Hi it's me again!!! Who am I even talking to? Actually maybe the fewer readers the better cos I can just write whatever I want.
Anyway it's the time of the year again! Let me list some of the things that I'm proud of.
- Lost 10 kg
- Got a lot better at lab work
- Read at least 14 books
Wait that's all? Btw I'm still in the same job after 4 years, so skip this post if you are looking for career switch advice.
Ok la let me describe the events that led to those achievements.
Lost 10 kg (From Jan - Jul 2024)
I had a gym buddy for the first 2 months of the year, and our starting goal was to lose 5 kg (per person). So every Wednesday we would go to the gym after work, and we were not supposed to eat after workout, then usually I just be like ok lor don't eat. But then he often found reasons to eat dinner, like to commemorate our first/last gym session of the month, to celebrate losing 2 kg, treat dinner after winning 4D. Ofc I went along with it cos I also liked to eat HAHA.
Also he said he would buy me a pair of cheap wireless earphones if I lose 5 kg, cos I kept losing the ones I bought lol.
But one day he was gone ah, like forever, so our promise to eat Sushiro the next Wednesday never happened.
Ya then I was damn sad and shocked. What to do? Suddenly a random colleague near my house asked me to run along the canal downstairs so I started running. In the first 2 months, I often cried after finishing the target distance(~3km), cos the sadness only surfaced when I could actually breathe xD. Running was one of the daily activities that kept me from spiraling into despair, maybe cos you can't feel despair when struggling to breathe. I also ate a lot less la, cos I low key trying to see if the earphones gonna happen if I really lose 5 kg. But nope, still no free cheap wireless earphones 10 kg later.
I was still using my wired earphones until December this year, when my phone kept showing the alert 'moisture detected' when I plugged it in. The same alert appeared when I plugged in a new pair of earphones. So I just took it as a sign to not be so stubborn and bought a wireless one lol. xD
Oops I digressed. So how did I lose weight?
At first I only ran and eat less. Then I realised I no strength to even close my lab's vehicle's door. So I went to random gyms and did some dumbbells to build muscles. Also ate 7 eleven chicken breast and 0 sugar soy milk.
Where did I get my motivation?
To distract myself from emotional pain by inflicting physical pain caused by running and muscle aches.
How to be so disciplined to exercise 5 days a week?
Oh you underestimate what humans can do to escape from reality. That's why people take drugs. But I no cool friends so I dunno where to buy drugs so I can only run and cry and sweat.
Define your Eat Less?
For the first few months I had a packet of The Future Food each for breakfast and dinner, and my usual portion for lunch. So people didn't realise I was trying to lose weight since I was eating my usual big plate of caifan for lunch. -purposely be sneaky about it-
How sustainable is this?
Afterwards I got less sad so the discipline also drop drop drop like grapes soooo my weight stopped decreasing, but it didn't increase either! (phew for now at least)
Got a lot better at lab work
I mentioned last year that the person I wanted to impress got pulled out of lab. The reason why I wanted to impress her was cos she knows everything in the lab, so getting her recognition probably meant I'm good enough. The funny thing is that my skills and knowledge shot up after she left. Mostly because I had to do a lot of things on my own now, and mistakes and struggles helped me to learn a lot more than hand-holding.
My confidence increased when I learnt more, and I also started to trust my learning process and learnt even more quickly. Oh I'm still clumsy but I'm confidently clumsy since my dexterous colleagues can cover for my clumsiness.
And I also stopped trying to hold back. Instead of worrying about whether the things I said were correct when talking to my boss, I just said/did them and see what happened. Cos the worse thing that could happen is to get scolded or laughed at if I say something wrong, but I won't ever learn if I said nothing. My boss would also assume I knew nothing if I did nothing.
Oh wow it worked better than expected cos my boss started to laugh at my jokes and tried to understand what I wanted to say. Can tell that she actually listened and wanted to know my opinions and thoughts this year!! Some background here: I was damn rebellious last year cos it felt like she didn't care what I was doing or my progress, so I decided to not show her anything I knew cos she wouldn't appreciate it anyway. (yaya career suicide)
The more confident I look, the more stuff my boss handed me and I learnt more different things. So it's a virtuous cycle! Actually this is supposed to be common sense lol but I no common sense.
Read 14 books
Soooo my boss' boss started lending me books 2 years ago and I read 11 books last year and 14 books this year. I think reading books also distracted me from overthinking, and I learnt a lot of things that I would never think of learning before reading those.
So what did you learn from the books?
- Sometimes being successful only meant you are lucky, not that you are doing the right things. So we need to be able to differentiate between luck and skill, and have the discipline to keep doing the right things despite setbacks(bad luck) -The Biggest Bluff
- We can only get better by doing stuff we are not qualified to do. -The Diary of a CEO
- Even the government and international organisations make dumb mistakes. -War/Spy books (Russians among us, Ghost Wars, The triple agent)
- Everything becomes more exciting and precious when death is close. - Marie Colvin books
Where do you find the time/motivation to read those books?
Motivation ah? My stalker tendencies lorrrr, btw I read most of the books twice and wrote a book review for each one HAHA
Time ah? Err read on phone, read on train, read books instead of scrolling tiktok. My stalking obsession propelled me to keep reading. :3
Then my boss' boss gave me his old kindle with 200 (and still increasing) books inside. Wa it's like the ultimate stalking device sia!!! First time I got more material to stalk than I can handle lol. Ya I so happy hehe.
Ok how about more random stuff I did
- Plotted lots of random graphs at the start of the year
- Watched lots of TV shows and movies (award winning ones!!)
- Wrote many many meeting minutes cos I was the minutes writer for 2 monthly meetings
- Shed lots of sweat and tears
- Got promoted
- Half-assed through half of The Odin Project - Foundations, cos I wanted a career switch (oh what's new for me)
- In the middle of the sem for a specialist diploma in Data Science (Artificial Intelligence)
- Volunteered tuition for 2 students
- Taught paid tuition for another 2 students
- Went around taking photos of 50+ colleagues, designed shirts, keychains, lanyards, caps for everyone.
Sometimes it feels like I'm not actually a chemist, not complaining tho!
Feels like I improved a lot, but it was because of what happened that made me stop caring so much about what people think of me. Cos nothing can compare to that hopelessness I felt. Things can change as long as I am alive, so what's the worse that could happen? IDK I would probably sound immature if I read this a year later, but that's for the future me to worry about.
Oh now I'm casually flipping through the book Range, and I just finished the book War.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I KNOW I GONNA LEARN STH NEXT YEAR REGARDLESS OF WHETHER 2025 GETS BETTER OR WORSE.
