Well I’ve been away, haven’t I?
The last few months has been quite intense for me career wise. I had to focus on work and just had no time to blog because I didn’t have the mental space to do it. But I’m back!
Well, in summary, 2019 has been a challenging year for me. Let me count the ways:
Career
2019 was, by far, one of the most intense years I’ve ever had in my career. I’ve never learned so much in my life!
In fact, the learning curve had been so steep that on numerous times, I wondered why I even left the safe box of my journalism career to embark on a career change. The transition was more difficult than I had ever imagined – it was full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and sometimes I wasn’t sure where I’d end up.
But here I am, ending 2019 in a field that I’ve always wanted to work in since 2012: Content marketing.
As an in-house content marketer, I write, edit and plan a variety of content assets such as white papers, ebooks, video scripts, social media posts, infographics and more. The huge variety of content types keeps me actively engaged and the fact that my company serves nearly a dozen industries means that there will no end to me learning about new stuff – yay me! I’m looking forward to still climbing that steep learning curve in 2020. Learning, as they say, never ends.
Health
Due to the stress of the last few years, I have fallen off the intermittent fasting wagon. Not completely – I still do practice IF. But my diet has been less than stellar. My body has always been carb sensitive, and sugar and bread was my de-stressing drug of choice. As I endured my turbulent year, I ate more carbs and sugar and the weight started piling on. Alas, I’ve gained 10 kilograms from the time I wrote my post about losing weight with intermittent fasting.
I decided not to blame myself. I managed the best I could under the circumstances but am aware that I need to change my go-to method to de-stress. There are very real health consequences with weight gain, so I want to begin 2020 with better health habits such as exercising three times a week and ditching the sugar once and for all.
Minimalist lifestyle
I am falling more deeply in love with the minimalist lifestyle. Simple living gives me incomparable comfort and joy; there’s something very satisfying and serene about living with less things.
And it’s not just about having clutter-free homes. When you adopt a minimalist mindset, stuff no longer controls you — you no longer feel the pressured to keep up with the Joneses anymore because you’ve discovered something better.
Still, minimalism isn’t always about living cheap. It’s about spending money on what you truly value. In 2018, I embraced lifestyle creep by renting out a RM2,000 studio. I enjoyed the heck out of that gorgeous studio with the stunning view of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.
However, I am now happily sharing an apartment with someone again. My rent is now a mere 15% of that figure and it’s really nice to funnel that extra money to investments.
Finance
With other parts of my life being so overwhelming, I’ve been on autopilot when it came to my finances.
Fortunately, I had a brief break between jobs this year and managed to sort out a few things:
- Renewed my medical insurance. (I had not renewed my medical insurance for well over a decade and my lifetime limit was a scary RM100,000!)
- Rebalanced my investment portfolio. I made an appointment with the EPF Retirement advisory service and realised that the EPF money that I had parked in unit trusts did not perform better than EPF dividend rates, so I shunted all of it back to EPF, probably giving my unit trust agent a fit of despair as a result.
- Got online access to my EPF, investment portfolios for easy monitoring. For years I’ve been guessing how much I’ve earned and lost. When I finally checked my accounts, it was a rude shock.
I’ve also been autopiloting my savings, shunting them to fixed deposits because I had no idea what to do with the money. One of my top goals for 2020 is to learn more about investing so that I can invest in more investment instruments such as stocks, REITs, robo advisors and peer-to-peer lending.
Creativity
I barely did anything with my novels and books. My books are languishing on Amazon, unpromoted, alas. I feel rather sad and embarrassed about it, and feel that I have let my novels down — almost.
Next year, I want to publish:
- The second novel of my science fiction series
- The memoir about my time in Australia
Goodbye, friends
Several acquaintances of mine passed away this year. One of them was Yvonne Foong, who passed away after a life-long battle with Neurofibromatosis Type II. Yvonne was an author and speaker who campaigned hard to raise awareness of the disease.
Yvonne and my other friends’ passing makes me reflect once more about how short our lives are, and how our time on Earth is really a gift. (If you recently went through a hard time or lost a loved one, the counsellors at BetterHelp can make the tough times easier to bear.)
We really need to treasure our time here and be a blessing to the world during our time here.
So, as 2020 dawns upon us let us keep that in mind.
Our life is precious. Let’s make every day count. If you need to make a change to create a better life for yourself, do it – it may be uncomfortable, but change is worth it.
This post is sponsored by BetterHelp.
Elizabeth Tai 