Past Year Questions
List your 3 top wins for the year.
- Perhaps the biggest win I had this year was articulating my purpose clearer and feeling stronger about its authenticity. It just feels right that my purpose is to live deliberately. This purpose is the guiding light of my quest. To make it possible for me to realize this purpose, I need to maximize creative freedom in my life so I could engage in independent creative, philosophical, and contemplative projects. Articulating this has clarified My livelihood system.
- The second biggest win of the year is being able to clarify the kind of writing I want to study and master: creative non-fiction personal essays that delve on universal and philosophical subject matters, which are place-based and use the romantic excursion as a literary device. Ultimately, I want to produce beautiful non-fiction books with photographs that combine personal narratives, philosophical thinking, cultural references, and historical descriptions all situated in a specific geographical location. This realization inspired me to combine all my writings no matter what their genre is and no matter what stage they are in the writing process into a single digital garden: forest garden of the mind. It also led me to launch The Long Walk and several Lilim articles in 2022.
- The third biggest win of the year is experiencing the clarifying aftermath of two big losses in my life at the end of the year: the loss of Rem and the loss of my day job. Rem’s loss strengthened my resolve to accept the religious nature of what I am doing with writing, walking, and photography—something I resisted for a long time. The loss of a dependable source of income helped me see with clarity the importance of mastery when engaging with the exchange economy and how mindfulness could transform any activity considered nuisance into something valuable.
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in the past year?
- I learned that utang na loob culture is toxic and my family is a victim of this culture and that I need to be part of the revolution against it. This involves building resilience so we don’t have to constantly and heavily rely on others.
- I learned the following insight: plateau experiences are more valuable than peak experiences → everything is fleeting → since everything is fleeting, we might as well live life intentionally.
- I learned a simply framework to improve my writing practice: write with focus, read with purpose, and build community.
- I learned through first-hand experience that long-distance walking makes one come face to face with social and cultural reality and that there are lessons one can only learn while walking.
- I deepened my understanding of Thoreau: the romantic excursion, his quest, and his philosophical stance.
- I learned about lyrical philosophy.
- I learned about Henry Bugbee and his works and the importance of insights as they come.
- I learned how to approach goal-setting simply yet effectively by using the warren buffet list.
- I learned that it is possible to be an atheist and yet religious.
- I learned that I had a fear of religion and yet the work I am doing is religious in nature.
- I learned how to write, editi, and send poems to a publication for potential release.
- I learned how to treat all kinds of writings I do at no matter what stage as part of a single ecosystem: a digital garden.
- I learned how to live happily with another human being.
- I learned how to budget my money and share a fund with my partner.
- I learned that in the exchange economy, we must build a highly rare skill that we could exchange for rare goods like high pay, freedom, and worthwhile work.
- I learned why it is so difficult for artists to navigate the exchange economy and that they can do so by taking on a day job, building a business component in their art without destroying its integrity, finding patrons, and living a simple life.
- I learned that it is possible to build strong, real, and authentic relationships in such a short life if one truly wants them.
- I learned the importance of having a strong home and well, which includes a metaphysical and epistemological home that I could return to while I practice tolerance and compassion towards others.
- I learned to look closer at the things we currently have and to see their value and give them the attention they deserve lest they leave us.
- I learned how to apply design thinking and principles in designing a life. For example, I now know that there is no single best life but many lives and that the next move is more important that the overall purpose.
- I learned that there are Pangasinenses dedicated in promoting the Pangasinan language and the depth of their efforts in doing so.
- I learned how to read the night sky.
- I learned how to teach LMS to someone.
What were the risks you took?
- Walking from Los Baños to San Pablo with very little knowledge of what I would expect from the walk.
- Living in with Lea despite criticism from her mom and family.
What was your most loving service?
- Supporting Lea throughout her journey towards independence and self-actualization in 2022.
What is your unfinished business from the past year?
- Building a livelihood system that feels better, builds resilience, and encourages me to pursue the work I want to do.
What are you most happy about completing?
- I am happy I was able to migrate my website from Wordpress to Hugo using Congo then later transitioning it into a digital garden using Quartz and integrating all of my writing in Obsidian. Although this setup still needs improvement, I am happy that I am able to have this system in place that allows me to think easier.
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in the past year?
- Thoreau - Returning to him made me understand what kind of writing I want to do (leading me to other writers I want to read) as well as clarifying my purpose.
- Henry Bugbee - He pointed our the importance of insights to me, compelling me to value my insights as they come and marking them as “seeds.” He made me realize that what I am doing has a religious nature to it. He helped me appreciate that the purpose of philosophy is to help us be responsible and act appropriately in life.
- Andrew James Brown - He helped me confront the reality of the religious nature of what I want to do and introduced me to processes and people who can help me in this return.
- Honorable mention: Rem - His loss has clarified where I want to go next in life
What was your biggest surprise?
Rem’s death
What compliment would you liked to have received? Given?
I would liked to have received a compliment from any of my parents or perhaps family members about my writing, specifically my poetry. But, oh well, thinking about this won’t be constructive for me.
I wish I could have complimented someone from being kind. I wish I saw more kindness in 2022 and reinforced it by complimenting kind people.
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with the past year?
None. I don’t feel that my year is incomplete.
What one word or phrase best sums up and describes your experience this past year?
Commitment
What stories from the past year are you letting go of?
- The story that I could continue earning a high amount of money in just a short time without giving enough effort.
- The story that I need to practice tolerance and compassion without a center to hold me stronger.
- The story that I should continuously rely on my parents or aunts and uncles for material support, thus strengthening utang na loob culture.
Coming Year Questions
What would make 2023 the best ever?
Two things:
- I have established a livelihood system similar to Scribendi but more resilient and closer to passion.
- I have started and made considerable progress on making a book about Los Baños.
What new habits can you cultivate that will help you to achieve your goals stated from the previous question?
- Sleeping early, which involves just following my daily routine as close as possible.
- Eating better
- Doing more physical exercise
What bad habits can you remove that will help you to achieve your goals?
- Sleeping late
- Eating poorly
What are your immediate next steps to achieve these goals?
- For the first goal, I need to go back to Designing Your Life and clarifying what kind of skill I will master to build this livelihood system.
- For the second goal, improve website design.
What would you like to be your biggest win?
- The first goal shall be my biggest win: to build a livelihood system similar to Scribendi but more resilient and closer to passion.
What advice would you like to give yourself?
- Ask for help.
What are you planning to do to improve your financial results?
- Find a skill that I could really master and that I could exchange for a high pay, freedom, and joy.
- Establish other sources of income to build resilience.
What are you looking forward to learning?
- Better web design and development.
- Using the Canon camera.
- Recording better audio.
- Recording better video.
- Book production
What do you think your biggest risk will be?
- The book project.
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving?
- Lea
- Rem’s legacy
- Rem’s family and friends
- My family
- My pets
- My friends
- As much people as I possible can
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving?
- My livelihood system
- Going after bigger projects such as this book project
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore?
- Talking to potential clients
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that?
- Pursuing beauty and truth. I will do more of that by taking better care of my finances so my time is freed up to do what I want to do now.
What one word or phrase would you like to have as your theme?
- Creative freedom
Set Your Intention:
I intend to build a resilient and profitable livelihood system that feels good and that provides enough creative freedom for me to take risks and pursue my dream to write a book about Los Baños for this year.