Thursday, January 02, 2014

‡ More Resolutions for 2014 ‡

Are 25 resolutions not enough for 2014?

It's 2 January 2014 and, here I am again, to list down more resolutions for you to read. However these are not my resolutions; I wrote everything already yesterday.

I read this article from the same website where I quoted the 25 resolutions. Apparently they shared even more resolutions for this new year. Perhaps it can inspire you to have better resolutions -- especially for all of you who are in 20s (I'm still 22 anyway!).

Let me just do CTRL+C and CTRL+V first here and just quote what I like the most.




1. No more procrastinating. If something needs to be done, you do it then and there.

2. No more eating when you’re down. You’re just going to gain weight and make yourself feel even worse.

3. Get to bed earlier. Nothing great happens after 2 am.

4. Wake up earlier. You don’t need to see the sun come up, but if the birds are chirping then you should be working.

7. Give your liver a break and stop being a short step and stumble away from alcoholism.

10. Stop spending money on things that you don’t need.

12. Leave your comfort zone at least once a week — every week.

13. Travel more.

16. Give up commenting on topics you are clueless about.

17. When you don’t know the answer to things, ask.

18. Speak up and be heard. Being brilliant is useless unless others recognize it.

19. If you’re introverted, practice being a bit more outgoing and interactive.

20. If you’re extroverted, spend some more time alone, being contemplative.

21. Stop harassing others.

22. Stop allowing yourself to be harassed. Stand up for yourself — no one else will.

23. Resolve to get to know yourself better. You’re the most interesting person you’ll ever get to know.

25. Learn to think for yourself.

27. Understand that there is always a better, more efficient way to do something. Then figure out how.

28. Be more curious. Life may be an unsolvable puzzle, but it’s a puzzle nonetheless.

29. Start giving back to your community — you may need its help one day.

30. When someone does something nice for you, thank him or her genuinely.

31. Tell those you love that you love them; they won’t be around forever and then you’ll wish you’d have let them know when you had the chance.

32. Take that resolution that you have been “working on” for the last half-decade and actually get it done.

33. Give to those in need. One species, one family.

35. Allow yourself to fall in love. You have to want it to find it.

36. Conquer a fear. Then conquer another. Life is to be lived, not feared.

37. Learn to accept what you can’t change.

38. Find the courage to change what you can change.

39. Figure out what you actually want out of life. If you don’t know what is important to you then you don’t know yourself.

40. Find a passion and run with it.

41. Make mistakes. Then learn from them.

42. Learn from the mistakes of others.

43. Read more.

51. Stop texting when you’re having dinner.

52. Resolve to spend more time talking to people face-to-face.

53. If you get turned down then don’t dwell, move on.

54. Never live in the past — only in the present and near future.

55. If you forgive then forget.

57. Spend more time with those who matter and less time with those who don’t.

58. If you hate your job then quit your job. Don’t torture yourself for yet another year.

59. Attempt to do something that you don’t think you can do and then truly give it your all. You’ll be surprised with the results.

60. Be a better son or daughter.

61. Be a better brother or sister.

63. Appreciate the things that others do for you.

64. Make your appreciation known. Not being appreciated has the same result as not knowing you’re appreciated.

65. Wave and smile at strangers. You may just save their lives.

66. Don’t poke fun of those who are in a bad situation. They have enough weighing on their shoulders.

67. Give a helping hand whenever you are able to — not just when you are in the mood to.

68. Become more self-reliant; in the end it’s really you against the world.

69. Either practice what you preach or stop preaching. If you’re going to point a finger then point one at yourself first.

70. Start making more money. When there is a will, there is a way — a legal way.

71. Stay up-to-date on world news. The world keeps getting smaller and smaller and our voices keep getting louder and louder.

72. Resolve to take at least two week-long vacations. Aim for four.

73. Start every day excited and on full throttle. Being energetic in the morning often leads to being energetic throughout the day.

77. Don’t let people make decisions for you. It’s your life and you’re a grownup dammit.

78. Learn to take responsibility for your actions.

79. Learn something new: a language, an instrument, a sport…

80. Resolve to do what you believe to be right.

81. Promise yourself to keep an open mind and to weigh all the options carefully.

82. Read up or brush up on philosophy. It will change the way you perceive the world and your purpose in it.

83. Accept that there is no one reality, but a multitude of them—each person perceiving things just a little differently.

84. Don’t get worked up during arguments. They’re not worth the stress.

85. See things a bit more black and white. It’ll make making decisions a whole lot easier.

86. Practice self-control. You may not be able to control every aspect of your life, but you can control you.

91. Make those who are important in your life feel special. Give them the attention and love that they deserve and they will reciprocate.

94. Resolve to find more balance in your life. Extremes are a part of life, but without overall balance, we will fall off the deep end and drown.

95. Train your brain. It’s the greatest and most important tool in your arsenal. Learn to use it better.

96. Delay gratification. The wait itself is usually the best part.

98. Keep the promises you make and don’t make promises that you can’t keep.

99. No more making excuses for yourself. You are in control of your destiny; if you fail to make something out of yourself then you are the one that is failing — nobody else.

100. Stop taking life so seriously. It’s supposed to be fun. And besides, it’ll all be over before you know it.

Original and complete article: here


I personally like a lot of them but, yes, I have my favorite points.

No more procrastinating. I do this a lot. Most of the times actually. I always have excuses to procrastinate everything.

Stop spending money on things that you don't need. I have a problem with money management, I must admit.

Travel more. Anyone? I'd love to travel to places I never visit before. By myself,

Allow yourself to fall in love. For anyone who said that fall in love is easy, no, I'm not going to say it's wrong. However, falling in love needs courage and I'm not allowing myself to fall in love; simply because I know I lack the courage.

Conquer a fear. Refer to my own resolution.

Figure out what you actually want out of life. This continues to the next one.

Find a passion and run with it. My passion refers to my job (or my career) and it goes on to the next point.

If you hate your job then quit your job. Refer to my own resolution.

Make those who are important in your life feel special. This, everyone, is a really nice reminder. 2014 just started so let's make it special with special persons.

Keep the promises you make and don't make promises that you can't keep. Because, like what people said, a promise means everything but, once it is broken, sorry means nothing.

No more making excuses for yourself. I should stop procrastinating. Yes, I should.

Stop taking life so seriously. My four most random friends (refer to my previous post here) taught me this point in a smart way. I believe they didn't have any intention to do it but, yeah, I took it as a life lesson.


So is there anything that inspires you? ;)


Credit for the image(s) goes to the respective owner(s)

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

‡ First Day of 2014 ‡

How do you usually spend your New Year's Eve?



The first day of 2014 almost ends here (in less than an hour here, to be exact). Therefore why don't we just try to remember the previous moments for a while?

When I was still a kid, I remember sitting in a car with my parent's friend who brought their children as well, driving through the traffic jam of Jakarta, watching the fireworks on the night sky, passing the midnight with excitement.

As time went by, I managed to celebrate the change of year with my friends at Puncak for the first time during the last day of 2007 to first day of 2008. I stayed at my friend's villa (for your surprise, I was not really close to him; my classmate asked me to come along since she went there with her (ex)boyfriend).

I had another celebration of New Year with friends during 2010 to 2011. This time I was with some friends from HIMSISFO and we enjoyed barbeque, passing the year with food and watching fireworks. I remember that I returned to home with a junior who stayed in my room that night (it's around 2-3 AM on 1 January 2011).



From 2012 to 2013, I celebrated it with my college friends. It's another BBQ time and I returned to home at 1 AM. We exchanged a lot of stories since all of us had started to work on 2012.

Truth to be told, I was planning to spend the change of year from 2013 to 2014 at home. Well, I did it during 2011 to 2012. You know, watching something on television with my brother, having whatever we could to eat at midnight, made myself busy with greetings everywhere.

My friends from MPH group (do not even ask me what the acronym stands for) planned to have Shabu-Shabu time. Since I had to work that day (yes, on last day of 2013), I politely declined the invitation, knowing that it would be quite difficult for me to go here and there.

I changed my plan at noon, thinking of giving them a quick visit at Binus by dropping a box of J.Co as my apology for not spending the last day of 2013 with them. I did it in 15 minutes and, still sticking to my original plan, I was going to take a public transportation and go straight back to home sweet home.



One of my best friends, Jeanette, asked me to stay but, being the understanding friend she always does, she bid me farewell after taking some pictures together. Before I left, I managed to greet (early) happy new year to her, Very, and Okky.



Unfortunately, everything was screwed beautifully by four most random friends I have later on.

When the clock hit 6 PM on 31 December 2013, I was already in a car which driving to Sentul. How did I end up there?

I did plan to meet these guys to drop another box of J.Co. Without any concern, I accompanied Matthew (an ENTP who is a great companion yet loves to annoy me as much as he can) who invited the others to his sister's house at Sentul to celebrate the New Year (the others had not arrived yet).

I agreed to wait for Harmoko (the Vice President of HIMTI during 2010/2011; my arch-enemy but, strange enough, also one of the persons I respect the most) to arrive with Denny (HIMTI alumnus who I just befriended for real on 22 December 2013; I don't even remember if I ever introduced to him properly).

Jhonson (President of HIMTI during 2010/2011; definitely knows how to be good and evil at the same time) is also one of the pack. Once four of them gathered, I decided to leave and work with my plan. (Un)fortunately, they're not as understanding as Jeanette. They (partly) demanded me to go with them to Sentul.

Okay, that's absurd. I know. However they never care about how absurd everything can be. Or so I think.

Did I agree right away? No, people, no. I declined them as polite as possible... until the rain fell heavily.

I entered the car, telling them it's fine for me to wait until the rain stopped (because I didn't bring my umbrella) but, voila, (after I accidentally almost left a scar on the car next to us) the car door was locked. The engine started and, despite my whining and complaints, they didn't let me go easily, saying that what good it would be to spend New Year without doing anything special at all.

So, long short story, I called Jeanette to apologize that I didn't join them but let myself to be dragged by others. The quartet even laughed from their hearts upon knowing my mother gave me an okay right away when I asked for permission. I was secretly thinking that they just loved to see me speechless.

I was back at home at 6 AM this morning after having rice porridge for supper-to-breakfast time (BBQ was prepared for us and we had fun time with playing cards). I passed the moment of 11:59 PM (31 December 2013) to 12:00 AM (1 January 2014) with watching the fireworks with them.



That's how I celebrated my New Year this year.

Special thanks to Moko for the white chocolate; it let me survive for hours.
Bunch of thanks to Denny and Jhonson who managed to pursue me with the absurd plan (with all honesty, I don't regret it; though I still wonder why I could be there with you guys).
Million of thanks to Matthew for the (sudden) invitation (was I even invited at the first place?) and driving through hours of rain.

Anyhow my story of New Year had not ended yet. No, I continued for another activity this evening.

I was planning to work on my unfinished tasks until a message arrived from Valentcia. Let's have a dinner together, she stated. I gave an okay right away and then, on 5 PM, I was already in a car driving to PIK area.

We enjoyed playing card (and wondering why we had a little problem of counting cards from  1-100) while drinking tea before having dinner at Carnivor. I returned home at 10 PM and I told myself that I should write down what I had for today (remember one of my resolutions to keep a journal?).

I can't ask more than what I have for today.

I was 'kidnapped' to have great momentum of New Year. I laughed a lot at nighttime. Sure I had a lot of thoughts running in mind but, hey, that's life to live with. I just need to enjoy this life without regret, right?

Tomorrow is another (work)day so... how is your first day of 2014? ;)

Mine is the best I could ever ask for.



Credit for the firework image goes to the respective owner.

First of all, let me greet all of you who is reading this post.



Happy New Year 2014!
May all of you have a great, amazing, and blessed year all along the year.
Wish this year will be better than last year as well.


It's another new year and new year is quite identical with resolution.

If you read my post title, isn't it a little bit too much? 25 resolutions?


Well, it's not my resolutions actually. I read an article around 2-3 days ago and I found it's pretty nice. Therefore I want to share it here and, truth to be told, some of them are applicable for my resolutions.

Now... shall we?



25 New Year’s Resolutions Every Person Should Actually Make For 2014

New Year’s Eve is often seen as a time of rebirth, the chance to start anew. We all come up with the regular resolutions for the upcoming year (losing weight, seeing family more often and/or falling in love ), but often our ideas of what should change are too broad. This New Year’s Eve, we should all vow to take a closer look into our lives and make decisions about ourselves then. These are the 25 New Year’s resolutions every person should make:

1. Stop posting negative sh*t about celebrities on social media. Miley Cyrus does not care what you think about her haircut, Justin Bieber does not care what you think of his tattoos and Gwyneth Paltrow couldn’t care less regarding what you think about her diet.

2. Stop resenting yourself for drunk texting your ex.  Sure, its a little embarrassing, but at least you’re addressing your feelings. Not that you should aim to drink an entire bottle of rum then see what happens, but… roll with the punches.

3. Leave the country. If you don’t have money, look into doing charity work abroad. Some programs will sponsor you.

4. If you hate your job, quit your job. Repeat after me: THE MONEY IS NOT WORTH IT. Food and shelter are clutch though, so make sure you have another job lined up.

5. Stop beating yourself up for skipping the gym on days you truly didn’t have time. But also, stop skipping the gym on days you had plenty of time to go.

6. Make up — not to be confused with make out — with an ex.

7. Rid yourself of enemies. Apologize for what you did wrong and forgive those who have wronged you.

8. Rid yourself of “frenemies.” Don’t spend 2014 surrounded by people you secretly despise.

9. If you think somebody is cute, say “hi” and introduce yourself. Every relationship you have ever had started with a greeting.

10. Leave your phone number for someone. Worst-case scenario: you won’t get a call and maybe you’ll feel a tiny bit embarrassed. Regardless of the outcome, you put yourself out there and probably made the other person’s day.

11. Stop caring about how many people “like” your Instagram photos. If you like the photo enough to post it, what else matters? Social media anxiety is a waste of time.

12. Cross something off your bucket list. Sky dive, bungee jump, scuba dive, etc. Don’t make excuses as to why you can’t accomplish something, and check out.

13. Stop hating yourself for eating dessert. A piece of birthday cake is a right, not a privilege.

14. Keep a journal. It doesn’t have to be something you use daily, but documenting your experiences is incredibly important. You’ll appreciate it later.

15. Strengthen relationships with family members. Blood is thicker than water.

16. Help strangers. “Pay it forward,” do good things for the world — and don’t post a Facebook status about it.

17. Conquer a fear. Personally, I fear Bikram yoga.

18. Turn off your smartphone at dinner.

19. Don’t check your Twitter feed when you’re with friends.

20. Try a fashion trend you never thought you could pull off. And, do it with confidence. Floppy hats, snap backs, Harem pants; you can do it!

21. Double-text without fear. THOU SHALL NOT BE IGNORED!

22. Shop locally, eat locally and recognize where your money is going. Consumers control the economy, so visit the mom-and-pop coffee shop down the street instead of Starbucks. Shop at boutiques rather than chains (they aren’t all expensive — trust me). Try Etsy.com instead of retail conglomerates.

23. Cry. When you’re happy and when you’re sad; embrace your emotions as they come.

24. Stop being so shallow. Next time you find yourself judging someone based on his or her appearance, imagine the person standing in front of you saying, “I’m beautiful.” You’ll start to believe it.

25. If you want someone to commit to you, vocalize it. Don’t settle for being someone’s “f*ck buddy” if that isn’t what you want. “Together” is the waiting period between “talking” and “dating”; purgatory shouldn’t last forever.

Original article: here



I take 4, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 24.

4. If you hate your job, quit your job.
This, my friends, with all honesty that I have, will be my ultimate resolution of the year. *cross fingers*

7. Rid yourself of enemies.
I agree that everyone should have this as a new year's resolution. Every year. This world is already crazy enough with every little thing. Apologize for your mistakes and forgive someone else's will make this world a better place.

14. Keep a journal.
Thanks for Twitter, Path, Blogger, and all social medias where I'm active on. I update regularly so, yes, I do have digital journals here and there to remember my life journey. This is definitely one of my favorite resolutions.

15. Strengthen relationships with family members.
I'm not going to say that I have a perfect family with strong family bond because, no, I don't. However I will try my best to keep everything better as time goes by.

16. Help strangers.
The world needs more love and less hate. Helping friends is a must so why do we need to think too much to help strangers? I'd love to help strangers more this year because, yes, I love to see the smile on their faces whenever I give a little help (I'll talk about this on next post later on).

17. Conquer a fear.
My fear is not about doing something extreme or food or else. My fear is to be disliked by someone for being honest of myself. A friend told me that I should get rid of this habit, knowing that it's the best for us to live as ourselves.

24. Stop being so shallow.
I don't do this much actually but, yes, I do it sometimes. I realize that I should stop judging and all but, human is human, I have so much to learn to be a better person. This year I'll try even harder.


I'm done with mine. Let's see how I nail down them before 2015.

What about yours?

;)


Credit for the image(s) goes to the respective owner(s)