Day 116: inspired

it was a fantastic day!

Gratitude list:

• My mentors. I am so lucky to have encounter so many inspiring, powerful, insightful and kind person in my life that really shaped who I am today. Yesterday I heard my mentor’s talk and every minute of it I had a big smile in my face.
• My friends. The biggest accomplishment of my three years in Manila is the relationship I’ve developed. I never expected to have this kind of relationship at work. I am so grateful and I know some of these will be life long relationships.

Yesterday I had an important webinar in which I represented my organisation and over 200 legislators joined. I spent most of the week preparing for it. Sofia watched me rehearse and asked me if I’m nervous for speaking in front of so many people. I said to her: you overcome fear by preparing very well, to know the subject better than anyone in the audience, then you have nothing to fear for. And it always works! So the event went smoothly and I was happy to see my friends joining as well to give me emotional support and instant feedback.

Pantry challenge is fun and I finally cleared out the fridge and 70% of the freezer. Time to get some fresh supplies. What I realised during this week pantry challenge is that it’s easy to incorporate non perishable food into daily meals if I plan it well. I still have a big stash of beans/grains, I’ll minimise fresh supplies to use them up. Lunch was tomato with egg (a classic chinese dish that everyone loves), leftover potato with egg (not very photogenic but kids love it), and green bean.

After my morning event I took the afternoon off to read this inspiring book.

Finally, I joined the webinar where my mentor was the main speaker. She’s soooooo good, blunt, insightful, convincing, and fun! Others that watched her felt the same and I was so proud of knowing her so well. What a privilege. The event ended 10pm, way past my bedtime, but I kept chatting with my colleagues about it as we were all so inspired by her talk. I felt asleep feeling inspired and privileged.

Bluntness: not shy, not half way through, not polite, despite how many important people was in the webinar. I realised that I’m often very blunt too and it comes from a place of confidence. If you truly believe something and you want to get your message simple and clear, there’s no other effective way to just be blunt about it. 😀