This 2023 will be a busy year, but the fact I am writing this while I am in the company of my two girls makes it a lot better than last year – for sure!
This has been a good year, so far…
It feels as though it was a blink of an eye, but here we are almost 11pm on the 29th day of January 2023. This year – at least for me – has been positive, so far. I have been trying to be positive, but I would be lying if I was to say there have not been a lot of curve balls, and many challenges. In fact, many, many, many challenges. But so far all those have been surpassed, and most importantly if they are not fully resolved – at the very least there is a viable course of action. So with that said, why am I even writing about this? If everything seems to be fine, should that not be then business as usual?
To answer those questions, we first must realize that a lot of times we let our lives move so fast and letting our existence be taken for granted. Sometimes we chase the “next thing” and we forget to celebrate the little wins we achieve along the way. And in essence, life is a conglomeration of all those little wins, and a lot of non-wins (failures). But I rather not emphasize the challenging events as failures, because in the end they left a lesson behind. And from that lesson a lot of good can be derived.
Me, just like many other people, I did get some sort of “new year resolutions” – and really it is something we all do even though I was not as “focused on making a list” like I did in previous years. First off, because I tend to even forget where the list is located at, and then a lot of other stuff happens and then this list ends up taking the back seat. Also, it seems that I lose my spontaneous nature (at least to a point) once I get too regimented.
As soon as I realized that this year was full of curves, I started moving away from that train of thought and moved towards a new strategy. This is what I did. Got small projects that are complementary to a larger project. In other words, small goals that lead to a bigger one. And that’s been a much better course of action. That way I don’t feel like I am falling behind, even if I am behind on a particular overall goal. What do I mean by that? Well, I am a lot more realistic about my time.
There is a lot I get to do on a daily basis. But it is simple arithmetic and basics physics. If I am doing something, then I am not doing something else. I can only do one significant thing at the time, and I prefer it that way. I used to be a “multitasker” – but that’s too taxing in the long term. Even if at the short term it feels like we are crushing it, and accomplishing a lot. Well, not so fast. We will burn out eventually and then this momentum will slow down to a crawl, and when that happens it is a lot harder to keep up with that pace. Therefore, I figured I could slow down to a comfortable speed where my endurance will be greater long term.
A huge part of this month has been taken by the medical checkups I’ve scheduled. As I am getting closer to retirement, I am making sure all my medical documentation is on point. I have been almost 20 years in the mighty U.S. Navy, and people do get broken or get wear and tear to their health in that length of time. So, I want to make sure I am getting all that stuff in black and white. I’ll write about that in a different article. This is a lengthy and complex process, that’s why I am doing it this early on.
But this month as not been all about medical, it has been about training my reliefs and counterparts. I’ve been very lucky to share my expertise in what I do for a living with a lot of people who will continue that path. This chapter of military service in my life is ending, but there always be others who will carry on the legacy. My job is to make them smarter than I ever was. That’s a win-win for all.
My little blog, Half Life Crisis has been growing exactly at the pace I wanted it to grow. And that’s perfect, because there is so much time bandwidth, I can afford to dedicate to it right now. Afterall, the day only has 24 hours, and we should make things more complicated than they need to be, just for the sake of making things complicated. I know some people like to make things complicated, just because… I am not of that school of thought.
With that said, I have been also working on a lot of things for my Half Life Crisis project, to include all kinds of social media, a dedicated bank account, new material, a bunch of projects, a list of many topics to discuss, and so much more. I know all that takes time, but it also needs preparation. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing while I test a few of the social media responses and see how long it takes me to push something, and measure what is the return on investment. Particularly the time-investment.
© 2023 Marcelo Baqueroalvarez / HLC | With my wife and daughter at a waterfall site in North Carolina
Most importantly, I’ve been dedicating as much time as I can to my two girls in 2023. My wife Alicia and my daughter Sammy. I even took a few days off… there was some good and bad with those days – but at least we’ve spent them together. A lot happened this month… but overall, any challenges were offset by the good.
February is already jam-packed with all kinds of stuff I need to do. But that’s ok. A lot of that is self-healing. And yes, that includes a lot of medical appointments. But also, it includes a lot of projects I’ve been working for a while are coming to completion in February. Also, I’ll be taking leave as well – and even though I really just want to be home, it will be good just to slow down for a bit. Are there things that drive me off the wall? Absolutely, but I am trying to focus on the positive and even if I fume about the negative, I won’t let that control me.
With that said, it is a level of proportionality. In other words, you can be the most positive person in the world, but if you’re surrounded by negativity it will rub on you even if you fight it. For example, you can be a phenomenal swimmer, but if you try to swim against Niagara Falls, it won’t matter how strong of a swimmer you are, the environment will be overwhelming. Therefore, some of the negativity that you cannot fight it is best seen from a safer distance. It’s harder when this negativity follows you… but I like to think it is a temporary effect as I relocate myself away from that environment. Hope that makes sense.
I’ll like to close by thanking my readers for the support in 2023 thus far. I appreciate the comments on some of my articles about my writing style. Thank you so much! By the way, there is a non-zero chance my spelling will suffer here and there. I don’t have an editor, and when I proofread, I might be reading the misspelled word and not notice it. I’m human, and with the thousands of words I write there is an expected margin of error. And I perfectly ok with that.
Hope our first month in 2023 has also been good for you. Thank you for your support, let’s continue the conversation. HLC