Bill (葛威) » goal

New Year, New Decade, New Revolution

Bill — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:55:39 +0000

There are some slip ups my wife makes in English that really should become the new norm. “New Year’s Revolutions” is one of them. If your new year’s resolutions aren’t revolutionary then you clearly aren’t entering into the spirit of the occasion.

Photo by broocey

I’m a few days late with these, but the first working day of the year isn’t until tomorrow so I think I’m forgiven.

To be asked for help more.
On the morning of Jan 1st, I received an email from someone I didn’t know asking for help with a decision he was making. The very fact that I’d been asked made my day. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that being asked for help (and then providing it) made me happy.
To speak to people more.
I’ve never known why, but as I move down the hierarchy of communication (face-to-face, video, phone, IM, email), I skip from meeting face-to-face right over audio/video conferencing. I’d rather email/IM someone than speak to them on the phone. I’m going to make a conscious effort to change this. I’ll start here: Call me on Skype (launches skype)
To establish focus.
I always seem to have more projects than time. I’ve always assumed that this is because I spend to much time at (or travelling to) the office. As a result, I started a number of things in 2009 that are, as yet, unfinished. By breaking all new ideas down into mini projects I plan to focus on seeing each one through to completion, or to abandon it fully and not let it sit around in the background.
To live life in Chinese for a day.
The obvious place to undertake this challenge would be in China, but with no concrete plans to visit China this year, I’m going to have to work hard on this one. If I focus, there is no reason why I can’t do this in 2010. 加油！

And so there we have it. With all but the last of these, I’m breaking every rule in the book about setting measurable goals or objectives. However, I see these more as points of lifestyle rather than as things to be ticked off a list. I’ll leave it to you to judge whether these are revolutionary.

My 3 words for 2010 are: focus, need, communication

If you have similar goals I’d love to hear about them. You know what they say, “a problem shared is a problem halved.”

10km Isn't really that far

Bill — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:54:09 +0000

Every now and then I go for the occasional guilt-inspired jog. On average I approach my deathbed around the 3km mark and head home to collapse. Today though, something unusual happened, something so unusual that I just had to share it with the world. I set out at a steady pace, and told myself I wasn’t returning home until I’d hit 10km. And, to my complete surprise I made it, and actually enjoyed the process.

Click through to relive my run in just over 20 seconds.

For all you data lovers, the raw data behind the replay can be found here: My First 10km

Suggestions for my next goal are welcome in the comments.

The 3 P's: Practice Plan Progress

Bill — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:25:04 +0000

It has been just under two weeks since I was given my practice plan by Aggie at ChinesePod. With only a couple of hours to go before I jump on a plane and head to Beijing, I thought I’d make a few quick notes on my progress so far.

In terms of sticking to the plan (1 lesson every two days), I’m still on track. The pace seems to be reasonable for now and whilst it would be nice to cover more lessons, I feel it wouldn’t be possible to cover them in as much depth.

The lessons selected for my practice plan have been interesting. They relate to New Year celebrations, family and travel. All of these are relevant to my upcoming trip to China which is nice. There were a couple of lessons in the practice plan which I had already covered so I have switched these for some alternatives.

One area of the my study which I need to improve is in trying to work Chinese words and phrases into my daily life. I just haven’t been able to find an excuse (yet) to proclaim my burning desire to set of firecrackers in our garden. This is still an area where I feel I need to improve.

I had an interesting discussion with Larry the other day in which I identified two of my goals when learning Chinese. The first was to be able to go through a normal day and speak only Chinese, not a word of English. That might be some way off at the moment, but the second goal is probably more achievable: I’d like to write the occasional blog post in Chinese. To be honest, there is no reason I can’t start this now (see excuse below). Obviously I’m going to be restricted to simple sentences to start with but this would give me a chance to practice what I have been learning.

The next challenge I face is how to keep up with the practice plan as we travel around China. I’m unlikely to be able to stick to my schedule as I have no idea where I will be on any particular day. I have downloaded all the lessons just in case, but my instinct is to take a break from the schedule and try and make the most of being in China to use as much Chinese as I possibly can. I’m thinking of it as a chance to practice all I have learned so far.

So my action plan going forward is to:

Speak some Chinese in China
Keep a record of the words/phrases I learn whilst away
Write a blog post in Chinese each week (after I return)
Persuade Alicia to use more Chinese at home

In the meantime though, it’s time to chuck a few clothes in a bag (leaving lots of space for more shopping) jump on the train to Heathrow and prepare for the cold weather in Beijing. See you all when I return.