5 Habits I Hope To Cultivate In 2018

The first month of 2018 is coming to an end soon, so I thought now would be a good time to re-evaluate my “New Year Resolutions” again to remind myself, before moving forward for the rest of the year.

I didn’t actually set any “New Year Resolutions” this year, but rather it’s more of a “productive mindset” which I hope to cultivate and make a habit out of.

I think I speak for most people when I say that I’m guilty of talking too much and not putting any of my thoughts into action. If we spend half the amount of effort we put in thinking about these “what ifs” into actual action, we would all be at least 10 times more productive. Ideas are overrated. Ideas are worthless. Ideas are non-existent. Having a good idea nowadays gets you absolutely nowhere if you don’t put in the work behind it. And majority of us are spending too much time thinking and talking about it, when the focus should be on executing.

Whenever you come up with a good idea, you start by doing research, thinking of ways to improvise and “perfect” the plan, and then you stop. Imagine if you were to take a different approach, and to implement it directly right after you come up with the idea. Sure, it wouldn’t be “perfect”, but at least it’s something tangible rather than “just an idea”.

In today’s world, it can be so easy to lose track of yourself and put up a “fake front” so that you can be more likeable or to fit into groups. People get caught up with getting others to like them, rather than them liking the version of themselves. In the short run, it pays out. But over time, you get tired of being someone you are not, and there will always be this urge to break out and be the true self you always wanted to be. But if you do that, you’re afraid that people will judge you for this “new” personality. And if you don’t, you spend the rest of your life thinking about the “what if”.

Most people never meet the right kind of friends right away and they feel that the only option they have is to adapt accordingly to their surroundings and become someone they are not so that they can fit in. There are so many people in the world, and I do believe that there is a huge group of people out there just like you and me. And we will never find them by pretending to be someone we are not.

This is a realisation that I discovered recently, and I think is something a lot of people have not seem to realise yet. People are obsessed with results, obsessed with where they would like to end up, but no one actually puts in much thought about the process you are going to take to get there. The destination is only 1% of the journey and the process is 99%. If you are not in love with the 99% but choose to obsess with the 1%, is it really worth it?

The process is where you spend almost all your time in. People tend to make the mistake of seeking happiness in the destination, instead of the process, and that is why being happy most of the time often seems like such an impossible task.

No matter what you choose to do, there will always be downturns and you will always fail. A lot of people have this fantasy expectation of trying to find the most smooth-sailing path possible. It doesn’t exist. People tend to try avoiding failure and close their eyes to the possibility of failing until it’s right in front of them – and they get crushed by it.

Someone can be making $10K a day and would think that he is an utter failure when he drops to $1K a day. My point is, failures are inevitable wherever you go. What goes up must come down. Different people have different perception to what failing is, and everyone at some point in time will always feel that they are failing.

Instead of letting fate decide your failure, choose your favourite way to fail. Think about how you would like to fail and seek for ways to make that happen. Controversial to what people think, failing is actually good for you. It is how we learn and grow. By choosing your own path to failure, it will be so much easier and enjoyable when the time comes that you have to go through it.

As much as the phrase “be open-minded” is shared so much all over the internet for the past few years, most people are actually not as open-minded as they would like to think. Two people can have different opinion about the same thing and still coexist together harmoniously. Same goes for the rest of the world.

People like to put themselves in unnecessary arguments just to prove that they are “right” about something. Sometimes they are. But most of the time, it’s really just two different opinions on the same issue and it just comes down to who is the better speaker. Proving that you are the better speaker doesn’t make you more “right” than the other person. And being “right” about something really doesn’t mean anything most of the time.

2018 for me is a year of self-exploration, putting myself through different experiences and finding out more about my beliefs and passion to supplement the future to come. After all, life is more about a constant battle with yourself rather than anyone else. Life is about making progresses, learning, and growing. Life is a lifetime process.

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