What's your recent realization?
Are you intent on making any "realizations" in 2025?
I retired in 2019 and since, got to do a lot of life review/reflections that I was too busy to do while working and raising a family (But I pushed a lot of things aside that wife pointed out that I should look at in retirement). It seems, there's been a trend of annual theme of realizations about life for me:
- 2019: What do I want to do in retirement? / Pursuit of "Bucket List"
- 2020: Life review
- 2021: Transformation of definition and meaning (Things are not what they seem)
- 2022: Perspective shift
- 2023: Holding prejudice and passing judgement / Creation and use of persona during life
- 2024: Who am I truly and what do I truly want? (Wife suggested doing "Shadow works and integration" to help)
- 2025: Belief system (In progress)
One of many realizations I made in 2023-2024 was the notion of "glass half full/glass half empty".
All through life, I considered myself an optimist "glass is half full" person. I realized, by holding that notion, I was "holding prejudice and passing judgement" to those who held the notion of "glass half empty" as pessimists.
After watching the movies
Inside Out, Groundhog Day, Overboard 1/2, 50 First Dates with wife several times, instead of fearing/rejecting "glass half empty", I understood it was OK to simultaneously hold the notion of "glass half full" while also holding the notion of "glass half empty".
Being able to perceive life from both perspectives allowed me to not hold prejudice and pass judgement ON MYSELF as well as others that as "imperfect humans", it was OK to be optimistic while being pessimistic about life.
And this helped me approach in 2024, "Who am I truly and what do I truly want?" along with "Shadow works and integration".