January - Week 1

I told myself this year would be different, like every other previous year.

However 2020 was, people are more optimistic about 2021. So am I.

I keep reminding myself that I've seen more acts of kindness, to focus on the good people have done and are doing every day despite all the bad news online, all the disasters around the world.

As much as I want to be optimistic though, I still am realistic and have some negative or anxious thoughts cross my mind. So I want to note down here something my boss told me - you can't be too realistic that you forget to see the rays.

For 2021,

I decided to delve into books - a long-lost habit since I've been reading too much about work that I forgot to enjoy reading for leisure. I'm challenging myself to read for 21 minutes every day this year (21 for '21 project ideas I've gotten from an author I'm reading these days - Gretchen Rubin.)

Last December, I started doing Pilates. My trainer kind of wants to intensify the workouts now for me to show better results. (The goal was to focus on strength first, weight loss would come after.)

I'm still learning from free courses online and some other courses that I bought on sale last Black Friday from Udemy.com.

It's like I decided to change or better yet, rather than plan more, I decided to just do more. I've always set plans, set goals, set deadlines, made schedules - all to no avail. A relevant takeaway I got from a Time Management course was Get into the habit of just getting started, based on the law stating that objects in motion tend to stay in motion. (I wish it were that easy.)

This is why I'm typing here now. I'm taking a course on Journaling for Personal Development and it seems like I won't ever get the time to sit and write using paper and pen (my preference) since I'm usually working on my laptop. So I'm doing it here, now.

One goal I will have to set aside for the time being will be improving my fluency on the Vietnamese language. And reviewing my knowledge of Greek and Korean. My retirement dream is to be travelling and learning languages whatever that age may be. For now, I can speak 5 languages but you know what they say, a jack of all trades but a master of none. So for now, I simply want to focus on Vietnamese since it is one of the languages I'm exposed to almost every day.

Wait a minute, how about your work S?

As an educator, it is impossible to leave work at school. Every teacher knows that. But I try my best to set aside one day of the weekend for all the work needed to stay ahead and do more during my free time in school (the periods that I ain't teaching.) It is still a struggle for me though - in 2020, work has taken up most of my free time. (That is why I took a course on Time Management.)

I do think that I will need to be strict with revisiting my plans and reflecting on them.

Still, every weekend, my top priority is to call family and friends and hang out with friends if we have some common time available. 

As you can see, I have just written down my trail of thought here and I'm not reorganizing it for this was my goal. To dump all thoughts in here and sort out plans, ideas, and goals from this post.

However, I would like to explain why I renamed this blog sbtheoceanproject.

My one-word theme for this year: Ocean.

From the book of Lama Thubten Yeshe,

"When your mind is narrow, small things agitate you easily. Make your mind an ocean."

 

(Picture taken in Da Nang, VN - December 29,2020)