Do I believe in luck?

I never used to believe in luck. Afterall, I am a firm believer of 'We create our own destiny' and ' 'We reap what we sowed'. However, I have a spate of unfortunate events that has led me to think otherwise.

The first occurred whilst I was driving to work. The black car in front of me jammed his brakes, leaving me little reaction time to jam my brakes on the right most lane of the expressway. I could not have done anything to stop my car from kissing his butt, as I hit my brakes immediately. Whilst he apologised initially for executing such dangerous moves, he still proceeded to claim against me. What an ass-hole he is - pretending to nice and apologetic whilst stabbing me with a 5K claim for a minor dent on his rear bumper.

Thereafter, I was on the receiving end of a 4-car pile-up. Thankfully, I was the 1st car, though it caused major inconvenience as I was severely late for work. With major inconveniences of having to log my report for these 2 accidents within a week, I reckoned that luck wasn't my side.

To add on to my woes, I received a $100 parking fine for parking at the loading bay - whilst paying my grandma a visit. For a mere 20 minutes of unloading my bag of CNY goodies, I received a fine that wasn't warranted. And to end off my day, the bottom of the rear bumper of my rented car was scratched as I headed for home.

I figured that luck wasn't on my side. I have been careful in most of the tasks I do, for e.g. I was more wary of my speed whilst driving, I was slow in maneuvering my car in and out of parking lots. But incidents like these made me wonder - maybe luck do exist and I just happened to be on the bad side of luck. The year of the Dragon is coming to an end. Maybe the year of the Snake will bring me to the other side of luck.

Review of my 2012 Resolutions

2013 did not start on a perfect note. That was because 2012 did not go as smooth as what I had planned for. I have carefully set out a long list for resolutions at the start of 2012. After much consideration, I have shortlisted and reviewed 16 key tasks to achieve in 2012 - ensuring that they are 'S'pecific, 'M'easureable, 'A'ttainable, 'R'elevant and 'T'ime-based. In short, I have ensured that my goals were S.M.A.R.T.

But old habits die hard. Resolutions are often written at the start of each year, only to be lost a month later in the midst of my busy life. I tried to change my old habit by (i) making my goals more relevant, (ii) being more task-oriented, (iii) printing & pasting my resolutions, (iv) attending a course on '7 Habits of Highly Effective People', and (v) writing down a weekly task list.

I have no past results to compare with. I could say that I have some success with my 2012 Resolutions. For a start, I am reviewing my resolutions so that I could have that scorecard that I so often dread to see. So here I go - my 2012 Resolutions' Report Card:

Maybe I shouldn't be so strict on myself. Afterall, I am now more conscious of what I have achieved in 2012.