Perception

I recently read the post I wrote at the start of the three-month break, and looking back at the goals I had set out for myself, I realise I didn’t really achieve as much as I would have liked to. Indeed, I had such intentions at the start, but I think I somehow got caught in the current of the moment throughout the holidays and never even referred to the initial goals I had in the first place.

Granted, I did succeed in doing what I felt were my top priorities, namely doing an internship as well as working on my personal projects at the side. I’m not going to discuss them here considering I’ve more or less been writing about them the past couple of months. What I would like to take the time to do is reflect on what went wrong, and how I neglected all these other aims I previously had.

I did have altruistic intentions at the start of the summer break, but apparently any motivation then was merely momentarily at somehow ceased within a week of me writing that post. That is indeed some concern for me, as I had originally wanted to join CSC this semester, and yet I’ve joined NUS Entrepreneurship Society (NES) instead. My free time this school term is fairly limited, so any charitable ideologies I may have will just have to wait.

I didn’t get around to exercising as much I would have liked, mostly because of work and partly because of laziness, but I definitely have to find a form of motivation to improve my physical fitness. I also haven’t always had time, but excuses are always easy to come up with. I shall try my best to exercise more this coming school term, and hopefully I’ll find in myself the dedication that I need.

Although I didn’t really have time to read once I started my internship in late May, I did spend a healthy amount of time reading prior to that, covering John Grisham’s The Appeal, The Broker, The Brethren, The King of Torts and The Summons. I can’t wait to get started on The Associate, which is sitting around in my house somewhere. I’ve also decided that for development reading I most likely won’t be looking at the two books I mentioned before. Instead, I’ll try to start on A Byte of Python as soon I can.

While I don’t deny that I didn’t successfully accomplish my goals, I’d also like to point out that most of my time and focus was taken up by worthwhile undertakings which I came across along the way. Besides Tutorific, I’ve been working on another OrangeOasis service which I’d like to talk about another time. I’m also currently involved in an online shop with a friend, and that too is in a near-completion state.

I guess I learnt a couple of lessons in goal-setting from all this, and the next time I’ll be sure to set fewer goals for myself. At least that way, I’ll be able to prioritise better as it would allow me to set new goals along the way. I also need to keep track of my goals regularly, and constantly check to make sure I’m on the right track. I got pretty carried away these last two months, although right now I don’t really regret anything.