It's almost the end of 2011. Now it's a good time to review how things went in last 12 months and make some resolutions to the next 12 months.
From the start, I expected this to be a challenging year. This year, I turned 25 and was working full-time (no more formal education). So it was like moving on to a new chapter in life. From the beginning, I had few personal goals for the year. Here's a summary of how I progressed with them during the year.
Blogging
I've been running this blog since 2006, but it was only this year it actually broke out of ruts. Traffic wise still this is nothing spectacular, but I like how it evolved with my experience.
This year, I didn't post frequently, but when I did I tried to come up with something interesting to read. I enjoy blogging because it is a great way to learn. From gathering points to a post, presenting it to suit the audience and discussions that takes place afterwards helps to expand my knowledge on the topic.
Also, I redesigned the blog and switched to a new platform during this year.
Fitness
Every time I started doing workouts in the past it didn't last for more than couple of days. Either due to exhaustion or lack of motivation I simply didn't continue. But in last June I decided to give it another try; this time with a much simpler and relaxed schedule (based on couch to 5k plan). So far I've been able to stick to the schedule and increment the flow gradually (dip in October was due to bad weather). I should mention RunKeeper, which provided a great assistance by tracking my progress and motivating me to stick to the schedule.
I was never an athletic person, thats why I'm so delighted with this progress!
Spending
I believe the best way to live a happy life is not earning more, but spending less. Spending less doesn't mean living a meager life. It's about knowing when and for what to spend. When we launched the Expense Tracking for CurdBee in last July, I started using it to track and analyze my own expenses.
Soon I was able to apply some tweaks to my life which not only helped me to reduce expenses but also have some long term benefits. I made a major saving by relying more on public transport and walking instead of spending on fuel (walking is a more efficient and sane option in Colombo, where roads are always congested). Also, I tried to sticking only to 3 home cooked meals, instead of eating out or having junk food as fillers. When it comes to buying stuff, I avoided making impulsive decisions and concerned more on the quality than the price. Paying more for the quality ensured less troubles and long term use.
What are my goals for 2012? I shall continue on the starts I got in 2011. I want to keep raising my bar.