Keeping it simple for myself

 So I've chosen two things to build and nurture for myself, at least for the next five years:

#1: control my fitness

#2: learn how people make money through data analytics

So these two ultimate goals are worded carefully so that no matter what happens on a scale I've experienced in this millennial lifetime (pandemic included, no bueno if it's literally wartime), they are still relevant, and the only reason I'll fail in them would be because I stopped. External factors cannot make them obsolete, unless either fitness or data analytics or both are abandoned by humanity entirely (or well, like wartime).

I should probably also make some visions for them, but at least let my mind know that if the visions are not achievable, I'm free to revise them.

Okay, so...

#1: control my fitness

    Vision: a version of me who genuinely values fitness, however demanding life may be

#2: learn how people make money through data analytics

    Vision: a version of me who is making some extra money on the side from data analytics

Now for some indicators and targets to measure weekly progress... (thank you DeepSeek for the suggestions)

"Values fitness" - consistently engaging in physical activity (supplemented by a proper diet)

    Indicator: Frequency of exercise - min. 5 days a week for a 10-month streak (if the weekly count is not met, start again counting month 1 the following month)

"Making some extra money on the side" - consistent and growing income from the side venture

    Indicator: monthly side income - $600 (P36,000) per month for a 10-month streak (if the monthly count is not met, start again counting month 1 the following month)

Simple enough, and I came up with this in maybe 20 minutes tops. But maybe that's because I'm a licensed planner so this pattern of train of thought now comes naturally for me.

So just to be clear with myself, for the next five years starting today, I want to:

#1: control my fitness

    Vision: a version of me who genuinely values fitness, however demanding life may be

    Indicator: Frequency of exercise - min. 5 days a week for a 10-month streak

#2: learn how people make money through data analytics

    Vision: a version of me who is making some extra money on the side from data analytics

    Indicator: monthly side income - min. $600 (P36,000) per month for a 10-month streak

And now for the manifestation of intent: Let It Be So.

Starting all over again

One thing that's been bothering me a while is the fact that whenever I do a structured planning process based on things I know at the moment, and then I execute the plan, and then I find out new information that breaks my plan, my mind tends to take it personally.

And then there's so much overhead in replanning often and rapidly that for a busy personality that I have and can't just shake myself off of, it tends to be really, really demotivating.

I guess that aside from declaring the goals for each of my new plans for each of my existing projects, I'm gonna have to declare why the new plan is better than the old plan, aside from just adjusting to the unexpected delays and previously unknown variables.

Here's to sticking to being Agile in life, and to starting all over again on a new Monday on a new month of the new year.

Start coding today!

I've been bonding with DeepSeek for the past few days, employing it as a career guidance counselor, since it's much more "knowledgeable" compared to anyone I can possibly ask in real life (for free). One thing I'm currently considering is that I may get into data analytics.

So a few things I've digested from what DeepSeek had to say during my consultations:

• In the private sector, data analytics is important in marketing and sales projections. In government, especially in environmental concerns, it can be useful for things like climate risk projections.
• A background in data analytics can also help to build businesses from the ground up, especially for businesses that can offer data-driven solutions. Or otherwise, if the business to be built it is intended to be more traditional, data analytics can be used for analyzing customer or visitor behavior for risk management.
• Relearning programming based on outdated knowledge (I earned my degree in 2011) is "manageable with a structured approach" and is encouraged.
• "Start coding today!"

The suggestions were to look into learning Python and R, so I'm gonna try a bit of each.

I hope to be the kind of person who can demonstrate something useful from this in, say, 6 months.

Words and Patterns

When I was around 8 years old, one thing I discovered about myself was that I was drawn to using words and patterns to create things. This was back in 1999, so for me this meant learning that HTML was a thing, and that I could create my own websites to form image galleries of images that I, well, right-clicked and selected "Save image as" from all over the Internet. And being 8 years old, my local folders were neatly organized to hold Hello Kitty and Pikachu images off websites I chanced upon through what used to be the "Yahooligans!" Yahoo! website for kids.

This hobby drove me to pursue Computer Science as my major in college, once I found out it was a major I could apply for, considering I had pretty okay marks in Math, Science, and Computer in my report cards.

After graduating college, spending 4 years in the industry doing front-end programming for a multinational company, changing careers entirely, and dipping my toes into programming again during the pandemic just to leave it again - here I am in February 2025, attempting to get into rebuilding my coding portfolio. Again.

The plain truth is that I am struggling financially, and I am right now trying to capitalize on what skills I can still salvage from the back of my head. I've worked a year in government service, and as how government tends to be in developing countries, the pay is not enough for me to sustain my needs. A third of my pay is reserved for paying obligations and paying back debt.

On top of that, my family is unhappy that I am choosing my own path instead of choosing to be exactly like our relatives. These are family members with volatile personalities, and even the shockwave from just their mood being off can send one's mental wellbeing flying backwards. Much more for scenarios such as admitting to being content to live and earn in one's home country, compared to relatives who migrated to much more developed countries at much expense and hardship.

Anyway. So now I'm trying to figure out firstly, the fastest way for me to earn more, and secondly, the fastest way to be independent from my toxic family.

For this Lunar New Year, all I really pray to achieve are genuine peace and prosperity. So, this is me restarting through reconnecting with my interest in using words and patterns to create things.

So for the nth time, Hello World.