Between Sunrises and Sunsets

One of the things about having been a student for the better part of my life is there have always been clear markers for progress. There were exams to pass, grades to go up, degrees to collect.

There was a structured way to measure progress.

As you grow older, measuring progress becomes a bit more complicated because you’ve got to define the entire process for yourself.

In a previous post, I wrote about evaluating your life in 100 day increments. So I just ended my second 100-Day Evaluation of the year (the first one began before 2019 started in case you were doing the maths), and as you’re used to by now, below are some of the life lessons learnt.

One Step At A Time

In 2015, I did the sunrise trek up Mt. Batur in Bali with a friend of mine (image above). One thing the experience teaches you is to be fully present in the moment. You really have no bandwidth to look too far ahead or behind, because the next step is the only one that matters.

Just keep on going.

One step at a time.

This lesson was reinforced a lot in the last 3 months.

Build and Protect Your Energy

That was my theme during Ramadan. Living in a non-Muslim country, you can’t always use Ramadan as an excuse to not get work done, so I designed my days in such a way to ensure I was getting enough sleep and exercise, and that I was not wasting energy on anything that won’t provide value to my life. Funny enough, it worked so well, I ended up just maintaining it, so never be surprised if I am saying no to things more often nowadays.

Lists, Lists, and more Lists

List #1: Core Desired Feelings

This idea is pulled from Danielle Laporte’s book The Desire Map. It’s about making a list of all the feelings you want to experience, then reflecting at the end of every day if you felt anything on your list.

List #2: What Makes You Happy

This is just a derivative from the first list. Make a list of experiences and people that make you happy, and make a conscious effort to include them in your daily life.

Everything Is Always Working Out for You

Of course, with the month of May being the month of commencement speeches, this line comes from Oprah’s commencement address at Colorado College.

I found myself reflecting on how close to one and a half years ago, I was really upset when my brother and his wife asked me to leave their house, a mere four months after the Government of the UAE asked me to leave the country.

As much as I was upset at the time, my life has improved in so many ways since then, across every front. More importantly, I came to recognize why it had to happen that way. Recently, my mother brought up the idea of us living together, and I found myself thinking, if I had moved out of my own volition, I would definitely have considered it as we’ll be solving a lot of each other’s problems, but there was no way I was going to consider it now seeing how things had ended the first time around.

I guess the lesson learned there is whenever someone rejects you, tell them, “Thank you for the beautiful gift of space and time you gave me.”

And go build something beautiful with that gift.

Be Comfortable In The Dark

Every morning, I step out for my run while it’s still dark outside. But I didn’t mean that statement literally, rather figuratively. Every creative endeavor comes attached with a certain level of uncertainty, risk, and judgment.

I’ve experienced first hand the value of putting in time and energy on things that emotionally move you regardless of whether it’s going to work out or not.

Because you know even if it doesn’t work out, at least, you’ll have a good story to tell.

And if it does, well, it does.

And that’s life.