Archive for the ‘lessons learned’ Category
So, What Did I Accomplish and Learn About Myself in 2009?
This year has been great and I learned so much about myself and what I can do if I set few goals and saw what happened. These are some of the highlights of my year.
- No internet for 2 weeks.
- Read a book in a day.
- Did a crazy cardio challenge for a whole week.
- Multiple times walking 29 flight of stairs (twice with 10lb ankle weights on each leg).
- Went to California and enjoyed myself immensely.
- Figured out my other passion: Photography!
- Read 5 books in a month.
- Did task/goals on my someday list.
- Set my countdown to leave Corporate America.
- I learn how to write better; also, my grammar improved so damn much.
- Start a novel.
- Wrote over 300,000 words.
- Take a trip for the sole purpose of seeing how fucked up a city truly is (Detroit).
- A 900-plus-mile road trip from Detroit to New York.
- Saw how a small business is striving during a shitty economy.
- Wrote for a full month in my novel (nearly 30k words of dedication).
- Bought a house.
- Proposed to my girlfriend!!!!! (She said yes).
- Finished writing my first novel. (Wrote over 108k words! It is a pile of shit right now, but I’m the shit for completing this crazy challenge).
- Wrote every single day of the year and will never stop doing so…
I also figured out many things about myself.
- I’m an impatient person.
- I work best with less goals.
- I think way too fucken much and wish I can turn it off.
- I go into loops of thought and don’t know how to stop thinking about what I don’t want to think about. (This one is weird, will explain once I figure out how to get out of my head).
- I am an extreme type of person. My fiancée notice this when I was doing my crazy challenges.
- I truly found myself. This is an on-going experience, but writing everyday gave me a chance to question everything about myself. In the beginning of the year, I wrote for 2 straight months of thoughts that were in my head. I was surprised by the information that was effecting the way I lived. I strongly recommend people to write for a couple of minutes a couple of days a week to have a clearer vision of what they want to do or struggling with.
- I like walking. It is great exercise and very therapeutic. Besides laughing at all of the fat people running on the trail I frequently walk, I’m still amazed how better it is on my joints and how the weight disappears. Since I’m so much in my head, the walking helps me to not think (well, as little as possible) and gives me the opportunity to calm my thought, provoking ass down.
Tags: goals, perspective, photography, writing
A Post Revisited: I Lost the Love…
A poem that still is true today.
I wrote this poem over three years ago. I don’t know who goes back to reread my old stuff. I know it is hard to get past the typos, shitty grammar, and incorrectness of other things I wasn’t aware of back then. However, I’ve edited the post/poem and I hope that you can take it for what it is.
I’ll tell you right now, it isn’t about any girl that I’ve dated or had relations with. Let me know what you think
I Lost the Love
She was very good to me. Never talked back and supported me with all the stupid ideals I had. I thought that I would stay with her the rest of my life. We would help each other through everything– but she turned on me. Or did I loose interest in her?
Tags: life lessons, passion
2nd Quarter Review and What I’m Planning
This post was written 2 months ago and have been busy doing other things. It is funny, though, once you write something down, things start to happen and relatively quickly.
The second quarter has come and past, I’m already into the discovery of my next step in my life. I’m not going to explain what did and didn’t happen, but I’m to say that it was a hard, challenging, and a worthwhile quarter.
For the most part, my story isn’t as different from the next person, but as I talk to more people and get their take on what I’m doing, I am seeing that I’m taking hold of my life, even with being trap in Corporate America. I have learn that I’m my worst enemy and my biggest cheerleader. I have to learn the difference between being motivated by others and motivated by myself. If one is constantly motivated by others, than their life is not theirs, they are being push in the wind, because the action is controlled by reaction.
“It is easy to be motivated by somebody not believing in you; the hard part is to be motivated when no one is around…“
-Me
Tags: goals, year so far
Day 1 - Road Trip, East Coast: Part 1 of 2: Detroit
The first day was slow, but picked up quickly. It is hard to imagine how long a full day actually is.
I woke up around 5 or 6. Started packing and took a shower. Loaded up on bagels (3), a pastry and a half, raisin brand cereal, decent coffee with sugar creme and my pick of sugar and sugar substitutes, a slice of wheat bread, and a cup of orange juice.
I made my calls to my people and began my day in route to Detroit. The airport is 20 or so miles away from Detroit proper, so I started my navigation to Dearborn, Michigan. Dearborn is home to the Ford Motor company. I wasn’t noticing the vehicles much, but they were mostly American cars and trucks. I drove through the headquarters of Ford, went through Ford land, saw the barricade wall that the test track occupied, and continued my drive through the R&D part of the property.
Right when I was about to exit and make my way to Detroit, I noticed a car show of mainly Ford vehicles, here and there of other American cars, and 1, I couldn’t believe it, Foreign car, a first gen RX-7 (which was nicely placed in the back of the event). I didn’t talk to much people. I gawked at a couple of the cars, took many photos, and was on my way.
Tags: Detroit, east coast, road trip
The Trip to the East Coast: Detroit to New York…Solo Road Trip…All I Want to do is Get Lost…
I have been thinking about this for some time. Everything made sense, when I sat down and decided what I wanted to do for a 4-5 day stretch. I could chill in Houston and be totally rested, travel to California that I have done so many times, I could visit friends who I haven’t talked to in awhile, or I could get lost.
My girlfriend nudged me to go on a trip with her friend’s husband. I didn’t want to do that. This trip was more than a look-good-on-the-beach away from my girlfriend type of vacation. She is going on her own trip, and I wanted to do something for myself.
It took me a couple of days to think about it. I was still not sure if I could do it. The start destination was set, but the end wasn’t. I questioned myself so many times, I was like, “Do I really want to do this? Why do I want to waste money right now? What will I learn about myself? The distance is too too far.”, everything went through my head and of course, like any reasonable adult I almost pulled the plug.
The last time I got lost was nearly 2 years ago. I decided to go to Japan on my own for 2 weeks. Once I bought the plane ticket, things started to happen. It was quite magical the way events happened. I bought the first ticket and still have to buy the return flight ticket, still apprehensive on going.
Tags: being lost, Detroit, east coast, New York, road trip, self discovery
Being More Work Productive: How Am I Going to Achieve This?
From Adam McFarland’s Latest Blog Post:
“I value time and freedom over money. I didn’t leave my job to make more money…It was everything else that I wasn’t happy with – the purpose behind the work I was doing, the lack of freedom at a traditional 9 -5, and the bureaucracy of a system that prevented people from doing their best.”
Quote I left on his comment page:
“To me, there is no purpose in what I’m doing at work, but I can improve personally through it. ”
I have been meaning to do a post of this magnitude, but reading my friend’s Adam blog yesterday triggered me to write about it. My job pays the bills and allows me the freedom on the weekends to take trips, rest, or do whatever. It is though, the same thing over and over again.
Tags: 9-5, productivity
My Writing Teacher Lied to Me!
It’s true…
It all started almost a year ago, this was the time I was in between jobs and had 5 or so weeks off. I did some reading, tons of exercising, and writing here and there. I knew I was preparing myself to become a writer, before I made my declaration at the end of last year. For sure though, I knew I wanted to write fiction. I thought fiction would allow me to dream and become as creative as possible. So I signed up for a 5-week leisure learning fiction writing class.
“I want you guys to remember, that you are writers. Okay. Now repeat after me, I’M A WRITER, I’M A WRITER, I’M A WRITER…”, the writer teacher, who has written one novel said.
I believed everything she said to me: I felt strong, I felt I could write anything (well when I was in that room with 10 or so other people). Everyone came from different backgrounds, but as I looked around the room and noticed the confidence from the other people, who was also saying this bullshit of a mantra - I knew my life was going to be different from this point on!
Ironically speaking, I was listening to Stephen King’s audio book, which he explained the art of writing, during the time of my class. So, it was as if I was getting conflicting information from 2 published authors, one more famous and has written on the subject more than the other. I, being reasonable with myself, listened to both lessons.
Tags: books, fiction writing, Stephen King, writer
Part 3 of California Trip May ‘09
The Last Bit of my Vacation
This is the last post of my trip to California that happened a couple of weeks ago. I go back and forth when it is the best time to write my vacation trips. Some of them are right after, others are a couple of months later, and at times I don’t even feel like writing. When the latter happens I think and ponder over the life lessons, but for the most part can’t really see how the trip has changed me in any way.
I talked about the trip up to the ocean shore house. I haven’t talked about all of the activities, for instance: the horse back riding, playing endless hours of Nintendo Wii, how was it a shock that there were a good handful of the people reading on the trip (I had Reader’s Block after the craziness of last month), palatable dinners with cool people with the t.v. not even a part of the event, a couple of times of quiet-quick-bed-barely-moving sex, starting the day with a beer, and whatever else I’m slowly forgetting. The trip was needed. I still think I need another vacation. I am getting back into my normal routine of waking up early, working out, writing, going to work, and whatever else. I’m still racing home for no good reason. I am watching more t.v., due to the NBA playoffs (I can’t wait for it to be over, so I can eliminate the television as much as possible). I play with my pimp camera. I look at the pictures on the wall that my uncle graciously painted for me. I see all of the things that I have and all of the same things I don’t even use.
My ideal Day
I constantly think of the next step in my life. I want to rest and be alone as much as possible. I want to stop the mundane and do something I get full-gratification from every single day. I don’t know why I think of this, so much now. I think I just have to do it. But, my ideal day, would be me waking up at the time I do (4 a.m.), running 2-3 miles, coming back and writing for an hour, walking the streets of downtown or whatever else that is a mystery to me with my big-ass-bazooka camera over my shoulder. I would take many photos of the buildings, more importantly of the people (homeless and ‘9-5’ers’). I will also bring my flip video and record what was going on around me and interview people as they went on with their busy days. I know for sure I wouldn’t have a watch nor a cell phone anywhere on my body. This is the thing that keeps flashing in my mind.
Tags: california, lessons learned
Lessons Learned from Drinking a Glass of Orange Juice
Whenever it is time for dinner I usually have a couple of glasses of whatever beverage besides water to drink with my meal. I drink water throughout the day and want to taste something different for a change. When I was sitting down one day at my old apartment eating my dinner and drinking my orange juice, there was this annoying loud voice that said, “Man, you are not even tasting what you are drinking, you chug it down and get another glass.” My former roommate began to laugh and said afterwards he was just playin. Bullshit! That fool was trying to prove a point and I didn’t care what he said. I kept on drinking more glasses in retaleation of his ‘wanna-be-moral-of-the-story’ comment.
I continued to watch some tv and went to bed angry. I don’t know why I let the statement get to me, I thought about it for a couple of days and then coudn’t take it any more and asked him what he meant by it. I had an idea what he was talking about, but I wanted to hear it from his ‘doctor-Phil’ ass reasoning. He said I didn’t appreciate or taste what I was drinking. I didn’t care so much for what the beverage tasted like. I started to think of other incidents where I did something similar. As I thought I kept on saying to myself, “damn, yep, that’s right, hmm, oh well…”.
This realization happened about 5 months ago and am still thinking about it right now. I think the reason is because I learned so much from what I was doing from another person’s eyes. Sometimes we cannot see what we are either doing wrong or just doing when we are always looking at ourselves. We need outside help from time to time to tell us how it really is. We have to be willing to take critisim and see what it is really all about. I am still learning this trait and will continue until the day I stop existing.
Today I don’t talk to that roommate much. Only when we see each other around town. He is friend’s with a lot of people I associate with. But it is now more of a ‘hi and bye’ relationship. He is one of the reasons I moved out of my apartment in the first place, but that is besides the point. We can learn anything about ourselves through others, as long as we are willing to listen.
Tags: criticism from others, lessons
A year in Review After Moving Out of My Parent’s Place
It has been a year and a month since I moved since I moved out of my parent’s house. I was 26 when I moved out, at first wanted my freedom, but also felt that I was going to become distance from my parents. My brother and I moved out with great expectations and wanted to see if Houston gave us a different feel than living at home for most of our lives. Living under my parent’s roof doesn’t give a growing and maturing adult a true experience of how life on my own is compared to other another city or state than where they were born and raised.
The day of the move I woke up with excitement, ready and determined to start a new part of my life. There was no alarm needed to get me up. I started taking a part my bed, unhooking my television, getting crap ready to be thrown away, and looking around my room, my lifestyle, my identity, for such a long time for the last moment in that particular state. My brother was still sleeping and the friend who was helping us was with a lady friend and went to church the next morning. I went downstairs to say good morning to my parents and I saw their faces that they were happy for us, but sad that we were moving out of the house. My dad didn’t care much, he knew that we were planning this for some time and thought it was needed for out growth as men. My mother didn’t like the fact we were moving to a place which was 12 minutes away and were paying $500 bucks each in order to reach the destination of freedom. Still to this day she doesn’t understand why we would pay for a place that is 1/3 the size of her house.
The day was great and I am so glad that I got to experience it with my brother. Our relationship is not where it used to be and will probably never be the same. Throughout the first year on my own I have:
-Quit a shitty job which was driving me crazy.
Tags: freedom, growing up, new experience
- @YEAdamMcFarland The full screen editor are badass, I get plenty done, but there shouldn't be a reason for so many choices. 12:37:20 PM November 13, 2009
