Where do I start my project?

 

Dedicated to those stuck at starting a project in your lives, worrying about how it may turn out, finding a jigsaw puzzle missing, lacking inspiration, overwhelmed by inertia. Perhaps this could be a spark. For that fire in your belly.

You start it one step at a time. The expert was once an expert 10 000 hours ago. But if they didnt take one step to start they wouldnt be where they are today. You dont have to be great to start, but you need to start to be great.  Just like how the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If they do not take one step or two, they will never ever get there.  In life, if you do not move forward, you will always be where you are. True you may stumble. True you may fall. But at least if you fall, you still fall forwards. For many in this world of ours, that’s progress. True you may write so much. And then delete all the text and start over. Let me tell you that you will do this again an again. And as you get to this point on the text, Command-A or Ctrl-A Delete will be your best friend. But hey at least you know what idea didnt work. So the key is to start somewhere. Because if you do not start the engine, your state-of-the-art AUDI  OR BMW will always stay in the garage. And that’s not what AUDIS are built for.

Ask yourself if life is a blank canvas and nobody is judging, there is no right or wrong what would you paint, write, type? And beware my friend of the TOO-word. Because every word you type write now becomes TOO AIRY FAIRY. Or TOO CHEEMOLOGY. TOO SIMPLE. TOO FAR-FETCHED. TOO HIGH CHUNK. TOO OUT OF CONTEXT. Beware of the too-ers. The voice at the back of your head who will keep telling you that to be successful and productive you gotta stop being too too much. But guess what you aren’t too much. But just right the way you are. There is an idea inside your head, stuck in between your hippocampus and the amygdala, waiting to burst out. Now won’t you be TOO MUCH if you never give our little friend the idea a chance? So suspend judgement on the procrastination cable. And let your ideas flow. You never know whatyou will get especially when one idea on one paragraph says hi and connects with another from the second paragraph. Sparks will fly and light bulbs will go ka-ching!

Find inspiration in the most bizarre of places. Because just like in life, if you don’t seek it it will never come to you. So watch a movie. An episode of Modern Family. The Discovery Channel. Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Undercover Boss. Howie D’s  Mobbed. Listen to your favourite song. Read a book. Someone’s blog. Listen to Xiaxue rant. Or Steven Lim’s super-high self-esteem. Google the meaning of Gangnam, Booya or Haiku. Facebook surfing. Or stalking if you may. You never know where your spark of inspiration can always come, if only you seek it and tell it to come out come out wherever you are. Just like if you don’t want something you will find 1001 excuses not to do it,  and so it is  if you will to find inspiration it will come in the form of 1001 raw bytes disguised in the strangest of places. And suddenly even the most random of phrases from Barney Stinson, Psy, Matt Damon or the CEO of Subway could prove that magic spark that you will use to change the world. Trust me. That very idea you were looking for, it is hiding just around the corner, playing hide and seek with you. It’s counting to 10 for you to tag. But question is, will you come out and play?

And at that point in time you say to yourself the words “should be ok”, “that will do for today” and “alright lah” is the time you should really press CONTROL-ALT-DELETE. And restart. Never settle with the ordinary. Good is the enemy of great. Difference between the ordinary and extraordinary is really just a little extra. What separates try from triumph is just that little UMPH. So find that UMPH to uncover that special spark that will make your work cross the thin line from effective to magical. Put your best feet forward and showhand your potential, your creative spark, the one idea you know will change the world. And many a day you will worry that if i showhand the best of my talents today, what will I have left tomorrow? Have faith. Because in life, things will always be better tomorrow than it is today. If you showhand  your best work today, that means tomorrow you will get better than best. Remember when you face your former best self as the competition, you will be very surprised by how motivated you could become. Because all you need to do is S.U.C.C.E.E.D – Step Up Consistently amd Constantly Each and Every Day.

What if i tell you that today is the first day of the rest of your lives and that the rest of your lives is going to be the best that you are going to live? What then is the one thing that you would do to make your life truly magical. So say Expecto Patronum to the dementors of fear, doubts, insecurity and rejection and do the one ridiculous thing, the out-of-the box thing, the against the grain thing. Do it your way. In your own terms. And have faith in the power of your mind, the type at the end of your fingertips and the strength of your conviction. And forget all the reasons why it won’t work, but believe in the one reason it will.

Your life as you know it has ended. So make today the first day of the rest of your lives.

Congratulations because you have finally arrived. All those time spent in hallowed halls and crowded libraries. Days spent staring at your notes and wondering why cant the academics write in simple English. Nights spent submitting on turnitin.com and hoping and praying hard for a miracle. The times frantically figuring out why you spent twice at much time on the bibliography than on your essay. And wishing that of all things in life knowledge should come free and plagiarism should be treated as a form of respect for the original writer. Of times looking at the clock and wishing it stopped two minutes before the exam started. So you could cram more information in. And never in your life could the value of a minute be more fully appreciated than the 1 minute naps in between lessons or in that soft spot in the library. And all the hard and heart work has finally paid off. You got your graduation. The certificate. The be all and end all which society keeps telling you when you were growing up as the creme de la creme, the apogee of the academic mountain, the holy grail.

The bad news is all these things, including your degree, they dont matter anymore. Yes it’s just a piece of paper. Welcome to the reality jungle. But at least the good news is your life as you know it is now over. And that only means you could start anew. Fresh. With an empty piece of canvas and unlimited imagination, what colours would you paint the canvas of your life with? Red Blue Yellow Green, what’s the color of your theme? Because today you can finally say WTF and Write The Future. Because today you can finally start living life in your own terms and create history. Or for the girls- Herstory.

5 years into this energizing world called the workforce, you realize it can either dizzy you or make you think that the future is full of possibilities. Never truly identified as a naysayer or an average human being, I choose to believe that we create the life we imagine. So we either be the victim of circumstance or make the circumstance work for us. After all, the greatest gifts that God has bestowed upon us is the power  of choice and the beauty of imagination.  So today, wherever you are placed always remember you can always choose to imagine better.

So here is my 2 cents worth about how we can transform our  lives from the etches of the ordinary to the annals of the epic.

Dedicated especially to awesome people entering the workforce namely @cherylcarrie, @mahxueer, @timsty, @shuums, @triciadele

The questions we ask. We are ruled by the questions we ask ourselves. Do I look good today? Am I good enough? Why must this happen to me. So here’s the BIG QUESTION- Why do you wake up in the morning? And what makes you stay up all night frustrated and compelled to do better tomorrow? What does your spring in your step stand for? And when all else have failed, when you have fallen and hit rock bottom, when the whole world is stepping all over you….what would make you stand up, stir up and say Watch Me World, #ChallengeAccepted? No matter how ridiculous embarrassing or seemingly impossible your compelling reason is find it, stay true to it and find it at the very corners of your existence.  When it is wrestled away from you through the negativity of the pessimists and the doubts of the naysayers, grab it back with all the force within you that is bigger and stronger than all that threatens to bring you down. And like all matters of the heart (Thank You Mr Steve Jobs) never settle. Say no to the good so that you can say yes to the great. And never contend with great when you can be awesome. In a world where running 9,8 seconds on the 100 metre race couldnt even put you on the Olympics medal placing and a 1-ton contraption so feared to fail landed gracefully against all odds on Mars, anything is possible if only you reached for the skies. The good side of that is that why should you make the sky the limit when there are footsteps on the moon. The other side of the coin is that when you reach for the skies and even if you fell you would land among the stars.

The people we meet. You will meet many people in your life. Some will bring you down. Some can totally never help you at all. Some will be a rainbow in your front mirror and a dagger in the rear view. And then some will lift you up higher than you can imagine. But no matter who you meet and whose paths you cross, remember it is never about you. Because life’s little secret is in putting others before you. To leave such a lasting legacy on others that you know you left them better than you found them. When you think of all those things you want to be remembered for. Love. Faith. Hope. Inspiration. Awesomeness. When people think of these, you want them to think of you. Remember there are no ordinary experiences in your life just like how there are no extra people on the planet. Some were there to lift you, others to teach you moral lessons and the rest to test your patience. So in all that you do, make your encounters with the human race extraordinary. Make others go wow when they see you in the little encounters with everyone you meet. These little experiences that add up to being life-long friendships, relationships, epic respect. Remember it is how you conduct yourself to those who can totally do you no good that defines who you are. And you are can make extraordinary differences in even the littlest of moments.

The faith we have. Faith is all about knowing in advance what could only make sense in reverse. It comes from the centre of your human existence- the heart. Because with Full Assurance In The Heart(F.A.I.T.H), you would walk that extra mile even if that extra mile was littered with hot burning coal, nails of epic jagged sharpness and sinking quicksand. Because whats in your mind can only take you so far. To go all the way is to use your heart and know you are always stronger than you seem to be, wiser than you thought you are and more capable than your last competent achievement. The truly awesome take risks. After weighing the pros and the cons, the negative voice in their head grows by leaps and bounds. But all they do is take calculated risks. Because even when the worst case scenarios drive them down nightmare street, they use their hearts as the calculator. And have faith. They take that one first step in faith, you dont have to see the whole staircase or see how far the path winds out. Just take the first step in faith. Be pleasantly surprised by results. One person’s faith in himself saw him run the 1 mile race in under 4 minutes. One person’s faith in his team saw the first man on the moon. One person’s faith in his country also created the home we have today. So what can we do with faith? To know that if we take these steps, we will get there in the end. And if it’s not okay, remember that’s not the end yet. Your fairy tale story is still being written. And remember fairy tales are always riddled with battles with villains and never-ending obstacles on your path. But if there’s one thing that fairy tales teach us – they don’t just teach us that dragons exist, they teach us that dragons can be beaten. And on those bad days you feel that nothing could go right, where Murphy is always hiding in the corner, you can always tell yourself this is not how my fairy tale story is going to end.

The BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL. It grabs you at the gut. It is what you know makes your heart sing, your stride bounce and makes you feel invincible. That you are in your own world. And nobody can burst your bubble. Just like nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. Nobody can take your dream away. Nobody can tell you it cannot be done. Too often we betray our dreams and our breathtaking mission to be slaves of the ordinary, custodians of the average, to fit in with the expectations of the typical. But why strive to fit in and be accepted when you can stand out and be admired? Remember the only expectations you have to answer to is those that belong to the man in the mirror. But the question is 10 years down the road, when you look at the mirror will you be afraid to look at that person in the eye or will you smile back because you have done this person proud?

The words you use. Defines the world that you choose to live in. With walls built in all around you. With targetboards of blame attached to all that you see. Or  a world full of infinite possibilities. How your everyday turns out is only determined by one thing – how the corners of your mouth turn. Remember there are only a number of finite things that could happen to you. But you always have an infinite number of choices on how you respond to the curves of life you are dealt with. So use your words to change your world. Say thank you a lot. Life with gratitude is joy doubled. Say sorry from the bottom of your heart because you value the relationship more than the feeling that you are right. Be a nice guy. Some say nice guys finish last. But I say to you nice guys win the race even before it started. And even when they finish last on that physical race, they would have won the battle of the hearts, the applause of millions. Ditto Oscar Pistorius and Dato’ Lee Chong Wei at the Olympics. No gold no problem. Heart of gold is always a good problem to have.

Say I love you without expecting it to be returned. It’s never too early or too late to say the basic human emotion- I LOVE YOU. Because true love after all is never about being loved back, it is about giving all the love that you have to those around you so that they feel magical. After all didnt you know why we could love somebody so much was because of that unconditional love our mothers gave us when she carried us for 9 months without being able to even see, touch or know our faces, let alone feel that we too could make that ultimate sacrifice of love for them.

The way we look at ourselves. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, it is that we are powerful beyond measure. 9 out of 10 times, we tell ourselves we arent good enough for the opportunity, that who am i to make a difference, that we dont want to step on too many toes. But there also comes a time in life where you have to decide how you want to write your future or risk others to write it for you. What would you do if you knew you couldnt fail? Who do you want to be 10 years from now? How do you want to be remembered. 10 years is a long time, but that impact, memory and impression is built one moment at a time. Your forevers are all being built one step at a time, stitched together by defining moments called Nows. Which is preciously ticking away every second. So stand up for what you believe in and stand up to be counted. Opportunities will never come your way, you must create it for yourselves and seize the moment. For you never know how that very moment could be the start of a brand new adventure. How some moments in life could define a lifetime. So knock on the door and someone will answer. Ask and you shall be given. Learn and the teacher will appear. Volunteer and do more and as you become more capable more will be given to you. Unlike what 90 per cent of your colleagues will say, this ain’t a bad thing. Because every work you do will open a new door of possibility, an opportunity to be greater than you already are, to be the awesome you want to see in the world. Do it with such passion that when people think of awesome they think of you and when they want to achieve epic they follow your lead.  And go the extra mile in the paranoia of making the world a better place because in the real world the go-getters are also the go-givers. Those who make it legendary are those who gave every bit of their heart, soul, blood and tears in uplifting those around them.

The dragons we slay. And now that your legacies truly begin at the end of your comfort zone. So step out of your doors and stare into the abyss. What stares back seeks to bring you down , convince you you were not cut out for this, trouble you with fear, doubt and embarrassment. But it also seeks to introduce you to your truest best self. It is through how you contend with your struggles, how you look fear in the eye and never blink back that will define you. That will make you go the distance. That will make you take the step from being ordinary to the extraordinary. Because you will will come to realise with all that is happening in the world, somebody should do something. And you realized that you are somebody. That if you think that all this world needs is a miracle, look at the mirror and realize you are the miracle the world has been waiting for. So do the things that are difficult, that will challenge you, that will shake your very foundation of your beliefs, because waiting on the other side of the door of doubt and fear is your truest best lives waiting to happen. And remember most of the time all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, of embarrassing bravery to make that difference. To take that leap of faith. That one thing that scares you the most. The one thing you know you should that will completely change your life forever. And i promise you it will be worth it.

Above all else, in a world that seeks out and keeps moulding you to be just a face in a crowd, you need to remind yourself that you got to be your own person- the one that the crowd faces. Because why seek to fit in when you were born to stand out? Remember it is those crazy enough to think they can change the world that very do. So stuck in a ratrace of millions drowning you out with the noise of social expectations and an ordinary life, you need to find your own voice and raise the volume. Create the life that you have imagined. In an ordinary week after the days go Mondays and Tuesdays, it will go WTF…. That is your cue to WRITE THE FUTURE. To participate in this project called a better tomorrow. To not just be exceptional over average but to make your exceptional your new average. To live a life of OH-WELLS rather than WHAT-IFS. To live that life that your 10-year old self dreamt of, that he or she would be proud of. To remember that you are here because you are the difference that makes the difference. And on those days when your life is in the shadows and you see shades of darkness, all you need to do is to remember to turn on the light. Which is the spark in your heart that will always move you to unchartered territories, unknown places and awesome new adventures. And you know what they say about sparks? Sparks fly. And so do humans with passion.

And always remember your true purpose. To leave every person and place better than you found them. Because after all, there are only 2 important days in your life. The day you were born. And the day you find out why.

How do you fly without wings?

Blessings has been the theme of 2010 and what a way to start the year but in being reminded becauseyouonlyliveonce that it’s time to count your blessings twice-Once in the head and Once as you see in the words that comes from the bottomless pit that is our heart on this post.

1) You Never Know How Big A Difference You Can Make. But Just Do It Anyway.

If there was one thing I learnt this year, it was that you never know how much difference you could make. The results aren’t tangible and the the success isnt countable.But you do it anyway, staring sometimes into the long road not knowing where it leads to or if what you visualize in your mind will turn to reality. And that is faith. The ones that can move mountains and break down walls of doubt. That Full Assurance In The Heart that one act of love can truly move the person it touches into new worlds of possibilities. That the best investment you can give is not the ones you use money to buy or candlesticks to count. It is the power you can give others just by saying I BELIEVE IN YOU. YES YOU CAN. And that power is not in just the words that you say but the actions you inspire. That nudge into the unknown, that leap of faith, the very lessons that you teach. And above all, what makes the most difference aint really the lessons people learn from you or the words that you keep drilling upon them. People will forget all these but they will always remember how you made them feel. And when you make them feel awesome, they do awesome. Their awesome becomes their new average. Thank you @shuums@timsty@mahxueer@limhui@sophieleus@cheryl lim @tricia ang @terence low @jeremy lee @vivien tang @jeryn fok @mahesh for standing up each day to your true everyday greatness. You are an inspiration in my life. And to the many more who will follow these in the path of awesomeness, i am awed by your awesomeness and cant wait to see how all of you will change the world!

2) Your Gift could be your blessing or a curse. I choose to see it as A BLESSING.

Often I have received messages from friends on weekends who beckon me to stop working. Or sometimes a little voice in my head that tells me that my greatest fear is that i am inadequate. But truly, our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure – that we regret the things we didnt do and the opportunities that we didnt jump upon. And this year, i thank both God and the people around me for bestowing me with the blessings that accentuate my gift, for trusting me to deliver and for having faith in me even though i stumble sometimes. I do believe that the greatest gift you could ever get is the faith paid upon you. So thank you @vernie @ashlynes mother @gopal @natalie @shinuankoh @irene @jdlee @eileen @leonard for always believing that i can make a dent in the universe. And to @parents @friends of time immemorial like @weilipang and @melvinliu thanks for the never-ending support, faith and believe. I believe who i am today is because of how you made a differene in my life!

3) Every gift you get, pay it forward.

The difference between a present and a gift is that a present is something you can see with your own eyes, something you play with in the present, to maybe discard it when the next PSP coems out. A gift is something you cant get instant rewards with, you will have to do something with your gift to receive its true returns. Harry was given a wand. Edward and Lucy was given the kingdom. Eustes was given wings to fly and Ferguson and Mourinho football clubs. Look what they did with what they had.With every gift that you get, you may compel to give one back to the person who gave it to you. After all, aint life about exchange, transactions and the ill pay you back and i owe you one mindset. But life would be boring with the follow-the-crowd types. It has always been made more awesome by dare-to-be-different types. Steve Jobs did it with the iphone, Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook and Obama with the Presidency. So I ask of you to give gratitude where it’s do when you receive an intangible gift, a favour, a blessing. Then go out there and bestow it to as many people as you can. And ask them to do the same. Pay it forward. You never know what you will get back. This year, Ive learnt Ive got a lot more back in return. In fact, truly a lot more than I could ever ask for.

So as we step into the new decade, new challenges await us as new hope beckons. And with every challenge is an obstacle as with every new hope a dampener. Harry wouldnt be who he is without Voldermort and Eustes who he is without the dark mist. But just be like the sun. No matter how many bad things happen in the world each and every day, it rises up high up in the sky every waking day. You too have that choice to match the sun in rising up to life’s challenges.

Because you decide each day who you are and what you believe in. What you stand for and what difference you want to make. And true you may stumble sometimes, fall, crash. Face walls, obstacles and naysayers. But with every breath you take and every step you take you will come to know that although time flies, you are always the pilot. And that every second of every day you are given a second chance. To make a dent in the universe, change the world, plant a smile on someone’s face, leave every person and place better than you found it.

Happy Awesome 2011 everybody and this year dont just hope for awesomeness in all you do. Be the AWESOME you want to see in the world. Let YOUR AWESOME BE YOUR NEW AVERAGE.

With ELDD Coaches of 2011, I have already experienced that. Keep the faith as you Transform lives everyday.

This is the land of MAKE BELIEVE.

To begin with, I perhaps would like to dedicate this blog post to 3 special people in my life. For you have been an inspiration to me in some way or the other and yet life is never a one way street. It’s a tennis match. It’s not only two ways. Sometimes in order for you to get to where you want to go you have to serve others. And even if you fall or you miss the ball, you will always get love in return. And in life we dont only take turns to inspire each other, we inspire each other by the examples we set and the examples we set are examplified by the lives that we live and the choices that we make.

I guess our problems are only as big as what we make them out to be. Always remember to keep them small for our spirit and our faith are bigger than we think. And sometimes people around us want us to focus on the negative and breed the limitations of our lives. When you look at the word upside down you ponder why it isnt downsideup instead? Because just perhaps those people who popularised it did not want things to go from down to up but rather made us believe that things that go up must always come down. Popular refrain eh. I challenge you whatever you think think different. Or rather whatever people made you think think differently. We can always be wired differently if we choose to be. Never make another person’s history your destiny. Your destiny that you have to design on your own.

And even if you’re losing faith and your beliefs are shaken, know that the word faith stands for FULL ASSURANCE IN THE HEART (thks nick vujicic) and that FAITH is something you cannot see but tells you everything will be ok. If it’s not okay then it’s not the end. And sometimes we live too much in our heads that we need to start living in our heart. For the mind can take you far, the rest is just your heart.(thanks celine dion-FYI this is the cooler way of citation and footnotes). So keep looking for that light at the end of the tunnel and as you look for it know that what you believe are crafted by the examples you find. If you find yourself in a weary position, it is because your conversation history are littered with examples of you telling yourself you cannot do it or youre not good enough based on what you have been doing. All you have to do is clear the conversation history and imagine yourself doing good-not doing right but doing good-here’s a key difference. Imagine and let your heart run your mind. For when you open your heart to a world of possibilities, you will look at yourself with brand new eyes. And with these eyes catch yourself doing good for too many a time we catch ourselves doing bad. Today do something – let’s stop just looking and start seeing.

And even if people around you are telling you you were born to do some things and you should never leave, I say to you that life is a race-run it the way you want.Stop working in life. Start playing for when you do what you like, the thing that makes you spring out of bed at 4am in the morning with an extra step, that makes you obsessed that’s when your life truly stops and your legacy begins. For then, you are fulfilling your purpose you have in this life-that is to leave every person and place better and happier than you found it. Do what you think is good for you, that makes your heart feel whole and that puts a smile on your face. Never ever ask the question what will make me happy-just be. And you will find yourself doing the things that make you feel awesome all the time.

So remember this (thanks ramesh!) that if you find yourself in darkness and your world is full of shadows, know that for that shadow to be cast, there must have been light in the first place. So keep looking for that light and never give up. Shut that voice at the back of your head and find your voice in the crowd that makes you go wowee. Find the pillars in your life-the ones that makes you stand up tall and straight within you. Your convictions and your beliefs that shall not be shaken come what may. We dont live long enough to live another’s life (thks Steve Jobs) so let us lead our own lives, instead of just living or existing.

Every step you climb another mountain (thanks kara diguoardi) and just believe. If you can’t go out into the garden and find a bee-they’re probably buzzing around a leaf. bee leaf. it ain’t supposed to be rational and logical. Galileo believed the world was round even though the whole world told him it was flat and he had no hard visual evidence. So believe is something we can’t see but gives us future rewards. And if you still can’t just MAKE BELIEVE. Make yourself believe that you believe. For when you look at the world of the make believe, you think of Disneyland and how it has inspired the world to never grow up and lose sight of our dreams. Make Believe. Yes You Can.

For Fairy Tales aren’t suppoed to tell us that dragons exist. They tell us that dragons CAN be beaten and be made into dragon fruit.(Thanks GK Chesterton).

And as for the 3 of you i am sure you know who you are. I just want to say You Inspire me in more than a million ways than you can imagine and even if you feel lost, remember you can always find a voice. For if you lose your voice, there’s always strepsils or pee pah kow but within a few days you will find it once more. Be the VOICE. Change the world one decible at a time.

This is for you . A Food for thought from Adrian Tan, lost in my treasures of wonders but an apt reminder that each of us has a story to tell…and that the only way for that story to unfold is for us to keep writing…even if we have to do it in a different way….

”

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan “Arbeit macht frei” was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

You’re going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there’s no life expectancy.”

Why settle for the average when there is no life expectancy. Age is a statistic that limits us but our legacies will live forever. Be the AWESOME YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD TODAY. EVERY DAY.

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The Place Where We Get Off.

Outside the station, she stands with her child on the side of the street, taking pictures of cars.

You think she’s insane. Until, one day, you notice that she’s taking pictures of the license plates of the cars her child gets into.

Because you look. But you do not see.

And she walks out the shop with bags full of cat food. You think she’s some crazy cat lady until you find out, she has no cats.

Because you eat. But you do not taste.

It’s been a while since their last album but he assures you, he’s doing just fine these days, white flecks in his nostrils. Then he asks you if he can spend the night on your couch, even though it stinks.

Because you sniff. But you do not smell.

And they say “Just OK” when you ask them how school was. Then you wonder what they’re hiding until you find their diary and the last entry reads “I wish you’d give me some privacy.”

Because you listen. But you do not hear.

And they’ve got a bruise over their eye and you run the tips of your fingers over it and ask them how it happened. You believe them. Until it happens again.

Because you touch. But you do not feel.

And they walk past you everyday, one million stories, each waiting to be told. Waiting for you to ask.

Because you live. But very few, love.

(pleasefindthis.blogspot.com)

Every time you act and every time you respond, ask yourself do you exist or do you live?

I say to you to follow your dreams, you’ve got to lead your life.

And give every moment your personal best.

What lifts us up where we belong?

This post is dedicated to 2 bffs who have inspired me every single day of the last 8 years. 2 musketeers who never fail to put a smile on my face.2 possibility evangelizers who are starting to fly their kites 1 sister who has grown up to be a titan and 1 starfish who makes the whole stretch of beach worthwhile.

LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDID THING.

One of the world’s most effective people, Stephen Covey, once wrote that Everyday Greatness is a primary form of greatness that resides inside each and everyone of us. Not the skill or tenacity that made Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson or Donald Trump into household names. But the ordinary things others do for us each day, the very things we sometimes take for granted. It is the persevering father who diligently works two jobs just to put food on the table, or our kind mother who always cleans up our mess for us no matter what we do. The farmer who conscientiously nurtures his crop despite the elements of nature that confronts him or the David Beckham-wannabes who spend hours at end practicing the free kicks on an empty field even when his teammates are gone and the floodlights have shut. So today ask yourself how can you unleash your greatness within? To show up in life at your personal best. To make a difference one life at a time.

For at the heart of everyday greatness is this simple concept called love. What brought each and every one of us together at any point in time of our lives are four letters  : FATE. But another 4 letters will determine where we go from here : LOVE. And when you love someone, you always have that HOPE in your heart that never dies. That FAITH that everything will turn out okay even if your life is hanging by a thread. So wherever you go, go with all your heart. The mind can take you far. The rest is just your heart. With enough love in this world, all things become possible. Look at the world’s most inspirational  people. Dick Hoyt. Nick Vujicic. Barack Obama. Correspond their everyday greatness with the love for his son, the love for humanity, and the love for change.

Cos after all my friend once told me, who doesn’t love presents? The wonderfully crafted birthday card, the hard to find limited editions, the once in a lifetime girl’s best friend. But what about those we cant’s see with our naked eye? The forgotten stories of the past that begs for a sheer light, the ones who have been faithfully by our side without any demand for recognition-our unsung heroes. So today you have a choice. To allow the dust to continue piling itself up or to unwrap the present of the past to make it their present of the present.

This Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day, know that the love for family and that special one is good. But why stop love there? Spread the love and do everything that you do out of love. Cliché? You may think so but here’s the big idea-people say things are cliché only because they know deep in their heart that these things are true. So today spread the love amongst the bread of people. Do every thing with all your heart. Open your heart to a world of possibilities. Because when there is great love, there will always be miracles.

(written for the Adam Khoo Newsletter : a writing debut. Look out for it!)

10 Suggested Resolutions for the New Year.

1. Make every day like a HAPPY NEW YEAR- A New Beginning and Our Spirits AWESOME BEYOND MEASURE

2. Seek Greatness, and not just Goodness in People.

3. Walk, Run, Jump More. Cos if Success is Baby Steps then you will have more steps closer to success!

4. Surprise Yourself Each Day. With the choices you make. If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.

5. Sleep Early. The More Dreams You Have, the Earlier You Can Wake Up to make your dreams come true.

6. Appreciate. The Act of Love is Giving. Which also begins the act of receiving.

7. Grow. Pick 2 People to shower your blessings (knowledge, experience,skills,faith,belief,hope). Tell them to change the world one person at a time. See what happens. This is called a LOVE game. You Shower your love and see where it goes.around the world.

8.Create. Something new that will totally change the world. Even if you can only think of one response of an idea you’re on the right track. One step closer to changing the world. It all begins with a spark.

9.Be The Friend You Want to See in the World. You are most like your top 5 friends. For your friends to find joy in the world, show them joy. For you friends to find inspiration, show them your inspired look. Lead the Change.

10. Find the IT word that defines your excellence. For Ris Low, it’s BOOMZ. For Barney Stinson it’s AWESOME. For Obama it’s CHANGE. What’s yours? Find it, Create It, Use It to change your existence from mediocre to a life of excellence. Today.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Lives.

I Believe I Can Fly:)

’m Flying!
by Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.
Once upon a time there was a little boy who was raised in an orphanage.

The little boy had always wished that he could fly like a bird. It was very difficult for him to understand why he could not fly. There were birds at the zoo that were much bigger than he, and they could fly. “Why can’t I?” he thought. “Is there something wrong with me?” he wondered.

There was another little boy who was crippled. He had always wished that he could walk and run like other little boys and girls. “Why can’t I be like them?” he thought.

One day the little orphan boy, who had wanted to fly like a bird, ran away from the orphanage. He came upon a park where he saw the little boy, who could not walk or run, playing in the sandbox.

He ran over to the little boy and asked him if he had ever wanted to fly like a bird.

“No,” said the little boy who could not walk or run. “But I have wondered what it would be like to walk and run like other boys and girls.”

“That is very sad,” said the little boy who wanted to fly. “Do you think we could be friends?” he said to the little boy in the sandbox.

“Sure,” said the little boy.

The two little boys played for hours. They made sand castles and made really funny sounds with their mouths. Sounds which made them laugh real hard. Then the little boy’s father came with a wheelchair to pick up his son. The little boy who had always wanted to fly ran over to the boy’s father and whispered something into his ear.

“That would be OK,” said the man.

The little boy who had always wanted to fly like a bird ran over to his new friend and said, “You are my only friend and I wish that there was something that I could do to make you walk and run like other little boys and girls. But I can’t. But there is something that I can do for you.”

The little orphan boy turned around and told his new friend to slide up onto his back. He then began to run across the grass. Faster and faster he ran, carrying the little crippled boy on his back. Faster and harder he ran across the park. Harder and harder he made his legs travel. Soon the wind just whistled across the two little boys’ faces.

The little boy’s father began to cry as he watched his beautiful little crippled son flapping his arms up and down in the wind, all the while yelling at the top of his voice,

“I’M FLYING, DADDY. I’M FLYING!”
Mailing List Music Player

You Can Shine

The naysayers and dont-do-thaters may constantly be the voices you hear in your life. But dont let these voices be the voices of you. Find your voice. It’s hidden in a secret compartment in your heart. The one that sings and dances when you reminisce about your good times, your hopes and your dreams. Look in the mirror and see your truest best self. Then let you fly. Like a coccon breaking into a butterfly. Because today, you can shine. Dont worry about the darkness. For it is when it is the darkest that the stars are the brightest:)

What I Learnt, I learnt from YJC Nomads.and Coaches.

1. That people who make a difference arent the ones who purposefully walk the extra mile or go to the heavens and back to do something for others. They just are themesleves and do what they are supposed to do. And they do it with a heart of sincerity, an enthusiasm of passion and a smile on the face. You can really make a difference just by being who you are. No magic formulas or things you have to specially do. Be who you are. Cos WHO YOU ARE MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

2. . Flying kites gives such a big idea about living life. Like how in life you have to tighten your grip and sometimes you just have to let go. Let how you can always fly your dreams up high and if they fall down on the floor, all you have to do is fly it up high again. And mostly for you to soar to your mountain tops, you will always need to run against the wind.

3.That in life we always seek to do the BIG things, not realising that life is made of the little things. When you went to look for the A to Z photos you understood how to look at the finer details of life, the little things of life and not just going about your big dreams. Like the happiness you find drinking a sip of coffee by the roadside or the warmth of sunshine every morning as you wake up. The A-Z is just a metaphor of looking at the little things, the finer details and start being great at them.

4.The greatest things that made your day, or made you smile in the camp wasnt the good food or fantastic accomodation. They were the little things : the landrover rides, getting dirty in the mud, the ecstasy of catching crabs, cheering for the ostrich giving birth, flying a kite and feeling the wind beneath your wings, knowing your teachers would walk the extra mile with you. Life is really made of the simple things. Count your blessings.

5.There was one girl- you know who you are aye. Who made a dent in my universe. Just because you never gave up on the ketupat. Kept asking for the coconut leaves so that you could master the art. Kept on going. That’s the mark of mastery. They say to be a genius at something you got to keep on going for 10 000 hours. The key is to keep on going, to keep on practising, to tell the coconut leaves of your life, YOU HAVE GROWN ALL YOU WANT. But I’m still growing and one day I’ll weave you into a beautiful ketupat! YES I CAN.

6.During the Dance A Mania activity, you really let your hair down and truly were yourselves. Even with the camera rolling. No fake pretenses. You truly let your inner child out and you enjoyed each other’s company. That’s how you should be in your everyday lives-authentic to one another, letting your hair down, letting each other see your funny and silly moments and knowing we are all but human.  Be yourself each day. There’s no better candidate. Life is a Dance-do the Twist.

7.Most importantly, I was reminded with what true council or student leadership was all about. The mass dances and committees. The bonds formed and the laughters shared. That when you sit in a circle nobody stands above each other , everybody knows that we are all in this together. 10 years from now when you look back, you would say those were the best years in your life. You will. Because for me, it is already 10 years later and I now look back to the 15th Council I was in and say WHOOSAY!

It’s not about adding years to your life, it’s about adding life to your years. Thanks for the wondeful experience and noMADic race in Desaru would be truly the start of something new. A journey of possibilities. Thanks to the pioneers, YJ noMADs and coaches:)

The Time is Always Right to do What is Right.

The most inspiring speech about education and taking responsibility of your life. Wonder why there is some resistance to it. But as always, even though circumstances may be in the contrary, the time is always right to do what is right. To start taking responsibility for our lives. So that we can create a better tommorrow. To ensure success is not a given right only to a few, but to everyone. To stop giving excuses about your circumstances, and to start giving voice to your dreams. Your destiny depends on you today. Start designing it.

A Love Letter

Written by Ninoy to Cory Aquino:

My Dearest Cory,

In a few hours I shall be embarking on an uncertain fate, which may well be the end of a long struggle. I slept well last night for the first time since I left Boston — maybe because I’m just plain tired or I’m really at peace with myself. I want to tell you many things but time is running out and I do not have any machine. After a few more paragraphs, my penmanship will be illegible. All the things I want to tell you may be capsulized in one line – – I love you! You’ve stood by me in my most trying moments and there were times I was very hard on you. But if anyone will ever understand me, it is you, and I know you will always find it in your heart to forgive — and unfair and ironic as it is — it is because of this thought and belief that I often took you for granted. Early on I knew I was not meant to make money — so I won’t be able to leave anything to the children. I did what I thought I could do best, which is public service, and I hope our people in time will appreciate my sacrifices. This would be my legacy to the children. I may not bequeath them material wealth but I leave them a tradition which can be priceless. I realize I’ve been very stingy with praise and appreciation for all your efforts — but though unsaid — you know that as far I’m concerned, you are the best. That’s why we’ve lasted this long. There will only be one thing in the world I will never accept — that you love me more than I love you — because my love for you though unarticulated will never be equaled. If all goes well I should be back in my cell before sundown. Should I be detained do not rush to get home. Take your time and enjoy a side trip to Europe with the girls. I’ll try to call you tonight if the authorities will allow me. Otherwise just remember me in your dreams.

Love, Ninoy

P.S. I offered a special rosary for Papa and I asked for his intercession. You know he never failed me. (Ninoy here is referring to Cory’s father, Jose Cojuangco, who died on August 21, 1976)

————————————————————————–

I suppose this is the most impactful love story of our time. And fairy tales do exist.It’s up to you to make them come true. And so do happily ever afters.

Corazon Aquino was a reluctant leader and only stood up to move and shake history after the assasination of her beloved husband. She was a true testament that one person cant change the world, but they sure can start it. For her reign didnt solve all the problems but it did bring an end to the repression of a regime and made Filipinos believe again.

Now they are reunited next to each other once more.

If you are a naysayer, it’s time to believe in love again. If you take things for granted, it’s time to express your true feelings and gratitude for the heart can see what the eyes cant and all we need as humans is a whole lot of love.

The first gift you get when you were born is the one that you will leave behind when you are gone as well. Your name. So for the Filipinos and yes the world, the name Aquino leaves a legacy that touches millions. Wherever you are, say a silent prayer for one couple of difference makers who left the world better than they found it.:)

Awesome.

Be the Change:)

Sometimes we wait for things to happen, and take heart that others and doing the same. But sometimes, we can make things happen.

It takes a child’s innocence or lack of knowledge for that to use the simplest of solutions to the simplest of problems. So quit complaining and waiting for the truck to come to take that fallen tree on your path. Start to remove it yourself:)

Be the change you want to see in the world. Because you cant change it, but you sue can start to change it. Gandhi would be proud.

There once were RATS:)

There was an experiment where researchers were given a set of rats and told to rate their ability to learn mazes. They were told that certain rats were “smart rats” and had an abnormally high IQ. When the researchers tested the rats, their studies showed that the “smart rats” performed significantly better than the ordinary rats.

The experiment, however, wasn’t focused on the rats, it was testing the researchers. All of the rats were the same, but telling the researchers that some of the rats were smart caused them to rate the rats better, even though there was no difference.

Check it out at :  http://www.productivity501.com/the-rat-experiment/30/

So you see how good anything or anyone can be is not about how good it is, it is about how good we think it can be. A self-fulfilling prophecy some might say, if we expect something to be good, it will be so. If we dwell on the negative we keep seeing the negative. So today make a choice, and seek goodness in everyone and the best in everything.

In Johann van Goethe’s words : “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being. ” And that, is the true meaning of respect.

Life gives you blanks…fill them with oxymorons.

Open your mind to a world of possibilities and learn to laugh at the little things in life. When in a room and you spot a white elephant, remember to say hello and talk about it. Learn to laugh at yourself and the world laughs with you.Take a moment to look at things literally and perhaps just perhaps turn your world upside down inside out. Thats two oxymorons back to back. Life is an oxymoron because it is not only defined by the moments that take your breath away, it is also the little imperfections of life that make life perfect.

And thus was the work of accalimed director Yasmin Ahmad. RIP:)

Thanks for inspiring us to apppreciate that life is what you make it to be, and its the little things that make our day and tug our hearts and remind us what we are all here for. Race? The human race.

You’ll Never Walk Alone.

how can you not be a liverpool supporter?

It’s the kop on our backyard!

Walk on. Walk on.And you’ll never walk alone:)

We may come from different places all across the land. But we sing the same song:)

Change.

Haa.

Sometimes if you think laterally, you get inspired, and you can fly without wings. Learn to laugh at yourself and the world laughs with you. Dont take life so seriously. Take it one joke at a time, one nonsensical fact at a time. And the world will be your playground:)

Starbucks Changing Lives.

Somebody asked me the other day what makes Starbucks tick, what difference it makes over other coffee places ? And i say its the little things that makes the difference. The tiny small things that makes the moment you step in and the moment you spend over tick, connected. And these are the moments that tick :

Pay It Forward. When you do good to somebody, dont ask for recognition or even a thank you. Ask them to pass it on to the next person on the receiving list. A list we cant know in advance but just know the feeling’s right. Pass on the good vibes, the awesome vibrations and everything we love about our world to the next person. That’s what I call a chain letter.

When you give you begin receiving. Have the courage to embrace every emotion you have. Because you can only know happiness in others if you have it in you. Likewise, you can only know pain in others if you have pain in you. So today believe that we are all connected in some strange yet profound way to one another in an amazing family of humankind. Start imagining better, not of lofty dreams and fairy tales, but about how it is to walk a mile in another’s shoes. And when you do smile to the world, and give hope to the hopeless, a voice to those without one. Be the change you want to inspire in our world.

You Cant Stop the Beat. Some say listening to your ipod is an anti-social activity. But i like to say that those who cant hear the music will laugh at those who dance. Cos music is the soul of this life. Music makes you move, go the distance and dance to the rhythm of the challenges of life, not against it. And when all is synchronous like the cacaphony of the orchestra your life becomes a symphony moving towards greatness, awesome beyond measure. You cant stop the beat. Move with it.

Our most common mistake Is to judge too quickly. We often look at the reality of our world through our lenses and say this is absolute. But our map is never the territory. Each of us has our own GPS and compasses that points a thousand different degrees in difference. So today lets take the higher road , the one less travelled by not putting judgement in what we see. Lets just observe and perceive and pause the stop button. Nothing is ever good or bad but thinking makes it so. So today let’s stop thinking for a moment and appreciate the fullness of life and situations as it happens. And know that everything happens in its time.

Wonder why we have 2 ears and 1 mouth? So seek first to understand then be understood. And when you listen do you listen to prepare to answer a question, a rebuttal , a response? Or could you be still and listen to the moment, in full attention, awe and wonderment?

Its a small world after all. People want to do a many great things, and are consumed by that mental picture of greatness. But the world is actually made of the little things. The breathing in of the smell of roses, and the smile on your children’s faces,the feeling when you first could ride your bicycle, even the shit you pass from your system which has awesome satisfaction written all over it. So today, challenge yourself. Forget about the big things, the greatness that awaits, and foucs on the little things that make lifes meaningful. And you know, its the power behind the little things that makes our life truly great.

Youre the change youve been waiting for You realise that we look for change and ask for change everywhere we go often forgetting that change begins truly with us. So today be the change you want to see in your world, be the inspiration , be the motivation, get the earth shaking by shaking yourself first.Just Dance and the world will dance like nobody’s watching.

And to end if all off, my map is not your territory and all these are just suggestions or an expression of how we can change the world one coffee bean at a time. A coffee bean has the highest AQ(adversity quotient), cos when it is put in boiling water, it stays resilient and even gives a wonderful aroma. So the next time you go to starbucks, ask yourself how can you partake in making a better world and keep the spirit growing from tall, grande to venti….

Yes. this is an unofficial petition for Singapore Starbucks to start printing the THE WAY I SEE IT campaign on their coffee cups!

Hooked on Twitter.

I think Twitter is a pretty inspirational tool.

1) In a world sometimes too full of judgements, it becomes socially acceptable to talk to yourself in public

2) In a world of perfect strangers, you want to become friends with as many people as possible

3) In a world devoid of expression, you can truly express your passions, desires, what matters most to you-no masks just words.just twitter

4) In a world of live feeds, you get the scoop about everything and everyone under the twitter roof.

5) Finally there is a common language. It starts with TWI. TWILANGUAGE! Ask the tweety twbird to say that!

6) You can be an extrovert without talking!

7) They will put loudhailers and public addressing systems out of business! Because if you want to broadcast, all you ned is to twit it!

8)With only 140 characters, you realise what’s truly important to you.

So if you only had 140 characters, what would you say about your life?

Twitter aint just a messaging service we didnt know we need till it was invented. Twitter will change the world!

In the meantime you can vote for my tweets:http://thrdl.es/~/kaa

twawesome twstuff!

Care to Give.

They say pictures paint a thousand words. But today in a world turned upside down, lets turn that saying inside out. Words can paint a thousand pictures. Cos its true what you say makes a world of a difference to the person receiving. Just like how a word of negativity can destroy people, a word of encouragement can lift spirits. So today make a world of a difference to the world out there and you do so one person at a time, one word at a time!

Visit http://www.nikon-caretogive.com

And look at the behind the scenes takes!

It always marvels you how children can be so uninhibited, so free, full of life, imaginative and sweet. But the thing is we were once like them too! We are just overaged children now and we can always bring our inner child out and relieve that freedom, joy and spirit all children have. A spirit lost just cause we wanted so much to conform. So today, be different, let your inner child come out and play. So what if people laughs at you? As long as you can make someone smile, you have made a difference. And that one smile could belong to you:)

Exercises in Spontaneity Around Our World

Liverpool, Home of the Reds.

Antwerp, Belgium

Around a border of conflict

So aint it true, life is really for sharing? If only we started to connect and talk to one another, we could create great possibilities for our world. So today, find a friend you have not talked to for a long while and find that special click, say more than just a hello to the perfect stranger sitting to you on the train, tell a lame joke to the waitress that serves you in the restaurant.

Because when we find that similarity we have with one another-humanity-we find that special spark to live and create a better world.

Aye. It starts with you. Be the change you want to see in our world. 🙂

Yes IN OUR WORLD, we can always paint smiles in each other’s faces…

Have you heard of the 7 Wonders?

When you were young, your mummy told you about the 7 wonders of the world. And so you recognised the Eiffel Tower and the Giza Pyramids of Egypt and the Angkor Watt as places that were held in high esteem. Fixed. Definite. Nothing could change that.

And then, when you grew up, you realised everything could change. And so as you come to find out, even the 7 wonders of the world could change! Check this out :

And it was all down to a vote. And some of these places, I bet you some of you havent even heard of before right? Which boils down to the fact that the 7 wonders of the world is truly things that you find inside of you.

It truly is your 5 senses , your ability to laugh and your ability to love.

Because it is only what you have inside that you can find outside within the hallowed halls of Petra and the staircases of the Great Wall…

Britain’s Got Talent

Took a little trip to the land of Prince William, Big Ben and Fish and Chips! Got there in an amazing A380 that is really an awesome ride. Maybe slightly overhyped by the publicity it had when SIA touched down SQ380 on October 17 2007 but hey it is still awesome. Had the company of Adam Sandler on board and he said it right about any trip you might make around the world or for that matter about your life : We always forget that our fun is only limited by our imagination! So off we go to the land of GREAT BRITAIN, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

So let me tell you a story. In 1909, a fine young gentleman who had the penchant for yellow (WHAT AN AWESOME CHOICE!) set up this little gig of a department store called SELFRIDGES. They had yellow as the theme with yellow plastic bags and concepts! So 100 years to this day, they celebrate their 100 year anniversary with a yellow concept exhibition. OH MY. This is heaven on earth…

Yellow Coke Bottles! I bet inside the bottle its also yellow!

A Classic Typewriter!

A Life Sized GIANT RUBBER DUCKIE!

And then there was Madam Tussauds. Who can make your dreams come true if you ever wished to meet the famous people of the world. And then you can act as if you can do anything to them! If you dont like them, you can cover their faces or you can pretend to hug them kiss them and what not. A place you can just be yourself and still be amongst the stars of this world. Then you realise you yourself is a star of your own right!

You're gonna get it SPIDEY!

Interesting Fact : They have the special one but no ferguson!

YES WE CAN!

And then there was the BIG BEN overlooking the city of London. And boy was it big!

Me and Big Ben. The Best of Friends!

And the thing you can learn about the people of good ole London. Is that Spirit of Graciousness. Thats the true spirit of London. Cos you see there was this TUBE strike and nobody could take the trains to go anywhere cos it were all closed. So the whole WORLD took the bus. And so the buses were packed and there was traffic jam everywhere. Even through short distances…

it was all a sea of red!

And sometimes along the way, the bus would suddenly change route or terminate unexpectedly at some station. And not a single soul complained. They just dealt with it and moved on with life. Something each one of us could really learn from, to be not so impatient, understand the bigger picture, complain less and moved on with things that happen to our lives. Remember life’s little secret is to put others before yourselves!

Britain’s really got Talent!

Of Failures and Imaginations…

This poem by Martine Niemoller inscribed on a stone in the New England Holocaust Memorial

(partly inspired by an after so long post at haveyouseengreen)

Sir Edmund Burke once said during WW2 that “The only way evil can flourish is for good men to do nothing.”

JFK said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country.”

Then Dr King’s words echoed  : “The time is always right to do the right thing.”

One wise man also said that Rosa Parks sat down so that Martin Luther could walk and Obama could run.

Throughout history, the echelons of destiny has been shaped by people standing up for what they believed in and doing the right thing. So even when the world seems bleak, trust that hope in your heart to give you the light of a better tommorrow…What would the world be without Harry Potter? A poorer place aye. So today just like JK, do the right thing and follow the hearts of your dream to be who you are. The world needs you today. There is no better candidate.

Be inspired. Just Like how Harry and Hermione and Ron brought magic into our lives.