I am a work in progress – I am not “there” yet, but at least I have progress.
In the past few months I have been trying to manage my life. I decided that I’ll start to have a life plan for a change.
I never really had a plan or a goal whatsoever. I have always lived my life on a day to day basis. I’m the type that just gets by.
Maybe I do have some short term goals before, like finishing studies and passing the board exams. But after passing the boards, somehow I feel lost, because after that, I don’t seem to have any concrete goals anymore; no more exams to pass, or to get ready for. The feeling is like when your favorite series that you’ve watched for six years suddenly ends; it is like you have nothing to look forward to.
Sure I do have things I want to achieve, like getting rich, having my own architectural firm, or doing something else. But, those are just some aspirations, and I don’t really have a plan how to get all of those.
There are times that I did try to start to prepare or something, like saving up my money. But every once in a while I slip, and spend my savings to buy some shoes, to travel or whatever, thinking that I should be enjoying what I earn. I am really not good at having priorities and restraining my desires and sudden urges.
And then, some time at the beginning of this year I realized that what’s really wrong with me is that I don’t have a plan – a life plan. I need to have goals and I need to have direction. So I tried doing that for a change.
By that time, I don’t know how to do it, so I experimented at first and study how to do it.
First, I assessed myself.
Where am I right now? What did I achieved? What do I have?
It is now four years since I graduated, four years since I started working and two years since I had my license, but i don’t feel like I achieved something significant and somehow I still feel lost.
I guess it does help to be lost sometimes and feel down, so you’ll have more motivation to better yourself.
And then, I asked myself what I really want. I brainstormed
I started with loose ideas of what I want -> from small things to ambitious things.
What are my passions?
What excites me?
What am I good at?
Then I drafted my Life Goals
I organized the thoughts I gathered into short term and long term goals
I wrote it down and constantly add something to it
Then I asked myself how I’ll achieve those goals
I assessed myself again. What do I have to achieve these? What do I need to get what I want?
I reviewed my skill sets; my strengths and weaknesses
I educated myself. I attended seminars/talks, read books and a lot of other things.
I developed a financial plan to support my life goals.
I tried to learn to manage my time and other resources; look at possible opportunities and threats along the way.
At first, it is really exciting, and I was really passionate about it.
But, after a while though, I got distracted.
I tried a lot of things. Some worked. Some did not. Sometimes I still slip and not follow through, and then I do things all over again. But at least with every time I learn something.
It is a long process of trial and error.
Right now, I’m actually starting over again. And I tell myself that it is never too late to start over again. And I say to myself that nothing has been and will be wasted as long as I learned from the past experiences and failures and continuously learn along the way.
One reason also that I have this blog is to keep record of my progress. I have in my life plan saved in drafts, so I can look at it, edit and update it every now and then.
And now, looking at it, I know that I am still a work in progress. And though I am not ‘there’ yet, at least I know there is PROGRESS.
So, here I am again, starting over, telling (convincing) myself, that it is never too late.
All I need is to have discipline and commitment to make this work.
R.K.tekt 