Experiences, Memories and Life Lessons

The good thing about being the "kuya" or the "older" person in the room is your hindsight advantage. That's why parents/elders usually give the young-bloods directions and strong, unsolicited opinions about a particular scenario because "they could've" done it themselves if their circumstance at that time allowed them to--this is kind of controversial but you get the point. Few days ago, I was asked by my younger brother about a life decision that most of us go through. I obviously experienced what he was asking about and I have my own opinion of it. I wanted him to see a different angle in contrast to what he is seeing now and what I then saw. But for some reason, I don't want to give him an "opinion", because that would be my preference. Every life decision is personal and I want to have him own his piece of the pie. He may have preferences that are skewed from mine. And I don't want him to look only from my lens, as there are many lenses to peek. The best I can do is shed some light or open his mind to other options that may also work for him. I do not want to direct him to do this then that, and he'll merely follow what I say even though he had his own desires. There are things that only him can ultimately decide. And if he's looking from a different lens, I might not see it on my end.…

As we go through adulthood, there are several things that demand our time. So we create hacks and workarounds to somehow catch-up with our own lives. In my case, I create default systems. Currently, I am working with meals, I want to eat as healthy as possible when I can not compromising what's on my plate's taste. So my go-to breakfast right now is simply: scrambled eggs with scallions, sautéed spinach on the side and a cup of coffee--with rice, of course. Simple and quick but has everything I need. And the cool thing about is I don't have to think too hard to make it. Automation, the non-AI way.

Photo by Andrew Neel The truths about learning: it is messy, it takes time and it comes with a lot of frustration. We go through all these to be wiser than we were yesterday, last week, last month or perhaps last year. Wisdom is something we take pride and value because it is something we can only share, not taken.

If we have become so blinded by the end-result, it will be difficult for us to love the process.

I hate that at some point in our lives (or for some people, their entire lives) we have to be a cog. That we don't have a choice but to comply to what our boss tells us to do. That we need trade our precious time for the company's benefit. But of course we get something in return for trading our time, money, our means to survive, to pay for the things that we need. But is it always for our benefit? Does it come with wisdom too? I hope we don't let it become the reason why we remain as a cog. We are not just another gear, prove that we can be the operator too.

I have had lots of ideas circling in my mind, my problem was that I did not act on them. They remained as ideas, they never had value.

If we find ourselves complaining about a situation we're struggling with, it just means we have not accepted our reality. We can either look-away and keep on complaining about our problems or confront them and come up with a resolution. A normal life has pains associated with it and how these pains are approached is up to us.

If you found or know someone who pushes you to stand for something, keep them. Nowadays, they are either missing or utterly difficult to find.

I write not only to remember but also to make sense. To understand. To synthesize. To expound. Or it can be to breakdown. To deduce. To summarize. Writing, to me, is a form of thinking. I write to think better. Unique ideas deserve to be written because they might never come to you again. And if you are able to put your thoughts into words, that means you understand them better--you will understand you better.

We don't expose our mistakes, the times we messed up and the moments when we felt dumb. These things are actually the important ones to remember and learn from because they can be the catalyst for our growth. The concept of "attacking the resistance" will keep us from getting stuck. Observe a person who made a lot of mistakes to someone who prevents having them. Notice that the one who made more mistakes (and realized something) are quicker to make decisions than the other who chose the "safe" route. It's because we worry a lot. The most unproductive habit I have known and experienced is to excessively worry about something without doing anything. And this boils down to our fear of asking. There is no "dumb question" when you're trying to make sense of things you are not good at. Let us practice getting ourselves out there. As long as it'll not risk our lives, go make that bet. Failure is only certain if we never tried. Today, I asked for a legal advice, I thought it was intimidating but it was actually not that bad. Now I know the details as to why it can be expensive. If I did not ask, I wouldn't know.