Follow my instincts/bliss and to accomplish at least one thing that is out of my comfort zone.Quite a safe resolution that doesn't seem that hard to complete ain't it! I've definitely stepped out of my comfort zone, pursued and tried things I never thought I would. One of them was to finally take up swimming classes. That has sat at the back of my mind for a long time and while I was at it, I wondered what took me so long to sign up. It wasn't that hard. I committed for about 20 weeks learning the breaststroke and front crawl. The latter wasn't so successful. But I'm glad that I finally know how to swim!
I also took up urban sketching with the urban sketchers regularly! I bought a lot of pens and paper to draw and got better at it. (Though I think I still suck.) One thing I learnt from that was that a good tool is important and using it could even enhance your interest. It's a good pastime to train my patience and observation skills. I enjoyed it better than I thought I would when I first joined. I went to Bali and Japan this year. Had a crazy experience riding on a stranger's bike, made new friends in Japan, learnt more about myself, visited Schmid again during my trip. It was all very exciting.
"Love life" wise I had some breakthroughs. I downloaded a social dating app just because hey why not, let's see where it takes me (also partly because one of my best friends psychoed me to). It definitely took me out of my comfort zone to be texting people who are outside of my social circle and it wasn't as scary and dubious as I thought. I didn't use it for long though.
This year was a year of testing my values and experimenting new things. Without testing and experiencing it yourself, you will never know if it is really what you think it is. The things that you thought you wouldn't like, may not be as bad as you think it is. Even the things that you want; when you finally get it, may not make you as happy as you thought you'd be. There's a very good example in "Amachan" (a jdorama that I've been watching recently!). There's this mother character in "Amachan" that I find very interesting. Since young she has been living in a small rural fishing village in Iwate, obliged to succeed her mother's role as an "ama" (a female diver who hunts sea urchins for a living). She hated the sea and the rural village and decided to run away to Tokyo to chase her idol dream. Because her father is a fisherman who only comes home 10 days in a year, she aspires to marry a family man who comes home every day from work. But yet when she finally lives her dream and married such a man, she doesn't seem to be happy. She feels bored. Her husband reads his newspaper while she plucks tails off beansprouts. The house is so quiet that she could hear a thud when a beansprout land onto the floor. (It's really funny.)
Anyway what I know now is that, me time is really important. I am always so busy devoting my free time to hang out with different groups of friends. I thought it's important to meet regularly to sustain friendships and to make use of my free time productively so that I'm not wasting time lazing at home doing nothing but dorama watching. But even that is important yeah. In the long run I just felt really tired and burnt out. Moreover I usually only have 1-2 hours of free time after work before bedtime. It's that bad. I feel so choked up with obligations.
So this year, my resolution is to have more patience and take things slowly as it comes. More me time. Create more, consumer less. Have fun. Quit my horrible job. Continue to break out of my comfort zone. Be at peace. Enjoy everything, the bad and the good.