Issue No. 42

You have 24 hours in a day. 8 hours are for sleep, leaving you with 16. Let's say you have a 2-hour commute to and from work, which leaves you with 14. Then, you allocate 2 hours for lunch and dinner, leaving you with 12. If you work for 8 hours, you have 4 hours remaining. If you procrastinate or engage in activities like doom-scrolling on Instagram for 1 or 2 hours, you're left with 2 hours. Subtract an additional 1 hour for various buffer times such as staring at the wall before getting up, snoozing the alarm, walking inside facilities, taking care of personal needs, drinking, preparing meals, and reflecting on your life, and you are left with just 1 hour every day to work on what truly matters to you.

One hour.

I guarantee that most people don't even get to keep this amount. They are often in debt to their dreams.

This 1 hour is supposed to be spent on our personal development, but it's rarely utilized for that purpose. Instead, it often gets postponed to the weekends, and when the weekends come, it becomes an excuse to enjoy life without achieving anything truly productive.

Listen, your work is not considered productive unless it aligns with your true calling, your Ikigai. Most people are working just to survive, so it can't be labeled as productive. You wouldn't call a fish productive for swimming all day; it's just doing what it needs to survive. However, humans require a higher calling, and without it, there's no meaning to all of this.

Ask yourself right now and be truthful. Considering your current life, do you believe you are destined to arrive at a fulfilling place? Just be honest. You're likely the same person you were 3 years ago, perhaps a bit older, more depressed, with a bit more money but fewer social connections. I know this because I was in that position. It took me a while to realize it. I was caught in a constant rat race, beneath the ladder, controlled and limited by survival requirements.

I decided to carve out a path for myself.

I'm writing this on a weekend. In 50 weeks, these letters will be published as my 2nd book. If you’re living in 2025, you’re probably reading this now in that book. On weekdays, I go to my job, and I turn my buffer times into learning opportunities. Instead of watching Netflix, I read books on how to start a business. When I’m on Netflix, I watch documentaries on how to manage financial assets. While walking to work, I listen to Spanish vocabulary or Korean sentences to enhance my language proficiency. Instead of scrolling on social media, I go to the gym for my health. I still use social media, but mostly for business and building my personal brand. Rather than spending money on trips with people I cannot rely on when I'm low, I invest it in quality time with family, friends, and loved ones. Simple activities such as reading in a coffee shop, walking by the river, or playing and singing may not be extravagant, but they are time well spent because they have a destination, not merely a means to an end.

The time I invest leads me to the person I want to become: a loving, stable, resilient, responsible, accountable, dependable, strong, healthy, and gentle person. I aspire to be the person people can depend on. I want my future wife to see me as the foundation of our household, my future children to emulate my strengths, and my friends to see me as an example of leading a life worth living. That is my destination.

Where are you going?

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Until next week,