Year-end Review

As year-end approaches, I begin my reflection for 5 important roles that I hold.

My role as an employee…

• My significant contributions have been quick turn-around problem solving and new initiatives to fine tune our Business users’ processes.
• My growth in terms of knowledge acquiring seemed to be plateauing after 3 years+ working on the small-medium application system in this company.
• My greatest accomplishment for this year is implementing an automated process to enable our Business users to save cost for all future location code creations on the system.
• It was also a great opportunity for me to visit our Business users in Thailand and Hong Kong earlier this year. It was nice for me to be able to put a face to the voices of these people whom I’ve always worked with through the phone only.

Areas of improvements:

• Continue to contribute more on the leadership level.

My role as a son…

• My relationship with my mum continues to be the same. This year I gave her a surprise of her life by giving her a 29” TV as her birthday gift (co-sponsored by my sis).
• Knowing how little time she has with her granddaughter, I invited her to join us in our family trip to PD earlier this year.
• Even though she don’t need my giving financially to her, I always try to allocate a portion of my annual bonus for her as a sign of my gratitude to her.
• My relationship with my dad is somewhat the same with a little improvement, I guess.
  Some time this year, I managed to invite him to meet with me, SL and my sis to talk about some problems he was supposedly having with my mum and it turned out well.

Areas of improvements:

• Making frequent phone calls to find out how my parents are doing.
• Organise more family meet-ups to bond relationships.

My role as a dad…

• I’m happy to see the “sticky” NN-Mum bond loosening up and NN-Dad bond tightening up. There’s more balance now.
• We’ve taught her to give thanks for food and she has reminded me whenever I forget.
• We’ve encouraged her to pray for anyone who is not well and she has prayed for us voluntarily whenever NN2 or we’re not well.
• We’ve not spared the rod when it comes to disciplining.
• We’ve been generous in expressing our love and positive reinforcements for her and she has picked that up as well with kisses and hugs for me every morning before I leave for work.
• I’ve put together a plan for the kids’ future educations.

Areas of improvements:

• Help NN to be generous with others when playing together.
• Continue to guide her in God’s ways.

My role as a husband…

• All aspects of my relationship with my wife seemed to be good
• We’ve always been communicating a lot.
• We’ve dealt with conflict more maturely now.
• I supported her decision to become a full-time homemaker.
• I’ve shared her load of chores at home.
• I’ve given her time-outs away from the little ones to “catch her breath”.
• I’ve remembered all major date events (birthdays, anniversary, etc).
• I’ve put together a plan for our retirement.

Areas of improvements:

• Have dates together without the kids.

My role as a Christ-follower:

• My first year as a lay member after serving in the council for 4 years.
• I’ve learned to persevere as a LG leader and pick my “battles” wisely and not get too worked up when things don’t go the way they should.
• Lately, I’m struggling with my faith because I want to give myself a stronger reason why I’m a Christian.
• Participated in Rumah Hope event in TTDI Park but still believe more can be done beyond the surface and church level activities. Some people can “hide” behind these activities and claim to have done something but I crave for something deeper and yet need to deal with my own struggles.
• After being a Christian for some time, I struggle with the metaphoric and pragmatic sides of the faith.

Areas of improvements:

• Continue to listen to and act upon His convictions.
• Learn to care more.
• Read more.