We are exhausted, anxious, and desperate for things to improve. 2021 did not get rid of the pandemic. People who spoke truth to power got jailed. Lawyers and journalists were murdered.
When 2022 started, I felt like I had to walk quietly into the year. I didn’t go through the meditative process of setting out my New Year’s resolutions. I didn’t make big plans. I just hoped for things to be better, and I’ve decided to support that hope with micro-steps.
For my health, I’ll walk at least 8,000 steps a day or bike for 45 minutes. No speed or distance goals. I will have at least two servings of fruits/vegetables every day.
For my work life, I will control my calendar by strictly setting my work hours to 9am-5pm, with a bit of flexibility to keep 10pm-11pm open for meetings with colleagues in the US, UK, and Europe.
I will automatically block off half an hour after every meeting — to rest, summarize to-dos coming out of these meetings, and look away from the monitor.
For my mental health, I will write in my journal more — at least four days a week.
I will count 1 to 10 when something is about to make me angry.
For my family, I will spend more time with my daughter, and have mini-dates with my husband on a daily basis.
My new job will allow me to have more humane work hours because I now focus on Asia-Pacific issues, so timezone issues would hopefully be manageable.
For my country, I will, for the first time in my life, actively campaign for candidates that I believe in.
It’s a big year for all of us. We have to recover from Typhoon Odette. We have to try and beat CoViD-19. We have to work hard to bring integrity and competence back into elective offices, starting with a Leni Robredo presidency.
To do all these, we have to be better. And perhaps by pursuing micro-steps, we just might achieve “better”.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
