Farewell 2023, Hello 2024! Some Thoughts on Lessons in the Past Year - Good Community

No surprises on where I was yesterday - Dec 31.

We are there every year-end to review the year that passed and think about upcoming one.

I haven’t thought about my Word of the Year yet, though I have thought about some of the lessons from experiences in 2023.

One of them is on the importance of being part of, and maintaining, good communities.

Perhaps for the worse, I haven’t been part of many good communities in a long time. Many of them always felt distant, indifferent, or self-absorbed.

Of course, I was certainly a common denominator, so maybe it was just me.

And, of course, over the years, I just decided that maintaining such relationships wasn’t worth it. Why would you want to invest time and energy into a relationship with someone who wasn’t investing anything nearly as much?

I’m not saying that everything has to be exactly 50%, right down the middle. That would be unrealistic and pretty unreasonable.

At the very least, you want to feel accepted and that people are trying to understand you, or parts of you.

You also want to want to give back. I think that this 2nd part is increasingly an important criterion for me.

Having gone through 2023 with a few good communities, I’m happy to say that I am happy to give back to these communities.

Carrying on into 2024, I will endeavour to do this.

Wishing you and yours a fruitful 2024 ahead, filled with learning, meaning, and joy. Have a great one!

Stop Wasting My Time on Ice Breaker Games and Energiser Activities

Ice-breaker and “energiser” activities.

I learned them.

I’ve been asked to conduct them.

I hate them.

Why make everyone stand up and move around needlessly, answer frivolous questions, and waste precious time that could be better spent on other things?

When I attend a workshop, seminar, course, etc., I don’t care what the person beside me likes to eat for breakfast or what movies he/she likes.

I don’t even care what his/her opinion is on anything.

I’m there to learn something from the speaker/trainer, not from random members of the audience.

In turn, I respect the time and energy of my audience by getting straight to the point as soon as I’ve introduced myself.

And, so far, I’ve never received a single comment or piece of feedback that wished for ice-breaker or “energiser” activities.

I’m certainly not stopping other trainers/educators from running these activities if they feel that it’s important to their flow.

Just, for goodness’ sake, give your audience the option of opting out, keep them concise, and at least explain the activity once it’s over.

I am of the opinion that it makes more sense to be the energy-giver, especially right at the start, instead of demanding that your audience generates their own.

Giving Out Oranges for Chinese New Year

My church, Bethesda Cathedral, has an initiative that began last year. A couple of weeks before Chinese New Year, we would go to the blocks in our community and give oranges to the residents there.

Yesterday was my cell group's (we call it an Oikos - the Greek word for 'family' or 'family's household') date for the task.

We covered our block quickly enough to help another group cover theirs and I learned a few things through the process.

1) Many residents aren't at home on Friday evenings and nights

This is likely to be family dinner time, and many families enjoy a night out as the weekend approaches. We even caught a family just in time as they were leaving the house on our distribution round.

2) Some are wary of our intentions

Some residents were wary when we told them that we were giving them oranges as part of our celebration, perhaps rightly so. After all, in this materialistic world, few would ever give without expecting any return. I understand their caution, because I, too, am cautious of such things.

Though we were asked to give flyers of invitation for various events at the church, I didn't use any. I felt that it detracted from the simple act of giving without expecting a return. Others may have a different view on the matter, but I stand by what I believe.

3) We need to learn to speak better Mandarin and Chinese 'dialects' if we are going to do this on a regular basis

Due to the emphasis on English as the language of business and education in Singapore, many of us neglect to study Mandarin well. We are also lacking in proficiency in the various 'dialects' (I place this in inverted commas because they are really separate languages. It's only because our government terms them 'dialects' that we call them as such) such as Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese to properly communicate with residents who cannot speak English.

I'm sure there are other points of learning, but three will suffice for today