Well hello there, blog. It's been a while. There are so many things I'd like to write down but when I'm staring at my blank screen, my mind goes blank as well. Anyway, let's see what we can write under this topic of what I'm looking forward to in 2023.
My 2023 officially started on 2 January as I landed at the DFW Airport from Dubai. I came from a two-week vacation with the whole in the UAE. I had a four-hour layover at Frankfurt and I killed time by reading the book, Grit, by Angela Duckworth. It's a good book, well-written, and packed with primary evidence on hailing grit as a consistent indicator of an individual's success in life. I reminisced all the hardships I endured and the challenges I overcame to be where I am now. But I'm still uncertain if I'm really gritty or not. Aside from reading, I also walked around the airport (not really a good one) and did some stretches prior to boarding.
I had a lot of time to think in the whole 20+ hours of flying and waiting in airports from Dubai to Texas. One of the many thoughts I had was resolutions for 2023. In previous years, I feel a surge of excitement weeks prior the first day of the year, and this will be a sustained feeling until mid-January. It is during this time that I draw up plans and think of things that I look forward to within the year. For 2023 however, this excitement didn't well up in me. To quote my journal entry in my Supernote:
What is in store for 2023? I actually don't know.
I'm not sure if I'm excited...
it's because every day is an opportunity for me to improve, to fight.
New year need not happen to start something.
Am I excited for 2023?
So to answer the title of this post, what am I really looking forward to for 2023?
Well, I did write down some trivial hobbies on a personal level: 1) Continue learning French and Spanish in Duolingo; 2) Exercise 3-4x per week; and 3) Write in blog 2-3x per week. So far, 11 days in January, I've managed to exercise five times already. I just need to exercise seven times more to hit that minimum of three times a week. As for the blog thing, well, this is the first entry for this week. And for Duolingo, this should be a daily activity for at least 15mins a day. I am yet to do this last one.
So what else am I really looking forward to this 2023? As far as my PhD career goes, let's see...
1. Publish at least one paper this year. Honestly, this looks weak. I wish I can publish AT LEAST TWO, but let's first try at least one;
2. Finish data collection for TRACE Alaska and TRACE multi-country surveys. This could extend to start the analysis for these two potential papers;
3. Get at least one A in any subject for Spring 2023;
4. Get accepted into another PhD program elsewhere (this one merits a whole new blog post. But I don't want to write anything yet until results come out by March);
5. Present in at least one conference this year; and
6. Actively participate in drafting a funding proposal with the Arctic T-SLIP group and submit proposal.
CONSISTENCY, FOCUS, DISCIPLINE are key ingredients for the TENACITY and PERSISTENCE needed to accomplish all these six PhD goals for 2023. I only listed six because these are doable. Writing down too many to-dos will look like they are tasks rather than goals. Also, more goals might overwhelm my senses, leading to a flight-or-fight response. When I’m overwhelmed, I usually freeze. I stop doing whatever it is I need to do and just refuse to do anything until the last minute. This usually results in a sleepless night and low or failing grade in an exam or project. It’s that bad.
Now that I’ve listed down my goals, I think it would be
effective if I write the different steps I need to do to achieve each goal. Yeah,
I think that’ll be a good topic for my next blog post! Woohoo!
Let’s go 2023!!!
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