So I saw this post by @jaynie inviting people to join her Visionboard contest and I remember fondly the one that I ran in Steemit three years ago.
It was the first contest that I did in the platform and I never knew it would go viral and get tons of entries and all for a measly 8 SBD at that time.
More than the prize I guess it was the draw of doing something collectively with other people as well as New Year being around the corner that made people join.
I remember having a blast and getting so inspired reading the posts of people as they shared their thoughts, dreams and goal in life.
I got to me some pretty awesome people that I followed and cheered for in their Steemit journey and so I am hoping that Jaynie will be able to find the same joy as I had.
I recently watched Enola Holmes I simply love her catchphrase "The Future is up to Us"
It feels so empowering to say that we have control over our lives amidst this 2020 Pandemic year which seems to have spiraled a lot of plans and lives.
By having a Visionboard we take back something that was taken from us and look into the future with the firm conviction that it is up to us.
The following are the things that I want to take hold of:
Mental Health
This pandemic has not been easy on people. We experienced the world's longest lockdown as we are now at the 7th month of limited movement and a lot of places still need a travel pass and unemployment reaching 45%
Some of us were lucky to have still have jobs and capability to move to a Work From Home set up. A lot were not.
Yet it is still taking a toll on people as they have to support the failing economy and their own families. The stress has been too much for some and we have reported a large increase in mental health issues.
I have been very cautious and trying to balance things out without succumbing to toxic positivity.
It is when you acknowledge there is a problem and don't run away from it that you will be able to handle your mental health state.
I have been extending help and a listening ear to people while also maintaining my equilibrium of not taking too much because my well can dry up if it is constantly being given to others. I need some time for myself and my safety as well.
Thankful
I am grateful that I am alive. Two months ago I got sick with COVID 19 and it was life-altering.
I spent 21 days in the hospital fighting for my life as I was critically ill and hooked into a ventilator.
Until now I sometimes get night terrors of feeling the IVs in my arms, hearing the beeps of the various monitors attached to my body and remembering that twice I almost gave up.
I published my story here.
It was compelling that I got interviewed for a regional news group as we reached one million deaths worldwide.
So each day I live thankfully that I am still here.
Investments and Savings
Getting sick in the Philippines is bad. With an expensive health care system and limited health care workers and adequate medical facilities, it could mean a death sentence to some.
When I got sick and rushed to the hospital I was not worried so much, well aside from surviving COVID 19, as I had a premium health card and medical insurance. Even if in the event I died I was consoled by the thought that I had life insurance that could cover my bills.
I was dead wrong as I came out of ICU and started to recover I realized how big my hospital bill at the time.
Ten days in and my bill was already at $19,000 US dollars or roughly P900,000 Philippine Pesos(PHP). I knew the experimental drugs administered were expensive as well as the use of mechanical ventilators.
I also had nine doctors constantly checking on my and their professional fee ballooned to around $6200 USD which is about P300,000 PHP.
Every day I would lie awake thinking how the hell was I going to pay for my bill. My family wanted me to focus on healing but I could not help but worry.
Our government paid off about half of my bill with the Health Program fund that each Filipino was paying whether they owned a business, employee or voluntary paying for it. My healthcare provider paid $4000 USD and the rest I needed to be good for it.
Another thing bad about getting sick and being poor in the Philippines was getting stuck in the hospital until you pay off your bill. There was a law passed to cover that this will not happen if you went to a state-run hospital and get a general room. Given that this was COVID 19 and I was overly confident that my insurance would cover it I had gone into a private hospital to ensure I get the best chance of survival.
My insurance, gah it still makes me mad, was able to weasel there way out by declaring it was not in my policy to be covered in COVID-related illnesses since it was new. I remember my blood pressure and heart rate shooting up when I learned this and I knew how pointless it was to shout at my agent. We were both dismayed over this.
I had to empty out my savings and emergency fund accounts, sell all crypto holdings I had at a huge loss, sell my car fast, and mortgaged my house.
So here I am with zero pesos to my name, living in a borrowed house and yet I am alive.
So it is still something to be thankful because I can earn it all back. I can rebuild. There is still hope for tomorrow.
Promotion
Which is why I am aiming for a promotion. I am actually happy with the current workload I have. It is pretty simple being an individual contributor recruiter. I only think of the job positions I need to fill, find people and hopefully hit my hiring deadlines.
I don't really get stressed and I don't need to handle people.
Being in a leadership role before was one of the reasons why I got burnt out. It was not good for my mental health as I had to fight office political wars that I simply could not win and it caused my depression and lost my confidence.
Three years after that I feel that I am ready to take reins and control of my professional life. While it is easy what I do there is no challenge to it as I can exceed my targets without getting stressed. It pays ample enough for my needs before but for me to get back on track on my savings and investments means I need to earn more.
Promotion is the way to go as I am not really the entrepreneur type having failed in several business models before.
At this point, I have given up on the idea of my own business.
Write more
I have cycles in my writing. There would be parcels of my life that I would write furiously as if a mad man possessed. I would churn out short stories, finish chapters and start new projects.
Then there would be the dips that I can't write a single creative word. As if all my writing ability can muster is writing a business email for work but nothing creatively.
I have to take better control of that and keep the fire burning.
Data Science
This is my bid to future-proof myself. As technology and AI gets better one of the things I am afraid of is being skill-wise redundant and obsolete.
There are a lot of projects that are turning to AI for recruitment. They are getting faster, smarter and more human-like in their assessment.
It might not be in my professional lifetime but I see the trend towards it.
Data Science is something I picked up during the start of the pandemic when I was taking skill courses to better myself.
Getting sick with COVID and my decreasing mental state had put a bit of a damper on it but hopefully before the end of the year I get another course to augment my training.
So this is my bid for a visionboard that will help shape my future. It will be an ongoing process and I will need to constantly make adjustments if needed.
I was comparing it to the visionboard I made before.
I looked at the person that was me three years ago and find some differences but also some things like mental health and writing remain the same.
A lot of the folks that I used to write with are gone so I don't really know a lot of people who would be interested in joining something like this.
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