Saturday, January 3, 2009

Reflection and Resolution

The new year is always good for two things: Reflection and Resolution. Reflection over what has been done over the past year and Resolution for what to improve on for the current year. So, first I will reflect on my 2008.

In 2008, I continued in pretty much the same routine I had always been in. I guess the biggest change was my major in college. Previously my major was Statistics, but after some difficult stats classes, I knew this wasn't the correct career path for me. So, in the fall of 2007 I took a few different classes that interested me to see what new direction would be good for me. This resulted in me dramatically changing my major to Psychology at the beginning of 2008. I have done really well in school this year with my new major and have actually gotten the best grades I've ever gotten in my college experience thus far.

I have managed to keep my job that I have had for a couple of years at BYU Independent Study and I feel I've done a good job there. There was some question as to whether I would be able to return to work there after taking the summer off to spend time with my family. But, my boss was happy to have me back for the fall semester, so that made me feel like I was doing good work there. I also have been able to be roommates with my best friend, Kevin, during the fall semester and that has been great. Even though he is busy a lot of the time, we have still found time to have fun and enjoy the college experience.

As for negative aspects of this past year, I have had a difficult roommate this past semester and I feel like I haven't handled the situation very well. I have let my anger take hold and have really had negative feelings towards him that are sometimes not fair. I also had a big problem occur with my car over Thanksgiving break. I didn't know about car maintenance and about how often to put oil in the car and this resulted in me breaking down and burning up my whole engine on the way home for Thanksgiving. Thankfully my parents and my best friend were very helpful during the situation, but it ended up costing my dad a lot of money, and I still feel bad about it.

So, that is a quick summary of 2008. Now I am going to take this experiences, learn from them, and set some resolutions for 2009. I feel one of my biggest downfalls in 2008 is simply complacency. I didn't allow myself to grow because I knew it would be too difficult or too uncomfortable to change. So, I don't think I changed much over the past year like I should have. So, I feel I must resolve to change so that I can grow this next year. So, the following are things I want to work on:

1. Health

I am very unhealthy right now. I am overweight and this is due to lack of exercise and bad eating habits. So, I am making a goal right now to lose weight and get more healthy by eating better and exercising more. I will cut out the fast food, desserts and soda, and cut down my portions. I will also try walking more to and from school and explore other exercise options.

2. Career

I am very concerned about my future, and I think the main reason is because I'm still not clear on my exact career goal. I am now solid in my Psychology major, but I need to know what I want to do with that so I know if I need to go to graduate school or get some kind of job experience. So, for the first part of the year, I will explore the options in Psychology and decide concretely what I want to do. Then I will figure out what needs to be done to reach that career goal, and then do it.

3. Confidence

I need more confidence in myself. I often put myself down and this causes me to be shy because I see myself as lower than everybody else. I am in constant fear of embarrassing myself. If I simply had more confidence, I could lose this fear and live a more full life. This will also allow me to be better at asking girls out on dates, which is something I need to learn how to do since marriage is another definite goal of mine.

These are the big three main goals that I plan to work on this year. I know that with a good amount of effort and determination I can and will make these goals a reality. I will end 2009 a healthier, more confident man with a clear career path.

This blog will be a way for me to document my progress this year. I'm sorry if this entry is long and boring- I plan on making future entries a lot more entertaining. I will talk about significant events that occur to me this year and how they affect (or don't affect) my life. Thanks for reading and I plan to share a lot more in the coming year!

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