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Most of us are stuck in a cycle of short-term urgency, and in that noise, we completely forget about our long-term system. We treat work as a mere series of fires to be put out, not realizing that these urgencies are actually the building blocks of our future. They add up. They pile up. Whether we intend to or not, our daily reactions to these "emergencies" are what determine the long-term system we live in.

When things appear urgent, we rush into them. We feel productive because we are busy, but this is a delusion. Rushing into today’s urgency is precisely why the next one is guaranteed to appear tomorrow; we are training our environment to stay chaotic.

What if we stopped reacting and started building? What if we shifted our focus to the long term and engineered a system that works for us? This requires creating habits that aren't just temporary fixes for January, but foundational structures for the rest of our lives.

Abraham Lincoln captured this responsibility more precisely than anyone: “You can't escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Every time you choose a quick fix over a solid system, you are simply pushing a debt into the future. Build the system today, or stay a slave to the urgency tomorrow.

Our life is filled with projects if we scrutinously look at it. We spent time, effort or money and get the result.

The outcome of the result might not be as expected but will for sure be among the followings: low chance of success, high chance of success, big positive outcomes or small positive outcomes.

These above hopes should always be considered when working on the project, everything else is secondary.

Humans are a unique animals who tend to focus on precise and not the general. We encounter a event and we experience from it and we finally pass through it. Again, we encounter another situation along the way and we tend to follow the same pattern again and again.

We don't generalize the situation; we learn to tackle it every time after we encounter. Take a example of  the recessions, the 9/11, the housing bubble of 2008 and recently the COVID-19 pandemic.

The question arises: what did we learn from all these past events? What are we learning from the current situation we are in? Are we in the track of learning the right thing? All these questions are crucial and it sums up to a conclusion that we need to learn to learn.

In "Principles: Life and Work", Ray Dalio, talks about important things when it comes to progress in life and establish a progressive organization.

First, if you want to accomplish your mission or your organization's mission, you will be better by having quality relationship with the people.

Second, if you want to have a great work community, you will need a shared mission and financial resources to support you and your machine.

Third, if you want to make the most money possible, you will need clear goals and tight relationships to achieve them.

The year 2020 was something else not just for me but for the whole world. The deadly pandemic, stock market crash, the virtual meeting, the human movements, the space flights and many more.

I didn't expect 2020 to be the way it ended back when I was making resolutions for 2020 on its first day. With all these situations in hand, there were some guiding principles which I learned and reflected in my behavior. Some of them are:

Stoicism: All those lessons from Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, and Epictetus related to four virtues: wisdom, courage, justice and moderation. They lesson of meditation on mortality (see here). Marcus Aurelius lived when the Romans were encountered by the deadly Plague that killed millions. His book "Meditations" was the best time to read in 2020.

Being impeccable with words and taking responsibility of my words and actions. Regarding making decisions: don't make assumptions. (see here). Self-control is a strength. Right-thought is a mastery. Calmness is a power. If we can one day renovate ourselves, do so from day to day. Let there be a daily renovation, which acted as my daily thought. COVID isolated all the people around the world. My daily remainder when I was alone was: There is nothing more visible than what is secret and nothing more manifested than what is minute. Hence, a wise and superior man must be watchful over himself when he is alone.