My 2018 snippets and 2019 resolutions

In a blink of an eye, 2018 is bidding us goodbye. Every year I would “wah.. this year passed by so quickly..” In fact 2018 proved to be a memorable year for me. Following is what I feel to be the major milestones of 2018.

Charlene Sim Msclak

Happy New Year, Guys!

1. A major change in my life as I moved from a corporate lady to an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is harder than I thought. With daily challenges to the point that whenever some things were going smoothly, I would fear that some big hiccups were coming too. Because ever since taking on the role, I felt the word 一帆风顺 only happens in fantasy. But the good thing is each and every challenge gave me a positive lesson and I have changed a lot in my mindset and thinking 1 year into this role.

Charlene Sim Msclak

My new office- Executive Storage by Extra Space

2. Dedicated more time to my family. Because now I do not have to report to work at a specific time. I have had more time with my family. Lauren is no longer on the school bus and she is enjoying the fact she could reach home earlier and avoid the occasional teasing she received from other students on the school bus. I could also send mummy to her medical appointments without the stress of applying for leave from work too often.

Charlene Sim Msclak

“we” time with mummy

Charlene Sim Msclak

School Outing with Alexis

3. With eFresh being my full time job, my mind was working 24/7 on how to improve the brand presence. eFresh received its 1st beauty award in May. I was so touched by the nomination and awards that I sent it to my ex-bosses as they had nominated me as an award winners when I was working in other companies then.  For those that are keen to try the award-winning products, here is the link. 

eFresh

The award winning products from eFresh Singapore

4. A year with lots of holidays (inclusive of work trip) I conquered a short Bangkok getaway, a dream cruise holiday with my family, explored Greece with hubby, went on the 10th year of friendship trip to Bintan Canopi with my neighbours, a fruitful Hong Kong business trip and a CLAK holiday to London! Of course, these were nothing compared to hubby’s hectic travelling or the times when I was a stewardess but all these are beautiful memories created with family, friends and important lessons for my work.

Charlene Sim Msclak

Family Holiday in London

Charlene Sim Msclak

Business Trip to Hong Kong

Charlene Sim Msclak

Short Getaway to Bintan Canopi

Charlene Sim Msclak

Celebrating the 10th year of friendship with my wonderful neighbours at Bintan Canopi

Charlene Sim Msclak Santorini Greece

Catching the most beautiful sunset with hubby in Santorini, Greece

Charlene Sim Msclak

Picture perfect Santorini

Charlene Sim Msclak

The ones who are closest to my heart. Missing Granny in this photo. Family cruise holiday

Charlene Sim Msclak

Joining hubby’s business trip in Bangkok

 

5. We made one of the biggest purchase in our lives. We bought our new home. This happened too suddenly and honestly if I knew this was coming, I would probably have continued working. The house has been giving me some pressure. Although hubby has been asking me to take things easy, I want to do my part in the family and help with the contributions. The agony of home construction/ renovation is the owners always bursting the initial target budget. We would be saying, “ok la, a little bit more but it will be nicer..” but it will be a little bit of everything x the entire house. So it was 😱😱😱. Other than the budget part, hubby and I really enjoyed this process of creating our humble abode. The discussion on theme, the furniture, to the type of tiles and wallpaper. Woah.. it is alot of couple time here. 🤣

Charlene Sim Msclak

Our 1st family photo at the new house (before demolition)

Current stage of construction. Demolished and pending piling

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6. With the pressure from the house, I pushed myself more in a good way in my career. I took the leap of faith and realised a dream of many years. The birth of Glowfully. This was probably one of the toughest decisions in 2018. Because funds were all locked in the house construction, to create Glowfully had me knocking on the door of banks to take a loan to fulfil this insane dream of mine. I do feel crazy even till now but I told myself, I will only grow the fastest when I am out of my comfort zone. Glowfully is only a month old but I am thankful to hear all the wonderful reviews from the customers who had tried this creation of mine. There will be more products coming up in 2019 and I hope you are anticipating them as much as I do. Do check out the website and follow us on Glowfully’s social media for the latest news.

Glowfully Charcoal Beads Gel Cleanser

My 1st product from Glowfully.

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As I kiss 2018 goodbye, I am telling 2019, “Hey, I know this is going to be an uphill task but please treat us well… I promise I will be good.”

Good in terms of love and care to everyone around me. More time with mummy and family.

More care for myself by having an exercise regime.

More responsibility to the less fortunate by having a corporate social responsibility program for Glowfully. (Details to be announced in Q2 2019)

Have you done your reflection of 2018 and your 2019 resolution?

Love, Charlene

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Goodbye 2016. Hello 2017

I am still thinking how 2016 has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Well, 2016 had been fantastic for me and I pray for 2017 to be as good or even better.  I travelled leisurely to Sydney, Bangkok, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hongkong, Bangkok (again), Tokyo and Hokkaido in 2016.  Wow.. That was alot of travelling indeed!  I got a new exciting job where I am reunited with a lot of my excellent ex-colleagues.  Lauren’s school work and piano exam results were good too! There is really nothing much that I would ask for.  Ok, If I can be greedy to ask for 1 more thing; that would be to have a miracle for my mum’s illness. Mum is doing good now with her battle with breast cancer and I pray for her to be strong and be long live.

To hope that 2017 to be better,  I need to make some changes to my life.  As what Albert Einstein said, Insainity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Thus, I have to set new resolutions for 2017 to hope that 2017 would be a bang.  Here are my list:

  1. Patience– Kel requested this to be on the top of the list. I have to admit I am super impatient. So I have to keep this in mind; Patience is not about the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting – “never say or do things that you do not mean it as that may cause hurt to others unintentionally”.
  2. To spend more time with Mum– Mum is battling with stage 4 breast cancer. Although she is optimistic about the situation, I know she is shakened deep down inside her.  So 2017, I will want to have a meal with her at least once a week.  To try my best to put her medical appointments ahead of anything else.  To not have so much expectations on her, I tend to have high expectations for my mum and this has caused some friction between us everytime we argue.
  3. To work out at least twice weekly– I used to work out daily during my cabin crew days.  I would made time to work out even if I had a function.  Then after having Lauren, it became workout once in a while.  Lately I started to be more diligent but definitely there is room for improvement.
  4. To be more mindful of time– Because I am so impressed with the Japanese’s way of being punctual, this has became one of my resolutions for 2017 too.  I think I will start with setting my watch 15 min faster.
  5. To write more– I started this blog last year after quitting my job because I thought I was going to be a SAHM and I wanted to keep myself busy. I ended up joining another company and was busier than before.  My blog posts also dropped  because of this. In 2017 I hope to set aside time to write more often.

I shall not be too adventurous to set too many resolutions. Let me keep to these 5 for now.  To everyone reading this, Happy New Year and let’s have a whopping good 2017!

Happy 2017

Happy New Year from CLAK

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