Tag: reflection

2019: A Year in Reflection

As you can tell, this post is long overdue…. But better late than never!

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently thinking about how the 2019 year went and what I hope to achieve in 2020. Although there were some great things that happened like the birth of my son, there were also some not-so-great moments.

I’ve listed just a few of those great and not-so-greats below:

Great

  • Ended year for my business beating our budget
  • Welcomed my son, Caius, to our family
  • Had a chance to take a small vacation earlier in the year
  • Read a handful of books
  • Listened to too many podcasts (used to track this data, probably should again)
  • Rekindled my love for brazilian jiu-jitsu
  • Continued developing my Mandarin language skills

Not-so-great

  • Unable to build a recurring business (Growthier was still stuck in one-off projects)
  • Did not meet minimum hour threshold for Mandarin skills
  • Slacked on my Korean studies
  • Wasn’t able to code my first program
  • Lost 2 customers

Though the year had its ups and downs, I’ve learned a lot from them. My goal is to take these learning opportunities and apply them for 2020. For every down, I’ve put together a process map to determine how I can improve these areas and parts of my life, then applied them to the goals in clickup.

One of my biggest fears in life is staying stagnant, not learning, not growing. Because the day I can’t learn is the day I’ve become complacent. That can’t happen.

So everyday is a day for me to embrace new challenges and learnings. Don’t get me wrong–there are things I still hate to do.

But its those very things that I hate that I know I have to do right away.

Anyways, 2019 was an interesting year and overall I was happy.

Now onto 2020. Let’s get it together. ?

Dear Me: Self-reflection

Dear Me,

You’ve experienced many things in your life, you’ve endured things you hope no one else will have to, yet you’re here still. Yes, you are still here, breathing and soaking in the sun and the chilled breeze.

Remember those times growing up as a kid wondering, “Is this normal? Do all families go through this”? Remember those times when you thought you couldn’t amount to anything because, well, no one believed in you. All you were taught was to get good grades, but there was never a goal in it.

As you sit here, typing out this post, you reflect on your life and picture those dreadful days. “Did I think I would be here today”? Of course not, you didn’t have any reason to believe.

But here you are, standing strong and proud, weathering all that life has thrown at you. You were kicked on the ground constantly, begging for life to stop. But as the kicks came coming, somewhere deep down, you realized those kicks would never stop coming. So you decided in that moment – it’s time to take charge of my life.

You decided in that pivotal moment in your life that you – and only you – could make a difference in your life. That the only person who would care the most about you would be you. So you took the time to reflect and ask, “Who am I, where am I going, am I happy, what life do I want for myself, and what will my future kids and family see in me”?

In that reflection, you wrote everything down, both good and bad. You saw that you had many flaws, but also that you had many things to be proud of. But seeing everything on paper made you realize something – you had a choice. That you could right the ship, that you could be someone different, that you could make an impact on those world. That you didn’t have to be that scared kid growing up wondering, “Is this it”?

So stand tall, stand proud you told yourself. The future is unknown, but that is what makes it so beautiful. Make that future your own. Be happy and never stop pushing.