I can't believe that I just turned 48 years old. In Chinese tradition, turning 48 years old is viewed as 50 as you usually add one on top of your age, and when your age ends with 9, you need to add another year. (i.e. 48 + 1 = 49, then 49 + 1 = 50)
Regardless of whether I am 48 or 50, it is definitely a very meaningful moment in my life, especially as my daughter has just turned 19 and my son has just started junior high school. The pivotal moment that woke me up was when my wife reminded me lately that we need to start planning for our own life and have enough financial support for the two of us. What will we do when our kids grow up and have their own lives?
Birthday Goals Planning with #chatGPT
Well, with recent trends, like anyone, I actually turned to ChatGPT and asked for a few suggestions on how to set life goals when turning 50 with the idea of living an impactful and abundant life with balance in mind.
Here is what ChatGPT came up with:
Take care of your physical health: At 50, it's important to prioritize your physical health by getting regular check-ups, exercising regularly, and maintaining a healthy diet. This will not only help you live longer but also give you more energy to pursue your goals.
Set achievable career goals: Consider what you want to achieve in your career and set achievable goals. This may include learning new skills, taking on new challenges, or starting your own business.
Develop a hobby: Developing a hobby that you enjoy can help you to de-stress and have more fun in your life. This may include playing sports, gardening, painting, or playing a musical instrument.
Build and maintain relationships: It's important to prioritize your relationships with family and friends. Spend time with loved ones and make an effort to strengthen these relationships.
Give back to your community: Consider volunteering or giving back to your community. This may include mentoring, supporting local charities, or getting involved in community initiatives.
Plan for your retirement: As you reach the age of 50, it's important to start planning for your retirement. This may include setting aside money in a retirement fund, downsizing your home, or planning for healthcare expenses.
Travel: Take advantage of the freedom that comes with being 50 and plan trips to explore new places and cultures. This can be a great way to broaden your perspective and make new connections.
My perspective from #chatGPT suggestion
With the suggestions above, traveling and maintaining relationships resonate with me the most.
For traveling, I would like to take my wife to the North Pole to see the Northern Lights as it has always been our dream to live life to the fullest.
Maintaining relationships, especially with positive people, actually lifts you up when times get tough.
What I have prepared for my 48/50 years-old
The big challenge of last 3~5 years
The past 3-5 years with the COVID situation has probably been one of the toughest parts of my life, next to the period of time when my family immigrated to Montreal, Canada in an almost 90% French environment. We had to learn French and deal with the pressure of succeeding academically and adopting a new culture.
I know everyone has tough times in their life, and I am just happy that, with the support and strength of my family, we have been able to overcome most of the obstacles.
What did I do to jump out the struggles
One of the things that changed my life is actually believing in good and surrendering oneself to truly learning the meaning of empathy, humility, and living life with abundance. Before a few years back, I was not as responsible or accountable for the results of my life, where I would sometimes have excuses for my surrendering.
My life-moto for living with abundance
Here are my top three life mottos that have made me realize that there are always life struggles, but there is also hope and light at the end of the tunnel if you are guided by positivity and love. Here is a list of values that I live by that help me wake up to embrace many possibilities that were not possible before.
#1: Be 100% accountable with no complaints and no blaming.
Things happen, and most of the time, mistakes or undesirable outcomes will occur. Taking on accountability and reflecting on how to prevent such occurrences will definitely bring more trust from your family members, coworkers, and key stakeholders. They will now know that you are dependable and focused on getting things done for measurable results instead of spending time and effort blaming others and possibly being emotionally out of control.
#2: Life is never fair, so focus on being stronger and stronger, and you will have a nicer and kinder world as people will want to collaborate and be part of your life.
I have learned from the famous TED speaker Simon Sinek that the creation of success is not about focusing on success and goals of success. Rather, it's about focusing on producing measurable results with momentum. I have tried this approach and found that by sharing my vulnerability during the process of achieving results, more people are curious and start conversations for co-creation or support. Focus on being valuable to others, and people will come to you.
#3 Surround yourself with five people who are better and more positive than you are.
We all know that our environment shapes our character. So immerse yourself in a better environment and spend most of your personal and professional life with people who are better and more successful, as they have definitely figured out things with a new perspective than you. You will quickly learn "what not to do and what to do" (i.e., the definition of focus). By imitating and truly embracing and adopting their habits and routines, you will see clearly the daily habits, perspectives, and have a choice to learn and develop. Then, you will soon find yourself stepping out of your comfort zone and starting to develop new routines that were previously unfamiliar.
How am I celebrating my 48th/50th year(s) birthday?
#1 Eat healthy and lose weight
Losing over 16 kg of weight Last year around the same time, I made a deal with myself to change the way I eat in order to lose weight. I had reached 113 kg after eating irresponsibly while preparing for my Ph.D. candidate exam. In March of last year, I decided to give myself a big birthday gift by eating healthy and keeping my weight under 100 kg, near 96 kg.
#2 Building a smart office/home
Building a smart home Over the four-day long weekend vacation starting on February 28th, I am grateful to my family members for allowing me to spend time in my study/work area to set up my Synology (which I bought over 5 years ago and rarely used) by installing Docker and Home Assistant to link up the light bulbs, surveillance camera, and sensors I bought from various vendors such as Xiaomi, LG washing and dryer machines, and others. Finally, on March 2nd, I was able to connect most devices to my screen and now have alerts on my app. Although there are still many things that I need to learn how to optimize, I definitely feel that I am bringing more value to the things that I bought and giving my home a sense of security. The achievement and value of this setup is a great gift for my birthday.
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