Hello there! It’s great to be back. I’ve been super busy due to both work and future plan commitments, but your friendly neighborhood engineer is back just in time for the holidays 😀

Speaking of future plans, I recently went through a few months where I faced a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. This was because I had a few things planned out for 2019 that may or may not work out, and may be pivotal to my career path. I am unable to speak about them now, but I promise to elaborate on this early next year. I will share, however, how I managed to get through this period in one piece. I hope that some of these tips may be useful to someone on a particularly stressful day.

• Sit down and write a one-pager reminding yourself of your core, high-level objectives. Refer to the one-pager whenever you feel lost, or whenever the going gets rough. It is extremely important to boil it down to one standard page (letter or A4) because it will keep your priorities clear and keep you from being overwhelmed–leave the detailed planning somewhere else.
• Schedule, schedule, schedule. Tim from the gym and Alyssa from the book club are not your best friends, Trello and Google Calendar are. This is especially important during your mornings where a regular routine can help set the tone for a productive and fulfilling day.
• Having an existential crisis? Try thinking about your death once per day. This is not even a joke in poor taste; it is a technique practiced in Bhutan and is founded on Buddhist principles.
• Meditate, even if for only five minutes a day. Conventional advice tells you to simply focus on your breathing, but I find it hard to instantly tune everything out so I have my own little way of getting in ‘the zone’. Experiment, and find what works for you. The investment of five minutes is completely worth it, as the scientific community has indisputably proven that there are many health benefits to regular meditation.
• Live in the present. The only way to influence the future and make up for the past is by acting now.
• Relax once in a while! Once you’re done grinding, take a few days to unwind and have fun. I just got back from a short trip to Bangkok and it did wonders for my well-being.

I’ll be back to posting at least semi-regularly from this point onward, so I hope to share some more of my shenanigans in Yangon really soon. Although my blog is by no means widely read or popular, it might be a welcome change to all the negative content written about Yangon and Myanmar in general these days. Who knows?

Cheers,

Shwe

P.S. Thank you to whoever has been patiently waiting for me to finally come out with an update. I aspire to reach your level of dedication one day 🙂