Happiness

Recently, I was thinking and setting up my plan for my future, especially in career and money-wise matter. The plan resolves around externalities. As you all would have agreed, future is really uncertain. That is why planning for something uncertain is quite stressful. You wouldn’t know what is going to happen, so you hardly can come up a plan that would be close to the reality. So normally, what we are doing is just to try the best we can. Yet, all this process made me neglect the core happiness in me — the happiness that comes from within, not without. Materials and wealthiness can only give you happiness to some extent, they all not long-lasting. The one that can linger for longer is the inner happiness. Happiness when you are loving to yourself and others and feeling peace inside.

I find it sometimes hard to draw a line — where to focus in life; is it the materiality or the (lingering)  inner happiness. I guess, I need both of them. But at the same time it is crucial to strike a balance between two. How to do it? I don’t know, I’m trying my best here.

Tips from the richest man in the world

I received an email about Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world (# 1Billionaire - Forbes 2008). Let me share it with you all, it is such an interesting profile he has.

There was an one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity Here are some very
interesting aspects of his life:

1. He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
2. He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
3. He still lives in the same small 3-bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he
needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
4. He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
5. He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world’s largest private jet company.
6. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year.
He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis. He has given his CEO’s only two rules. Rule number 1: do not lose any of your share holder’s money.
Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.
7. He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch Television.
8. Bill Gates, the world’s richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had
scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates
became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
9. Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.

His advice to young people: “Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and
Remember:
A. Money doesn’t create man but it is the man who created money.
B. Live your life as simple as you are.
C. Don’t do what others say, just listen them, but do what you feel good.
D. Don’t go on brand name; just wear those things in which u feel comfortable.
E. Don’t waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend on them who really in need rather.
F. After all it’s your life then why give chance to others to rule our life.”

In addition, he is a philanthropist — he wants to give away 83% of his fortune to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Add all together, you can see how low profile he is despite his fortune! Money doesn’t rule him, instead he rules it! He and Bill Gates have one thing in common (well, or, maybe more than one) — they both are generous with money. What goes around indeed comes around

The key of the door

There is a door I want to open
But there are a lot of humps on the road to reach there
To enter the door I need the key
Yet unfortunately I don’t have the key yet

To get the key, I need to put in some effort
Yet effort alone won’t guarantee me of the key
There is uncertainty in this game
Yet I still want to unlock the door

I’ve been riding on this bumpy road
The road where you only have a choice of moving forward,
no reverse is allowed
So there are some decisions along the road I have to make

Then I start to question myself
Is it the right way?
Is it the effort enought?
Will I lead to the door?
Will I be able to open the door?

What will happen if I in the end fail to get the key?
What if the key I have is not the right one?

These questions are questions of uncertainty of future
Future is uncertain, I told myself
But “now” is the moment I’m living in,
and it is the time when I can do something
Future is yet to come
And I’m taking a step each time to reach the door

Dejavu

I have a dream just right before I was awaken by my alarm clock. This dream is special, because I feel like I’ve been to the place in my dream before. The setting was familiar, for some reason. But as usual, dream sometimes doesn’t make any sense, so this is. I felt like I was walking with my cousins in my dream, but for some reason they are not. Let me explain. In my mind, they were my auntie’s daughter and son. But their physical characters are different. They don’t look like them…. er, if you get what I mean.

I couldn’t remember how it started, I only remember how it ended. It was a beautiful yet poignant. Three of us were walking and running for fun… we had laughter and joy. And then we walked down stairs to the underground, ended to an empty dark space with a wide windowpane. I could hear the sound of water dripping from somewhere in the room. And one of my cousin, the girl, went closer to the windowpane and stood there motionless and looked out. From the windowpane, you can see a very beautiful and bright view. It brought some light to the room. The strange thing is, my cousin just stood there, saying nothing, and I could sense a sad and sorrowful aura from her. I could sense that she was sad…. for some reason, and I was bewildered why she felt so. And then, the room started to move, as in we were in a boat! And one point, I felt a surge of excitement, because the boat went down low. You know the feeling when you are in a roller coaster when the car went down… that sort of feeling I had, the only difference is the speed. The speed of the boat is reasonable, not too quick and not too slow. And I naturally screamed out in excitement! “YooHoo!!!” But then my other cousin sitting next to me, shhh me down.

And then………….

I was drawn to the reality — to the sound of my alarm clock…. *Sigh* I still want to know the ending of my dream!!!!

Encouragement

This idea came into me when I got up in the morning. Well, if you realise when you have performed something (it can be related to your study, work, or any other thing in your life) poorly (it also can be interpreted as ‘below expectation performance’), you may get discouraged to propel or to move forward. We tend to get stuck in that spot — doubting and questioning why we are here or why we are doing it or am I good enough? [Let's call it 'doubtful time'] Well, those kinda questions may pop up in your mind. You’ll start to doubt your capability, to look at other options (such as quitting your job and look for another one, or doing another course/degree of your study). Indeed you may think the grass is greener on the other side.

Well at this time, it is a crucial time to encourage ourselves, rather than lingering in the ‘doubtful time’. Yet if you have been there, you know that it ain’t easy to get up after your falling. It is not easy, but it is something you need to do. You have to get up on your feet to continue your journey.

Our society, particularly of Asian background, always focuses on weakness — we are really good at picking up the faults or bad stuff. We are very generous on critics, but stingy on praise. The westerners, on the other hand, is more generous on giving praises to others, and sometimes it can be a bit too much (in my point of view)– [yet] I like this culture of them.

I remember when I was a child, my mom’s friends liked to praise me, saying how pretty or cute I was. But my mom instead of agreeing with them, she would say something like “No… She is not.” Honestly, it wasn’t a good answer, Mom. As a child I was deprived of praise and encouragement from my parents (they both were too busy and had too much on their plates). My mom has a reason why she didn’t want to praise me: she doesn’t want me to become a snobbish person. She doesn’t want me to become someone who is so vain and selfish. Yeah, indeed if you shower too much of praise you may get that effect. You may think that you are the best, everyone else is inferior (maybe it’s extreme, but it may happen).

Nevertheless, I’m still taking side on encouragement and praise — we should give them when it is necessary. We should encourage each other of their positives and focus on them. And we should give a constructive critics, not something that would pull you down lower.

Where is the old me?

Yesterday I had my first final exam, honestly the questions were not what I expected it would be. So I was kind of not sure of my answers, plus I forgot the case names and also some of other details of the whole pictures (the subject is Corp and Bus Law). In short, the test was kinda sucks.

That is not the problem. What really makes me wonder is what I felt right after. I didn’t feel upset, disappointed, or any other negative emotions. Honestly.. I don’t know why. The old me would have been upset or disappointed with myself that I could have done better than that. Neither that I felt really happy because I didn’t do it very well. It was like there is nothing in my emotion box. Literally nothing. It doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t care about the results. I think my heart would beat 120 bpm before I click on the Academic Result link on my uni page.

Having said that though, I still hope for a miracle that my result would turn out way better than I thought it would be…. Well, time will tell

PDA

How much is too much?

Today I read an interesting article on SMH. It’s about PDA - not the kind that you can use to organise and ring- but it stands for “Public Display Affection”. If you stroll around city or public parks, it is not uncommon to see couples show some affections — it can be from a simple hug, hand holding, kiss on the cheek, until passionate smooch on every revealed skin (well, exaggeration here).

Mmm indeed they are all acts of affection, but if you realise, when you are the 3rd party watching the couple making out, sometimes you get uneasy feeling. You start to feel uncomfortable sometimes and look away. If you can, you want to avoid the PDA peripheral vision. Why we start to feel uneasy? I guess, it may be due to different reasons — culture, location, duration, etc.

So. how much is too much anyway? The rule of thumb from the article is that the action lasts no longer than 30 seconds. So next time, before you want to dial your PDA, count the timer — no longer than 30 seconds ok?

Honestly, I don’t know how much is too much. I guess it all depends on the conditions — location, lighting, surrounding, and of course your own actions — if you start to get steamy then… it is already crossing the line, I guess. And we should consider about others too — they are some random people who are heartbroken from past relationship, and seeing you making out may make them feel more miserable. So, if you feel you can’t hold back the desire, get a room, please

PANIC Attack!!!!

Panic!!!!!

I guess we all have been there. I had panic attack during my exam periods sometimes. I knew it when I got this thing, because I would eat like nuts and go to the loo often for the long break. Ok, let’s drop the gross stuff. I got the stress because of many reasons — but mainly because I was uncertain about the future. As we all know, future is sooo uncertain, no one would know EXACTLY what’s going to happen. Well, you can argue that there are some good fortune telling that is soooooo accurate, but how much is the accuracy? 150%? 125%? Or 100%? Well, I’m not trying to be cynical about it, but seriously, they are accurate to some extent, not 110% or even 100%. (Sorry can’t help myself here :P)

But the point is, we all get stressed and worried about future so much. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Even if we do, then where is the fun part? Well, I have to admit, there are times when I wish I knew what’s going to happen. But if we all know what’s going to happen, and we can avoid the bad things that are going to happen in our lives, then… when and how are we going to learn about life? How are we supposed to grow wiser?

There are times when we may have made a silly decision that became a mistake. But it would be a mistake after we’d made the decision. We would have known and learnt from it after the incident. So don’t be too afraid of making a mistake. Mistakes happen in life — in fact, it is inevitable. But they are there for a reason: for us to grow, to be wiser. Don’t condemn yourself for your mistakes. Grow from it, embrace it with an open arm. I know, the thing I wrote here is easier said than done — that is why I’m writing it, to remind me when I face one.

Hope we all can become wiser ~~~

Little lamp

Like a little but a steadily

glowing lamp,

we can ignite

many other little lamps.

“Anonymous”

Tax Rebate

Who doesn’t like money? Well, I guess we all like and need money ~~ Now, Australia is approaching to the end of the Financial Year — and bet people can’t wait to get the tax rebate! Anyway, I want to share some tips of how to utilise your tax return. More