New years resolution? Who needs them? The only resolution I’ve ever tried to stick to was to lose weight and maintain it. (I did it once though… just before grad pic picture taking). hehe..

Reading through my friend aileen’s blog on her new year’s resolutions, I thought hey if ever I will come up with my own set of so-called resolution for 2007 what will those be? Probably…

1. Diet.

It maybe the shortest significant word you’ll ever find in this blog but its definitely the hardest to achieve.

2. Prioritize.

Im not being snooty or anything but my sked is actually the hardest to manage. I once told a "friend" to let me know when he likes to meet up at least a week before the date he preferred so that I can adjust my sked for that week. He looked at me with a grin on his face as if I was joking. Bottomline, we never had the chance to meet again since he was busy and I was too and our skeds never matched.

I am made to accomplish and manage a lot of different things…some of these I do half heartedly, while some are results of my own decisions. Having a priority list will at least make these things look lighter to juggle.

3. Be in front of my computer before 7:30 am.

Oh yeah good luck to me! But promise I’ll try.

4. Patience. Patience. Patience.

This is actually my bread and butter. Patience gives me the edge over colleagues. To train my mind to practice this virtue might actually bring me to the height of my career. So more patience, less complaint.

5. Forgive and forget.

I’ve read an email about a kindergarten teacher who is teaching her students the significance of forgiving people who hurt them. Each child was told to bring one potato for every person they hate, and they have to carry it with them whereever they go. Naturally, the more they carry, the heavier the load, the longer they carried those potatoes, the more they are exposed to the rotten smell. Ergo, unload those potatoes for a lighter and good smelling you.

Who needs rotten potatoes anyway? I’ve thrown them out already. But when I say forgive and forget… Forgiving then forgetting the offender. What’s the use? Thinking about these people, much more associating with them might just rekindle things which will make you carry those smelly root crops all over again. So I throw them out and forget that they exist. Clean and simple.

6. Spend less save more.

Shopping, eating out, karaoke night outs with friends, coffee worth P120.00 per cup, accessories, shawls — these are the material things and activities that add color to life but they drain my resources as well. Somehow, I’ll find a way to enjoy more without spending too much. This is actually as difficult to achieve as losing weight. hehe

7. Sharpen those existing skills and talents and acquire new ones.

Just to maintain a balance between my expertise and weaknesses.

The testing whether resolutions are actually achievable or not begins right about now. Lets see shall we? ;-P

I found this article/blog in our Company’s Online Homepage, we call OUR PLACE. Its interesting to realize how people actually voice out their sentiments and you just find yourself smiling and slightly nodding in agreement.

Aileen, Cats, Tere…and for the rest of you who can read this, what do you think?! Ü

Relationship Resolutions for 2007

At 27, I found myself standing on a Manhattan sidewalk, staring into the scruffy face of yet another huge dating disaster. Lied to, mistreated and cheated on, I’d been publicly humiliated. My ego was crushed. Having loved and lost again, I felt frustrated, beaten down and so very tired of this thing called love. And I was full of the why-me’s.

Why didn’t he love me? Why did this happen to me? Why does this always happen to me?

Several weeks after my breakup, the pity party was still in full swing. Lying on my living room sofa, in a mess of soggy tissues and gooey Fudgsicle sticks, I was spending the umpteenth consecutive night communing with Netflix and my misery. It was ugly. But then, right in the middle of all that feeling sorry for myself, something pretty amazing happened: I heard a song. Actually, it was just one line from a song:

"It’s not going to stop ’til you wise up."

It was a line from Aimee Mann’s "Wise Up," and after hearing the song just once, I made it my anthem. I downloaded it to my iPod, hit repeat and then commuted to it, cried to it, showered to it… until the day I was ready to do some actual wising up. I had learned from my experience, but it took my listening to those lyrics, articulated in just the right way, before I understood it.

Bad relationships didn’t just happen to me. I allowed them to happen.

And it was time to put a stop to it. I would set boundaries — a set of relationship resolutions — for myself and for those I spent time with, and I would stick to them.

I will learn to say "next!"

Plain and simple, the world is full of men. Everywhere you turn, there’s a man. Look — there goes one now! A wise woman once told me that men are like city buses: If you miss one, there will always be another. I decided that, from now on, I would not assign any man too much meaning too early on. I am not going to worry that I won’t find "it" again. I will not worry that I’ll end up in a rocking chair surrounded by cats and empty wine bottles. I will remember that there will always be another.

I will expect more and tolerate less

Not all men are self-loathing, egocentric, cheating bastards. In fact, most people have a lot more good to them than bad, and by and large, will live up to the expectations you set for them. Not since junior high have I worried that a friend would hurt or disappoint me. But with men, it’s been a constant fear. I realized that this was all because of expectations. If I did not expect — or even demand — that a man treat me right, he probably wasn’t going to. I’m not talking about princessy stuff here, like buying me dinner or calling by Tuesday if he wants to see me on Saturday. I’m talking about basic good treatment. Like following through with plans. Or being aware of my feelings. Or not leaving his cell phone on another girl’s nightstand and telling me he’d lost it. You know common consideration. And when common consideration is breached? Next!

I will get busy

Because men are wired differently and may as well live in a different time zone, playing the "why hasn’t he called?" game is a guaranteed express trip to Crazytown. Why hasn’t he called? Who knows? But I do know that I should be too busy to worry about it. Untapped potential was like my emotional saddlebags — unattractive even if no one noticed it but me. I resolved to make plans, resurrect my hobbies and spend my time doing and thinking and being. If he calls, great! If not, I will be way too occupied with all my fabulous self-fulfillment to notice.

I will not play it cool

To keep myself from feeling exposed and vulnerable, I’d gotten very good at using the phrase "that’s okay" when it was really, really not okay. There were so many times I didn’t get angry when I should have, for fear of coming off as too emotional or unhinged. Well, you know what? Unhinge this! If the situation calls for it, and the difference between sucking it up and having a bit of a blowup could be months of festering in a foul mood, I’m going to let him have it. The same goes for positive emotions. If a man does something to delight me, I’m going to act delighted. Forget cool sophistication! And if he gets weirded out by all of my emoting? You guessed it: Next!

I will lighten up

The pursuit and maintenance of coupling may have made me do surprising things, but even more astounding was what it made me forget. I am pretty damn awesome. I am funny and talented, and I look pretty smokin’ in jeans and stilettos. Getting caught up in the worry of trying to please a man, and working overtime to postpone an inevitable breakup is a huge time-waster. And a killjoy. A man’s opinion of me is not more important that my own opinion of myself, so I shouldn’t take it so seriously. I will remember to laugh more, worry less and like who I am — man or no man — and to redirect some of that energy into pleasing myself.

Unlike New Year’s resolutions, which last only as long as my dieting attention span (six weeks max), my Relationship Resolutions have become ironclad. They’ve become a safety net and are a constant reminder that I don’t need to second-guess myself or feel insecure. By wising up and following my resolutions, I might spend more time by myself than I did in the past. But on the upside, I’ve discovered that I like the company a whole lot more.

Heather Hunter writes the iVillage blog ThisFish.

A few hours ago, I was with my good friend Aileen at the Coffee Bean in GB3. I was suppossed to help her mend a certain "thing" she just realized last night. With this goal in mind, I didn’t expect that we are actually opening a new world of possibilities.

Suddenly someone became a "guru" and another became an eager and aspiring "businesswoman". hehe =P

Don’t worry girl, everything will turn out ok. Why don’t we sked another "meeting" and talk business? haha… Im sounding like someone I know from the not so distant past, whom, by the way, I really really have a huge crush on. (haha aminin ba daw dito?)

Smile sis!  Ü

Be careful with what you wish for. Exactly a month ago, I began to develop a very irritating back muscle pain which I got from being a juggler of so many different things for the entire 2006. That day I promised myself that on 2007, I will stop being a "batang bibo".

However, the Bible says, "Many are the plans in a man’s heart but its the Lord’s purposes that prevails". How true… That very same day I was elected to lead a group of young adults in our church. A task, or better yet an opportunity that will keep me on my toes for the entire year. So ok, I wholeheartedly accepted that responsibility from the Lord, but it didn’t stop there.

Recently, my family, spearheaded by my auntie noris, planned a big birthday celebration for my grandma on May 18 for her 80th birthday. The preparation, research, and other related tasks will probably take 5 months to be completed. Grabe, parang wedding to! This now becomes my first big event for the year. Then again, I said ok, for the love of my family esp. Amma.

Then I suddently got requests for designs for souvenir tags for my inaanak’s first birthday, then another one for invites for a friend’s sister. Then I remember Ate kay and I still have to prepare for our Summer Bazaar on March which means we will have to go to places to scout for pretty things to sell.

Bottomline, I am just on my first month of 2007 and my wish for a non-busy life to relax my aching back muscles just went down the drain.

You see, you just can’t plan for tomorrow. You want one thing and fate/life/God’s will may bring you another. I guess with all the days ahead of us, with so many things to accomplish, you just have to say "bring it on" as we give our faith and trust to Him who knows where he is leading us to.