What is Success?

Besides money, fame, recognition, what constitutes success?

Most of us are in the same race, pursuing the same values that society has come to define success.
Values indoctrinated since centuries ago.

But, success is not limited to simply money, fame and recognition.
Success is defined by you.

A mother who has taken very good care of her kids and groomed them into fine men is a success.
A barber who takes immense pride in giving every customer the best haircut is a success.
An avid traveller who travels to all kinds of countries to do the things he wants, even if he has to spend all his money on his travels, is a success.

Know what you want to do, then go and do it.
If it's really what you want, you will do very well, and you will be very happy.

Congrats!
You are now successful!

It's not that scary after all

When it comes to fear, your mind is incredibly good at blowing this emotion out of proportion.

That is a natural reaction though.
Your mind wants to keep you safe by scaring you off things.
Making you do things that you are used to, and comfortable with.

And the majority of us are happy to live with that.
Even if it means you do things that you don't enjoy, every day, for years and years.

Truth is though, most things are not that scary.

You know what's scary?
It's when your primary school classmate enters the classroom with a bloodied cotton wool in his mouth, grimacing in pain, and then telling you that it's your turn next to visit the dentist.

THAT'S scary.

So unless you come across something of the same scare magnitude, stop shying away from your fears. Conquer it!

The conquered land is usually where you want to be.
:)

Pushing and growing your comfort zone

The only way to expand your comfort zone is to keep pushing yourself. Conquer your fears, turn the uncomfortable, comfortable.

You push push push, then one day find yourself on the very stage you used to dream about. And it feels so natural - almost relaxing. It’s your new comfort zone. 

The question is - what scares you now? What’s intimidating? What’s the great unknown?

I keep using that question to guide my next move.

Excerpt from this excellent article - http://sivers.org/comfort

In search of...

Drive
Perspective
Courage
Motivation
Recklessness
Risk
More happiness
Purpose
Challenges
The unknown


And many other things that money can't buy.
Well, perhaps money can buy a few of the above, but those are never long-lived.

One thing's for sure though, money can buy me an air ticket.

I sense another trip soon.. very soon.
And then, I think I should travel once every quarter.

I'm getting better...

... at manipulating my dreams!

Couple of months back, I was watching "Madagascar" with a girl and we saw the trailer for "Brave".
Which got her really excited because she loves cartoons and its her kind of movie.
And I rolled my eyes. O.o
(I'm sensitive to Disney princesses)

Couple of months later, 2 nights ago to be exact, I dreamt I watched this movie with her.

Brave, floating princess

And in case you horny guys out there are wondering, no it wasn't a wet dream.

P.S. A dream is not complete, unless you have characters that float around.

Call me Kim

I just bought new specs (again) and my bro says I look like Kim Jong Il.

I'm quite maxed out by that.

What Rules Do You Live By?

Most, if not all, people have rules.

And rules come in two forms - those set by people of higher authority, and those set by yourself.

We set our own rules to make our lives better, or at least that's what most of us would like to think.

Some rules are based on self-improvement:

• Waking up early to exercise, to get more things done. Good start to the day = good day. 
• Drinking two glasses of water first thing you wake up in the morning, before brushing your teeth. Very important that you re-absorb all the essence released in your saliva while you were asleep.
• Never having supper. Not even when you have awesome friends who constantly tempt you to eat. 
• Not sweating the small stuff. Keeps you sane and not worry over the slightest of issues.
• Revealing your mahjong tiles to other players once you're "hearing'. Drastically improves your chances of winning the game as your opponents stare on in disbelief.
  
  

  

  Your opponents are maxed out instantly

  
  

  
  

While others are based on fear:

• Never expressing your liking for someone because you're afraid that it's one-sided. Doing so will make you look stupid because... erm... you have too much love? So you wait. And hint. And wait some more. And maybe pray a lil.
• Tugging your underpants and bouncing the tennis ball for up to a minute before you serve. This "sharpens your senses"before you go into battle.
  
  

  

  Sexy

  
  
• Never eating durians with beer. This will cause death, or at least that's what I was told happen to Bruce Lee. 
• Always waiting for your car engine to warm up before you drive off, otherwise it will turn into a bear and eat your dog. Or the cold engine will cause the car to explode. And not switching on your aircon during this time too. Even if it's an insane 35 degrees Celsius and you have a friend sweating profusely in the car. (Ian, I'm glad you've changed)

Anyway, I wrote this because I wanted to share some good points I gathered from this article,
http://www.earlytorise.com/12-rules/. Usually I would share it on Facebook, but erm.. yeah.

Here's an excerpt:

1. I create a to-do list at the end of every workday and I follow that to-do list starting first thing the next morning. I also perform my daily readings at the end of every workday, and I write in a gratitude journal. I am thankful everyday for identifying my mission and what I wanted to do with my life at such a young age.
2. I do not engage in confrontations with anyone, in-person or online. This is a waste of time and energy. If I have caused harm, I apologize and fix the situation. However, if someone simply doesn’t like something I have done or something that I do or disagrees with me, that is fine, but I’m not going to get into an argument about it. For any confrontation-like situation, I simply take a deep breath, relax, breathe out, and re-focus my efforts back on my work and goals.
3. I am guided by these two phrases:
   a) “Nothing matters.” – By this, I mean that arguing on the internet changes nothing…I can only work towards the major, massive goals that I have set for my life…that I have a vision of helping others, and there is no time to let petty arguments stand in the way.
   b) “It will all be over soon.” – This servers me in both good times and in bad.
   In hard times, such as bad days, troubled times, or intense physical effort or discomfort, I know that it will all be over soon. A small amount of suffering now will be forgotten later when I will enjoy the rewards of my work. And in good times, I will remember that life is short, and I must make things count now, and no matter how good things are going I must never let myself become soft and lazy,because I have too much to accomplish in such a short time.

4. Everything that happens to me – good and bad – is my personal responsibility. I blame no one but myself. These are the choices I’ve made – this is the life I’m living. I will accept the consequences of my actions.
5. I will not stop until I have helped 1 Million men and women transformed their lives – physically, financially, or emotionally.
6. I will not be the person I don’t want to be. I will not be petty, jealous, or envious, or give in to any other of those lazy emotions. I will not gossip or speak badly of others, no matter who I am with or what environment I am in. I will not be negative when it is easier to be positive. I will not hurt others when it is possible to help. I will know the temptations, situations and environments in life that I must avoid, and I will, in fact, avoid them, even if it means loosening relationships with others who “live” in those environments. It’s my life and that matters more than what other people think of me.
7. “I will always keep the child within me alive.” – Frank McKinney. I will laugh everyday. That’s not hard when you have the friends – and dog – that I have. And if they don’t make me laugh, there’s plenty of comedy on Netflix.
8. “I will write with honesty and feeling.” – Ted Nicholas. I’ve long since giving up caring about how others choose to judge me. What matters more than other’s opinions is the number of people that I can help by sharing advice and encouragement in my writing. The most powerful songs are written by songwriters who bare their souls. So screw it, let’s do it. Let’s put it all out there. I’m not going to help as many people as I could if I keep the “real info” to myself. I also understand now, better than ever, that sometimes you have to “write to repel” in order to strongly attract the readers you desire.

So... what are your rules?

Unbelieveable and Indescribable Dreams

Yesterday, I had the most number of dreams ever in a night.
I must have had like 5 dreams, but now I can only remember 2 clearly.

I love deciphering dreams.
They make no sense at all and bring some balance to this over-serious world.

So what's my first dream?

I dreamt of LTC aka Tliu.
I was talking to KY earlier over supper about her, and how she actually made me forget the other liu for a while. But because she's attached, and being the great guy I am, I don't wanna sabotage her relationship.

That must have planted the seed for what's to come while I'm sleeping.

Because in my dream, I actually met her lookalike!

The original Tliu

Since Tliu is happily attached, 周公 smartly deduced the only way around it is to find someone who looks like her. And to make it even more surreal and mesmerizing, he chose to make her appear in the form of a ......

Mermaid?!

Mermaids

Go figure.

My own thinking is perhaps it's Disney related, and everyone loves stuff from Disney!  O.o

So in the dream, I was talking to her, and she's Tliu's sister.

(Like WTF i know, but bear with me)

She's stranded on an island and to get to her, one must brave through a path of extreme danger. (Which obviously I did because I managed to see her)

And because dreams are always perfect and the way you want them to be, this girl mermaid is very responsive to communication. Unlike her elder sis, totally.

So we talked, and talked, and talked.

And talked.

And talked some more.

Okay maybe not that much but I can't make out what happened eventually.
Not like something is supposed to happen when you date a mermaid, but yeah you get my point.

I like this post because it's been a while since I posted about positive stuff.
Which also means I'm back.

And I'm getting better.

Always. Everyday.

=)

---

Footnotes

1)
I suspect I had such shining, shimmering, and splendid dreams because I had an overdose of espresso shots yesterday -- a double-shot macchiato and a double-shot espresso (12am),

And I just had another double-shot macchiato today.

No prizes for guessing what I want to dream about tonight

2) If it interests you, my second dream was about me killing someone together with CS and gang. I then turned myself into the police and I don't know what happened after that.

3) It's been more than a week since I deactivated my Facebook account, and I'm surviving very well. Tech fatigue has been reduced dramatically, and i'm feeling much better.

This is what I tell my friends. Nowadays when I unlock my phone, I almost lock it back immediately. No more pulling down of the blue and white screen, and checking out the latest updates. And because of that, I'm actually talking to more people now. ;)