this is one of the two pics I got for free from the resort photo shoot in Bali. I love that it will remind us the amazing time we had there. This is what is called, memory dividend, from the book I’m reading.
Have you ever wondered what is your life goal? what is the point of it? I knew from a long time that it is not money, not fan, not power, for me. But couldn’t pin point exactly what I am after either. The quote from the book summarized it ver well: the business of life is the acquisition of memories. in the end that’s all there is. So true for me.
One of my goal this year is to put into actionable steps to achieve my goals, live with my values in each aspect. So what did I do? I booked another trip to Bali!!! To make it even more exciting, I asked Sofia and Lizzy’s friends to join us. I am very glad to get positive response from them the moment I asked. They were all in when I proposed! We found a common school break in April. I suggested the hotel and we all booked the flight and the hotel already! How cool is that??? The girls will be reunited with their BFFs from Manila for 4 days! I am absolutely thrilled with this time and they too. The memory they will get from this trip will be remembered and enjoyed for years if not decades to come, which brings me so much satisfaction.
I am also planning for other trips, probably one in March, another one in April, and then China during summer break. These are fun trips that I am super excited about. In addition, I’ll probably have two solo trips, one to Manila for my 3 months eye follow up, and one to Argentina to bring my dad ashes back. I’m not excited about the second trip as it will be short, super long (over 30 hrs flight time), but it needs to be done.
I joked with a friend from Manila that my goal is to ENJOY life, not work hard, this year. hahahah…..
Our New Journey 
Oh I am so very happy for you guys that you are going to meet up with friends in Bali! It’s great to take advantage of all the cool things that are close’ish to where you live. And traveling with another family is a goal of mine. We just need Will to be a little bit older and then we would like to go on vacation with our best friends and their kids. Their youngest is Paul’s age and their oldest is just a few years older.
This topic about what matters in life is very timely. I just had a long conversation with my colleague/mentor. One of our former coworkers that he was very very good friends w/ died on NYE at the age of 54. So that death really makes you think about what matters in life and what you are focusing on. The person who died kind of got caught up with the lifestyle that is common among people in our industry (expensive car, country club membership, spending a large % of your income, etc). The people I connect with the most at work, like this mentor, have different values. It’s all about making memories and making the most of life. You can’t take the money with you, and I get absolutely no value out of a fancy, expensive car. Anyways, I’ll have to check out that book you are reading. It sounds really inspirational!
lastly, I love that the resort took a photo! It can be hard to get a photo of the family. I mean even on our vacation, all of my photos with Phil are selfies! Granted he ABHORS taking photos so even getting him to take a selfie can take some cajoling. But I’d love to have a family photo like that from a vacation!
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That picture is gorgeous. I love that your mom was able to be there with you and that you captured such a great moment together in such a beautiful setting. Also, I’m proud that you followed through with the hotel offer to do this sort of thing; I bet a lot of vacationers wouldn’t use this service. So a huge gold star to you.
And how fun to have another trip planned and to have it overlap with friends from Manila. And you did the most important thing: you translated that idea into action quickly and now you’ll get to anticipate a fun adventure in a few months ❤
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So I listened to that podcast episode you posted and told Josh it pushed me over the edge to buy our ($$$$$) Taylor Swift tickets!!!! Will have major memory dividends for sure.
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hahahah… I totally understand. I’m booking trips too… memory dividends, what a brilliant idea. right?
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