Looking at my “Hello 2019” post from January, I mentioned that 2018 is a really tough year because there were too many unexpected changes. However, it was a great year because my personal growth is really huge.
How about 2019?
Learn and Reflect
In short, I have encountered too many people issues this year. More than what I think I would want to handle…
I could take all these matters to the extreme. Like, I could choose to blame everyone around me or I could blame myself such that I felt insignificant in this world and continue to be demotivated.
But no, this shouldn’t be the way to go. I remember I posted this quote on my Facebook (last thing I ever posted on Facebook) when I left my ex-company in 2014.
见贤思齐焉,见不贤而内自省也
This phrase means that you learn from the people who are great and reflect yourself upon meeting people who are bad. A supposedly leader was acting in a manner that I cannot comprehend and I was extremely upset. I reflected upon myself on that incident and hope I did become a better leader to my colleagues now.
So even if this year is not that great, I can take a step back and look at how these people issues can let me learn and become a better person in the coming year.
Confusion and More Confusion
I thought I can read people quite well but sometimes I cannot comprehend fully. If I dig deeper, I will drop into the hole deeper. It’s getting really hard to climb out of the hole and I hope I can do it soon.
Significant Events
Here are some positive events that I want to remember forever:
- I did a brief technical talk to a group of 40-ish strangers for the first time.
- We received credits for a vulnerability that we submitted to the vendor.
- We have expanded our group with babies!
Goals
Last year, I made 4 goals:
- To read at least 1 book per month
- To gain more exposure in technical leadership
- To exercise more and cut down on unhealthy consumption of food and drinks
- And as always, to continue spend more time with people whom truly matter
I didn’t stick to one book per month but I have successfully significantly read more books than I did in 2018. This helps in expanding my knowledge, and evolving my mindset as I’m exposed to more challenges.
As always, it’s harder to create a good system to exercise daily. I did, however, more than 50 squats every night for a few months. Unfortunately, I stopped for a while when I was fighting fire at work two months ago.
Here are some realistic goals made for 2020:
- To continue my contribution to improve security in industrial control system
- To take at least one specialised certification in cybersecurity or perhaps in data science
- To write at least once a month on in blog
- To be more conscious about my words and improve my grammar (lol)
- And as always, to continue spend more time with people whom truly matter
As always, looking forward to 2020 :)