Time flies and in 2 weeks time, we will be entering into mid-year. It’s nice to be back to normal again after almost 3 years of the pandemic where our worlds were turned upside down.
Typically, I have set up a list of goals to achieve at the beginning of the year. I would do a mid-year review in 6 months to track my progress. Then a final assessment in Jan where I would grade myself. I have discovered over time that I am more of a goal-oriented person and I work better if I have something to aim for.
For 2023, I have decided to call these goals KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) instead of a yearly new year’s resolution list. Some are a rehash of the previous year’s goals while I would also try to set some new and harder ones to challenge myself. I set out a total of 6 KPIs for 2023.
Overall, I guess I got pretty lazy with inertia in the first 6 months as I had a number of revenge travelling vacations and was just waiting for some work related things to happen. Unlike the last 2 years where I had already planned to sign up for some full-time learning courses by the beginning of the year, I only completed 2 easy one-day courses this year.
The first KPI is always about the number of books I want to read. I discovered that I hardly read any books for many years while I was busy with my career and family matters. The same goes for the whole country as we are not a well read country like America. The nation’s top 10 books list hardly changes month on month, year on year. There is simply no excuse not to read more. With loanable free ebooks from the national library, I can easily borrow the latest titles and download them onto my iPad for my evening reading before bedtime.
My target for 2023 is 20 books. This year, I will also include audio books since I am used to listening to various podcasts while I run every morning. Year to date, I have completed 8.5 books so far. To reduce the monotony of reading, I tend to read more than 1 book at a time. I would read a chapter from one and then switch to the other book to read another chapter before going to sleep every night. My reading speed of less than 20 pages a day is definitely too slow since each book is on average about 400-600 pages long.
Learning from a friend (the one that introduced me to the free Libby app linked to national library membership to borrow free ebooks), I would also write a short summary of that completed book on my 2023 KPIs master summary list in my Notes app on my iPhone after finishing each book. This will enable me to remember the highlights of the book whenever I want to review my reading KPI.
The next KPI was to develop my consultancy pivot. I chanced upon an ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) initiative from an ex-colleague and signed up as a consultant in Oct. We submitted an application for a regulatory license in Dec as part of the process and are currently waiting for its approval. If successful, I would start a full-time role in a new SPV setup soon. Hopefully, this will become a successful pivot to a new halftime career path.
This opportunity is a work-in-progress and let’s see where it will take me. This waiting game meant that I had slowed down on my annual lifelong full-time learning journey which I had started since 2017. I turned to short one-day courses this year and did a Sake and Whisky Appreciation instead LOL…
The next 2 KPIs I have really slacked off year to date. I was aiming to complete 10 online courses this year. I started with 2 initially but just lost interest in them later as they became too technical for me. The other failed 2023 KPI was to edit my 2 years backlog of vacation and family videos. I had diligently been compiling them for the past 20 years and was completely relying on a specific auto-edit software but that company folded a few years back. I am still looking for a replacement software and had purchased 2 new ones to play with, without much success. I need to buck up on these 2 underperforming goals for the rest of 2023. I would require better time management to commit some time to them instead of brainlessly watching videos on TikTok and YouTube every day.
The audacious KPI goal I had set for myself this year was to create my personal GitHub page. It was inspired by one of my FinTech trainers who used it to showcase his work/projects and enhance his CV/LinkedIn profile. It will be my attempt to boost my tech skills. As a start, I aim to list all the projects I had completed during my last 5 years of FinTech and AI training courses.
The final and most important KPI is to constantly remind me of my life motto, to stay healthy and happy all the time. As the world opens up from a 3 years Covid induced nightmare, I am thankful to be able to getting back to normal again and being able to travel again.
I am blessed with the opportunity to have travelled to France, Hong Kong and Batam since Dec with family and friends. We are also planning 3 more trips for the rest of the year with the family, starting with Korea this coming weekend. Embracing positivity is the way to go and spending quality time with family and good friends is my happiness goal.
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