I remember the beginning of 2017 so clear that it feels like it was just yesterday
2017 started with the low:
- Things don’t go as you normally planned, that’s what everybody has been telling. But also they’ve been telling how if you want it enough, you can get it. I hated that as my year started with someone controlling my career choice. Being easily inspired and easily convinced, I thought for the first time I knew what to do in my career at the end of 2016 and then being hit by reality that my choice landed where I would never have ever chosen it naturally.
So 2017 I made a promise to myself to do the following 3 things:
- Be momentous
- Fail more
- Spend more time with people that mean something
I know they are not SMART, but they are intentionally so. I intentionally did not define what momentous means, failure means or spend more time means so I can test myself how far I could stretch myself.
Feeling fully accountable for these 3 promises, now it is time to assess myself, how good I kept my own promises.
- Be momentous: I took 2017 momentously. I remember saying yes more than I ever had. I said yes to drinks events I dreaded, yes to socials where I knew almost no one, yes to trips with friends at last minute, yes to crazy plans in Cuba, yes to organising events that I could have been far more efficient by myself, yes to kick myself to write, yes to getting involved into community activities that no one cared about, yes to realising the dreams for people who never cared enough, yes to someone when my inner self wanted to say ‘fuck off’, yes to someone who shared my crazy vision, yes to people who I cared the most, yes to almost everyone, anything, to the point I remember I felt so miserable and did not understand the reason why I felt so irritated.
2017 taught me to be momentous, selectively. There is only 24 hours a day, 8 of which is for sleep, 2- eating, 1- showering, pissing & shitting, 1-commuting, you have 12 hours left. 12 hours selective laser focus on only 1 or 2 things max is a much better strategy. That’s why having a vision helps. 1 or 2 core things can consist of 10 sub-things, but as long as they help me to achieve the vision that I have, I will feel that the time spent is not wasted.
2. Fail more: I wish I could boast with you on this one, but afraid I can’t as I would have liked to fail a lot more and lot deeper. Unless you tell me that I did, I will probably think that I have not failed as deep and as frequent as I would have liked.
Top failure- I failed to be politically sensitive. I guess my early 20s is starting to open myself up to how sapiens in big groups behave and interact. I never had any patience to this, but I guess I need to now, at least be more sensitive. The result of such failure is I started to feel people see me as a kid running around, shouting and screaming and making noise. While I struggle to go against my values of being honest, hence why I raise my voice, I do want to be seen as someone whose opinion is valuable.
Secondly, I failed to commit to things I signed myself up for. The result is in a winning team that I had 0 contributions, instead of feeling great when my team won, I feel worse of thinking why I was here at the first place. Asking myself every now and then and not being able to find an answer is the worst of all.
Lastly, I failed to appreciate things I have and not take them for granted. Humanity paradox is we always want the things we don’t have. While for majority it can come particularly costly at the material level, the costs that are much more intangible can be far more disastrous.
2017 taught me that there is a lot more meaning to what is not being said. Being more observant and receptive of people’s subtle micro-expressions can also give a story. 2017 also taught me that I hate not living up to promises. I learnt that I would re-assess my yes and will only say yes if I feel 200% committed. On the last point, I learnt that things that I have today should be continuously invested and refined if I want to keep them. It’s not one-off, but rather recurring but can grow exponentially if investment is right and when it is recipricated.
3. Spend more time with people that mean something: I spent 9 days in Cuba with my long lost friend that I deeply treasure, spent 10 days in Italy with my family which was the first time for them to be in Europe, spent 5 days in Cyprus with my 2 shell friends, spent almost every lunch hour with my trench at work, spent countless restaurant dinners with my boo, sister and friends, spent countless Skype hours with my brother.
I learnt that spending time takes time.
Compromising is inevitable, and it all comes down to what you prioritise at different points in time.
There are other things I learnt in 2017 too. I learnt:
- The dangers of being judgemental
- The joys of finding vision
- The thrills of following vision
- The pains of losing trust to someone you once respected
- The ease of losing something you once had
- The imbalances of needs and wants
- The difficulties of changing someone’s mindset
- The powers of stories
- Ideas are easy, it is all about the execution
- How quick people change
- How easily I can be influenced
2018 outlook
I will test myself with SMARTER goals this time and see how I take a rather prescriptive approach:
- Read at least 20 books
- Finish London to Paris Bike ride
- Design a human centered product from scratch
- Minimise waste: recycle everything I can, not picking up plastic if can be avoided, buy things that I really really need, donate things I don’t use
- Talk less and do more
- Master Design tools
I stopped writing to avoid the creation of self-illusion that I am producing something meaningful. But I also realised how writing makes me think and how it challenges my logic. While I am so paranoid of not producing “work” I will start writing again and maybe more spontaneous and rough to minimise waste…