7 Essential Life Lessons I Learned in 2017

Feb 3, 2018
8 min read

It's 2018! Another 365 days to make the most out of life and be the best that we can be. 2017 has been a pretty solid year for me. A lot of challenges, changes, adventures and essential learnings that I could share to my future children. Since I don't have one yet, why not post it on my blog for them to read later on. So for now, I am sharing this post to everyone who's interested in hearing my thoughts on life and the every day stuffs which may seem trivial but sometimes are the very ones that really matter. I have narrowed down my favourite topics into seven categories because it's 2017 (so witty right? Lol)

Here we go.

1. On Health and Fitness

My fitness journey has been a roller coaster ride last year. I started strong , with motivation soaring to the roofs but then a major decision brought me to another country where I slacked off and neglected my diet for a couple of months.

Living in another country was such a big adjustment for me that it took so long before I was able to get back my groove.

Recently, I finally enrolled to a gym near my place. I'm currently doing the 5x5 workout which I got interested trying after reading an article on how James McAvoy got so huge in just a short span of time with this magic routine.

My belly area is another problem which I've been wanting to get rid off ever since and then saw this video shared by my friend in Facebook about intermittent fasting (IF) and how it's so easy to follow that I wonder why it has not blown mainstream yet . IF basically is a not a diet but an eating pattern where there's a specific window of time that you can eat while the rest of your day, you are fasting . There are different types of IF and I'm following the 8/16-eating for 8 hours and fasting for 16 hours.

It is believed that when we are on a fasted state, the body will have no calories to use, hence will convert the stored fat to energy called ketons. Ideally, ketosis should happen after 12 hours of no food and normal people don't reach this stage as they are constantly eating. Aside from several reasons why people do IF like fat loss, longevity and reduced inflammation, I find it very convenient to skip a meal(breakfast) and just need to prepare /think of the two big meals while i can even practically over eat sometimes guilt-free. Once I have adjusted, I noticed -mentally- that there was an acute improvement in my focus and concentration especially during fasted state. Pro tip: IF is not for everyone so before you decide to give it a try, ask for an expert's advice, do your research but don't be afraid to do something new.

2. On Family and Friends

I can't stress enough how important family and friends to our lives is. It's one of the essential things that makes us human. They are the ones we turn to whenever we feel like giving up on life and the very ones we share the best moments of our lives. We should at least find time to catch up with them;we may not realize it but it's always a great feeling just being with their company.

Send them a hello message on messenger, comment on their ig stories, give them a quick call, or send them a simple card during special occasions. No matter how we want to do it, making an effort is always worth it.

3. On Resiliency

Resiliency- an ability to come back from setbacks, adapt, learn, but not be dragged down by these setbacks.

I came to appreciate this word recently as I think it's the perfect word to describe how I was able to survive my first few months in UAE. Cliche as it may be, living and working away from home will never be a walk in the park. It takes a lot of mental and emotional endurance to be able to last each day.Before, I just laughed (internally) whenever I hear people badly wanting to go home because of homesick. "Why are they so weak?", I asked myself. But after three months of living in a foreign land , I tell you folks, "homesickness" is definitely not a myth; it's so real! I'm lucky that I have friends and family here which are my source of strength whenever I feel that all this DHS is not worth it and throw the towel and go home. On my new year post, a wished everyone to develop extraordinary resilience because I believe it's one trait we can have handy especially during these ever challenging times where giving up should never be an option.

4. On Finding Your Passion

Since I started reading , one of my to go books are on self-help especially when I need that extra kick of motivation and usually, finding one's passion is a popular topic.

Every time I finish this kind of book, it made me think on what really is my passion. Some are lucky enough to have discovered their passion early on while others are still looking for it and I think I belong to the latter. Nevertheless, if making oneself better is considered a passion , I guess that's what I believe in right now. If you come to think of it, once you have practiced making yourself better holistically, everything will follow; every facet of your life covered. Passion is like finding your true love , it's not easy. But once you found it, everything will make sense-more on this later. So if you find something that you're passionate about, go chase it and never look back.

5. On Technology

Technology is one of my favourite topics. It such an exciting subject and enhancements happen almost every second, so ephemerally constant like change. It just amazes me how it has greatly evolved from the just-make-believe stuffs being shown on futuristic movies long time ago to now being enjoyed by almost everyone, smartphone, the quintessential example.

My relationship with smartphones started when I was in high school and learned about a Pinoy hacker club - a friendly community where they teach the members some basic hacks on cellular networks, PC stuffs, mp3 and mp4 downloads,games and any hack related to technology available. There's not a lot of free Wi-Fi spots by then and data is so expensive so most of the threads being created focused on Free Browsing Technique (FBT) . These so called hackers try to find loopholes on the networks system, test their discovery and once proven, shares their trick to the community. Once you figured out how to make the trick work, the feeling is euphoria. It's like winning the lottery because now you can browse the internet for free anytime , not needing any load or Wi-Fi nearby. Mind you, having internet before was gold. The basic tool you need to be able to do this hack is now the very popular iPhone or Android smartphone depending on which camp you are in.

Two of the popular smartphone os's before the iOS/Android era are blackberry and symbian, blackberry being on the higher end spectrum of the market while symbian is for the masses and Nokia was still king.

‎My first smartphone is a candy bar black and red Nokia phone called 5320 Xpressmusic. I loved this phone. The size is just right; fits on every pocket; has a decent speakers and audio soundstage and of course I could do my FBT. There are so much you could do with this phone that it even became my first e-book reader and made me appreciate reading before I finally decided to by a stand alone reader, the Amazon Kindle, technology's best gift to bookworms.

‎I've had other smartphones after that mostly android and windows mobile OS and recently I decided it's time for that long in the tooth smartphone to be upgraded .

‎After a couple months of self-debate, hours of reading different tech blogs, watching youtube reviews and numerous visits to different tech concept stores - whether to get the Note 8,HTC u11 plus or the LG v30 ,I finally picked the OG pixel 2 made by Google( sorry apple fanboys, I never considered the iphone- too restrictive for me) .

‎It may not have the bells and whistles of the note 8, the slew of camera tricks lg v30 has under it's sleeves, or the overall functionality and aesthetics of the HTC u11 plus,but nailing the basic features and a best-in-class camera has drawn me to pixel 2. So far , the performance is buttery smooth, camera is hands down the best among smartphones and battery is decent enough to last a full day.

Pro tip: Smartphones are too good now that no matter which you choose from the plethora of devices available, you'll end up satisfied and contented- it will just be a matter of preference.

6. You've been tricked! There's no no. 6. But let's be honest , you don't care on no. 6 because you're more interested reading no. 7, so let's jump into it, shall we?

7. On Falling in Love

I'm often asked why I still don't have a girlfriend and I simply answer, "they don't like me" . Honestly, it's actually part true! My last real relationship was so long ago, way way back to the time when I still ask money from my parents to buy load and be able to text my girl, and ask some extra to bring her to a "date". After that, I never had an official committed relationship because most of the time, the girls that I really like, don't like me back that much and in some rare instances they like me but I don't feel the "spark".

Some say that if you really like someone, you should put all your effort,chase them ,go the extra mile, make the hard work until they finally learn to like you back and the feeling becomes mutual.For most, this is actually true and may work but we all have different realities and perceptions and for me, I believe love is not something that's being forced. It should be something that grows organically. It should be an experience that naturally unfolds and reveals it's unique treasure - a process being enjoyed ;an authentic friendship developing deeper bond with someone. ‎Sometimes, it's just a matter of enjoying the moment, appreciating what you have and letting the relationship unfold into something beautiful and magical.

‎Let's not push away the love we "need" because it didn't match the love we "wanted".

And for those curious, I'm happy to report that yes, I'm seeing someone special right now and that's the only beans-spilling you'll have for now.

Some bonus stuffs

As I got older and wiser, I came to appreciate simple things that really matter whether how big or small and here are some..

Milk- milk has been an acquired taste for me and I started loving it as i grew older. It's like my alternative to coke and juice and find it refreshing in it's own way Grapes and watermelon- grapes because it's so convenient to eat, bite size, sweet with a bit of sourness; watermelon because I just love how watery sweet it is and the texture when it goes inside your mouth is .. Paperclip- the ultimate office supply. There's always something you can use it for if you're creative enough Personal glass- the multi-purpose kind where you can practically put anything on it, use as a bowl, container, anything The perfect jeans- you know that feeling when you finally found a pair of jeans where it fits perfectly and the color is so versatile that you can pair it with anything-you need to find yours! Cutting knife- I cook my food mostly now and having that ever reliable cutting knife makes my cooking so much easier- pick the one with a little bit of heft and just the right size to cut your basic ingredients

A great bluetooth speaker- I can admit that I'm not really musically inclined though I love listening to music and EDM is one of my favourite genres but I can listen to anything and I'm even appreciating the classics now (#adultingalert ) , so having a realiable bluetooth speaker is a must for me. Some essential features you must look when getting one is the playback time, soundstage, durability, and of course price. With that I recommend the JBL flip 4, UE boom sound 2 and the Sony SRS-XB30.

More bonus Stuffs

If you follow me on ig and facebook, I try to update my account once in a while and I can't share everything so these are some of my recent snaps which didn't make it to the feed.