Daily Lessons from Life 31 December 2013 - Farewell 2013 and Welcome 2014

Last day of 2013 is a time for me to take stock of how have I done on my 2013 Resolutions and Set the 2014 Resolutions. It used to be a time for partying and doing the 'count-down' thingy. Maybe it is no longer required. A year comes, a year goes. No big deal. The things that MATTERED are What have you DONE about the Resolutions just past!

1. Life Long Pursuit always: - at personal level, to be a good father, husband, son, friend and human being; - at work level, to be a professional; practising the 7e Way of leaders;

Status: A 'C' for being a father, husband and son. Maybe a 'B' for being a friend and human being!

2. To continue the holistic healthy lifestyle of 'eating right and exercising regularly' so as to keep the weight at 73-75kg and off HBP medication;

Status: A 'B' for keeping to the regular exercises bit but not quite there on 'eating right'! I am off the chart for the weight target of 73-85kg! I ended the year at 79.6kg! The heaviest since Jan 2008!!

3. To continue to find ways to promote the 7e Way of Leaders, to generate revenue from at least 3 sources, and to get article published in established publications;

Status: an 'A' is in order as I got to share the '7e Way of Leaders' with 2 organizations in Shanghai and generated income from BMC, Ken Blanchard and Tricor. The part about getting article published in established publications is a 'Failed'. I did not even try!! Shame on me!

4. To continue to contribute as Volunteer Probation Officer (VPO) with the Probation Services Branch and as Senior Health Ambassador (SHA) for Health Promotion Board (HPB);

Status: A 'B' on both volunteer opportunities as I covered as many assignments as possible and MORE. Added tutoring at Handicapped Welfare Association for 4 LCCI Accounting examination and delivering a 2-hour talk on 'Effective Project Management' to a group of young social enterprise beginners for a young professional who runs a non-profit and for-profit organizations!

5. To invest wiser and trade wisely to profit from a very challenging 2013;

Status: A 'B' as I have made Realised Gain though still posting a > 50% Unrealised Loss!

6. To complete the 2013 SCMS on 01 December 2013 under 6hrs and raise at least S$5.6k for Singapore Cancer Society!;

Status: A 'C' as I came in at 6hrs and 16mins though I raised S$9,780 for Singapore Cancer Society.

7. To always has space for the Unexpected.

Status: A 'B' as there were some new assignments that cropped up which I have to deal with using my own imagination and judgement.

For 2014, I will be using very much similar set of Resolutions as they are fairly universal and worthy of trying!

To log off, a few BIG thoughts on:

1. Singapore - The violent Riot in Little India - shocking. Can be dangerous, especially if we simply categorised it as: 'an isolated case'. Forget about the haze, the MRT breakdown, the PE By-election losses by PAP, etc;

2. PRC - The anti-corruption moves by President Xi MUST succeed as CCP is rotten to the core with the ordinary people's disgust and anger at a dangerous high. There is really no return. Forget about the Bo Xilai and his wife's sensational murder trials, the SMOG of its many mega cities like Beijing and Shanghai, etc;

3. Japan - The 'I must restore the honor of my family from WWII' burdened PM Abe's push to the right and bring East Asia, and the world, into war MUST be stopped. The risk is simply too high as the Chinese and South Korean do not trust the Japanese who never did apologize for the WWII atrocities committed!;

4. USA - the biggest debtor of the world who has the unique ability to BORROW it's way out of DEBTS is supposedly on the recovery now. Will it be able to reign in their Bankers (aka Gamblers) and Wall Street firms (aka Mafia?)? Will capitalism as we know it change? Nah! It will be business as usual;

5. Russia - tough guy Putin had a change of heart by releasing that jailed ex-oil tycoon recently followed by some suicide bombers before the soon to be opened Sochi Winter Olympic Game means Putin will have another CHANGE OF HEART soon! It will be TOUGH GUY again. No more softening!!

Welcome 2014 ...