At the end of every year, I like to spend some time to reflect on the year and write down my key lessons on life.
I’ve talked about the marketing principles I live by — and that is a growing list with new experiences.
But I like penning down these thoughts so I can come back and read them later on to see how my perspective has changed and how I’ve grown. But also, it serves as a reminder just in case I lose sight of my north star.
1. No one is perfect. Perfection is a silent killer. (except maybe the guy in this photo) We all fail. We all screw up. Stop trying to become perfect. For the longest time, I knew that perfection is impossible — but the drive to be excellent is achievable. The best thing is every single one of us can be excellent in what we do as long as we do the right thing with honor, integrity, and respect.
Does the world we live in expect us to be perfect and flawless? Of course. The expectations is fiercely unforgiving. When your boss say “It’s OK to fail,” what they mean is “you can fail as long as it doesn’t cost the company money or my reputation.” That’s the underlining conditional crap that employees live with every single day.
But there’s a silver lining…bosses are as imperfect as you. So you can take solace in that 😉
“I’m never good enough” is something I hear people say a lot. That’s the toll of perfection on humanity. We have accepted the ridiculous teachings that we can accomplish perfection — and until we become perfect (whatever that means), we will never be good enough.
To say I’m far from perfect is an understatement, but I constantly remind myself that no matter how good I think I am, I strive to be great, but never perfect.
2. Forgiveness feeds the soul. I have this believe that for every person you forgive, you become more whole. It’s not that far fetched. It depletes your soul of goodness when you make room for grudges, hatred, jealousy, and other toxins.
There’s no middle ground. It’s binary. You can choose what you feed your soul; so make the deliberate choice to nourish your soul with goodness.
Forgive others. Forgive yourself.
3. Positive energy is real. I was never big into the whole concept of energy and vibrations. But this year has been an eye opening experience. While I didn’t actively seek out energy, I did made a major realization.
Around June of this year, I started, with the help and encouragement of my wife, removed negative and toxic people out of my life.
When you get rid of clutter, you start to make room for the right things. In this case, positive energy.
4. Generosity can change lives. I have been the recipient of many generous people in my life. I have been fortunate to be blessed by others throughout my life. And every act of generosity has a profound lasting impact.
When I got laid off from my first job out of college, a friend offered me a room in his home when I was jobless. When I got laid off the second time, a family took me in and fed me warm meals. While I was struggling in Los Angeles to make ends meet, I met people who offered advice and even extra work to help me make more money.
The culmination of all the generosity I received changed the course of my life at each touch point.
Every day, you have an opportunity, at least one chance, to be generous to someone. Whether it’s money, time, knowledge, or something else, being generous can have positive impact on someone’s life today/tomorrow/next week/month/year, etc.
5. Karma takes care of everything. Good begets good. Bad begets bad. I’ve not seen it any other way around. Don’t spend your time trying to figure out why you were betrayed, backstabbed, cheated, deceived, or anything else. Instead, channel that energy to do good wherever you go and whoever you meet.
Our time on earth is limited so use it wisely to bless others. This is ironic because I was skeptical of this karma thing until now. No matter how rich or broke you are, doing good will always be rewarded with good — we don’t know of the timing but I can confidently vouch for good karma.
6. The ride ends, by the journey continues. Recently, our family took a flight and we had to switch flights from Los Angeles to Orlando (last minute booking, my fault). But it made me realize something interesting that I identified with in life.
We get on many proverbial rides in our life. And often than not, we think once the ride ends, that’s it.
Au contraire.
Every chapter ends. Each ride has a start and end point. But our journey goes on until the day we die. So while we have time, we need to continuously add value with complete selflessness.
I was under my own false pretences that once my “ride” ends, I have arrived at my destination. For example; when a new client agrees to hire my agency, I think my work is done once I sign the contract. There is truth in that, but I am starting to see and appreciate the journey even more.
7. Grit and patience takes you far. In the first year of the agency, I came close to throwing in the towel. Things were not going the way I hoped. This was my third attempt at building an ad agency— and I promised myself to go all in and push through the pain, struggles, adversities, and pitfalls.
It is a commitment, a covenant. I either stay in the game or quit. But the latter was not an option. There will be all forms of distractions, noise, naysayers, and a bunch of toxicity that will deter you from your path.
Practice and train and then push forward with everything you’ve got. Treat it like it’s always your last game. At the end of the day, it takes grit and perseverance to succeed.
8. The law of attraction is strong, very strong. This one is obvious but it was also one of the weirdest concepts for me to accept. Why? Because of its simplistic nature. If it’s too good to be true, then it’s probably untrue. Right?
Well, not in this case my friends! It turns out, the law of attraction is our real-life version of the Jedi (ish) force. For real!
In the New Thought philosophy, the Law of Attraction is the belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person’s life.
It’s obviously not a new concept.
The tough part is getting rid of the negative mindset and working through blocking negativity from re-entering your life. When you commit to this transformation, your life, business, and everything around you will evolve.
When I started the agency, I was hiring all the wrong people. It was a catastrophe (like my daughter would say). But some time in June this year, I started to attract the right people to join the team. It wasn’t luck, or happenstance, or random hires.
I ripped everything apart and rebuilt — knowing that in order for me to continue attracting the right people and clients, I have to completely embrace a positive outlook on business and life…the rest will work itself out.
Nothing is a coincidence
Above all else, I am going into the new decade with one thing. NOTHING IS COINCIDENTAL. NOTHING!
