Affirmations and goals

Last updated:

  • 2023/05/06
  • 2022/04/21

Identity

You know my name. I have a life partner. We live in the United States. I am a friend to many, a close friend to few, and a daughter, sister, niece, granddaughter, and cousin to my relatives. In my career I am a software engineer who loves functional programming and Scala. I have also been an engineering lead and racial equity ERG lead. I care about environmental and social justice, doing good, bringing positive value to the world, being fit and healthy, and making genuine connections with people. I enjoy deep or wholesome stories, learning new things, science fiction, religious studies, peace, making and consuming good food, traveling, moving my body, and consuming media related to the above.

Affirmations

My life partner is the most important aspect of my life.

  • I want to be the best partner to my spouse.
  • Losing my life partner or my healthy relationship with him would be devastating.
  • I don't care about having a lot of friends or a large presence or persona.

Good health is the foundation of everything else in my life.

  • I want to physically exercise regularly via cardio and weightlifting. I should engage in exercises that do not significantly endanger me or degrade parts of my body over time.
  • I want to moderate my food intake to be nourishing, satiating, and enjoyable for my body.
  • I want to manage my spiritual, emotional, and mental health through Buddhist meditation and study.
  • All other aspects of my life are connected to my health.

My time is my most limited and valuable resource.

  • I am working on being more intentional with how I spend my time.
  • Any time spent with my life partner is always worth it.
  • Social media is largely not worth my time. I do not have social media accounts, with the exception of LinkedIn for limited professional networking.
  • I limit distractions in my life, such as social media, clickbaity articles, notifications, or trivial email.
  • I do not maintain relationships that do not fulfill me.
  • I do not pressure myself into responding to email, texts, or other messages that do not fulfill me.
  • I should not overwork at my job.

My job challenges and grows my skills.

  • At this point in my career, I would like to attain the level of staff senior software engineer II. I can also consider management, or at least a tech lead status.
  • Doing my job effectively and efficiently is a reward in itself.
  • I take pride in my work. I never do less than I should. While I have gained respect, I need to maintain it, and I gain satisfaction in cultivating it.
  • I always want to be learning and growing my skill set. I need to prepare for the future as technology changes constantly. I also still need to fill in gaps from my lack of formal technical training.

My job enables me to live a comfortable, flexible, and dynamic life.

  • As someone who is still young and needs employer-based health insurance, my time and skills should be invested in a job that compensates me fairly (within a capitalist society), provides benefits that make my life more comfortable, and respects my time that should be for off-work hours.
  • I want to do no more work for my job than I should. I am at a point in my career and financial journey where I am respected enough, earn more than a comfortable total compensation, and feel confident enough in my skills rather than an imposter. I believe, as part of a capitalist society, I am fundamentally being exploited like most other wage earners. I receive negligible gains for doing more than I need to.
  • Scoping the time and energy I put into my job allows me to pursue other efforts that are as or more important to me.
  • My job does not wholly define me.
  • The culture within that company should enforce psychological safety and professional thriving for its employees.

My job enables me to do good in the world.

  • To the best of my ability, I should not work for an employer that is doing evil.
  • Going further, I should work for an employer that is actively doing good in the world. By extension, my work should be making the world a better place.

Stories from different perspectives enrich my own perspective.

Language learning

  • I want to be fluent in another spoken language. I've been passively and actively interested in language learning for more than a decade, and all of my adult life. I've had the most personal interest in Japanese; by personal, I mean it is not contingent on another specific person or external thing but rather it comes from within me.
  • Learning other languages stretches my mental capacities, allows me to connect with other people and cultures on a deeper, more genuine level, and challenges assumptions I have about language structures and ways of thinking.

Trying and creating different foods

  • I want to become a better cook. Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies. It is creative, nourishing for myself and others, and allows me to do something for others that all people need.
  • Trying different foods is an avenue into other cultures. Cooking different foods deepens that journey into learning of other cultures.
  • Making and trying foods from my culture is a way to connect with my culture and my ancestors.

Stories through media

  • I want to read books that scratch my itch in science fiction, memoir, history,  philosophy, various cultures (especially Japanese), social justice, and religion (especially Buddhism). Books enrich my mind.
  • I want to watch visual media that doesn't haunt me, that validates but also challenges my perspectives, that provides similar mental scratches to books, that cheers me up, that authentically evokes love through tragedy and heroism.
  • I want to play video games that are somewhat challenging (not too much, not too little) and have very strong stories, especially from a female or non-white American perspective.

Long-term Goals

  • Grow old and happy with my life partner.
  • Lose 10 pounds of fat, without losing muscle.
  • Become a staff engineer.
  • Work no more than 40 hours a week.
  • Pay off our mortgage by the year 2030.
  • By age 50 40, retire or at least work part-time for health insurance and continued contributions to society.
  • Become fluent in Japanese.

For the rest of my life

  • Embark on at least two trips a year to places I've never been to.
  • Exercise at least four times a week, for at least an hour at a time. Never break my Peloton streak for as long as I am a member. [I did break it when I was in Japan 2023, but I have forgiven myself and am rebuilding.]
  • Reduce the amount of stuff I have, buy, or end up throwing out.