Life
Somehow, I have been very ‘emotional’ this weekend. Reflecting on the true meaning of the definition of “LIFE”.
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.” – James Truslow Adams.
This Saturday was a usual short trip to Zhu Hai for the purpose of stocking up DVDs and a cheap massage session. While shopping, we had a friendly conversation with a shop assistant and we found out that she is earning RMB1500 per month with a monthly rental of RMB600. With that, effectively, she will only have RMB900 and with meals costing, on average, RMB20; how much can she save? What about transportation cost?
It’s not the poverty that clouts my senses, my emotions. It’s more the fact that is she going to work for the rest of her life away. Yes, there is poverty everywhere in the world. Even my colleagues don’t seem to understand what’s there to be emotional about. Indeed, true and that’s very true. The shop assistant mentioned that she moved out of the village to work in the city and has a better environment to work, to live.
“Life is all about choices. Never let anything to have the power to control your choice, lest a ‘poverty’ life is worse than poverty itself.” – Myself.
Reflecting on that, my mind started to wander off to all the choices that I have made recently. Choice – what is “choice”?
Life is indeed very strange. That very night, we went off to a colleague’s house to watch a movie “Gone Baby Gone”. At the end of the movie, Casey Affleck had to make a choice whether to report the missing baby to the authority and have the baby send back to her drug-addicted mother or be silent on the fact that the baby is better off with a retired local police commissioner who was involved in kidnapping her away from her mother. In the end, he made the former choice and the story-ended with her mum still very much can’t be bothered with her own daughter. Did Casey make a wrong choice?
In my opinion, no, he did not. There is never a wrong or right choice. It’s just a choice, period. To me, everyone has a right to their own choice. To somebody, it might be a right choice, to another person; it might be a wrong choice. The most important thing is that you, yourself, have the right to make that choice and, regardless, of the outcome; be responsible for the decision that you have made. The plot of the movie might changed too – the mother changed over a new leaf and is able to provide her daughter for a better future.
Since young, I always asked myself – why I don’t have ‘this’, why I don’t have ‘that’, why must I be one of the majority that stays at a HBD flat, why don’t I have a car to pick me to and fro from school. I realized that if you want something, you have to work hard for it. And later, I realized working hard is never enough, you have to work smart, and you have to be successful. Ever since, I have never let myself down in terms of studies or work. Naturally, work has become my priority, my motivation and my life.
Ever since the start of my career, there are 2 important persons in my life. In fact, I consider them both my mentors. Of course, both of them are very intellectual. And I consider one of them as a person who have given me the opportunity to be where I am today. And the other whom I consider as a person who have guided and influenced (directly and indirectly) me to be the person I am today.
I have always placed my career more importantly and in priority of my family and Hui. And without realizing it, the ‘distance’ seems to be stretched further and further away. I was 24/7 involved in my work – directly or indirectly. So much that everyone started to wonder and questioned me - how did I manage to find time with my family and Hui? The truth, is, I don’t. And my personal life started to fall apart and finally, I have made a choice to ‘get’ away – to focus on my career. It was a hard choice, a painful one.
After some time, I started to feel frustrated. At work, I strived to be the best and wanted to be the best. However, in life, not everything goes your way. No matter how hard I tried, I was never rated the ‘best’. Why? I started to question myself. I don’t feel appreciated, despite the effort and sacrifices that I have made. As a person or even at work, I was very ‘outspoken’ and very determined to get what I want. When I don’t, or when things don’t go my way, I get very frustrated, so much so that I started to show my “displeased”. If someone is gotta be on the ‘top’, why can’t that person be me? My feelings, my emotions got the better of me – in a bad way.
At some point in time (why then? – don’t ask me, cos life is indeed a very strange ‘thing’), I started to reflect on my life and starting to think on some of the things that was said to me – by one of the mentor. He is a very ‘secretive’ person. A person whom I really have no idea what he is thinking and someone who I can’t seems to comprehend. This is unusual for me. Not that I have the ability to read a person mind. But I have a ‘thing’ about analyzing people and usually, I am right. That’s why I am very good with “mind games”.
Yes, you can be very good, you can be the best. But if everyone is good and everyone is the ‘best’ in one way or another. Who is going to ‘fill’ the bottom? Analyze this, everyone is good and everyone feels that he should be the one on the top – can that team, that company survive. Everyone has a part to play, someone has to take that role on the ‘top’, and someone has to take the ‘second level’ to make the team function well.
Why and what am I working so hard for? What is the initial motivating factor that prompt me to work hard and be successful? What do I really want in life?
With all the thoughts and starting to analyze that mentor, I started to realize and understand some of the things that he mentioned during casual conversations, some of the things that he does. I seems to be able to comprehend him more and more. Actually, he is a very simple person.
Somehow, I have been very ‘emotional’ this weekend. Reflecting on the true meaning of the definition of “LIFE”.
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.” – James Truslow Adams.
This Saturday was a usual short trip to Zhu Hai for the purpose of stocking up DVDs and a cheap massage session. While shopping, we had a friendly conversation with a shop assistant and we found out that she is earning RMB1500 per month with a monthly rental of RMB600. With that, effectively, she will only have RMB900 and with meals costing, on average, RMB20; how much can she save? What about transportation cost?
It’s not the poverty that clouts my senses, my emotions. It’s more the fact that is she going to work for the rest of her life away. Yes, there is poverty everywhere in the world. Even my colleagues don’t seem to understand what’s there to be emotional about. Indeed, true and that’s very true. The shop assistant mentioned that she moved out of the village to work in the city and has a better environment to work, to live.
“Life is all about choices. Never let anything to have the power to control your choice, lest a ‘poverty’ life is worse than poverty itself.” – Myself.
Reflecting on that, my mind started to wander off to all the choices that I have made recently. Choice – what is “choice”?
Life is indeed very strange. That very night, we went off to a colleague’s house to watch a movie “Gone Baby Gone”. At the end of the movie, Casey Affleck had to make a choice whether to report the missing baby to the authority and have the baby send back to her drug-addicted mother or be silent on the fact that the baby is better off with a retired local police commissioner who was involved in kidnapping her away from her mother. In the end, he made the former choice and the story-ended with her mum still very much can’t be bothered with her own daughter. Did Casey make a wrong choice?
In my opinion, no, he did not. There is never a wrong or right choice. It’s just a choice, period. To me, everyone has a right to their own choice. To somebody, it might be a right choice, to another person; it might be a wrong choice. The most important thing is that you, yourself, have the right to make that choice and, regardless, of the outcome; be responsible for the decision that you have made. The plot of the movie might changed too – the mother changed over a new leaf and is able to provide her daughter for a better future.
Since young, I always asked myself – why I don’t have ‘this’, why I don’t have ‘that’, why must I be one of the majority that stays at a HBD flat, why don’t I have a car to pick me to and fro from school. I realized that if you want something, you have to work hard for it. And later, I realized working hard is never enough, you have to work smart, and you have to be successful. Ever since, I have never let myself down in terms of studies or work. Naturally, work has become my priority, my motivation and my life.
Ever since the start of my career, there are 2 important persons in my life. In fact, I consider them both my mentors. Of course, both of them are very intellectual. And I consider one of them as a person who have given me the opportunity to be where I am today. And the other whom I consider as a person who have guided and influenced (directly and indirectly) me to be the person I am today.
I have always placed my career more importantly and in priority of my family and Hui. And without realizing it, the ‘distance’ seems to be stretched further and further away. I was 24/7 involved in my work – directly or indirectly. So much that everyone started to wonder and questioned me - how did I manage to find time with my family and Hui? The truth, is, I don’t. And my personal life started to fall apart and finally, I have made a choice to ‘get’ away – to focus on my career. It was a hard choice, a painful one.
After some time, I started to feel frustrated. At work, I strived to be the best and wanted to be the best. However, in life, not everything goes your way. No matter how hard I tried, I was never rated the ‘best’. Why? I started to question myself. I don’t feel appreciated, despite the effort and sacrifices that I have made. As a person or even at work, I was very ‘outspoken’ and very determined to get what I want. When I don’t, or when things don’t go my way, I get very frustrated, so much so that I started to show my “displeased”. If someone is gotta be on the ‘top’, why can’t that person be me? My feelings, my emotions got the better of me – in a bad way.
At some point in time (why then? – don’t ask me, cos life is indeed a very strange ‘thing’), I started to reflect on my life and starting to think on some of the things that was said to me – by one of the mentor. He is a very ‘secretive’ person. A person whom I really have no idea what he is thinking and someone who I can’t seems to comprehend. This is unusual for me. Not that I have the ability to read a person mind. But I have a ‘thing’ about analyzing people and usually, I am right. That’s why I am very good with “mind games”.
Yes, you can be very good, you can be the best. But if everyone is good and everyone is the ‘best’ in one way or another. Who is going to ‘fill’ the bottom? Analyze this, everyone is good and everyone feels that he should be the one on the top – can that team, that company survive. Everyone has a part to play, someone has to take that role on the ‘top’, and someone has to take the ‘second level’ to make the team function well.
Why and what am I working so hard for? What is the initial motivating factor that prompt me to work hard and be successful? What do I really want in life?
With all the thoughts and starting to analyze that mentor, I started to realize and understand some of the things that he mentioned during casual conversations, some of the things that he does. I seems to be able to comprehend him more and more. Actually, he is a very simple person.
One of my colleagues mentioned a story about a person who loves to fish which I recalled that it's something similar to one of my comprehension during my school days.
A boy whose hobby is to fish and he lives in a village. To fulfil his dream of having the opportunity to fish in a big ocean, he started to slog his life away and be successful. And he did. At his old age, he bought a big boat and went off to the ocean to do fishing. What is strange is that after slogging his life away, it seems that he is still doing what he is doing initially - fishing.
Simple is good. What I need is to balance my life – a ‘skill’ and to be ‘disciplined’; to be able to achieve it. Anything that I have more, for what I have worked for is a ‘gift’.
I want my family to be proud of me.
I want to be able to provide for my family.
I want Hui to be happy and start a family with her which I so long for.
A COMPLETE FAMILY.
Simple is good. What I need is to balance my life – a ‘skill’ and to be ‘disciplined’; to be able to achieve it. Anything that I have more, for what I have worked for is a ‘gift’.
I want my family to be proud of me.
I want to be able to provide for my family.
I want Hui to be happy and start a family with her which I so long for.
A COMPLETE FAMILY.
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