Gary Love Share (Gary 愛分享)

Welcome to 2007. With all the exciting and fun countdown parties across the island, finally 2007 came and we are all one year older. What crosses your mind or does it make any difference after 2007 knocked on your door? It's a very good time to look back to the past and think foward for our future? Making New Year resolutions is one of the best ways to plan on the whole year and put it into practice. But it's funny, though. For people like me, it seems that the same resolutions just appeared on my list over and over again. Maybe it's like what our national father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, did. I can't make my resolutions happen until 10 time failures.

This year, I don't have many New Year resolutions. They are just as simple as the following:

1. Stay healthy & fit (as possible as I can)

This always tops my resolution list, which means it's the far and formost but not easy to realize. To stay healthy and stay in shape, I have to lose more than 10 kilograms this year. Let's just wait and see.

2. Spend more time with my family

2006 is an important year to me. It's a year to consolidate my jobs and to evaluate my competitiveness in the job field following a job change in 2005. During the bottom of the year, I spent more than 40 hours at work and kind of ignored my family in part. I don't find it right and comfortable. In 2007, I have to make the best of my time and set aside more time with my family. After all, without my sweet family, I wouldn't have accounted to very much. Home sweet home!

3. Save more money

Money is not everything, but money talks. For people over their thirties like me, sometimes financial burden really weighs us down now and then. Some people buy lottery tickets every week in the hope that they can be rich overnight. Others choose to be more practical and down-to-earth ( jot down every dime they spend). However, to my eye, saving money is not all about spending less. It should have much to do with investment. Unfortunately, it's all Greeks to me. It's beyond my head. So, this year, I won't take this issue too lightly. I might take some lessons or learn more from my friends who know the ins and outs in the field.

4. Work more professionally

Currently, IT and English-teaching are the two main fields that I am in. To be a professional, I have to know my advantages and disadvantages and make myself stand out in the job field. In English teaching, how to motivate students who are not highly-motivated will be the principal aim for this year. I was stressed out and pretty upset when students told me they were not into English at all, saying all they need is to pass the exam and graduate as scheduled. Sometimes it hit me whether my teaching method is too boring or dull, or whether they gave up on English long time ago. My friend told me I would never be a savior. What I could do is to save as many as possible. Or let me put it this way - to motivate as many as possible. Students don't have to like English or to be good at it. However, it's true that they can enhance their competitive edge if they can have a good command of English. As a teacher, I should try to let them understand this before they graduate. However, some of my friends talked me into the idea that I should focus more on those students who want to study or who haven't given up on English, rather than those who find English dull or useless. Well, maybe they are right. I have to figure this out in 2007 from my hands-on teaching experience. After all, from my perspective, most college teachers concentrate too much on their research and forget that one of their missions is to teach professionally.

4. Enjoy my life better

This is always my motto and philosophy. Work hard, play hard and enjoy my life more. Life is like a journey. Sooner or later, the journey will come to an end. However, a lot of people work hard every day and kind of get lost in the modern materialistic society. They don't know what they want, and they forget to pause for a while to take a walk, slow down a bit and appreciate the beauty of the journey. We are all like that. Or we have been there, done that. So, starting this year, I will remind myself of this and enjoy my life better. I do get a kick out of my job (teaching or IT). However, there are other ways of enjoying my life besides work, which are scuba diving, traveling, mountain climbing and music. I should do more of those in 2007.

5. Help others

After traveling to Cambodia, the Philippines, and Bali, I realized that a lot of people are suffering from poverty, hunger and illness. It's ironic that we talk about losing weight all the time right here in Taiwan, but on the other side of the world (or some areas in Taiwan), they don't even have enough food to stuff their faces. I'm always into NPOs or NGOs. There are a lot of NPOs or NGOs in Taiwan and they do help people in need a lot. Besides the monthly donation, maybe there are more that I can contribute my expertise to.

6. Learn new things

Last year, Spanish is one of the new things I learned. However, I almost forgot it already. It's a shame. This year, I might pick it up where I let off and sharpen it even more. After all, I'm always into Latin music. Every time when I listen to Latin music and some Spanish, I feel so excited. For me, Spanish = Passion = Love, the greatest things in the world. If possible, I'd like to learn how to play the guitar as I love singing so much. Not only that. I should go diving more this year so that my diving gears can "bring to life" again.

Those are my New Year resolutions for 2007. Hopefully I can make them come true. Otherwise, they will still appear on my list for 2008. What are your New Year resolutions? Here are some popular New Year resolutions. Check them out and see if they are one of yours. Most of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everybody!!!

http://www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml