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Resolution Note of 2016

Jon Kartago Lamida

Jan 8, 2017 • 5 min read

Yeah, happy new year again and happy 31st years old as last December! As usual I am late for releasing this resolution note again. At least not later than the note release of last year. Also like before, I am pasting notes from past 6 years. So speaking about doing life evaluation for at least once a year, I can quite proud to myself because can quite consistent in doing that.

Resolution Notes from Previous Years

Evaluation of last year goals

Here you go some of goals I setup last year and I will comment of how its status. The goal ended with (Checked) means the goal is achieved, if it ended (Nay!) means the goal is not achieved and if it eneded with (?) means the goal is too vague in the first place.

Improve communication skills (?)
Have IELTS minimum 7 (Checked)
Take a GRE test (Nay!)
Be a more family man (?)
Participate in a marathon (Checked)
Lost weight 15 Kg (yes I am overweight) (Nay!)
Read minimum a book per 2 months and make a review on it (Nay!)
Learn a new sport (tennis or billiard or bowling) (Nay!)
Use Scala to create something (Nay!)
Going Umrah (Checked)
Write a book (Nay!)
Speak in a technical conference (Nay!)
Learn to cook (Nay!)
Learn and start investing (Nay!)
Completing two Advance Manual of Toastmaster (Nay!)

Following are more detail status of the goal.

Improve communication skills (?)

Actually I should set a SMART (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and time bound) goal instead of vague statement like that, because now I even couldn't asses properly how well I have improved in communication skill. So I will rewrite this goal to be more specific for next year list.

Have IELTS minimum 7 (Checked)

This is a better example of SMART goal. I finally took another IELTS test last November, thanks to wifey that push us to take the test together. I can be proud by achieving the target by getting score of... (badumdass) 7.5 improved from my two previous IELTS test in 2011 and 2013 which each topped the overall score at 6.5. But I hate bands distribution of the latest score. I have not collected the test report because was away for some trip on December, but at least from the sms notification I got these band scores:

Listening: 9
Reading: 8.5
Writing: 6 (actually I was really confident with my writing)
Speaking: 6.5

It seems I still need many improvements in my active English communication skill.

Take a GRE test (Nay!)

Didn't happen.

Be a more family man (?)

Non SMART goal, I cannot asses myself now.

Participate in a marathon (Checked)

Again I have to proud to myself by not only participating in a marathon but two marathons and not only just participate but also can made to finish. But I am not proud with the timing. I finished in sub 7 hours for the first marathon and sub 8 hours for the second marathon. Maybe goal of next year should be finishing marathon in not shameful finish time.

Lost weight 15 Kg (Nay!)

Actually I didn't write my weight when setting this goal last year. But anyway, I don't think I lost 15 Kg in one year. I lost about 4 Kg after December trip and some days of sick but the current weight is still far than ideal.

For next year I will make this goal to be more tangible to be to have 65 Kg in body weight.

Read minimum a book per 2 months and make a review on it (Nay!)

I read quite some books last year but all of them without any review as I have made target to myself. Start from this year I also will track my reading status so that I can know better what I have read. I will write another post of what I read in 2016.

Learn a new sport (Nay!)

Went for 2 bowling sessions and one random tennis play. But I didn't learn any new sport.

Use Scala to create something (Nay!)

I work on minor task using scala but it is not something significant that improves my Scala knowledge.

Going Umrah (Checked)

For whom not familiar with the concept, please see wikipedia. Alhamdulillah, I have gone to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from 14-25 December for the umrah. We went Madinah first to visit Prophet Muhammad grave and also to do some prays in Prophet Mosque (Nabawi).

After that we went to Mecca for Umrah. In total I have done 3 Umrahs during the visit. One for myself, one for my late aunt and the last one for my late grandfather. Just for short explanation, we normally just need to do one umrah but since we are already in Mecca, we also can do optional Umrah for family who has passed away.

Thankfully all the procession and activity went well until we left KSA. I can recommend my Umrah travel agent for anybody interested. We are very satisfied with the service.

On the flight home, we made a stopover in Sri Lanka for 6 days. This trip quite sudden because didn't really plan it very early. I will write the trip story in another post.

Write a book (Nay!)

It didn't happen.

Speak in a technical conference (Nay!)

Not happen.

Learn to cook (Nay!)

Nope

Learn and start investing (Nay!)

No.

Completing two Advance Manual of Toastmaster (Nay!)

Not only I didn't achieve the goal, but also after many years to be a passive member that only come once a year, last year I drop out from Toastmaster. It doesn't make sense for me to renew the membership but I never come the meeting. As a platform actually Toastmaster is the best place if you want to learn and improve your public speaking skills. But it seems I don't have enough commitment to leverage that or maybe I need different type of platform where I can maintain my commitment.

Resolution Note of 2017

Completing at least 6 MOOC courses
Take a GRE test
Apply a postgraduate course (maybe in machine learning or applied math?)
Launch and work consistently on Travelogee project
Have kids. I know this is God decision but I want to try better this year.
Buy a house
Reach Tech Lead position in work place
Weight no more than 65 Kg
Read minimum a book per 2 months and make a review on it
Learn Tennis
Use Scala to build something
Write a book
Speak in a country level technical conference
Learn and start investing and get 10% profit in one year
Visit at least one Africa, America and Oceania country
Get Singapore Class 2 Motorbike license
Touring using big motorbike for at least to distance like from Sydney to Melbourne
Able to make a good photography
Speak English fluently to the level of IELTS 8 band score. I will not do another IELTS test again in one year, though will just try to self assessment.
Speak German to basic communication level or more
Speak Arabic to basic communication level or more
~~Learn to cook~~ I dropped this out for this year because I still couldn't build interest in this stuff very far away from how much interest I always have in eating
Contribute something to your surround and be impactful person in a positive way

So that's it for this year. Actually the above goals is set up on the fly while I am writing so that I might want to improve it a bit for the next few days or weeks before stoning it as target list to be achieved in this year.