Around February I was wondering if nomadism was temporary or a way of life. “You are never coming out of this lifestyle. Once you make your life being a nomad, it is your life.” Said a life mentor of my school days in Seattle I met this year when I visited the city after many years of not being there. She’s right and this cleared a very important aspect of my life. I have been a nomad for more than five years and now I can’t stand being in the same place longer than ten days. It is my life and nomadism is what keeps it going.
Another interesting piece of advice came from my wife when I asked why we don’t have many friends. She said, “We don’t need many friends. People who have a clearly defined professional mission in life feel that they are better off by themselves. Let’s face it, we can’t stand certain people.” Very true and to clear something that had been troubling me for many years, I realize that we really don’t have many friends and that we only create relationships with the people who contribute something meaningful to our lives. Later I read that Steve Jobs thought the same way, he only had relationships with people who shared his vision and worked with him to accomplish it. On this note I realized that the prospect of spending my older years alone will be minimized so long I have my wife and my companies.
The third driving piece of discovery came somewhere in the 2nd half of the year when I had to deal with the issue of envy and some people basically having a rather hateful attitude towards me for being who I am. Undisclosed quotes, facebook and E-mail episodes left aside, I realized once again that toxic people are not good so, I went on to cutting toxic people out of my life and the results have been great. By letting them go I felt I took a huge weight off my shoulders and this made me happier to say the very least.
Along the way and past beyond the point of advising, I was confronted with illness outside of Japan where my options of health coverage are limited. Beyond the threat of financial disaster, there have been positives. In July I got sick in New Zealand and spent a couple of days dealing with hospitals. Later in November, a similar situation of more gravity took me to a hospital in Singapore. Beyond the pain and the discomfort of having to deal with not being in good health temporarily, I rescued some positives. I had to deal with those situations alone and this was very important since it made me realize how essential the people in my life are. Also I realized how important the people outside of Japan are for me and while these are clients and work peers, I was very impressed to see how they immediately dropped everything they were doing when they learned about my condition to come over to my assistance. For this I am immensely grateful and as I rescue a big lesson learned I say to myself: YOU are 50 Adrian, and despite looking younger, you have to introduce changes in your life to keep living it well.
Later in the year and after having learned a lot about my evolving health, I went on to strengthening my body in ways not previously done before. While I am a regular gym goer, I have doubled my efforts and in two months I am lifting double my usual weights, enduring more cardio, sleeping more, drinking less, and enjoying an overall better quality of physical life. Yes, I have followed the advice of family and friends on this and made time for myself. You guys are great!
On the professional side of things, this year I focused on building more excellence, in doing what we have been doing as a company but a lot better with a lot more of insight and returning on the promise of Engaging More and Selling More with a much more aggressive mind set. As a result we achieved great outcome and more importantly big tangibles in the shape of financial benefit for clients that they appreciate. Meanwhile and as this happened, I found time and opportunities to keep learning and have therefore put myself ahead of the crowd with every deeper insight delivered.
On the life side of things, the most important moment of the year belongs to September when I spent a great few days traveling with family from Argentina in Spain. By all means great quality time which I hope I can repeat in a near future with family from Japan. This explains the photo of this posting, my little daughter at some point before my trip imagined how it would be for me to travel to meet my father.
For all this I am once again on the last days of December 2019 writing about the tales of satisfaction in a year where the human factor contributed by others has not only been important, but greatly gravitational towards making me a better person.
To all of you who have been part of this journey in whichever way you find yourselves on this writing, and to all of you who find something positive to take away, thank you for being there.
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