2023 Reflection : What I Learned From 2023
2023 will draw to the close and it’s just some hours away before 2024 chapter is opened. For everyone who still chooses to survive up until this year, congratulation! You are enough! We have gone this far not to be beaten. And while we are still struggling to be the best version of ourselves in 2024, here are the best thing I have learned in 2023 as personal reflection
Health Does Matter
After a long run of hard work episodes in the office, in my 30th years old I was diagnosed Fasciitis Plantaris due to the long-term activities of office commuting. It is a condition which impacting my mobility to walk and run where I feel the ache from the heel bone area to the Achilles tendon. Not only the pain I endured since 2018 — which I neglected until July 2023 — causes me some annoying scene of morning pain, I also suffered from GERD due to the stress of work.
We all know the stress of the deadline and hustle-bustle craps in the metropolitan city. What I don’t expect is that my body can’t resist the long battle and cease to demand its rest. My mom concerned about my mental stability too, since I work from 9 am to 12 am, but start commuting since 7 am. With the intense criminal news of midnight robber at that time in Jakarta while I commuted with public transportation, my mom’s panic only fed up more stress in me. Alhamdulillah, that was how I ended up in my hometown now, shifting my career from office employee to be a freelancer.
I think it was the best decision I made in 2023. Despite losing job stability and linear income, I don’t regret any chance I made in 2023 because it is the evident of my real battle. But 2023 has taught me that I myself have the limit. I have gone pushing my body limitation to endure such battle but it is time for me now to take care my health and focus to the recovery. After several physiotherapy sessions, some pills and some Pilates treatment, my condition is now better. While I did some freelance from home, I also have time with my family as the bonus.
Family-Time
My return to the hometown, surely brought surprise to some family and friends. While many questioned my decision to come back — which I didn’t openly discuss regarding my health condition — some also give support for me. My brother — who had parted from me since 8 years ago due to our parents divorce — celebrated the return of my mom and I with quality times and togetherness. We celebrate each birthdays, share dinners, converse deep talk, schedule movie time together, and other things we can’t do in daily basis simply because we lived in the different city.
During my time in my hometown, I saw 2 deaths of close family and relative. 2023 has taught me that we only have limited time with our family, which we never know what could happen in the future! So this year has brought me to my family whom I dear the most.
“Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time.” — Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
Personal Setback
During these 8 years of my career, I never thought what I really want in my career because the goal is clear : to make money. But do I enjoy it? Am I designed for this role? Is it my career plan from the get-go? actually, I can’t answer those questions. I just run my role as it is, without thinking too much about myself. I think, this is what makes personal setback in my journey. The blockage of emotion and grumpiness from the workplace costed my health to pay what I really want.
Thankfully, I have prepared some investments for my rainy days before I get another job while working on my health. I contemplate to what I really want, what I can do, what the market wants and what the market offers. It is a long journey, though. But I believe at least I am working for the sake of personal growth — which often uncomfortable but rewarding once I get the path is cleared. 2023 has taught me resilience, patient and perseverance. It is okay to start off anything over and over again, as long as we learn some lessons from it. I love myself even more from doing what I really love and pay attention to what deserves me better.
The Power of Now
2023 also taught me about now-time itself. The mystery of time always wonders me, how does a moment can go without our focus? how time can makes such illusion which makes us believe that we still have more time while actually we really don’t. Previously, I always think that as the year goes by we still have enough time to change. There is still the day after today, but what if today is our last day?
I never thought seriously about death before, but as I am aging more, life has humbled me that anything, anyone before us can leave anytime. Any opportunity we dismissed today, can’t come twice as it was. So I try to make the most of my days worth to live. If there is any opportunity knocked in my doormat, I would grab it. I don’t know how it will impact the future, but as long as I made best effort to reach it, I have won my battle. I leave all the result to the Best Planner in life. As a muslim, now and then I will try to pursue the grander picture of life not only for this worldly cause, but also for here-after.
2023 is not only a journey of my faith but also a long-term commitment I made for myself to be more compassionate, more mindful, more relax about life, more perseverant, more grateful, more inner-works, more self-improvement, more understanding, and more resilient while I am having time right now. But when will I do it all? It is in the now.
So, what will you do for 2024 if you have it now?
