5 Things I Want to Be Better At

Inspired by Anastasia's original blog post here.

1) Read more books. I guess this isn't much of a brainer for a lot of people out there who personally know me. I love books and reading but lately, I haven't made that much progress. I used to read one or two books a week, and if I was in an extra reading-bookish mood, I can squeeze an entire book in a day. I think one of the reasons why I've been sluggish with reading is because of my current book options - they're mostly classic literature and if you haven't picked up books in a while, your "reading stamina" as I would say, might not be able to take something that heavy. 

So I've resorted to a friend's recommendation and started reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Still quite a heavy book for someone who just started reading again but the language is fairly easy to follow, I'm past 100 pages already and I think I can keep on going. I've come to realise that once you start reading this book, it's very hard to drop it. Another plus point is, reading helps me to slow down by mind a little, just enough to lull me to sleep!

2) Be better at shopping. I LOVE shopping, be it online or getting out there visiting one shop to another. When it's particularly about makeup like eyeshadows, lipsticks and blushes, or pretty blouses and shirts, you can bet that I can browse around the product aisles for hours. Despite the the thrill of indulging myself in this hobby now and then, I have the worst knack for picking and purchasing the wrong products. It could be buying the wrong lipstick or foundation shades, a blouse or a pair of jeans that are one or two sizes too big, and by far the most annoying, buying some products just merely days before important sales and promotion dates. 

However, since I've mostly been at home because of the pandemic, I'd resort to online shopping which allows me to really, really take my time to research on the stuff I need before pressing that "pay" button to purchase. I'm growing to be an extra picky person when it comes to shopping but at least, at the end of the day, I usually don't regret the things that come in the mail.

3) Take better care of myself. I've been quite good at maintaining a reasonable amount of food portion in every of my meals, despite being in self-quarantine at home with irresistible food temptations everywhere. Other than that and my determination to do light exercises every day, I'm still far away from really keeping myself healthy and in good shape. I sit in front of my laptop all day for work and if I'm not behind my desk, I'm nose deep in my phone and games. Other days when I want to head to sleep, my mind stays wide awake -  thinking of the things I needed to do the next day, replaying the events that happened or mindlessly reading an article on my phone. I guess until the year ends, I want to work on myself especially with strategically manage on getting myself to fall asleep more easily.

4) Stop caring about everything and everyone who don't matter. One not-so-good habit of mine is to put so much energy into caring what others might think about me. Sometimes, in healthy amounts, it's good to know people's opinions about ourselves especially if there's actually aspects we should improve on. However, there are just some things that are out of my control which I let myself think that I'm not good enough because I feel like I can't compete with someone who is much "better". There are days when I look at myself and think, "Wow, look at how far you've come from that gawky, nerdy kid a couple of years ago. You've achieved so much and it's almost hard to believe that this is still me." and on other days, I don't see myself as someone who has succeeded in anything. It's even worse when I allow other people's words to get to me when it shouldn't. In the long run, I hope to give myself more credit for all that I've done because life has never been easy for me and everyone, yet I'm surviving through it all.

5) Write in ways I thought I can't. I've created a lot of blog posts and articles, yet I'm always trying to refine my writing style. In my opinion, I've still yet to find a style that "speaks" of me. Everybody has one but I'm trying to figure out which one brings my voice out more!

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So, what about you? What are some of the things you hope to be better at? Do let me know!