15 Minute Miracle by Joe Vitale

Talking about taking responsibility of creating our own reality....I love this video!

Do you believe in Fate?

Do you believe in fate? If you believe that our life is a pre-destined one, then what is the purpose of us living?

I believe that fate do play a part in our life. Things happen for a reason. But if fate controls our life, then what is worth striving for? If we leave it to fate, we became reactive in life and we tend to blame the world and everyone for our failure in life.

There are things that are beyond our controls. We cannot control whom we are born to. We cannot control that we are born poor or born rich. We cannot control accidents that happened in our life, leaving some handicapped by the accidents.

What we can control is how we react to these incidents and how we make used of our life.

Fate is like food ingredients. One person can get the best food ingredients in the world but does not mean that he can cook the best dish. Conversely, the one who get the worst ingredients might not make the worst dish.

There are many examples around us that show the differences in how they make use of their ingredients. One can be born in a wealthy family, go to the best school and have a bright future of becoming a doctor (these are his ingredients, his fate). But he become a drug addict and ruins his bright future. On the other hand, one can be born handicap, his family is not so wealthy but he can become a great motivator and inspiration to the society.

Fate is the raw materials of experience. They come uninvited and often unanticipated. Destiny is what a man does with these raw materials. ~ Howard Thurman

We do have choices in life! If we strictly believe that our life is a pre-destined one, we are left with no choice. Being proactive in our life means taking responsibility for your actions and your situation. Stop blaming the world for whatever happened to you. Make use of the situation and cook a good dish out of it!

Value of human life?

When it comes to precious and valuables gems and diamond, there are some who like to collect, some like to show it off as a form of status, others aspire to have them. I was thinking what gives things a value? When it comes to fashion, gems, electronics, what gives them a value? From economist’s point of view, it is the demand and supply that give rise to the value of an item. From marketer’s point of view, the value is determined by the perceived benefits successfully portrayed in a series of advertisements, packaging, display, location of sales, etc.

This means that there is no fixed value on any item. The value of all things in this world is fixed by each individual. The market can fix a Tag watch at $1,000, but I can value this watch at $2,000 and I would think that at $1000, I actually got a good bargain. On the other hand, if I value this watch at only $500, I would not pay for that price they are selling.

A lot of the determine factor for the value came from the expectation of society, the people around us, the advertisements, our family, added to this expectation. Diamonds and gems, perceived to be valuable, portrayed as prestige by marketers, are valued at high price by the society.

Anyone that has watched the movie on Blood Diamond, will probably give a second thoughts when it comes to buying diamonds. Greed propels some beings to value money and gems more than anything else. It is just madness that we human are willing to sacrifice the precious life of another human just to get a piece of element existed in this world, excavated from the earth FREE.

It really makes me wonder, how much is our human life worth?

With no marketers and no demand and supply to fix a price, what is the perceived value of a human life?

Riding the Roller Coaster

The past few days have been a roller coaster ride for me. One moment I’m happy, the next moment I fell into frustration and the next I’m depressed. Work has been frustrating. I became so emotionally tired.

I started to blame the company, the management, the processes, colleagues and everyone else. I begin to hope for a new job, new colleagues, new management. Maybe things will be better if I change a new environment. I wanted to escape from all these unhappiness, from all these madness and I wanted to look for happiness and peace somewhere else.

Then I begin to wonder, how many times have I experience these before? How many escapes have I made in the past? I have been changing jobs, always in search of a “better place”.

I realized that there is no better place in our outer world. Things and people always change. The things that bring us happiness today, might not bring us happiness tomorrow. For example, my manager praise me yesterday and I became very happy, but today, he reprimanded me and I became depressed and frustrated.

I always thought that I would be happier if I get a new job, or a new bag or a new mobile. But that happiness only lasted very briefly. So I concluded that true happiness and peace couldn’t be found externally.

If we continued to search for peace and happiness in all these things out there, we will always be riding the roller coaster, up one day and down the other. True peace lies in the heart. What this means is that we should practice looking inwards for inner peace.

When we look inwards, we will see that a lot of our unhappiness came about because we are either constantly looking to escape from this unpleasant situation or we are constantly looking forward to new pleasure. When we are here, we wish to be there. We can’t be truly enjoying.

It is time to stop whining and stop escaping. I’ll pack up my emotional baggage and start breathing.

Money is NOT the root of all evil

How many times have this topic been discussed? This is one of the favorite topics that have been widely discussed especially in the motivational and wealth creation, get rich column. Many discussion ends up with the conclusion that money is the root of good and not evil. But from my point of view, money is not the main issue in any good or bad events.

First and foremost, let’s talk about what is money. Money, in short, can be any commodity that is used as a mode of payment. In the past, people can use seashells, cigarettes, metal…. Nowadays, we use coins and notes. These are commodities with a value put to it and are commonly recognized and used as a tool for transaction purpose.

Now, how can a tool be the root of all evil or of all good?

Our intentions propel our life and our actions. And these actions we take can lead to good or bad deeds. People will do bad deed for money because they have greed. People will do good deed with money because they have kindness. These are all internal factors that we need to take care of and not the external factors such as money.

We should not focus too much on external factors for all our problems. A lot of the problem in this world occurs because people do not pay much attention to their inner world. Get our inner right and this world will be a better place.

“God said to me: Your task is to build a better world. I answered: How can I do that? The world is such a large, vast place, so complicated now, and I am so small & useless. There’s nothing I can do. But God in his great wisdom said: Just build a better you!”

Assuming Identity

A baby girl was born on earth one fine day and she was without a name and identity. She was given the name Ivy and suddenly, everyone around her starts calling her Ivy. She had not heard of this word before but the adults told her this is her name and she grew up to assume the identity of Ivy.

As a toddler, she hears and sees how the adult around her talk and behave, and she begins to imitate them. Her parents taught her the acceptable ways to behave in public and she learns them. Her parents wanted her to learn piano and ballet and she did as they say. Up till then, she was assuming the identity shaped and molded by her parents and surrounding adults.

As a teenager, she had a best friend and they will buy similar clothes, share similar music, watch similar shows. They influence each other’s behavior and ideas about life. She now has her own ideas and thoughts about her life and she thought she now has her own identity.

She grew up and started working in the society. She wasn’t ready for all the office politics and complicated human relationships. She had many setbacks and she learned how to handle them. Experience is the key. She started to face the reality of life. Having a good EQ is essential to climb up the corporate ladder. She also knows that money is important in this society. She now assumes the identity of a career woman who plays well in office politics and strives for more money.

She fell in love with a man and got married. Years later, she might have children too and she will then assume the identity of a wife and mother. She will then grow old and assumes the identity of grandmother. One fine day, when she leaves this world, she will be lying in the coffin, with no assuming identity.

Who are we? Are we the identity we assume? Identity given by our parents? OR identity given by the society?

Stillness Speaks

Nature can be such a beauty at times. Especially when our mind is quiet and still. I took a glance at this stillness the other day. At that time of stillness, even the fallen leaves look so beautiful. With the soft sunlight casting on the path, soft breeze tapping on my face and the fallen leaves dancing on the floor. At that moment, the world seems to stop. There is only peace and beauty. It is strange that I had never notice their beauty even though I walk pass them everyday. They looked so different that day.... so alive and real. But it only lasted a few minutes.

I think at that moment, my mind was still and my heart was at peace. Somehow when our mind and heart comes together, nature gets more alive. We thought we know the trees we always walk passed but in actual fact we only know the shape and color of the trees. We do not know their real essence and their beauty.

I find that meditation is the best way to calm the mind and connects our heart. It also requires our effort to keep as much attention to the present moment instead of letting our mind wonders wildly.

The problem is our mind is always occupied. Too many worries, about financial and people relationship that keeps our mind busy. The challenge is really on how to still our mind while having to earn a living at the same time. After all, we are living in this modern world and are not retreating in the caves.

I guess finding a balance in our mind and our heart is important to make our lives complete. Only then, we will feel that we are truly living. Otherwise, we are just robots, empty shell walking mindlessly. Without a feel of nature, we are not truly living.

Happiness, Choice and Freedom

Do we have a choice in life to be happy and to be free? I mean who is binding us?

We are bind by our own quest for more money, more happiness and more of everything in life. We always complain about our wife/husband, our work, our life, etc. There are so many things we are unhappy about. How many times have we looked at our life and say “I’m very happy to have all that I have today”?

We all have a choice in life, whether to be happy, to be sad or to enjoy life. Nobody is stopping us from making a choice. A lot of time, we like to compare and judge. That is where all the negativities come from. We judge and we compare and we become dissatisfied.

Given the good and bad things that happened, we tend to put more focus on the bad events. We will magnify them and makes them really impactful.

I have read somewhere that if we are in a room, we will always focus on the things in the room. And we will start to judge and compare about things being too big or too small or beautiful or ugly. We rarely notice the space in the room. Space is everywhere. It’s free and it’s always there. But somehow our focuses are always on the things in the room. Maybe if we focus our attention more on the space, we will stop judging and we will stop the comparison, starts to appreciate the things in it and enjoy the freedom.

Somehow simple things like this require a lot of effort and it may sound idiotic to some.

Every moment of our life is important

Today is my first day writing this blog. I should be excited and delighted but somehow I feel depressed. A colleague in my office had recently met an accident. She was hit by a bus and was in serious condition. Although I don’t even know who this lady is but the fact that life is so vulnerable, it really makes me ponder about my life. Have I lived a meaningful life or have I been wasting my time? How much of my time is spent on work and TV? How much of my time is spent on procrastination?

The problem with we human is that we always think we have a lot of time on hand. And we forgot or we refused to accept the fact that we will leave this world one day. And this one day, we never know when it will come.

Am I being negative about life? I don’t think so. Accepting this fact is so important, as it makes us think and live by the moment. Every moment of our life is important. Understanding and accepting this makes us refocus our energy and activities to important things of our life.

Sometimes I get so lost in my daily schedule that I totally forgot about this fact. Often, we started out with the intention of earning more money to get a better life for ourselves and our family. But in the event of doing so, we pour too much effort into work and we neglected our family and our friends. We lost sight of our main purpose and what is important to us.

I am guilty of doing that. I am also guilty of procrastinating and of wasting too much time doing nothing!

I am still trying….trying to live by the moment and making my life on earth worthwhile. I will keep trying.