birthday resolutions 2014

18 November 2014



Today I turn 27.

I can't believe that it's been a whole year since my last birthday resolutions post - but on the other hand, I can. It has, without a doubt, been the best year of my life. Not perfect, but I have been the happiest in myself and in what I do day to day, which is something I always strived for but wasn't sure I would achieve. It's certainly not something I take for granted, and there is still plenty of room of improvement, but all in all - one heck of a great year.

Following on from last year, I feel like I did quite well with those previous resolutions. Again, everything is a work in progress, but if I do as well this coming year, I'll be happy.

And without further ado, here are my birthday resolutions:

1 :: Project Declutter.

Self-explanatory, but I'll elaborate. I am a horrible hoarder, surprisingly messy, and generally a bit chaotic when it comes to my mountain of stuff. Now, I'm not under any illusion that I'll suddenly become one of those superhumans that have "capsule wardrobes" and live a minimalist lifestyle (as much as I admire and envy it). I'm just not cut out for that. However, what I can do is to drastically streamline my belongings - be it my wardrobe, useless paperwork from 2008, DVD cases without the contents, make up years past its expiry date. I truly think that if I do this, it will just bring more calm and clarity to my living space and daily life - not to mention, E would give me the best wife of the year award. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

2 :: Cook more.

We all know that E does the heavy-lifting in the kitchen around here, and I do a little bit too, but not enough. I don't hate cooking, but I don't love it either. The things is, I think that my love for it has potential to grow, if I find the right recipes (simple, healthy, not time consuming but still amazingly delicious. too much to ask?), and organise myself so that I have the ingredients on hand at the right time. I also enjoy the satisfaction of having made something, so surely I can do this? Again, favourite staple recipes are always welcome in the comments.

3 :: Read a Japanese book.

Having left Japan aged 8, my Japanese writing and reading are not good. At all. Typing on the computer is just about manageable, as they turn the hiragana characters into kanji (picture characters) for you, but writing? Bad. Reading? Bad. I don't care if it's even just one book, I want to get through one as I know it will be so good for me. I'm thinking of maybe reading a Murakami book, as I love his books in English and so I have a pre-made enthusiasm for it. 

4 :: Improve my photography.

I love my camera (a Canon EOS M), and I love playing with it, but I never make the time to truly understand how to use it. I use its semi-manual-semi-auto setting far too much, and I would absolutely love to master the manual settings of it - I know it's a lot of trial and error, but I just need a good kick up the bum to practise and explore all the facilities and techniques. 

5 :: Always seek opportunity.

I recently had a conversation with friends about how difficult it is to sell yourself, be it to ask for a raise, be interviewed for a job or selling a certain skill. I am absolutely terrible at this - although I have confidence in myself, I find it incredibly difficult to say, hey, I'm good at this and I have all this experience, or hey, I deserve more out of this because I work hard and I have the skills. I feel like, well, a bit of a diva with empty promises - because who knows, maybe I'll mess up and they'll regret giving me a chance? I know in my head that this is no attitude to have, so I hope that all the wisdom that comes from being 27 will help me out with this. Maybe.

Whether you have been reading WTW since my last birthday resolutions, or you've only stumbled across it recently, thank you so much for sticking by me. Although I would still happily write my posts for an audience of 4, having over 400 readers across various platforms following my adventures makes it all the more fun!

So thanks a bunch, and please, keep me accountable for these resolutions. Otherwise I might just have to blame you. 

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18 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday!! I love your idea of making resolutions for the year on your birthday - what a fun thing to do! I also need to work on decluttering and photography.... Have a wonderful day today!

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  2. I am fully on board with project declutter! We currently rent a pretty small 2 bed flat but are hoping to buy our first house next year. I'm forever complaining that the flat is just a mess with stuff lying about everywhere .. then Simon pointed out that 99% of it is mine .. ooooooooops! I'm going to have a massive clear out of DVDs, CDs and photo albums at some point .. probably next year!

    Oh yes and Happy Birthday!!!!!!!! Hope you have a great day

    x

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  3. Happy birthday!!!!!! I'm completely on board with project declutter and learning to use my camera better! xx

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  4. Happy birthday!!!
    I also need to de-clutter - very very badly. A while ago I was inspired and bought all sorts of organizational tools to get my paperwork in order at the very least, and now all of that stuff is just sitting next to the mounds of unsorted paperwork ... so that went well :P Who knows, maybe in another year the paper will make its way into binders!

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  5. Happy Birthday!! I love reading other people's resolutions - good luck with them. Have a lovely day!x

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  6. Happy birthday!!! One of my resolutions will also be improve my photography! I want to invest in a new camera. I hate clutter but Mr S is a total hoarder!!
    Lots of love,
    Angie

    SilverSpoon London

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  7. happy happy birthday! hope you'll have another great year. your japanese level describes my korean level! i'm terrrible at writing and reading and is ok although at times i go at snail speed and i don't know when to pause and space and i'll break apart a perfectly normal word and make it all alien. ;)

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  8. Happy Happy Birthday! I hope 27 is wonderful.

    For your last goal can I suggest the book 60 Seconds and You're Hired by Robin Ryan. It sounds really gimmicky, but I used it to teach my students this year and they loved it. I loved the book too!

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  9. Happy birthday!!! I really should consider making goals and resolutions! I too left my country when I was a child (when I was 1 year old) and had been living overseas for many years so my mother tongue isn't fluent. I can speak but I can't read or write! Hope you had a great day and celebrate and relax!

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  10. Happy birthday ma belle!! I hope your day is the best day ever! These are great resolutions. I also need to declutter my life...I also have so much useless paperwork around my house, it's horrible. I'm definitely a hoarder lol. It's been like six years since I've gone through my closet, soooo bad. And good for you resolving to pursue those opportunities! I know it's really hard for me to be persuasive about myself but I know you can do it :]

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  11. Happy Birthday Miho!!! I'm right there with you on point #5. Owning one's awesomeness should be so simple and yet, the fear of not living up to the expectation always seems to get in the way. This is an area I'm adding to my list of resolutions for 2015... Anywho, it's 6pm over here in American which means it's midnight over there so I may have just missed wishing you felicitations on time but I hope you had a wonderful day and that 27 brings you many opportunities to grow and develop within your definition of success!!! Oh and I hope 27 provides you lots of opportunities to eat good food as well because food = happiness. At least in my book ;)

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  12. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you've had the most wonderful day <3

    Number 5 resonates with me so much. I think it's so important but I don't do it myself, I shall try to keep it in mind constantly too <3 xx

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  13. this post is amazing inspiration!

    http://24shadesofinspiration.blogspot.com/

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  14. Belated happy birthday! Goodluck with your resolutions :]

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  15. I hope you had a blast! I love reading this <3

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  16. I'd say I hope you had a good birthday but I already know you had a blast at Joel Robuchon, you lucky thing! Love your birthday resolutions for this year, especially the goal to read a Japanese book! Murakami will definitely be your man - I'd be interested to know if the English translation holds up against the original text! I also saw a copy of Le Petit Prince in Japanese in the foreign languages section of Foyles, made me so keen to at least learn a bit of hiragana... Oh, and I totally empathise with the 'improve photography' resolution - I'm also in that manual/auto purgatory with my Canon and more often than not resort to the non-flash mode! There must be a crash course in how to master manual somewhere....or else we should just leave the cameras on manual and force ourselves to learn to use it properly! xx

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  17. A belated Happy Birthday! I hope you had a lovely, lovely day. I am very onboard with your de-clutter resolution - I am such a hoarder. I hope it goes better for you than it is currently going for me!

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  18. Love this list! The first two are on my list, too. Currently working on selling off my clutter!

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