The 2010 Year Review (Succeed or Fail)

Graduation: With enough credits to graduate in June 2009, I decided to stick around for a few more quarters because of how tough the economy was and I wanted to hang around with my friends a little longer. As a result, I earned an extra certificate in Economics, but it turns out to be worthless since I did not enter that field. As winter approached I decided to just graduate by March (an odd month I know) 2010 because I wanted to get a head start in job hunting. After that I was sending in my resumes and cover letters to at least a few dozen companies only to either get rejected or given a sales position for insurance companies. I did not want to take the sales position since I don’t believe in the products the companies offer. Then I marched for my graduation at the UW Husky Stadium feeling down after 3 months of job hunting and not even a single decent job. I started doing research on how to improve my resume, cover letter, interview, and the following up process. Turns out I got offered at 4 different places. So I picked the one closest to my house to save time and gas. I was successful at last and must say it was a good experience. The lesson here is to be persistent and you will persevere. You must consistently improve and keep trying until you succeed.  

Health & Fitness: Although I’ve always been somewhat active throughout my life, my fitness level wasn’t all that great. I would get sick at least once a season or 4 times a year, and every time it lasts for at least a week. This was becoming really annoying as it interfered with my school greatly. To add on to that I usually get sick around the exam time, which made me unable to study as well as I could have. I always did poorly whenever I was sick during the exam and I did not like that. I started to get more serious about my health and fitness level by eating better (cleaning my diet), exercise more consistently (almost daily). I did this by eating 6 small meals a day instead of 3 large meals. I replaced white rice and white bread with brown rice and whole wheat bread. I stopped eating meat in order to consume less saturated and trans fat, which will reduce my body fat percentage and my cholesterol level. As for exercising, I would now lift weights 3x a week and do jog 3x a week instead of just randomly doing it whenever I feel it before. I don’t spend more than an hour in the gym or at least try not to. It’s better to exercise daily for even just 20 minutes than to exercise only 1 or 2 times a week for 3 hours each time. This way it builds habit and it’s a good one to build too. A habit will allow you to do something without consuming your limited willpower, which you’ll need to start another good habit. This was a success as well.

Vegetarianism: One day in July 2008 I started to try to become a Vegetarian after reading a few articles from Steve Pavlina and a book called The New Ethics of Eating by Eric Marcus. I was also inspired by Ghandi going vegan and Steve Jobs becoming a fruitarian at one point to clear his mind when he started building his company Apple. I’ve done a lot of research about what nutrition I’ll be missing and how I’ll get my protein for building muscles. Turns out the only nutrient a vegetarian doesn’t get enough are the B Vitamins. This problem was easily solved by going to Costco to buy a bottle of the complex Vitamin B, but I got a Multi-Vitamin one instead because it had all the B Vitamins and more. I started off by becoming a Pescetarian (a vegetarian who eats fish and seafood) and slowly transition to a full vegetarian. However, after a month I found out I was eating enough protein from just eggs, milk, and tofu to continue my workout regimen. And fish is also very good for your health, so I switched back to being a Pescetarian. During this journey I was criticized by family and friends a lot and no matter how I try to explain to them, it was totally hopeless. Then I learned just to ignore it and they finally stop criticizing (or at least not as much). Although I didn’t become a full vegetarian as I had planned, I did learn a lot from this transition. I now eat a lot more consciously and my meals are well planned out as to what nutrition I’ll need to consume and at what time. This was successful to me.

Early Riser: Reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was a big inspiration and to couple that with Steve Pavlina’s Early Riser article. I quickly wanted to give this a try. The both of them sleep around 11PM and wake up at around 5AM. This was 6 hours of sleep, but really equivalent to 7 hours because every hour you sleep before 12AM is equal to about 2 hours after 12AM. This is scientifically proven and I feel it too when I’ve tested it on myself. So I tried out Steve Pavlina’s techniques to set my alarm at a certain time (6AM) to wake me up and would fall asleep whenever I feel tired and sleepy. This worked for 6 six days and I couldn’t continue as all my family and friends sleep really late (2-3AM) and wake up at (10-11AM) on average. This means my schedule would be way different than them and I would never get to hang out with my friends at night. Also, I can’t sleep early because my family stays up late and causes a lot of noises which keeps me up until 3. This transition turned out to be a failure, but I will try it again in the future and make sure it’ll work.

Finance: Going through college was expensive. Although I got enough money for tuition, books, and housing from scholarships, grants, and running an online business, I still took some loans to earn interest in the bank for fun spending. This was a big mistake. I took out about 15k and I felt like I was loaded for a student since I had all this cash plus my own 5k sitting in my bank account. However, this was a fake feeling of confidence which tricked me to spend a lot of money more than I have. Whenever I went out with people I would often pay for my friends and acquaintances as they did not have money for some reason. In addition to that, my family was in a crisis as my dad needed a lawyer but did not have enough money so I helped him out and gave him some money. All these events together caused me to use up all my own money plus 5k more from the loans I borrowed and all the interest I earned from it. By the end of my college life I had a 5k deficit and needed to find a job quickly as I hate being in debt. However, after working for a few months at BECU and other small income sources online I came back to a positive cash balance. At first I thought this was going to turn out to be a big fail, but it turned out to be a success.