My Year-End Reflection About Life

Rather than give a laundry list of things that I plan to change in 2005, here is a list of important realizations I've had in this fourth year of the new millennium:

1. There are a ton of people like me. Young, motivated, entrepreneurial, etc. I'm extremely happy to have begun relationships with some of these people. It's exciting to wonder where we will all be in 10, 20, 30 years.
2. I feel more and more lucky to be dating Sheena. Four years ago, when we started dating, I must admit that I thought Sheena was the lucky one. I think this was a symptom of my cockiness, which was a result of the success Cal and I's web development company. Now, I appreciate so much more about her and I feel like the lucky one. While business has been much harder for me over the past few years, I feel like I've become more humble and more able to learn from and appreciate others with different views of the world than my own.
3. Not everybody is like me. Through my work teaching, interacting, and mentoring 'inner-city' students, I've come to meet people who have simply had a bad luck of the draw when it comes to their communities and parents. In the past, I've thought that everybody, no matter where they came from, can get out of poverty easily if they put their mind to it. If they didn't, I considered them lazy. However, I now understand that not everbody has grown up with parents who love and support them, or lived in communities where over 90% of the people went to college. I grew up playing sports and my mom always believed I was better than anybody else I played, even if they were clearly better then me at the time. Not everybody has this.
4. I've learned about Vipassana meditation, which has been the most effective technique I've ever come across for creating happiness in one's life. Having the discipline to practice it when I feel down has been easy. Having the discipline to practice it when I feel great has been another story. I've also strengthened my belief (based on experience and scientific research) that happiness has very little to do with one's material wealth after a certain point. I no longer aspire for a mansion, a luxury car, and the whole shebang.
5. Focus may be better than generalization. Over the past four years, I've spent a lot of time exposing myself to as much as possible. I've focused on weaknesses and improved them. Now, especially after reading The Effective Executive and Now, Discover Your Strengths, I'm going to focus more on my strengths and delivering results.
6. I've learned about the power of science and religion. I now believe that science is the most powerful method ever discovered for accessing a truth that can be shared with others. At the same time, I learned about how the world was consumed by religion before science, how it is an important part of people's lives today, and how it will always play a role as there are many things science can't prove.
7. I feel a little less immortal and a little more powerless. I think this has been a result of learning what I can and cannot change in the world and trying to be at peace with what I learn. This is hard, because I sort of have this feeling that I'm giving up by creating large world that I'm not the center of. However, I think I'm getting a more 'realistic' view of the world that ironically gives me the power to create more positive change.

In the end, I think that this has been my best year yet. I feel more connected to the history of the world and the journey of those who've come before me and those will come after. I'm proud to be part of this tradition of life, and I plan to treasure it and make the most out of it in 2005.

Happy New Year to All!!!

Posted at December 31, 2004 11:25 PM | TrackBack