%. I'm sure this will not be enough for my boss, but I steady does it. I reckon I've had about a 100 this year, so I will target less than 50. That's about 4 per month max. This is so I don't become a bad example to my interns and a bad testimony to my officemates. I will do this by sleeping earlier--no later than 12mn especially on Sundays--and propositioning my younger brother (who leaves at 6am) to wake me up before he go-go (yeah yeah, corny reference). Re-assessment of this goal is on April.
2. I resolve to lose 10% of my body weight by year end to improve my overall health and my charming good looks. Let's see, I'm about x lbs. right now, so when I write my year end summary of 2009, my weight will be .8(x) lbs., I will achieve this by decreasing my food intake (refusing 2nd helping 50% of the time gradually increasing it to 80% of the time) and increasing my physical activities (flag football anyone?). Reassessment is on April. I should've lost 5 lbs. by then, one month to lose my holiday gain and two months to lose another 5 lbs.

Note to other weight watchers out there, 1 to 2lbs per week is sensible, any more than that is not only dangerous, but probably unattainable as well.

PS I'd like to thank JC and KM for participating in my little Christmas contest. KM, today's considered World Day of Peace--not that I have anything to do with it, does that count? And JC, since you didn't make a wish, you just won for yourself one of these. Hopefully it's an update to the one you have, if not, at least it's a neater version. Merry Christmas!