Yow Kia

Initially I thought of blogging about the goals that I have achieved in year 2007 somewhere around 20 of December, which is towards the end of the year. However, as I was reading Jacklyn and Ming Chern’s blogs about their achievements in year 2007, I just couldn’t wait to start mine! By the way, I know Jacklyn and Ming Chern (He is also a Toastmaster) from an Internet Marketing course in Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group. I think now is also the right time to start as I will be away from Singapore from next weekend onwards. First place – go back to my hometown KL, second place – go to Batam for business trip, third place – go to Taiwan with my colleagues (it’s a company trip!), final destination – Singapore!

Achievements/ Things that I’ve done that I’m satisfied on:
Career:
i) I managed to change my career path from a Technical Engineer to a Sales Engineer with a better package in March!
ii) The appraisal that I’ve got was a pretty positive one. (I still don’t know how much my bonus is, but hopefully it’s a GOOD one!!!)
iii) My new boss told me that I might have a chance to develop new customers in the next year. (What I’m doing currently is to maintain existing customers. It’s a great process to learn about customer behaviour and sales process though.)
=> In this journey, I would like to thank my boss, my new boss, and my colleagues who have helped me in one way or another. Special thank to my bosses who entrusted me on what I was doing.

Toastmasters:
i) I was awarded as Competent Communicator in July after completing my ten projects.
ii) I was promoted as the President of The Frontier Toastmasters Club in July.
ii) The club website was successfully launched in July.
iii) I was crowned 2nd runner up in Division Z Humorous Speech Contest in October. (After fighting hard from Club Contest -> Area Contest -> Division Contest)
=> I really really want to thank my club exco members who have assisted me to build a stronger and better club. They are Jit Hwee, Suchi (currently in India), Cynthia, Sunny, Vijayakumar (My Club webmaster), Ruchi, Pei Fang. Of course, not to forget my great mentors who have helped me to get my first Division trophy – Ban Peng and Kin Fung (They are the pillars of Bradell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club). Also, the members from Bradell Heights Advanced Club, who have given me great comments for improvement.

Self-development:
i) I signed up for Internet Marketing course conducted by a great speaker, entrepreneur, internet marketer Stuart Tan (from Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group).
=> In this course, what I gained was not only the Internet Marketing knowledge but the positive mindset that we must possess in our life. It has changed my perception about blogging. I used to think that blogging is like writing a diary. But now, I treat blogging as a motivation for myself to move further. I have discovered that after you’ve shared on something, for example – a positive mindset, you will automatically have the responsibility to apply whatever you’ve shared in your life! I also got to know a few very positive people like Jacklyn and Ming Chern…

ii) I have cultivated the habit of reading books.
=> I used to buy books, but most of the time, I didn’t complete reading the book. Now, I read books about self-development, public speaking, positive mindset, entrepreneur…

iii) I consistently improve my English
=> I have learnt that speaking good English is very important for me in order to achieve my dream as a great speaker. I used to force myself to improve my English, but it didn’t last for long. Now, I’m enjoying the process of improving my English and it’s part of my daily routine.

iv) I signed up for an Advanced Toastmasters Club
=> Bradell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club journey is a great breakthrough for myself in Toastmasters Movement. This is a place where I meet great speakers and mentors like Ban Peng, Kin Fung and Benjamin.

iv) I signed up for a Japanese course
=> I used to have passion in learning Japanese. However, I stopped for two years because I had lack of motivation to continue. Now, I’m working in a Japanese Company. I think I can contribute more to the company if I can speak Japanese fluently. So, I requested my company to sponsor me for a Japanese course. The answer was YES! I’ve promised my big boss that I want to pass the JLPT 2 next year. (JLPT 2 is the second highest level of Japanese Language Proficiency Test.) I’ve got back my motivation to master Japanese.

v) I am on my way to maintain healthy lifestyle
=> I started off my healthy lifestyle program from waking up early to go jogging for 40 minutes every Monday to Friday.

Things that I am not satisfied on:
i) My Salsa dance
=> I signed up for Salsa class in April and I wanted to dance confidently by October. However, I have not given myself much time to practise and I’m still dancing badly. You must be thinking where I got so much time to do so many things. Yes, you are right! That’s the reason why I’m still a lousy dancer. Anyway, Salsa dance is not in my priority list. I think I will just let it be and progress slowly.

ii) Internet Marketing
=> I have been delaying to launch a website about self-development for months! I have also promised myself to launch an E-book in August. Now, it’s already December, I still haven’t started the editing of the book. I think I will start to allocate some time for this website starting from January 2008.

iii) My time management skill
=> I still don’t prioritize my tasks very well and got a lot of things delayed. I think starting from next year, I will follow straightly to the To-Do-List that I’ve created for myself daily.

iv) My impromptu speaking skill
=> I have promised myself that I must do more impromptu speeches but I was always afraid to take part. It’s all because of my self-created fear. Perhaps, I would take part in more impromptu speeches next year. After all, the more practice the better I would be!