First of all, my sincere apologies to Matt because I took a long time in completing this post. But I am extremely honoured that the WordPress blogosphere have so many talented writers like himself who will remember a new writer like me. If you are looking for a smart writer who is witty and writes entertaining interesting reads, Matt is the one for you!

The Rules

– Share this image in your blog post
– Write about 5 people in your life you are thankful for
– Write about 5 things in 2015 that you are thankful for
– Spread the love and challenge 5 other blogs to take part 

5 (*group of) People I am Thankful for
Although I have given career advises in MiddleMe, I do have many people that I am super thankful for in my life. Without the constant encouragement and guidance, I may be able to pay it forward like I am doing today. I have too many to be thankful for so instead of picking individuals, I chose to pick a group.

1. My Family
I’m going to list my family in a group because no matter how I choose they never be only filling up 5 slots. They have been supportive of me from day one whether I was quiting my lucative retail sales job for a miserably paid office administration so I could have challenges or allowing me a single female relocated 6 hours flight away to Shanghai all by myself or allowing me to resign from my job and yet again to relocate to Kuala Lumpur. They always been behind my decisions. Without them, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to explore myself.

2. My close friends
I have a lot of acquaintances and friends but the ones that counted the most are my closest friends who has time and time proven their loyalty especially when they made extra effort to stay in touch with me even though I was a workaholic and I was away from them. They never fail to text me on my birthday and some of them even save up to fly to Shanghai and Singapore to visit me!

3. My mentors
I admit I have a blessed life and most part of my life, I always have great bosses or mentors who pushed me to greater heights and guided me along when I needed help. All those tips and tricks in my articles are taught by a collective of them so combined our experiences in the corporate world, you are actually reading 100 years of wisdom. When I fall, they are always there to cushion the blow. When I succeed, they are always there to cheer me on. Without them, without me.

4. My Detractors
You can hate me. You can critic me. You can tell me off. But you can never bring me down. I thank you for creating the negativity so I can enjoy the positive. I thank you for the unnecessary harsh words so I can fully appreciate the positive words of others. I thank you for the bullying so I can learn to stand up for myself. Most importantly, I thank you for being the nasty boss so I will learn to be the opposite of you and never to follow your footsteps.

5. My Readers
You may find it surprising that I am thanking you if you are reading this post. You may think you are just a pair of eyes in the blogosphere but to me, you are way more than that. I had thought long and hard whether to start MiddleMe. I am an extremely private person and love to keep it that way. For me to take a step out in the internet and to maintain MiddleMe, it is a lot of time and effort. Your encouraging words are no lesser importance than my family’s or my friend’s. I have read about how bloggers tear each other apart by ridiculing one another publicly on the blog’s comments and its truly frightening and disheartening to have someone shred your confidence and your creativity piece by piece as if they have the right to do so. So I am extremely grateful that has not happened to me.

5 things in 2015 that you are thankful for

1. For leaving Shanghai
Not because I don’t love Shanghai, to the contrary, I love the place! But leaving Shanghai to start a new chapter in my life is another big step I have to take. Most importantly, it shown me how much this place means to me. You know the saying, “You’ll only know how important certain things are to you, only when you lost it.”

2. For resignation of a job and a company I love
There was a long period of time I had questioned myself whether it was the right decision to make. I love my job and I love my company tremendously. But in order to move on to the next stage in my life, certain sacrifices have to be made. And this is one of them. I am thankful for taking this step because I always felt I couldn’t let go of work and my financial freedom. My colleagues, my friends and my bosses all felt I would not survive not being a corporate environment because I am such a social butterfly and I love being in a busy environment. I couldn’t be contented just to stay at home without any goals in life. To my and many others’ surprises, I did it! I could stop panicking about every cent I spent, I could stop waking up in the morning, jumping out of bed, thinking I am late for work; and I could stop referring myself as a part of my company. That to me is an achievement.

3. For moving to another new country
Instead of coming back to Singapore as per my family expected, I move on to making another big decision in my life, I choose to explore a new country – Malaysia. This time round, it is vastly different from the previous move because the previous move to Shanghai was a corporate decision but this time round to move to Kuala Lumpur was a personal decision. I challenged myself again but throwing myself into the unknown and thus creating an adventure for myself.

4. For changing my directions
After many years of giving my all to my career and my passion, this year, I decide its the year to give my all to my loved ones, unexplored unknown passion and unexplored opportunities.

5. For starting MiddleMe
I always wanted to share my experiences and career advises to people around me. That is one reason why I have always enjoyed my role as a manager however, in my heart, I always know that is not enough. After many accumulated years of experience and now with more time on my hands, I hoped that by starting MiddleMe, more people will get to read my advice and more of them will improve their career life and no longer suffer under the notion of ‘no choice’.

Spread the love and challenge 5 other blogs to take part
These are the writers I would love to challenge them to take part –

Jerry Mabbott’s Blog

Let Faith Be Your Strength

agenda19892010

HOW TRUE!!

JoeWritesHisWrongs