Today is Sunday 31st December 2017, the last day for the year. In the blink of an eye, another year is going to be over again. Time flies so fast and furious that we all sometimes lose track of our time. This had been a very difficult and tough year, basically it continued on from the year 2016, I thought it would be more of a stablising and foundation year, instead, things never go to plan sometimes and I was thrown off track while trying my best to get things up and running.
I started wrapping up my year 2017 on 1st December, it’s not that I am closing shop for the financial year, it’s more of clearing up as many back logged things/matters to the best of my ability during the final month. Concurrently, I also took the time to deeply reflect on my year 2017 as well as planning and strategising for year 2018.
First and foremost, I would be sharing my reflection 2017 thoughts, feelings and views in my article here today, in no random order of significance:
- A very difficult and tough year, mentally and emotionally exhausted – Losing 6 people in the space of 1 year from 2016 to 2017 totally drained me out, high and dry. 2 of them were very close to me, my paternal grandmother and big auntie. I wrote remembrance and dedication articles for them, published inside here, my personal website/blog.
- Things didn’t go as planned, business has been very slow in a very tough, challenging and disruptive environment – Starting a small business at the start of the year 2017 was a huge calculated risk venture, I was mentally and emotionally prepared except that the mountains to climb were so much bigger and higher than I prepared myself for, a lot of lessons learned in my first year of business, whereby most of the time was put into setup, establishing partnerships and networking.
- Partneships established – During this year, I established working partnerships and collaborations with Hpility SG and The Epiphany Duplet (Tiffany Yong and Peps Goh). I had showcased some of my photography works and collaborations with them during the year 2017, you can find my stories and photos in my photography and travel blog.
- Behind the scenes / product shoot with The Epiphany Duplet on Love At Second Sight short film project – I was involved with a group of friends working together on The Epiphany Duplet’s short film project, just keep a lookout for my updates in January 2018! I am eagerly awaiting for the release of the short films and I can share/broadcast them!
- No holidays taken in year 2017 – Due to the extended family matters that took place, I didn’t have the opportunity to take even a short holiday getaway to a destination nearby. I was kind of stressed out without a proper holiday break.
- Photo book and photo zine postponed – I was planning to produce and publish a new photo book, things never go to plan due to extended family matters and the plans were postponed again to year 2018.
- No exercise – No excuses, I was lazy and ill-disciplined. This must change, this must stop, I must be disciplined and determined for year 2018, a healthy and active sporting lifestyle.
- Diet changes – I started reducing my carbohydrates intake in the year 2017, it’s a start and this can still vastly improve further. Working on my diet eating plans for year 2018.
- Need and Must read more books – I bought some books on business, entrepreneurship and travel. I need and I must read more quality books to feed my brain, mind and soul, to seek improvements, upgrading and learning new skills and knowledge.
- Acknowledge depression (slight) – The human race is facing lots of stress and pressure in today’s society, we all might (or have faced) depression at some point in time. After a long and thorough self evaluation and deep reflection, I have slipped into a slight depression during this period from 2016 to 2017 (especially in the Q2 and Q3 of 2016)
- ??? by ??? MayDay – This song means a lot to me, check out their YouTube video and you will understand what I went through and be enlightened.
- Perseverance – I did a Facebook fun test “What was your most important lesson of 2017?” The result was “Perseverance”. It was totally spot on, jackpot, I didn’t know how I managed to persevere and grinded my way through year 2017 with all the things happening and throwing me off track. The most enlightening matter was I did it, I persevered and I succeeded.
- Social media / blogging – In this segment, for the year 2017, it’s a year of mixed results for me. Some agencies that didn’t know about me previously started to engage via press releases emails, that’s a start definitely. Some were lost, some got better.
- Gratitude, Humility, Count my Blessings, Be Thankful – Of all the things that happened during this year 2017, the good and the bad, I am still here, still around. No matter what happeend, I am grateful, I count my blessings.
- Upgrading, learning new skills – Lifelong learning is my personal philosophy and I will continue to do it forever. There are still so many more skills and knowledge to learn and improve on myself. Personally, I feel that there is a lot more that I can do to upgrade and improve myself, in an era of technological disruptions.
- No personal photography projects – Due to extended family matters over the past two years, my personal photography projects took a back seat. It’s time to bring it back, complete them and I can embark on new personal photography projects.
- Disruption by technology, disruption to life and work – Disruption is huge, it will only get bigger, further and wider. Are we ready for them? Or are we too comfortable in our own comfort zone, complacent and ignorant? It’s very scary how technology disruption is going to impact and affect us, in both life and work, in both a good and bad way.
- Issues in society / friends / family – Human beings are/can be complicated, selfish, lazy and fearful. We all need to work and strive harder, to improve ourselves, judge less, criticise less, learn more, know more and understand more.
At the end of this article, after writing down so many thougths, views and feelings, it’s like something heavy was off my shoulders, mind and soul. Overall, a very difficult and tough year 2017 and I am very happy to wrap them up, close “Year 2017 Account”, archive them and start “Year 2018 Account”.
A new chapter, a new hope, a new and fresh beginning, coming very soon, in less than 24 hours time. The start of “Year 2018 Account”.