Wrapping up 2017 🎊

Wow. 2017 is over in a few hours.

Here I go trying to recap what 2017 taught me.

Let’s begin saying that it was a tremendously good yet challenging year; went through a handful of ups and downs, recovered and stood up stronger and more resilient than ever before, and learned from it all.

Some people left and others came 🙏. I guess that’s just how life works. The best part about this year was finding what I truly want to focus for the rest of my life and as a result of all the hard work, I ended up finding a great place to work with a bunch of kind, intellectual and fun people.

2017 was a year that taught me how to be mentally, psychologically, and physically stronger. My spirit, faith, and life philosophy grew exponentially thanks to the difficulties I overcame, books I read, and people I talked to.

To sum up 2017, I’d like to list 22 things I learned:

1. Failing at something doesn’t mean you’re finished — it just means you’re doing something that’s getting you closer to your goal
2. We are unfinished products until the end, so be dedicated, disciplined, and consistent on your life’s purpose
3. Work relentlessly and smarter, not harder
4. Be thankful for people who aren’t in your life anymore for they come and go because they have something to teach us
5. Be thankful for people who have been there for you while you were at your worst
6. Life happens and people move on, don’t waste time thinking about the past
7. Learning something new requires that you put it the time, dedication, and passion to accomplish it — nothing is extremely difficult to learn
8. Read books that you enjoy, but also books that are outside of your comfort zone and field of study every now and then
9. Listen to podcasts and watch videos at 2x-2.5x, your brain will eventually adjust and you will save tons of hours in the long term — this is my favorite hack
10. Cop that flight ticket and travel to new places — in the end, you only regret what you didn’t do
11. Be content with life, but never settle for less than what you deserve
12. Learn to be happy and not to be attached to things or people
13. Talk more often with your parents — they aren’t getting younger
14. Learn to let go of situation outside of your control
15. Do more exercise — weights and cardio included
16. Practice yoga — not because everybody is doing it, but because it helps stretching your muscles after a long day or before starting your day
17. Meditate often — it helps keeping our brain sane and calm
18. Don’t create New Year’s resolutions — have weekly and monthly goals instead
19. Do one thing that scares the hell out of you and experiment with it — run a marathon, go skydiving, ask him/her out, take cold showers
20. Drink less alcohol and more water. Sleep more!
21. Listen to people’s opinions, but care more about your own
22. Stop multi-tasking and focus on one thing for a longer period of time

I hope you had a good 2017 and the new year will be better than the previous!