2008 - a 16 day late post

long time since i posted anything, think since the birth of this blog space. today was the first day of school. somehow made me think a lot and also fine-tuned some of my resolutions for 2008. lemme share my new year goals/objectives/resolutions/whatever-else-you-call-it.

the CRESH framework seems like a good way to plan for myself in this already started year. so i decided to plan according to it.

C aka Career/Studies. i prefer to call it C for CAP, since thats like the most important tangible thing we need/get from university. reflecting back a bit, i set the goal of attending every lesson 2 sems back, and failed miserably as expected and set the goal of attempting at least every other tutorial last sem, since setting the goal of attending every lesson is like mission impossible, similar to how running weekly is impossible too. Thus for this sem, to deal with the issue of consistent work throughout the sem, i set for myself to attend 90% of ALL lessons, be it lectures or tutorials (labs are take-home and do at your sleep-time for SOC), and attempt every single tutorial for my core modules, and attempt at least every OTHER tutorial for my non-core mods aka EC1301 n PH1101E. :P another thing i want to set out and do for this semester would be to do up "helpsheets" or summaries for each module as well, which helps in extracting the main points of each chapter and might me to know what im studying better too.

Goal of this sem. 4.0+ (aka at least B+ average) for this sem alone. and 3.5+ CAP score.

R for Relationships. there are many aspects in relationships. and i haven had any real breakthrough in this area for quite some time. firstly would be for family ba. what i would strive to do is to spend more time with my mum and my sis since they are living alone. i also pray for myself to be more willingness in my attitude to do things for them or spend time with them. in terms of r/s with fellow brothers n sisters. i pray for a when dealing with everyone to allow for deeper and more meaningful relationships to be nurtured. also, may God helps to strengthen relationships with certain ppl as we all continue to serve Him. another aspect would be my r/s with my shepherd aka bowen. looking back at the past sem, i would say that the friendship has indeed grown, but i believe God wants more than just friendship in such a r/s. may God help me to grow in my more patient and accepting heartwillingness to be more open n vulnerable to share lives to him.

E for Economics. first thing that came to mind is finances. well it was off to a bad start this year though. for the month of january i'm left with like 20-30 bucks. thinking back about 2007, i spent like almost every single cent of my allowance, and justifying it with the excuse of needing to pay for car expenses and stuff. deep down i know those are just excuses, and at the very minimum i would stil be able to save at least 200-300 for the entire year. certainly a very bad steward of money. my goal for this year would be to save $1000 bucks. that would be like around 20% of my allowance for the whole year. what to do with this money, i shall decide at the end of the year, be it to go for overseas holiday, buy a new computer/ps3, or even just throw it into my savings acct for future use. i pray for God to assist and guide me in my management of money in this year. if i can't even manage my meagre allowance properly and wisely now, how am i going to manage my 4 or even 5 figure pay in future next time? :P another aspects of economics would be my time management. with 2 free days this sem and 6 modules, as well as first hand experience from a tiring wednesday today (even though w/o tutorials), i can safely assume that time management would be a crucial factor to determine my health as well as my academic performance for the next 4-5 months. one thing i want to do would be to force myself to sleep at latest 1am every day.

S for Spiritual. most tangible, i want to finish reading the Old Testament. more than half-way there now. but need to discipline myself to really go in-depth and not lose focus on trying to extract God's truth in the Word instead of just reading through. I pray for eagerness in this aspect and to focus really to understand instead of the goal of finish the bible once. On a more personal note, i pray for God to reveal to me in His timing direction and guidance in certain aspects of my life that i've been praying for. one such aspect would be simply what He wants me to do in this year for Him. even for the upcoming 3 month holidays, im praying for Him to show me what would be better for me, be it going for an internship, or just simply avail myself fully again for e annual matriculation season. (internship need to apply early one, so need to start asking Him for ans alr :P not ganjiong spider haha) Also, one thing i really want this year would be to have a deeper intimacy with God, and to experience Him more real than ever before in my life. wanna finish reading the books "Experiencing God", "Every Man, God's Man" and "Boy Meet Girl" too. as i shared during CG at parkway, i want to really grow in my M&Ms and put into practise the verse from 2 Tim 4:2 - Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. why so? i realised how inadequate i've been in sharing my faith as well as explaining/answering questions about my faith, and thats simply not the way things should be.

H for Health. as i said earlier, aiming to run weekly is close to if not totally impossible heh. let me start from a more realistic goal. gym/run/bball every week. so far for the first 3 weeks of this year, i managed to do it. may God provides me with the determination and strength to continue on this workout journey. An end goal would be to lose some weight in this year. hopefully to the extend where i look like what i am when i finish BMT. that would be good lol. it will makes my life easier too when i go back for reservist. haha. Also to at least pass my IPPT and aim for silver timing in my 2.4km run.

super wudi long post of mine. haha. as we commit our resolutions/goals/objectives/watever for 2008 to God, may He help us in every aspect we pray for and be with us as we strive towards achieving these goals.

just a verse i thought we should hold on to when we make resolutions. PHI 4:13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

=)