Here are the lessons I have learnt from 25th June to 1st July of this year 2012.
1) Life doesn’t owe you a living
Or in other words, don’t just sit and whine about how awful life is – DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
I posted this on my Facebook page last week, and my friend responded, saying (in effect) that there was no point in doing something if you knew that it wouldn’t work out in the end. My reply was this: How do you know nothing will work out, if you don’t even try? Simply put, if you don’t try, there is a 0% chance of anything happening. Once you do something, the odds of success are overwhelming in comparison – anywhere between 1-99%.
This is something that I have been trying to embrace recently. I have had many awesome ideas that come and go, and I always regret it when I find out that someone else has caught on to them and actually acted upon them, creating something fabulous. Now, I train myself to act on what I believe will be world-changing. This site is one example of this.
2) Holding out for future happiness is a surefire way to never ever find it
It’s all in the mind.
Often, people say that there has to be suffering first, before the rewards come after. So they slog through 30-40 years of their lives working like horses, and then retire… Only to find that they’re too old to go out and enjoy life to the fullest.
Wait, am I saying that one can be happy right here and now, and always? Absolutely – a resounding “YESSSSSSSS”. If you hold out for happiness sometime in the unknown future, or when you achieve a certain milestone, who’s to say that you will truly be happy when you have reached that stage?
Happiness is a mindset – something that I have to tell my mind every single day.
3) Spontaneity is a rare and amazing thing
We’ve all been trained to be polite, civilized, and all in all, restrained. These are all important traits, but they do absolutely nothing for our creativity and joy.
Entrepreneurs break this mold by the very nature of what they do. They get excited about their ideas, and are indeed bursting at the seams to tell every single person, at every chance they have, about them. They conjure up possibilities and opportunities that only exist in the future. They are incredibly spontaneous, always looking out for the next big thing, and making a big deal out of it.
We could all take a leaf out of their books. Take a chance today – perhaps offer to help someone carry their heavy bags up a flight of stairs, or strike up a random conversation with random people around you.
Who knows what would come out of it?
4) We could all use a little more love
A few days back, I got on to the train and was hit by an overwhelmingly pungent odor. I followed the staring eyes of the people in the carriage, and traced them to a man who was slumped over in his seat, with a puddle of red-color vomit on the floor. The pungent odor reeked of alcohol – I realized that he was probably drunk.
Most of the people in the carriage had gradually migrated away from the man, some even all the way to the next carriage. I couldn’t blame them – every time the man puked, the area of impact was fairly big, and I myself received a few drops of projectile vomit even though I was standing a distance away.
Watching the whole scenario play out, I guessed that the man was probably in some kind of bad place in his life, hence his current state. Most likely, this wasn’t his first time getting so drunk, and probably wouldn’t be his last either.
And I thought of what might change if some people actually walked up to him and assisted him – wiped him down, carried him out of the carriage, and so on. Would this act of love change his heart, and encourage him to do something about his life?
It’s possible. Yet, obviously, a long shot – I myself stood there and watched. But I couldn’t help but wonder how society might be if we all had that kind of love in us.
5) Is it better to be financially rich and socially bankrupt?
To clarify, I’m not saying that they are mutually exclusive. However, it is true that the trend lies in favor of desiring monetary riches rather than social riches.
While searching online for bloggers championing social causes for my next project (I’ll keep you guys posted on this), I was incredibly disheartened to find that almost every single one of the top 50 blogs in Singapore focused on politics, fashion, or entertainment (I have nothing against them, I do enjoy reading them – but that isn’t my point here).
Not one championed any social cause whatsoever (though some did have mentions and comments on certain social events – but none that specialized exclusively on them).
It was rather alarming. Now, more than ever, we need to look outside our little circle-shaped lives and help out an increasingly broken and dying world. We can all do this by engaging our passions in an effort to make the world a better place…
6) …because opportunities around us abound
There are tons of opportunities to help make the world a better place out there. All we need to do is go out and find them. I enjoyed writing the last post (Top 9 Unconventional Passions You Should Check Out) so much – sourcing through the numerous amazing, unconventional passions out there just made me so excited!
You could start from here, and get some inspiration.
7) Like-minded people are all around
When I first started this site, I felt pretty alone. For a while, I just poured out my heart and soul into the topics I chose, but response wasn’t that great.
Then I decided to reach out to other bloggers in my niche. And lo and behold, many others start springing up, adding me on Twitter and so on. I was surprised and touched to see so many like-minded individuals out there – they are the reason why I continue to write what I write.
The thing is, they were always there. I just needed to reach out.