It’s 2017 and let’s welcome the New Year with a new article. My previous article, Goodbyes and New Beginnings, was kind of personal and emotional. It was when I reached halfway the article that I first thought of the title for this New Year article.
What I did in my previous Multiply blog was to do a repository, or more of a year-ender, article containing the best ones I wrote in the past year. My 2012 year-ender on Tumblr was titled “12 for 2012,” in which I made a special (or not-so-special) thing on the 12th day of each month, ending with 12 highlights. I went on hiatus then and just reblogged items.
While this blog is a restart, I’ll do a repository year-starter with photos that defined my 2016, with the best pictures in my Trans-Siberian Railway and UK trip in a separate series.
So what do I mean by sensational things?
2016 had opened a lot of things to me — getting more academic and professional credentials, exploring new places, and learning things I thought I never could do (just like cooking). 2016 is only the beginning of those amazing things; 2017 will not be merely a continuation or extension of 2016 but a whole lot new year of newer and more sensational things to come.
Years back, I wrote year-ender blogs about the resolutions I needed to achieve in the coming year. I must say that at least two years in a row, I managed to achieve 75% of those resolutions. What I think of making them now is, well, not that they sound so silly, but that they are somewhat an expedient and myopic checklist.
But new year resolutions depend on who does them; if people want some change to happen, then these resolutions shouldn’t box them in just checking achievements or targets. Rather, they should have a clear and SMART goal, albeit short-term or long-term.
And now I’m talking about planning. Well these are the sensational things I thought will make my 2017 even better and memorable:
- Goal 1: Reinforce my career in journalism and public relations.
- Goal 2: Explore Beijing, travel and see other places in Asia and Europe, and meet people of different cultures.
- Goal 3: Learn more conversational Chinese and step-up my Russian and Japanese game.
Looking at them makes me think they’re quite easy to do, but Goal 3 is exceptionally difficult! (A side note though: I tried to sing in Chinese! Reading the pinyin version was just mind-blowing!) Let’s see if I can do a video in Chinese, or even Russian by year-end!
Update (Jan 2nd): Some blogs that might be of use in making goals or resolutions (hopefully by the end of 2017 — 364 days from now!), and some great blogging ideas:
- A purpose or a theme to define the year; or
- A progressive task such as 52 things in 52 weeks or goals based on the year number;
So let’s get it on!