Weeks before 2008 dawns, the extreme planner in me tries to make a wish list of my resolutions for the New Year. And it just doesn't end. Albeit such TODOs can be stressful , but they have always helped me accomplish at least something instead of nothing at all. I recently stumbled upon Zen Habits blog and it is a good piece of advice for all of us who really like to dream big but fall short when it comes to actions. The real problem is when there are too many things on the wishlist, achieving any one , atleast one of those items too can get daunting. I have always been of the kind where I wish like doing all things at the same time, which is definitely not pragmatic [:D] .
So amongst the copious wishes, I try to make some [loose] priorities as such -
1. Write blogs on a regular basis.
2. Learn the Web2.0 drama and all that gets encompassed within its umbrella - Web design, Ajax, Social networking, Search Engine Optimization, AdSenses et al.
3. Be in sync with health,nutrition, food and lifestyle. Exercise atleast 3-4 times a week.
4. "Create" ample time to be able to focus on my passion - reading.
5. Tinker a little bit with my new obsession - Travel & Tourism Industry Trends Research
As 2007 comes to an end, I am more than just happy and content. It has been a very great year for me, quite eventful and quite productive - both personal and professional.
It was a year of parent visits - my in-laws visiting sometime between April and June and my dad visiting sometime later during the year, it was a year of travel and a year of some good goals.
A year of lotsa travel !!
Tapan and I decided to make the most of our vacations by traveling to quite a lot of places this year.
It started off with a trip to Sanibel-Captiva Islands just off the west coast of Florida, in January 2007.
In March 2007 , we visited California (San Francisco, Monterrey, Big Sur, Lake Tahoe and Sacramento).
In May 2007, we looped around the Grand Circle (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon - North and South Rims, Zion National Park, Bryce National Park).
In September 2007, we visited Atlanta and the Smoky Mountain National Park and in October 2007 it was a trip to New Jersey and New York.
Of course there were a couple of trips to Orlando's theme parks - SeaWorld, Epcot and Magic Kingdom.
A year of goals !!
Learning to swim was a major highlight for me this year especially so when it took more than 2 weeks for me to shed off my fear of water. It was a very determined effort although it would be frustrating at times, but it gave me a sense of accomplishing something above all fears and inhibitions.
Professionally it has been very very fulfilling and that kind of calmed the restless soul in me. I switched jobs in March and since then it has been no looking back. I love my job (it took almost 3 years and 3 job switches to find this one) and I look forward to achieving even more than I think I can with it.
And finally the most easy to do, but most difficult to achieve results ! It's none other than shedding off your pounds ! After a lot of persuasion by Tapan, I was finally convinced to exercise regularly and maintain a good fitness level. That included frequent jogging for a mile, Pranayaam, and of course working out at the gym pretty regularly. Albeit slow, the results were somewhat comforting - I lost about 5-6 pounds from September through December.
Finally we started to blog. I had been wanting to do this since quite some time, but never had the "Do it now" attitude to get it started. I now hope to be regular at blogging and grow it into a professional venture for 2008.
And there were quite many small goals too, but the above qualified to be the best of all.
A year of some good books !!
During the start of 2007, I happened to be a part of a book club. However that fizzled out during summer - [:(]. Some good books that I read during 2007 were Serving Crazy with Curry (author: Amulya Malladi), Memoirs of a Geisha (author: Arthur Golden), The Indians, This I Believe (Dan Gediman), The Secret (Rhonda Byrne) and The World is Flat (Thomas Friedman).
Definitely a rich 2007 [:)] With this I look forward to a great and richer New Year with new dreams, aspirations, books, goals and much more !!!!
