I know I’d just said that resolutions aren’t really my thing, but I’ve been feeling kinda aimless lately, with no real short-term goal to work towards. I’m starting to stagnate (and perhaps have been for months already), which is definitely not what I want to be doing. So here’s a list of things I want to work on this year, in (approximately) descending order of importance.

Faith

It’s been maybe 2 years since I’d practically declared myself Christian instead of simply agnostic, but it feels like I haven’t made much progress since then. Maybe it’s my immensely sceptical nature, or maybe my resistance towards doing anything requiring too much effort, but that’s just the way it’s happened.

I’ve actually signed up for a BSF course starting in February, which I guess is a step towards developing my faith, but somehow I feel like I need to do so much more..

Fitness

I’ve recently been assigned to a Holding List for NS, which basically means I have no proper role for now, but they can suddenly dump me anywhere as long as I’m not 40 years old yet. I’m hoping that my services aren’t required of course, but the immediate consequence is that I now have to clear my IPPT annually. I’m aiming to train up and get silver by this October – I stand to net a cool S$400 (2x $200) for myself. I think that’s a pretty good motivator! Plus, just to continue (restart, rather) the exercise habit.

Save

I’d actually like to get my own place as soon as possible, but housing’s pretty expensive in Singapore so I doubt I’ll be able to get something anytime soon. You usually need to fork out 20% of the total sum as a deposit, meaning to get something that’s $300,000 I’ll need… $60,000 on hand?

So I’ll aim to save up that much in the next two years – even if I don’t actually end up getting housing then, I’ll be better prepared for whenever it happens. I’ll probably be pumping money into buying STI ETF and perhaps some other vehicles, so the actual sum accumulated will probably vary somewhat – hopefully the economy’s on the way to recovery 2-3 years later!

Teaching

I’ve not been taking my NIE course all too seriously, and my average grade for the last semester is just slightly under the required to get a Credit for the diploma. This semester I have some slightly more interesting modules (if laden with more difficult work), so I figured I should take the chance to work on elevating myself from a simple pass grade. It might not actually be all that important in the long run, but I might as well try a little, huh?

More importantly, though, I hope to be a good teacher when I’m finally posted to school, but that’s probably a longer-term goal and kinda difficult to quantify.

Guitar

I really enjoyed playing in an ensemble in the past, and though (I’d like to think) I was one of the better players back then, I was never really good at going solo. I’d thought about taking formal classical guitar lessons before, and I think it might be time to finally put those plans into action.

Holiday

This doesn’t actually gel well with the earlier-mentioned goal of saving money, but it’s still something I’d like to do. I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time to pull this off, but if possible I’d like to take that trip to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic that I wasn’t able to last year. Possibly in late May/early June before I get posted to my school? Depending on my NIE schedule, I guess.

I’m not too optimistic about this right now, but if the opportunity presents itself, maybe it’s time to go ahead with it! (Especially before I lose that KrisFlyer Elite Gold status…)