2020: Best Year of My Life
A Few Key Moments that Made my Year.
It could be considered an understatement that the year 2020 was a rollercoaster of emotions and intrigue. Many life-altering events happened during this seemingly never-ending year. For example, a pandemic rushed over the entire world, there was a large Black Lives Matter movement that occurred during this year, and in the United States, there was a largely impactful and divisive election that gripped at the hearts of the people of this nation, just to list some of the major ones. There were also “Murder Hornets”, the tragic death of Kobe Bryant (as well as many other celebrities), and wildfires in Australia and the West Coast of the United States. Just by taking a look at these major events, one may ask, “How on earth was this the best year of your life??”. Understanding that I am in the vast minority on this, but being quarantined back in March gave me an opportunity to reflect deeply on who I was. In April, I had written an article on this very moment. It was a quick and subtle moment, but those kinds of moments I have found to be the most impactful in the long run. Looking back on my first three months of this year, before quarantine, I had become the worst version of myself. I was lazy and unfocused, I had no real direction anymore and every day had felt like a daze. I was not living my life, I was simply wading through a life that the world wanted me to live. It was honestly a meaningless existence. Do not get me wrong, there were moments that I enjoyed during that time (mainly spending time with friends), but my own personal ambitions and drivers were gone. I was not scratching the surface of my potential.
“How on earth was this the best year of your life??”
Quarantine started in that same manner for me. Unmotivated. However, being back at home and my father’s “loving” insults for me to get my life moving in the right direction changed my whole perspective on life. I realized that external motivation is weak, and that people who achieve great things in their lifetimes are not solely externally motivated, but that they show up day after day to improve themselves. Around this time, I decided to read the book, Can’t Hurt Me, by David Goggins. The book amplified the thoughts that I had been having about self-improvement, and that humans are capable of far more than we allow ourselves to achieve. Inspired by Goggins, I decided to start running every day. In the beginning, running was about getting in shape, and I am almost embarrassed to admit this, however, my initial goal was to be able to jog for thirty minutes. After a week or two of unstructured training, I reached out to one of my best friends, who happens to be a collegiate runner, for advice. He essentially took me under his wing when it came to running, and I fell in love with the process. Running was so refreshing for a person like myself. Running with a Garmin watch can provide you with so much data, that you can analyze and determine how each workout went, and where you can improve. Over the past 8 months, I have run consistently, and I have now reached almost 1,000 miles for the year. The act of running daily has trained my mind even more than my body. When wanting to become an excellent runner, you cannot be externally motivated. Do the work, every day, and you will improve.
“I realized that external motivation is weak”
My dedication to running has bled into other areas of my life as well. I now eat more effectively and create routines for myself that set me up for success. I will admit Atomic Habits, by James Clear and Deep Work, by Cal Newport have also dramatically improved my life as well. They allowed me to transition my newfound internal decisionmaker to learning. I cannot emphasize this enough, I have learned more new and useful information this year than at any other point in my life since infancy. It all started by being more organized with my studies.
I did graduate as the Valedictorian of my class in high school, but I did this with as little effort as possible. My new goal was to be intentional with my learning. Each moment that I spend studying I do with the deepest of focus. I have a routine, set my area up in a distraction-free location, put on my headphones set to jazz music, and get to work. Before each session, I have a specific goal in mind and I tend to time myself so that there is no time to waste. Placing a clock allows me to more easily push towards focus. I am setting up my environment for the best possible outcome. I typically do these academic study sessions in the mornings between classes or in the afternoons before I have to go to work.
However, personal learning is the most important form of learning. This is the work that I do outside of the classroom to improve myself. I typically wake up around 6–7 AM every day so that I can drink a cup of coffee and work towards my own personal learning for an hour or two during the school week. On the weekends, I try to spend 3–4 hours in the morning on personal learning and projects. For example, right now it is Christmas morning. I woke up at 6:30 AM and worked on completing Harvard's CS50x Web Programming with Python and JavaScript course. I am currently horrible at coding, however, I am dedicated to improving 1% daily (James Clear Principle). This skillset will pay back my time with interest and it is only a matter of sacrifice at the moment. Around 8:30 AM, I stopped working on my project and began writing this article. An hour later, and I am at this point in my writing. I truly believe that most people would find this as a strange way to spend their Christmas morning, but it is just what I believe is best for me in the future. I truly love these quiet mornings to myself where I can improve my future. It fulfills the soul better than most anything else.
“Personal learning is the most important form of learning”
The year 2020 taught me the value of freedom that can be found through discipline and consistency. With this newfound knowledge, I rediscovered myself and my ambitions and have directed my life in a way to meet these dreams I want to achieve. The year 2020 gave me the opportunity to get out of my rut and to grow as an even better person. I hope that my story can show you that there is hope to be found even when you are at an all-time low during a period that can be uncertain and frightful.
