Category: Everything else

When I scream at someone..

it generally means that I’ve had a bad day..

I think that’s a nice reminder myself. I had a guy screaming at me the other day for no apparent reason and one half of me was tempted to go out and snap back. ..

Anyway, I resisted the temptation and moved on. ‘He must have had a bad day’ – I thought. And didn’t lose twice… :)

(Here’s more on losing twice from ‘Both sides of the table‘

—
It reminds me of when somebody cuts you off in their car on a highway. Sure, he (and let’s face it – it’s always a “he”) is a jerk. But you can’t change it. Aside from being dangerous to chase him and wag your finger at him, you’ve suddenly gotten your heart rate up 20 points. You lose twice.

There are many times in life where taking the wrong path causes you to lose twice. Know the difference between fighting (and enjoying it) or giving in, letting go of the angst and choosing to be zen. So in business when it’s time to fight – fight. When it’s time to concede or compromise – do so graciously. Don’t lose twice.

Read more on ‘when to fight and when to give in on’: Both sides of the Table

Blogs and ‘What Perfect Is’

I have just updated my ‘Blogs I read’ list with some of the best blogs I could find related to topics I found interesting (i.e. positivity, growth, self-improvement etc).

And I can see that they’re already having a super positive impact on my life!

Take, for example, the post below from ‘Marc and Angel’s Hack Life’

—
Do perfect men have big muscles? Do perfect women have big breasts? Do perfect couples have lots of children? Do perfect husbands earn upwards of $100K a year? Do perfect wives cook delicious meals?

Do perfect people have lots of friends? Do perfect people have loads of life experience? Do perfect people ever fail?

Yeah! You bet they do! All of this and soooooo much more…

Perfect men are scrawny. Perfect men struggle with obesity. Perfect men can barely do one pull-up. Perfect men have bad backs that prevent them from lifting heavy objects. Perfect men were only born with one arm.

Perfect women have tiny breasts. Perfect women have fake breasts. Perfect women have breast reductions. Perfect women haven’t finished growing their breasts yet. Perfect women have lost both breasts to cancer.

Perfect couples have one child. Perfect couples have ten children. Perfect couples adopt because, medically, they can’t have their own children. Perfect couples adopt even when they can have their own. Perfect couples never have children because they don’t want them.

Perfect husbands are stay-at-home dads. Perfect husbands own multi-million dollar businesses. Perfect husbands are migrant farmers. Perfect husbands switch careers in their mid-50’s. Perfect husbands have no idea what they want to do for a living.

Perfect wives don’t cook because they’re too tired when they get home from work. Perfect wives only know how to cook Italian food. Perfect wives hate cooking even though they’re good at it. Perfect wives are chefs at fancy restaurants. Perfect wives make Ramen Noodles.

Perfect people are introverts with two close friends. Perfect people are extroverts with five hundred Facebook friends they communicate with regularly. Perfect people hangout with their marching band friends. Perfect people have famous friends. Perfect people have a best friend with four legs.

Perfect people have traveled and lived all over the world. Perfect people have yet to explore beyond their hometown in rural Montana. Perfect people still live at home with their parents. Perfect people are happy where they are. Perfect people haven’t figured out how to get to where they want to go.

Perfect people fail a hundred times and lose hope. Perfect people succeed on their very first attempt. Perfect people don’t like to admit when they fail. Perfect people see failure as an opportunity for growth. Perfect people never fail because they never stretch themselves beyond their comfort zones.

Perfect people have scars on their faces and perfect complexions. Perfect people have long brown hair at 60 and short grey hair at 35. Perfect people wear wigs. Perfect people have sex with men, women, both or none at all. Perfect people can barely see over the grocery store counter and sometimes bump their heads at the top of doorways. Perfect people have waistlines that are infinite in size and geometry. Perfect people have skin tones as light as vanilla ice-cream and as rich dark chocolate.

Perfect people come from every corner of this beautiful planet and can be seen everywhere – even in the mirror.

Yeah! That’s right!

Perfect is the way we are born. Perfect is the way we are now. Perfect is exclusively unique.

We are what perfect is.

—
In Hindi, we’d say ‘Wah! Kya baat hai‘ .. or Wow! Well said! :)

One bad apple ruins the bunch..

As a kid, I understood this better when it was paraphrased as one drop of poison in a litre of milk means the milk itself loses its purity. That’s the power of that one drop..

How can we make sure we keep negativity out of our lives? One bit can ruin an experience..

As with many great pieces of wisdom, simple in theory – VERY hard to do in practice1

Weekends are..

what we make them to be..

I know that sounds bloody obvious but I’ve realized the are as special as we make them to be. It takes effort to make them special of course.

The whole idea of having 2 days after a (generally) tough 5 days is already amazing! And I fully appreciate their value now! Aside from that, I’ve realized how easy it is to not have a life, to not do anything because work typically takes so much out of us that it’s very easy to just come back home every weekday and do nothing and repeat the same process for weekends.

But, it does help when weekends = something different and special. This weekend, for example, just a trip to Sentosa to spend some in front of the blue water on golden sands was just worth it! It took away the monotony of seeing the same scenery (i.e. big concrete buildings) and made for a brighter outlook to the week ahead..

It’s over to night-cycling at Pulau Ubin next week!

Systems kick in slowly..

This is with reference to 2 things actually – 1) The cleanliness at my new (shared) home and 2) Weekend book learnings

In the case of 1), I’ve seen that systems kick in gradually. It is very tempting to clean all things at once (initially, I was aghast at the mess that resulted in a house where 4 (on weekdays) and 8 (on weekends) live.. haha.

But gradually, over the weeks, one newer thing gets added to the cleaning list and over the past week, the house has become a home (in the cleanliness sense as well).

In the case of 2), I started sending out an email every weekend to close family and friends with book learnings from a book that I’d read. This was a random, badly written email that was meant to be an incentive for me to read and share learnings. Over time, it has changed to a nice and polished email with a story from one of the books I read over the course of the week.

When I look at the email in its current state, I’m amazed at how far it’s come.

—
If I had to summarize this post in a couple of lines.

It’s important to have a sense of where we are going (example: Best book learning mail in the world, uber clean house etc)

And ‘Some things just take time, 9 women can’t make a baby in a month!’