Last night I was at the Nivea Annual Hand Modeling Awards and after a year off, I was back in action in the 2007/08 Summer. I didn’t think I had done enough catalogues to get up for the win, but I was able to snare some crucial votes during the February vote count.

Although I didn’t think my work last season was as good as my fall 2004 season with my award winning “VB hard-earned-thirst” beer catalogue. I think my attitude has matured and you can really see that in my modeling.

I had a year off over the 2006/07 summer as a mouth model, and whilst it was great to be the mouth of Evian water, I really missed my hand modeling and couldn’t wait until that contract was over.

Guess was quick to get me on their roster for their autumn watch magazine ads and so I was really lucky to get a “feel” for it all again.

Thanks to all my support. The girls at professionNail, Steve at Minit Solutions for those late night grind sessions, Kelly and Ross at “Your hands is your face” and finally and most importantly, Nivea for the award and the years supply of Nivea Hand Lotion which comes in “handy” just before I go to bed each night. Thank you so much everyone!

Brisbane Hand Model, Sydney, London, New York

Brisbane Hand Model, Sydney, London, New York

I have quite a bit to review from 2007, lots of amazing breakthroughs, new beginnings, and connections with some amazing people. I’m not going to discuss these in this particular post, but I will in my next. This post is to give myself grades on goals set.

Here the goals that I had set at the start of 2007, and my review of them now:

Health

Do not eat chips: A+

I went 12 months without eating chip eg. hot chips, potato chips, wedges, gems, hash browns and corn chips etc. There were only couple of occasions where it was a difficult task, basically when I was presented with a meal with them unexpectedly.

Play sport or do an outdoor activity once a week: A-

After 5 years not playing any competitive sport, I returned to my favourite sport in Australian Football. It all started when I got a taste of it playing 9-a-side football on the gold coast. After which time, I had made the decision to then go play with the Griffith Gladiators, who were just up the road and in a lower division. Read some of my posts about Griffith gladiators Australian football club.

See the Dentist: C-

Here is a good example of bad goal setting, where if you’re not specific enough, then you can achieve it but not have it make any affect on your situation. I DID go see the dentist, but I didn’t make it a priority to see him again and get the required treatment. My goal should have been, “See the dentist, get the required treatment AND see him regularly so I can maintain my oral health”.

Only drink alcohol once a week: A-

This one was fairly easy, but I thought this was important to set so that I compliment my endeavours with my health. I even learnt to just enjoy my time regardless of alcohol.

Family

Make an effort to speak to each of my family members once a week: D

I started the year off quite well, but as I took on more responsibilities towards the end of year, my regular contact with my family diminished. This lack of being in the “family circle” of communication almost lead to Christmas being cancelled. I’m not going to reveal the details, but lack of communication and not making family a priority had severe and immediate effects on the family as a whole.

Respond to calls from my family with top priority: B-

As this seems like a “no brainer” or a “why do you even have to set that as a goal” goal, I get overwhelmed sometimes with returning calls as I take on more responsibility elsewhere in my life. Whilst I would consider this a pass, I think I can still improve in this area.

Be responsible for Neo (my cat), give him the attention he requires and let him enjoy life: B+

Whilst most of those close to me think that neo gets more attention than they do, there were a few occasions where I would be late home from work at night or in the morning after a night out. This meant that neo would have to wait an hour or two to get fed. Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like he was starving, BUT it’s a routine that I have set for him and I’m committed to keeping him healthy. I had a bit of scare with neo this year with he got a paralysis tick but it just meant that I appreciated his time and attention more.

Personal

Manage my finances with budget planning and to save for a holiday: E

I really bummed out on this one, with bad money management and budget planning. This is one of my priorities this year.

Always be open to love, if it presents itself, embrace it: C-

I met some amazing people this year, and was lucky enough to spend some quality time with them. Whilst I appreciated and enjoyed my experiences, I know there was something holding me back. I am so grateful for the time, attention and patience I received with the girls I met this year, and even more grateful for the ones who are now close friends.

It’s funny how you can think and talk about getting over someone, but it’s not until you actually do, that you can move on. The new year has already presented me with a way forward and I look forward to overcoming some challenges within the coming months. I have a lot more to say on this matter so sign up and “Keep in the loop” to get access to some of my other confessions about love.

Allow myself to enjoy life, keeping a balance between work time and personal time: C-

I started the year off quite well, but found that it become harder and harder to maintain due as I took on more responsibilities towards the end of the year. I did make sure though that I gave myself sufficient sleep to go into the new day, but underestimated the value of time to “do my own thing”.

Be Responsible and safe: B

Probably too general to have a set goal, however I do believe that, in general, I was fairly responsible and safe. I have some passionate thoughts about being responsible. Check out the section “Committed to life” (Work in progress).

Career

Try and obtain one new client a week: B

As I joined the workforce, this became less important, however I was very pro-active in my networking and connecting with people in 2007.

Leverage on my experience with RSPCA: A

My experience with RSPCA and in particular sparked my interest in Internet Marketing and making it my primary skill function.

Look toward working with MSIT, QUT, NRAand modaitalia for fashion work: A-

The NRA fashion awards are being held in 2008, probably because of media coverage restrictions which meant I didn’t cover it.

Learn to really chase leads – eg. Phone up exisiting clients and get contacts for new ones: B+

Logistically this was not entirely feasible as it required a heck of a lot of time to fulfill. I did however learn some amazing ways to automatically chase leads, and have the leads come to me, pre-qualified and ready to buy.

Be really organised as I would expect from any other business: C

Similar to some of my other goal reviews, I did this really well at the start of the year, but as I took on more responsibility, I diminished significantly. One of the my mentors who really helped with this was Brian Tracy.

A couple of weekends ago I had a new roommate move in (Roxy), and I had to make room and basically cull a whole bunch of stuff that was wasting space. I have a accumulated a lot of things since running a home business for 6 years, and hoarding a lot of “might-come-in-handy-one-day” items.

One of the boxes I threw out was a box full of trophies and medals that I had won as a teenager. Mostly from my junior Australian football and school athletics endeavours. A lot of these awards are in excess of 10 years old and have been in a box deteriorating and getting damaged after each move. They have never been on display in my home, i suppose i never thought I needed to- I know i achieved those things, and so did my family…

Since the start of my personal development journey about 18months ago, I’ve slowly become more interested in the journey of life as opposed to the outcomes. It’s seems like such a straight forward and responsible thing to “just do”, but you really have to learn to enjoy learning and enjoy new journeys. So, what probably 2 years ago would have been a tough decision to throw out 10 years of awards for things I worked really hard at, I found that when I saw that dusty box sitting there, it was a “no brainer” for me. These physical items had to go. And that definitely didn’t mean I had to erase them from my brain.

So… To the tip!

I took a photo, just so I have that as a reminder and as a story telling reference for my kids and grand kids…. “Oh look son, here is a picture some awards I won when we used to go outside to play sport!”

I played “aussie rules” for 10 years consecutively from age 8-18. After a year or so off from competition, I returned to play Seniors at Logan Cobras. My first year back was great, played some pretty good footy, but the year after it started to go a bit downhill. I am glad though that Dad got to see me play seniors, its a big step up from playing juniors, and after years of encouragement and coaching, I’m sure he would have been proud.

There is only one thing that I’d love to do in football for me, and that’s play with my brother Ellery. Now Ellery is a bit of a gun, and he’s fairly fit which means that we aren’t in the same league, but I’m gonna try and talk him into playing 9-a-side with me. It’s a bit below his level, but should be fun nonetheless.

Anyways, I’m a bit sore, but it was great getting the blood pumping out on the field again.

The end. or is it?

No it’s not the end, i’m playing again next wednesday. derr…

Today I was presented in the mail the coveted AAMI driver excellence award for being a Rating 1 for life customer. I recieved a letter, a CD compilation disc which is pretty cool actually – chillout style music by known artists and most importantly a sticker. I now have two of these stickers as supplied by AAMI indicating my Rating one for life status. One on the front left and one on the rear right.

Now let’s just talk about my life as a driver from the beginning. I was pretty lucky getting my license, back in the days when the exam could last only 15mins. I hear that its a bit different these days for new drivers. When I got my license, I used up my maximum amount of acceptable faults, one of which was for going too slow after a school zone and waving to a mate on his way to school. hehe. I felt pretty lucky that I passed in the end.

My driving instructor also thought i was lucky, it became most apparent when he gave me a religious card almost the same size as a business card which was a blessing of good luck. Was my driving that bad that I needed a blessing from God before i embarked on my journey home. Further to my instructors lack of confidence was him driving me back to school. Didn’t he trust me passing my license exam was good enough to drive 5mins from the service centre to school?

Anyways, I’ve been fairly lucky on the road not to have had an accident (touchwood). I do remember one moment of awakening however. It was a moment when i realised that i didn’t acutally know ALL of the road rules. I was driving some friends from school to the train station, turning right into road that leads to the station, I turned right and almost being wiped out by a car. I then proceeded to give them the finger, blow my horn and shout and curse inside the car. One the passengers, whom was 2 years younger than me and didn’t have their license told me that i was suppposed to give way. I honestly believed that because I had a green light I was allowed to turn whenever. I was supposed to give way. Sure it was absolutely dumb, but I was young, dumb and full of.. … but anyways that awakening led me to revisit what i though i knew and also did some defensive driving courses. My life depended on it!

Anyways back to this award, whilst I’m confident in my driving, I have to wonder about the implications of this “award”. Fair enough being recognised on not making a claim etc for a year would be good – just give us a discount, but to give “awards”, can that add to mix that causes accidents on the road.

At no time should a driver feel like that they don’t have to try. They should never be complacent nor should they beleive that they are invincible. The point is, whilst there excellent drivers, they should never know about it. I beleive that some of whom may have recieved this award may think they are the perfect driver.

I beleive that a perfect driver does not exist, this is because they cannot control environmental conditions. Sure a good driver can reduce the risk, but the fact that there is varying levels of skill on the road means that there will always be clashes. Some people like to drive the speed limit, some over and some under. Some people take care of their car, some dont and some people may not even be driving cars that are road worthy.

All of these factors in different combinations lead to quite and uncontrolled environment on the road. Even variations in tyre pressures cause a decline in driver control- do you check your tyre pressure every week? What i’m trying to say with all this is that the driver should always have to be trying on the road. An award for excellence to a driver can lead to complacency. I mean, does not making a claim mean you’re an excellent driver?

Now here is something to think about. These stickers will reward loyal customers, but will that in the long term lead to more complacent drivers or will it make loyal customers better drivers, because they want to protect their rating one and keep getting the stickers?

Ok, whilst I’m mocking this award in a way, I am proud to never have had an accident on the road nor have I needed to make a claim on my car insurance. I did run out to the car and put this sticker on. However it does make you wonder, that because i’ve not made a claim for a year whilst being rating one, should I be considered an “excellent driver”. What if i’ve caused a whole bunch of accidents, eg run a red light, made 3 cars swerve into each other and i drive away scott-free?

Oh, the CD is pretty good btw- well the first two tracks didn’t make me want to throw it in the bin. CD’s are a good idea- i can listen to it in the car, whilst I marvel at my driver excellence award sticker on the freeway.