As a very challenging year ended, it is but natural to look back and evaluate how the year was. Crazy things happened around the globe but let’s have some time to zoom into ourselves to ask the question “how are you?”.
Today, I’m writing my first year-end review to consciously give myself a picture not just of the past, but of the future based on how I intend to live the present. Inspired by James Cler, I’ll be answering these 3 simple questions every year.
1. What went well?
2. What went wrong?
3. What did I learn?
Let’s do this! Here are my top 3 answers for these top 3 questions.
1. What went well?
Self care. I lost 18 kilos. Even before the lockdown started, my husband and I decided to subscribe to a meal plan with these 3 goals in mind. 1) Have a balanced diet 2) Lessen the time needed for meal preparation 3) Lessen what I need to wash every after meal. (If you have a 1-year old with no helper around, you perfectly know what I’m talking about). Our goal is not to lose weight but to live healthier while allotting our time to more important things.
I’ve also created a routine to wake up early for some exercise, meditation and reflection while enjoying a hot cup of tea. After a year of being a first-time mom, finally I was able to include again the word “myself” under the priority list.
Speaking. I was fortunate to speak at The Bright Millennial and The Global Filipino Investor’s webinars where I shared my experience, tips and learnings on the benefits of investing early to real estate. Ending 2020, those two webinars have been watched for a total of 37K times. Random messages saying they were inspired and they invested after hearing that talk makes my heart so grateful.
Discoveries. I baked my first-ever chocolate cake for my son’s first birthday! (For someone whose only skill in the kitchen is washing dishes, yes this is a big achievement!)
I also started a special project that helps others for free while honing my novice skills on writing and photography. I revived my blog and I finally know what to focus on and improve.
2. What went wrong?
Self Doubt. The lockdown sparked a lot of ideas and projects that I started to study, work and spent for. But these were never launched. As a friend told me, I may be experiencing imposter syndrome or in my own simple terms, self doubt. I think I used perfectionism as a cover-up to fear of failure and laziness to just put it out there and continue working.
Patience and Delegation. When lockdown started, some operations in the workplace started to change. With so many things to do, I just needed things to move faster. And in times I’m losing it, my tendency is to just do things myself. I was restless, disappointed and tired. I was constantly looking for motivation while getting things done. The recent break helped me to understand myself better and it gave me the right reasons to take action this 2021.
Communication. When I became a Mom, my world turned upside down. I was just going with the flow trying to accomplish a lot of things everyday. And my communication and engagement specifically to my loved ones suffered. I respond to messages a day or week after! I’m just truly blessed to have friends and family who never get tired of inviting and supporting me even if they know I’m MIA most of the time! While I know they do understand me, this needs to improve, big time.
3. What did I learn?
Time is precious. I guess this will be the top of mind learning of the year across the globe! We know this already but 2020 reminded us (on a hard way) the things we took for granted while emphasizing what really matters. And instead of wishing that things will go back to normal, I just learned to keep moving while making every second count. Soon we may go back to our normal ways, but how we lived yesterday and today can never be recovered.
Always make time to learn something new. Work from Home set-up gave me extra 3-4 hours. And with that, I was non-stop in terms of learning and doing new things. The love for learning was revived. I knew that you will never really realize your full potential if you give up on learning. Our growth is our responsibility. Not the company nor the people around us.
Take action. For the longest time, I thought I have it all figured out. I am a planner. I love organizing my thoughts, my goals, my plans. And only now did I realize that it can also hinder me from growing. I research, prepare and plan way too much. But the most important thing was missing. Take action. Fire. It’s important to move no matter how small or slow it is. Do it for the sake of progress because you cannot improve something that’s not yet there.
Bonus:
Though I said I’ll only answer three questions, here I am again, asking the question, “soooooo?”. What now? Where am I headed and what do I need to work on for the next 12 months?
Strength. I strongly believe that having a strong mind and body is a basic requirement for you to realize your full potential in every aspect of your life. And as a first-time mom in my 30s, the only way I could keep up with my growing son is to be physically strong and healthy. With that WHY in mind, I know energy needed for everything else (wife, daughter, employee, entrepreneur etc.) will automatically follow.
Systems. Habits, systems and rituals are more important than the goal. I’m a victim of too much planning and goal setting that I spent lesser time in perfecting my system that will push me to start acting. And this 2021, it’s time to play the game differently.
Service. A little act of service uplifts my spirit (especially when no one knows it). I believe that we should be doing this as much as we can. We should be giving as often as we can whether in a form of education, charity or volunteerism. The technology today exposes us even more to our society’s problems. But technology also makes it easier for us to reach out to more people. Strive to be richer to be able to give more. And I hope that in time we’ll appreciate even more that it’s really better and happier to give, than to be the one who receives.
What will you work on this 2021?
Thank you for reading my year-end review and I hope yours ended well despite its challenges and surprises! Whatever it is you’ll work on this 2021, always remember to take action no matter how small it is. Do it for the sake of progress because again, you cannot improve something that you haven’t even started. Cheers to another year!
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