Reflections for the year 2014 is very late, in fact, almost 1 1/2 months late. Spending New Year in Europe, followed by trying to adapt to a new job had me postponing this post till now.
The start of the 2014 had me making some mistakes in my job, which contributed to not getting the promotion. It was depressing actually, but I was glad I managed to put that behind me. The rest of the year career wise was pretty smooth sailing. In fact, I was doing a pretty good job managing the new projects that came my way subsequently, and managed to reduce the huge number of escalations previously from that account to zero. As mentioned in my reflections for 2013, I was always looking out for new opportunities, and this came sometime towards the last quarter of the year. It was to an environment that I had always wanted to work in, and with a nice increase in salary too. It is a big organisation, and with such size, it will definitely comes with its own set of challenges. I was sad to leave actually, especially since I had a good boss, and I was doing pretty well with the projects on hand, but there is no way I could reject the increase in salary. For 2015, I just want to perform well in my new job, considering the fact that it is a totally different ball game altogether, an environment that I was never in throughout my career.
On a personal note, I have continued with my exercise regime, and I really enjoyed it. The races that I ran in 2014 are the Sundown Marathon Half Marathon, which I will never do it again since I did not enjoy it at all, the SIA Charity Run 10k, which I enjoyed a lot and managed to get a PB for 10k, the SAFRA Half Marathon, which was not too bad, and the revenge run SCB Singapore Marathon 21k where I definitely performed than the disastrous one in 2013, but still not up to own expectations. I mentioned last year that I want to do a full marathon in 2015, and hopefully this is something that I can achieve. Also, I am seriously considering an overseas race. After that, perhaps it is time to move to triathlons.
I went on numerous work trips to Malaysia and Indonesia, even manage to go for a training trip to Melbourne. For personal trips, I manage to visit Bali where I witnessed one of the best sunset ever, Taipei where I eat, and eat, and eat some more, Germany where I drove a left hand drive van along the Autobahn at 180km/h and experienced many Christmas markets, Denmark where I spent the New Year and was amazed at how much the Danes love firework, and Sweden, catching 2 nights of Northern Lights in Kiruna, Northern Sweden, thrown off a dog sled three times, staying in the famous Ice Hotel, sharing a train cabin overnight with 4 other strangers while it cuts through a snow covered landscape, and discovering the delicious Senapssill or pickled herring. It was definitely a very fulfilling year when it comes to travelling. I hope to continue to do the same in 2015.
Financially, things improved in 2014, there was increase in liquidity, and only one case of investment losing money. I am treating this as a lesson learnt. I wanted to increase my savings by 25% in 2014, which was not achieved, though it was close. I will try to save even more for 2015, but with the expected increase in expenses due to the new car, this will be challenging. But I will try.
I have also started contributing back to the society in little small ways, and I want to continue this in 2015. I have almost stopped reading altogether in 2014, and this needs to be kick started again in 2015. As for the last resolution, I want to ‘de-clutter’, simplify, and learn to find happiness in the smallest of things.
2014 was not a bad year, one of the better year I had in recent memory. As I prepare to embark on another stage in my life in 2015, I shall learn to enjoy the little good things, forget about the unhappy and bad ones, and hope for an even better year.
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