3 Months, 10 Lessons: Reflecting on the First Quarter of 2024

Because we need to pause and take note of life’s little lessons!

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

2024 is a year of level-up for me. I wanted to take things to another level. I want to take more action, be more present, and appreciate the little things more. I feel I’ve been doing that lately and during the past three months. The past 3 months of 2024 were beautiful. It was exactly what I needed to experience.

There were many lessons along the way that I’ve realized and I wanted to immortalize them again by writing them here. So, here are some of the lessons I gained in the first 3 months of 2024:

1. Be open.

Be open to whatever the world has in store for you. There are so many things in this world that you have yet to discover and experience. If you just stay open, you’ll get to see them more.

I’ve embraced every single thing that life offered me during the past quarter and I think I wouldn’t be able to experience those things if I wasn’t open to experiencing them.

2. Being present is all there is.

The past is gone, the future is not even here. I’ve been writing my daily intentions in a journal and usually, I start with “My intention today is to be present”. Because I want to experience my life fully. And to do that, I know I have to be fully in the moment. Not overthinking about the future and not reminiscing too much about the past. Just here. Fully here.

I’ve practiced being present more and I realized that I get to cherish the moment more because my attention was fully there.

3. Allow space for spontaneity.

I’m such a planner. I plan my week every Sunday. I’ve been doing so since last year and it helps me focus more on the action part versus the planning part. Saves me a lot of time, too!

One thing I did differently this year, though, I make sure to give space in my schedule for spontaneity for those little life surprises!

If a friend suddenly wants to meet? I’ll go ahead and adjust my schedule. If suddenly I want to just read a book the entire day? Sure.

Life had been very much lighter ever since!

4. Showing up is important to reach our goals.

One of my many goals this year is to read around 20 books. Initially, I only planned on reading 10 books this year because I was only able to read around 8 books last year. But to my surprise, just because I was showing up to read daily, I am way ahead of my schedule with 9 books already read for the first quarter alone! I’ll probably adjust it again but I wasn’t even focused that much on finishing the 20 books, I was more focused on showing up for my goals and enjoying it!

5. Have patience — both with yourself and other people.

I learned in the past years how to be patient with myself and my progress. Thankfully, I’m now more patient with myself. But one thing about patience that I learned this past quarter is how to be patient with other people. I’ve learned to come from a place of understanding and love and extend the patience I have with myself to other people.

6. Empathy is needed for our relationships.

I feel this is something that’s been a core lesson for the first quarter of 2024. I’m slowly learning the meaning of empathy. I’ve seen my friends do it for me by showing me kindness on days when I needed it the most. I’m practicing it more often now. I’m slowly trying to prioritize other people’s needs more than my own. I’m slowly outgrowing the old selfish version of me. It’s still a process but I realized that I have the heart to be a little bit sensitive with what others need and not expecting anything in return.

7. Compassion. Compassion. Compassion.

This is one of my favorite words from last year. And it still is something that I’ve lived by during the past quarter. There were many days when I wanted to be harsh on myself for various reasons. But there’s always that tiny voice in my head that will remind me of this word. I’ve learned to have more compassion with myself and the more I give it to myself, the easier it is to give it to other people, too.

8. Our progress is not removed.

One thing I’ve added to my journal is trackers! I used to not like trackers because I had a different mindset before. I used to feel really bad whenever I didn’t have that perfect streak. Thank God, with the new mindset that I have now, I appreciate trackers because I get to see my daily progress. I get to see my progress related to my goals.

And one thing that it taught me is that, when I shade that box, I SHOWED UP. And at the end of the month, when I summarized my data, my progress wasn’t removed, erased, or deleted just because there were days when I didn’t show up.

My progress is still there. That one step that I took for my goal was still there. I might have messed up, but I now appreciate that there are days when I showed up. It made me show up for my goals more because I now have a better view of these trackers. They’re not there to make me feel bad, they’re there to make me feel good about showing up.

The tracker didn’t change. My mindset did.

9. Leaving the ego behind is the key.

I’m not perfect, but I used to be a perfectionist. I realized it was coming from the wrong place. It’s coming from a place of insecurity, a place of trying to look good, a place of trying to impress people. When I decided to let that go, things started to shift for me. I started embracing myself more. I started to love my body more. I started to just be who I really am, from the core.

I realized that my ego has prevented me in the past from enjoying a lot of things. It prevented me from taking photos because I was feeling insecure. It prevented me from writing and publishing because I didn’t want to be wrong and get canceled. It prevented me from showing up and enjoying my life because I was too afraid of what others might think.

When I focus more on embracing who I am, on showing up to enjoy, and on just being present, I now give myself a chance to fully enjoy and make good memories.

10. When all else fails, surrender.

In the past quarter, the main lesson I’ve learned is the beauty of surrender. I’ve also learned this through my personal faith journey — which I hope to write about in another article.

There are only little things in this life that are within my control. For those that are not, I surrender it all to God. He knows what He’s doing, anyway.

Let go and let God.

The past quarter was beautiful, fun, and just what I needed. I’m happy to learn some lessons along the way:

1. Be open.
2. Being present is all there is.
3. Allow space for spontaneity.
4. Showing up is important to reach our goals.
5. Have patience — both with yourself and other people.
6. Empathy is needed for our relationships.
7. Compassion. Compassion. Compassion.
8. Our progress is not removed.
9. Leaving the ego behind is the key.
10. When all else fails, surrender.

Here’s to the next days, weeks, months, and quarters and the lessons it will bring! May we be open and present to fully experience it all!