This week has been a slightly strange week for me. It’s one of those weeks where my emotions felt quite mixed. It was basically all over the place. I was feeling positive and motivated one moment, and then in the next moment, I was wondering if I had made the right choices in my life that had led me to where I am. Strangely, nothing in particular happened this week that I felt might’ve triggered these mixed emotions. But hey, it could be things lurking much deeper beneath the surface that I’m not quite aware of. Or perhaps they are being triggered by some things in my past that I thought I had put behind me.

But the one thing I do want to talk about is a possible work opportunity that might have presented itself this week. Until I know more, I’ll refrain from speculating further. I am feeling cautiously optimistic about my chances, but again, I’ve gotten excited way too early before in the past, only to find out that things didn’t work out. So, it’s better to just remain grounded and hold on the excitement until I have better news to share.

The one thing I do want to share with you is this – this work opportunity presenting itself has brought with it a reminder of some of the lessons that I had picked up over the years. THREE of them in particular.

Lessons #8: Always appreciate & be grateful for the little things in your life.

When I consider my current circumstances, I would imagine that if/when the work opportunity does pan out, the best thing I can do is to begin by being appreciative and grateful for the work opportunity. In recent years, I’ve learned that being appreciative and grateful is not just a noun or a descriptive term for what we are feeling at any given moment. It is also a verb.

Yes. I believe very strongly that we are truly appreciative of something that someone has done for us, or for someone in our lives, we would act upon that feeling of appreciation by performing certain acts of service to demonstrate our appreciation and gratitude.

When I think about either this potential work opportunity or the ones that are waiting in the wings (ones that God has prepared for me), I would come back to this very lesson here – be appreciative and grateful for the little things.

Lesson #10: Focus on pursuing excellence in everything that you do. Not perfection.

The other key lesson that I’ve been reminded this week has to do with my flaws as a perfectionist. In recent years, after much self-introspection, I have learned a lot more about myself and my own perfectionism. Much of my past failures and regrets stem from my own need for perfectionism. As such, I had to learn to work around that need and to focus on something better – the pursuit of excellence.

Whenever I look back at my life (especially those moments when I did manage to accomplish something that is close to perfection), I realized that I never actually did achieve perfection at anything. But it is only by taking daily, consistent actions that I was able to reach a point that is closest to perfection. It is that constant, daily pursuit of excellence that ultimately led me to achieving perfection [almost].

This lesson is a reminder that I don’t have to achieve perfection on Day 1 or 10, or 20. The goal is to put in my very best effort every day. By pursuing excellence daily, I will eventually get close enough to perfection. In fact, in hindsight now, when I look back at those moments where I achieved near perfection, in other people’s eyes, it was already perfection. Maybe I just hold myself to a much higher standard than others.

Lesson #11: Remember, consistency & showing up everyday matters more than making huge leaps

Well, technically, this lesson should’ve come before the above lesson, but it’s alright. When I made the list of my “30 life lessons”, I wasn’t exactly thinking sequentially. It was more like, “what comes to mind first”.

The next most important lesson that I had to learn the hard way was being consistent. The most misunderstood concept about “being consistent” is that most people think it is to perform at the same level day in and day out. But that is not what being consistent truly means.

Being consistent as I’ve come to learned, is all about showing up. It’s about showing up every day and giving your very best, even if your best today might not measure up to your best yesterday or tomorrow. It is about realizing and accepting that we can all have good and bad days in our lives. Not every day is going to be sunshine and rainbows (yea, you know what I just did that). It’s always easier to give 100% on our best days. But it is when our days are bad that we have to find the will to show up, to have a positive attitude despite everything that we are experiencing. You might not feel like it, but you still do your best.

Being consistent is also about making small progress on a daily, weekly basis until we have reached our objectives. I’ve learned it multiple times in my life that to wait until we can make that major leap/step is something that will never come. There’s really no matter time than to start doing something today. Start small, break down your goals into much smaller goals. Aim for those smaller goals and overtime, we will see them accumulated into that final objective.

So that is exactly where I find myself on this Saturday. It’s time for me to continue doing the things that I’ve been doing. To stay consistent in my attitude on a daily basis even though I will not produce the same kind of results every single day. I know that as long as I continue to persevere, I will eventually reach all of my goals and objectives.