Over the years, I have bounced around with different methodologies for doing my annual reviews. Although I wanted a one, true way to do it, I now think that annual reviews should be different.
Annual review provide a different perspective on life by stepping back from day-to-day life. Different review methods also helps to get a different perspective. I hope to see more of my blind spots from different angles with different prompts and different questions.
In short, I changed my process again and used Farnam Street’s 2022 Personal Annual Report. I came out of it with some interesting thoughts, too many TODOs, and a few goals.
Meditate every day
I have meditated on-and-off for years with 2024 being mostly off. My mood is mostly determined by my mindset, and I hope to cultivate an inner peace through meditation than logical analysis.
So why haven’t I been meditating?
I don’t have a consistent time to meditate except at the beginning or the end of the day. Unfortunately, early in the morning and late at night are when I’m too sleepy to stay focused enough for meditation.
However, I can’t let perfect be the enemy of good, so I’m meditating at night now. I do sometimes get sleepy, but I haven’t missed a day yet this year.
Memorize five songs on ukulele
Ignoring some easy children’s songs, I want to push myself further than just playing. Bernadette on YouTube recommended memorizing songs. I want to have some songs I like to bust out at a party.
Ukulele is another thing I have fallen off of recently. I hit a wall in motivation to just play, but I always enjoy it when I do.
Speak to my children in Mandarin
My Chinese is really poor (s) because I have never tried that hard to use it. I tell myself that if I actually needed it, I would learn it then, but since I don’t, then I shouldn’t actually bother learning.
Doesn’t that sound like ten-out-of-ten mental gymnastics to spare my ego?
However, parenting has given me new perspective. Among my peers, there’s plenty of discussion about raising multi-lingual children. The general consensus is that you have to commit to speaking to your children in other languages.
Having heard plenty of Chinese at school and on the playground, I have a roughly 2 or 3-year-old level of Mandarin. I can understand basic instructions and can (with a moment of thought) form intelligible responses.
This puts me right in the sweet spot to learn and teach Chinese with my children. Although my older child is past the point where I could do a hard switchover to only Chinese, my younger child is perfect for raising with Chinese.
Given my situation and personal Chinese fluency, my plan is to repeat myself in both English and Chinese with my children.
It’s been tough; I find plenty of gaps in my vocabulary and grammar. However, the best language learning tool has been Google Translate. I can check actual translations as I’m trying to use Chinese.
Actually, the biggest obstacle is developing the habit to use both languages. Now, I often forget, and it feels contrived, but I hope that it becomes second nature.
Final Thoughts
Looking at my goals, these are all old topics for me. In the past, I often included new projects or new habits or new somethings in my goals. I hope that these goals help me get over a hump on them.