Due to some family circumstances, will be offline and not posting for a few days. Hope to come back soon. Already miss this community! :-(

Today, I made a very tough personal decision. There are maybe five, or at most ten, such decisions in a person’s entire life. I was afraid to make this decision because it means a huge change in almost every aspect of life. It means saying farewell to the safe harbor of what is familiar and habitual. It means stepping into the unknown, into uncharted territory, without knowing how things will turn out in the end. What if this decision turns out to be a huge mistake? What if I regret it in five or ten years? What helped me make this decision was a phrase I once read: “Hard decisions lead to an easy life. Easy decisions lead to a hard life.” The easier choice would have been to let everything remain as it is and to drift passively as a passenger of my own destiny. But that ease would, in the long run, lead to a very hard life, full of dissatisfaction, discomfort, and suffering. That is why I chose to make this tough decision. Another realization was that I did not really have anyone close to me to ask for support or advice. My relationships with my parents and siblings are such that we mostly talk about shallow topics. We rarely open our souls or speak frankly about intimate matters. The same is true for friends. I have colleagues with whom I can discuss work-related issues, but it would be weird to suddenly call one of them and start talking about personal stuff. I used to have two quite close friends, but in recent years we have gone our separate ways. So the lesson I have learned, and the decision I have made, is that I need to put more effort into building social connections and developing friendships. This is not an easy task for anyone after kindergarten or school🙃. The older we get, the harder it becomes to form deep, genuine friendships. Still, I will try.

I am the master of my destiny. I embrace having full control of my life, along with full responsibility for it. Where I am now is the result of my past decisions and actions. Where I will be in five or ten years will be the result of the decisions and actions I take today and tomorrow. Every day matters. Every decision matters. Every action matters. My future depends on who I choose to be today.

Today, I read about an interesting technique. Imagine that, thanks to some secret time management tricks, you suddenly gain two completely free additional hours every day. The question is: What would you spend these two hours on? What activities would you pursue? What exactly would you learn or do? If you think deeply and answer this honestly, you will discover some valuable activities that you constantly postpone, or something important but not urgent that could have a significant positive impact on your life. I tried this technique for myself. I realized that I would spend these two extra hours reading psychology books, improving my mental health, and becoming a better person for the people around me. It was quite a surprising but insightful discovery.

Today, I choose to make a positive impact. Honestly, this affirmation feels difficult for me right now. At this moment, I feel a stronger need to take than to give. Still, I try at least to do no harm to others, even if I cannot actively improve their lives. Maybe this is about humility - to accept my current limits and my reduced capacity to make a positive impact. I want to be able to call myself a good person, and I am trying to live in a way that allows this. At the same time, I honestly struggle to understand what the right balance between giving and taking is, and where that line is that makes someone a good person.