2016 – The Year of Changes

I can’t believe the entire year has gone by and I haven’t written a blog post yet! But I have a good excuse, really! This has been a super busy year for me and I feel like I’m flat on my face sometimes. Also, most of my “Life Updates” get published on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat. It’s what my family uses these days so it makes it a more viable source of communication. But I still want to blog here. I’ve kept a blog since 1999 (before I called it a blog). Anyways, here I am now, spending New Year’s Eve blogging 🙂

It has truly been a year of changes. Not just for myself and close family, but it seems for the world as well.

Let’s take a look at some major events this year:

1. Donald Trump became President of the United States (is this real life?)
2. Carrie Fisher (aka Princess Leia) and her mother die within 1 day of each other
3. Dakota Access Pipeline Protests
4. Wells Fargo phony account scandal comes to light
5. Pebble Watch company surprisingly go out of business
6. The EM Drive might be a real thing
7. Gravitational waves detected
8. And more…. but I want to move on because this blog is about more personal matters.

Personal life changes in 2016:

1. Our twin boys are born on Jan 3rd (first time parents!)
2. My father in law passed away unexpectedly in February
3. I hire my first full-time employee (D3FY Development Group – www.d3fy.com)
4. We bought our first car (minivan)
5. We moved to Tucson along with most of Erin’s siblings
6. My sister opens up about having a girlfriend
7. My brother lives and works in another country for the first time in his life
8. My dad’s best friend, and long-term family friend tragically passed away
9. We got a second dog (kind of adopted from a family member)

All in all – it has been an eventful year. Top it off with raising twin babies amongst all of this and it has definitely been a busy year full of changes!

Change is good. Hardships are good. This year I have grown a lot in ways I didn’t know I needed to grow in! I’ve been pushed to my emotional and physical limits as a new parent, family man, and business owner. I had no idea I could operate on such little sleep (thanks to raising newborn twins) while having to execute important tasks throughout the day within my business. Thank you especially to my wife and best friend Erin – for all she does to raise our kids. I help out, but she is da real MVP. 

Raising children is a labor of love – of which I humbly admit I was ignorant to how hard it was. I would compare raising a child to that of summiting a mountain. Both push your limits and help you grow spiritually as a result. The mental challenge of both seem to trigger the same emotions in my heart and soul.

Well I don’t have time to go into every detail on that list I made above – it’s about 12am and time to do a quick countdown…. 5..4..3..2..1..

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

In 2016, my “Life Theme” was to work more efficiently. I can happily say that I’ve done that. I am much better at finishing work around 5 or 6pm and I hardly work late hours anymore. I’ve learned to focus on the most important things and leave out the rest. And not just in business, in life too. I can’t take all the credit. Children and family responsibilities have forced me to get efficient or crash and burn. If only I could take the self-control and introspection I’ve gained now and apply it back when I was in my 20’s, hahaha…. ha… ha.. um yeah don’t we all. Life is good just the way it is – if you learn to smell the roses.

Okay so this year – 2017 – my Life Theme is going to be:

Taking action having personal mindfulness.

Meaning being aware of my own true desires and acting on them. One of the biggest struggles of my life is my lack of confidence about my own abilities and desires. This one thing has kept me from achieving goals which I have wished to have, and although I’m very capable of achieving them, I did not. My struggle in life isn’t that I can’t do it, it’s that I don’t do it because I think I can’t. This leaves my heart feeling sad and recognize it as the next step in my interpersonal progression.

So I’m going to fuel my belief that I CAN do it. This goal includes how I treat others as well. Being mindful about my own emotions, and also being mindful about other’s own emotions.

Looking forward to writing more blog posts this year. I miss doing it. I’d really like to start blogging more often.

What are your hopes and dreams for 2017 going to be? What will your Life Theme be?

P.S. I’ve also updated the theme of this blog to the new WordPress 2017 theme. I also spent about 30 minutes finding old photos to put as the header image – which was a lot fun to go through and reminisce about.