People are always coming and going in and out of life. This happens especially if we choose to strive for change and self-improvement.

Our perception and ideals would continue to change, and the people we use to hang out with no longer share the same feelings or in worse scenario, could become incapable to understand and communicate with our newer, improvedand character. Additionally, when our behaviors change, others will distance themselves from us as they reject us for being “different”. They may also envy us, wish us bad luck, try to deter us, as we strive for success…unfortunately. Of course we wish for them to change for the better together, but we all walk a different path in life. That is something must be accepted in life.

People fear difference. Sometimes people limit themselves because they are afraid to be different.

Consequently, it gets lonelier the more we change and try to become our better selves. Thus, the dilemma for each of us…

In the face of loneliness, how do I respond?
Can I maintain myself with confidence?
Or will I choose conformity out of fear?
Can I presevere, knowing it will only get more difficult?
Or will I take the easy way out instead?
And worst case, will I be okay with the fact that no one in the world can understand me?

Let me share this quote:

Anybody can be famous
Fame is cheap
Fame is easy
Fame is fleeting,
Try achieving greatness.

Greatness is hard
Greatness is lonely
Greatness is work
Greatness is humbling
Greatness is a responsibility and greatness lasts forever,
you don’t want greatness do you?

Therefore, greatness requires determination and perseverance. Striving for greatness is a true test of ourselves, and that’s why we need to know who ourselves really are and what we want.

For those of us who choose greatness, we can safely assume the individuals who stay with us by our side on this path will be the greatest companions we will ever encounter in life. Encounterance with these individuals are truly invaluable, so we shall know and cherish these individuals.

Originally posted 2007-06-08 23:50:57. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The labor day ended so fast. I hope everyone had a good time.

Did you exert yourself too much and is trying to recover from it during work week?
Did you eat too much on the holiday [again]?
Are you planning and looking forward excitingly to your next vacation?

Are those the average ways we treat our vacation and holidays? I am not sure but perhaps they are quite close to the average.

Let me take a few minutes to talk about playing vs. the average way we spend our vacation.

I feel like the average ways we spend holiday are us overcompensating for the hours we’ve sacrificed working. On the flip side, we also plan all the festivities and excitement in an attempt to get us in the mood to work again, or some sort of rewards for working hard.

First of all, a bit of logic. If we had worked hard for hours and days and finally holiday comes around, we always (that we must) take our bodies through desserts, wine, parties, and exotic places, when do we rest? If we are to recover in order to do better work, what in the world are we doing to our bodies? Adding stress upon stress. So that means the logical way to spend holiday is to rest, calm down, finally do some exercise, and assume more proper diet to help our body recover from the junk food and abnormal meals during the week? By the way, watching TV is not really resting either.

Consequently, the observation I have where people fill their schedules with festivities and assorted dramatic events with the goal to make us work better… is completely paradoxical.

Also consequently, there is little wonder why disease and cancer are upon us these days.

Well now, I am not against playing. I am saying we need to find a balance, between stress and rest. People have a problem with stress management because they are always stressing themselves out, albeit in “good” ways.

Now that I mention playing… I’d like to ask, “What is playing?”

For the answer, I would point us to look at kids. How do kids play? Well, I’ll just answer it.

Kids play without a sense of purpose, and I find that modern people lack this sort of playing very much. The worst part is, we are taking it away from kids younger and younger now.

To truly play is to play without purpose. So the above scenario where we play on vacation to make us feel better and stronger for work… is not really playing.

Playing for the sake of playing. Purpose-less. Perhaps we need to find more time to do things that are purpose-less. I would not be surprised if we do this and find ourselves becoming happier, healthier, and more compassionate people.

Is that so unimaginable? Probably for most of our heavily left brain biased modern people, who would condemn the idea of living, playing, behaving without a purpose — in the sense that what we do is not a mean for an end but doing for the sake of doing? Can we accept that? No?

Then I would end on a question, would you need a purpose to love someone? Yes, you need a purpose? Well then, so much for unconditional love…

Originally posted 2009-09-09 23:24:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

So based on a goverment study, we are spending above our mean on average o.O That’s definitely not a good thing!

Based on the article Americans spend every cent – and more:

Friday morning the government will report on personal income and spending for November. For the last 19 months, the report has shown a negative savings rate. That means American consumers are spending more than they’re taking home after taxes. The savings rate was a negative 0.6 percent in October. In other words, the typical American spent $100.60 for every $100 of take home pay.

But things aren’t as grim as the article says based on Personal Saving Rate is a Misleading Indicator, which has a lot of truth in it:

To calculate the personal saving rate, government statisticians subtract taxes and spending from personal income. Income includes wages, salaries, interest, dividends, rent received, small-business profits, and some government benefits. Excluded are withdrawals from IRAs and 401ks, as well as capital gains. This is inconsistent with how most people measure their private fiscal health.

I think whether the situation is as bad as it sounded at first. We needs to go back to the most basic rule of personal finance, to keep ourselves under control :P Keep it in mind!!

Originally posted 2007-03-06 23:33:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

It had occurred to me that, all the “must” in our lives — in the sense that we HAVE TO DO — cause us to take actions that squeeze and eliminate the meaning of whatever we are doing. Or in other words, our “musts” take the purity of the original intention** out of our being and doing.

When we must be happy, we lose happiness in that we fail to continuously sustain ourselves in a happy state and suffer horribly.

When we must be rich, money loses its meaning — to be a useful tool in our life — because just about everything and all our doing become a mean to conserve, hoard, or gain money however possible… turning us into something not quite human.

When we must be successful, it’s guaranteed that you will get that empty feeling when you eventually get there.

We we must be “in a relationship”, the relationship itself loses its purity in that our attention and sincerity are no longer on the other person.

When we must donate and devote ourselves to others, charity and generosity almost seem hollow and artificial.

When we must live (as if we are not alive already), for as long as possible, we do everything and anything that squeeze the life out of ourselves and are therefore completely unhappy, unfulfilled, and miserable.

So, shall we still “must”?

**See When the Intention is Pure, the Action Follows for the idea of intention.

Originally posted 2009-12-21 01:45:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter