Reflections On Another Year #2

This year on my birthday I was having a birthday dinner with some of my friends, including a surprise appearance from my best friend John all the way from Dashwood! And since I recently resurrected my blog, I had the presence of mind to check out last year's review and think about how I felt around this time a year ago. Well, the feelings are similar, namely that I've done a lot of things. But this year I feel like I've developed as a person more than I did last year. Part of that has been by going through difficult experiences too. And that's one part of me that has developed -- the ability to admit my issues more readily and also to learn from my so-called negative experiences. I think one often grows more through things that hurt than through those clear successes in life. So this year, I'll review not just the good stuff.

Good stuff:

• Submitted my final Professional Engineers Ontario licensing application to PEO (the processing begins in February)
  
• Undertook significant new projects and more management responsibilities at GM
  
• Bought my first major non-mobile purchase: my house (I am now renting my house to a family, and they're really nice!)
  
• Broke my land speed-driving record (yes, 227 km/hour on the Autobahn is faster than last year) in a Mercedes E-Class
  
• Wrote 2 more pretty good songs
  
• Organised a small but successful campaign to raise money for orphans in India
  
• Started dating someone really cool who lives near me
  
• Started playing live jazz with my duo/trio at swing dancing nights
  
• Became the Musical Director for the musical Godspell, which my church is putting on

Hard stuff:

• I broke the heart of someone I really cared about
  
• My best friend, John, was in a major accident
  
• I witnessed my extended and immediate family enter into conflicts that strained our relationships and caused a lot of hurt
  
• I learned to accept that I have issues

Things that I've learned:

• Although difficult to admit to yourself, sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is to remove yourself from their life
  
• You can be completely financially organised by spending 2 hours a month on it
  
• In many arguments, you can be right or you can be happy, its up to you
  
• You can love someone even if you disagree with them or don't understand them
  
• If you are offended by something, it is often because you are insecure about something
  
• Love does not always conquer practicality
  
• Not deciding something is a decision in itself, and usually its a bad decision (I'm relearning this one again and again)
  
• Seeing a counsellor/therapist is great way to improve yourself (I'm planning to do this)
  
• Your self is made up of your feelings more than your thoughts
  
• The drive from Windsor to Toronto feels a lot longer than I used to remember

Procrastinators Unite! Just not quite yet!

Took me long enough to get another entry out. Fittingly, lets talk about procrastination. I saw the best headline in a newspaper yesterday at work. (No I wasn't reading the newspaper at work... it was someone else's and I stopped to take a look, okay?) Anyway, the headline read "Procrastination Study Complete -- 5 years late", and since it was an apparently reputable newspaper, I thought it deserved another look, as I've been making jokes along those lines for years. As it turns out, more and more people are considering themselves to be "chronic procrastinators", and the basic reason is there are too many distractions and things to help you procrastinate along the way. I did find another article about the same study too.

I don't see myself as a chronic procrastinator, although you may disagree. When I do procrastinate, I find that I have a different reason, though. After having thought about it, the desire to complete the task perfectly prevents me from starting it because there isn't enough time. Of course, I realise that not starting it also prevents me from perfecting the result, so it must be some sort of mental block.

The perfect example of me not procrastinating is this particular blog entry, since I only read the article yesterday and am writing this a day later (and posting it the next day). However, a perfect counterexample is the length of time since my last post, but I can just blame it on the desire for a really good post. Personally I don't think it was worth the wait, but at least I'm back on the blog again! So leave a comment... whenever.
Daniel