I choose to get up at 6:30 am every single weekday morning because I wanted give myself time, not only to plan my work for the day, but also because I understood the value of having some daily self-reflection time. And today’s reflection topic is about none other than “Integrity” / “Trust”.

If you’ve been following my posts and journey for some time, then you’d know that I began a journey of focusing on building up my character and integrity back in 2018. Choosing to be more authentic and genuine is more “what I needed to”, and “having integrity” is truly the end result. I wanted to be a man of higher integrity and strong character. When people come to know me, or when they choose to work with someone like me, the man I hope/want them to meet and see is someone that they know they can put their trust in.

That also means, being totally honest, transparent and not pretending to be anything else than what is true. Trust me, upholding my integrity hasn’t always been the easiest. Sometimes, I have to learn to speak the truth even when it’s most inconvenient even for me. Even when the truth might make me feel uncomfortable. But on the positive side, this choice to uphold my own integrity and character has also helped me to earn some value trust with the people that I have come to work with in recent years.

It is also why I chose to be straight and honest with my freelance client yesterday evening when I told him in my update that I needed more time to work on the project. In some of my previous LinkedIn posts this past week, I have admitted that I never had the opportunity to work on a PageBuilder as a freelancer. This is my first time. But I will also admit that I have under estimated the required effort to actually build a PageBuilder (with excellence). Maybe my genuine personal challenges, and my own struggles with ADHD all had a part to play in why I’m still working on the project right now, but I am not interested in making any excuses. Instead, I will just take ownership and admit that I’m not done with the work that I’m doing, and I wanted more time to continue doing a good job.

I’m honestly glad that my client and I agreed last Friday that this project needed more time to bake. The last thing we want is to show something to the rest of his team that isn’t fully completed, or half-done. So, I’m going to take this time and opportunity to continue doing some of my best work so far. Honestly, this past weekend showed me two things about myself [as a freelancer]:

1. I still got it when it comes to being the best front-end developer and UX Engineer. I don’t mean just in terms of skills comparison with other peers in the industry. This is a field-tested proof that has given me that quiet confidence that I was genuinely concerned I might’ve lost (after not freelancing for a number of years). Well, let this be proof that I still got it.
2. Second thing is that the wise decision to delay the client demo session on Friday, thus giving me a chance to pause, slow down and take a more deliberate, intentional approach to how I want to build this PageBuilder. Instead of just building some “like” or “similar” to unlayer, I decided that if I’m going to invest my time and energy into building this PageBuilder, I’m going to make it better. I’m sure the client would appreciate it as well. This is something I’ve always been naturally good at: knowing how to give the clients not just what they have expected, but also what they have been secretly wishing/hoping for.

Anyway, I’m going to go finish my coffee, and then get ready to leave the house. Look forward to setting a clear “Plan-of-Action” for the rest of today. It’s basically a list of structure guideline/tasks that helps me to stay hyperfocused on the project (coping mechanism for ADHD).