2019 at a glance

Have I been consciously avoiding blogging for more than a year? Probably. It’s hard to come back to a medium when the last few posts reminded you of a deep loss but oh well, it’s all about a new start isn’t it? 🙂

I’ve spent last Christmas in Japan and this Christmas, I am once again back in the land of the rising sun. But instead of working my ass off to submit a proposal over the holidays, I find this Christmas year much more relaxing and peaceful. A good time to reflect and think back on the achievements, milestones and projects in 2019

Let’s recap 2019:

On 8th Jan, I created a “Get my life in order list” (No, it is still not in order but I like to think my intention was there). Looking back, I’ve sorted out quite a bit and it comes to no surprise that my personal life goals took a backseat in 2019 which resulted in a huge sense of fatigue for me. 2019 started off with me on a disappointment note where I was ready and committed to be back in Singapore but alas, God has a different plan for me it seems.

Notable achievements in Jan:

  • Ski trip #1 – Japan Nozawa
  • Birth of Ellisha on 18th Jan 2019
  • SMU as a teaching mentor
  • Back and forth Singapore and HK

February: Month of traveling starting in exploring Geneva and onto London before the Isle of Wight. Back and forth in Singapore as well. Because my previous mind map was ridiculously high level, when the girls were over for hotpot, we took the opportunity to do another magic paper exercise. Basically, where do we want to be in 3 months, in 1 year, 5 years and in our lifetime. Looking back at that paper, I’ve probably accomplished about 50% of what I wanted to do and once again, it has been career and professional development focused rather than life-centric.

  • Ski trip #2 – Geneva Verbier
  • London and then IOW
  • Finally did an annual health checkup
  • Developed CM competency
  • Finalised Risk Competency Framework
  • Completed PROSCI course
  • Back and forth Singapore and HK

March: Spent 3 weeks in Japan to ski with Sam, before Tokyo for work, and onto Osaka on my own before meeting my family and going to Hokkaido with the little ones for more skiing.

  • Ski trip #3 – Japan Nozawa
  • Ski trip #4 – Japan Niseko
  • Back and forth Singapore and HK

April: Sam visits Singapore and we went to Superpark with the cousins, and then to Canada for Ed and Dre’s wedding. Stayed at Ram’s in Singapore where I was very tempted to get puppies.

  • Ski trip #5 – Canada Whistler
  • Back and forth Singapore and HK

May: Attended a facilitation course which kickstarted CV’s use of gamification and experiential exercises into our workshop offering. Since then, we have been enhancing our workshops through the use of exercises and activities that trigger deeper learning and reflection. Another resounding success for our May conference (booth disaster and crisis management) and this was the first time PARIMA ran a certification workshop.

  • Facilitation course
  • Learnt Bikablo from HN 2nd hand
  • Completed and created first workshop for PARIMA
  • Combined drawing with experiential activities in our NUS course
  • Singapore, HK, Manila

June: Did some spring cleaning by removing outdoor furniture. Learnt face painting at a volunteer thing in HK. Start of HK protests. Summer travels in Europe about 3 weeks for me again – London on my own for 1.5 weeks (with Franck and Kelvin), IOW Race, Back to London, Bol Croatia, Sailed on a boat for 5 days with Sam’s family in Milna before Ultra at Split.

  • Completed MSP Practitioner certification
  • Qualified for MBTI II
  • HK, Singapore, London, IOW, Bol, Milna, Split

At this point, I was seriously tired out. I was traveling too much, too long and without any real purpose behind it. Each trip I took seemed fun at first but it was relentless. It was too much doing and not enough of  being. 6 months in 2019 and I reached a breaking point where I was fatigued because I was everywhere and yet no where. There was no progress, only random flying. As much as I do enjoy the trips, it seemed symptomatic of a bigger issue.

July: Start of an extremely difficult conversation between HN and I on CV’s direction and our roles in it. Even more frustrating were the “coaching” sessions that completely jarred with my energy.

  • Trip within HK, Singapore, Manila
  • Ryan learns to ride
  • Franck, Eve, Kel visits HK! Yay!
  • First CV workshop in Philippines! I ran my very own solo team workshop.

Aug: Difficult conversations continue, amidst this, Sam completed his Tri relay and got really sick after that. Sis made the decision to move to USA at the end of 2019. This marked my ultimate “low” for 2019 where there were too many moving parts, too many unknown and still, very little progress. I made the decision to stop my travels for the month and stayed put in HK. I also made a decision to focus on my emotional and mental health so I signed up for the next available coaching course that has been on my mind ever since Ram recommended it to me.

Sep: More travels but feels more deliberate this time and doing things I want to do.  September was intensive but it didnt feel tiring. I guess I have finally stumbled onto something right.

  • Photoshoot for Alixir
  • Ji Teow’s 70th celebration in Singapore
  • Revamped CV’s website
  • Discovered the truth about Unicorns and Rhinoceros
  • Attended moon festival in HK
  • Malaysia Trip
  • Completed Co-Active fundamentals and got some clarity on some tough issues
  • Think I went HK-SG more than 4 times this month…
  • Also, experienced being a single mum house-sitting for my sis with 2 kids. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Totally see myself living such a life. Took the kids out to singapore science center and we had such a blast.

October: It was supposed to be a short project but what turned out to be a 2 weeks gig extended to a few months and I really have SP to thank. Being almost full time on a project in HK made me understand what was possible and what really gave me energy. And that was doing more change work, being able to be embedded in a setting and support. It was the environment of working in a team and being able to be out of the house everyday that gave it the difference but also added to my own energy and fueled me and made me loved being in HK even more. Yes, the protests were going on but it really did not disrupt much day to day. There were some hairy moments, we were constantly watching the news but overall, it still has not not soured our desire to be based in HK.

  • Hanoi for Jamie’s birthday (that was fun)
  • Start of healthy eating for Sam and Stace where I discovered there’s something called nutritional yeast, blacktrap molasses and date syrup….
  • Stacey makes Vegetable Lasagne
  • Scored my First full time HK project for CV and absolutely loved working with SP again.
  • Continued more friendly coaching sessions
  • Singapore for 3 days

November: Another intense month but again of trips of my own choosing. Did not neglect my exercise either and also witnessed first-hand how Sam can get stressed at work when we took a rather stressful trip to China at quite poor timing but still ended up enjoying ourselves.

  • Malaysia PARIMA conference
  • More full time work in HK
  • Milly visits HK!
  • Sam visits SG!
  • Couple trip to Guilin! Anniversary trip to the beautiful countryside where we cycled, hiked, bamboo rafted, watched the night show  and just submerged ourselves into a wuxia world of karst mountains.

December

  • CV does a workshop in Indonesia! Teamed up with Kel to deliver a joint workshop and it was such a great partnership and love working with him. I like the similarity and duality of our working styles – where we were able to be 60 to 70% aligned on what the objective was and a rough idea on how we want to do it and then 30% was dancing in the moment and being super present during the training.
  • Stacey completed Fulfilment CoActive coaching course and sharpened her life purpose, her values, her leader within, her allies and faced her saboteur!
  • Sam and Stace hosted an amazing christmas dinner
  • Tasting menu with Jia at Roganic
  • Secured a second contract with HK for 2020
  • Thailand for Wonderfruit festival – this was fantastic to experience. It brought so many fond memories from burning man and it was great to do it with the company we had. I truly loved this trip.
  • Back to Manila for another Workshop. The third overseas workshop I’ve secured for CV.
  • Sam and Stacey flies to Bali for 8 days for Christmas
  • Sam and Stacey flies to Japan to cross the new year

And that’s it! My 2019 started off crazy busy but in a distracted way and it ended off crazy busy but in a more intentional way. And my energy has been buzzing more towards the end of the year and I can’t help but feel I’m about to stumble onto something more exciting if I continue my journey this way. 🙂

So here’s looking forward to more good things in 2020.

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