2020, the year that was

 2020, the year that was

🎈The clock is ticking.  Countdown begins as we bid adieu to the Year 2020.  Oh, what a year that was.  Devoid of expletives, surely almost in unison we'll allude to the tonnes and tonnes of downside 2020 brought upon us versus whatever trickles of upside that may have been perceptible and/or visible, if at all.  Regardless, we are duty bound to look at things both as a half-full and as a half-empty glass as well because at the end of the day, we gotta chalk it up to experience, taking the bad with the good, once bitten, twice shy,

Oh yep, THE WORLD IS TEMPORARILY CLOSED.  Until when ?  Only GOD knows.  Meanwhile, what have we learned in 2020 ?  There were just one too many myths debunked.  The MYTH that the western world are the privileged ones whereas the third world are the under-privileges ?  That MYTH has been debunked !  341k deaths in the U.S. 427K deaths in Europe.  That's including the repressive regime of Putin's Russie where officially, they declared 55K deaths whereas was surfacing [just yesterday] is that the real deaths in Russia numbered 10x to 550K.

In a nutshell, that great divide between the western world and the third world is a myth debunked after all.  This pandemic spared no one, this being a global malaise and not any single country can be shielded from this pandemic. Another myth debunked is that scientists are at the forefront of medical science, positioning them to give us a heads-up if a pandemic of this magnitude is looming.  Instead, it was the late Nigel Watts, the acclaimed author who wrote his 4th novel in a span of 25 years, only to release it in 1995.  In that spine-tingling novel, Watts boldly predicted that eventually, the people will mobilize to save our planet BUT it will be our millennial children [and not us the guilty adults] who will be at the forefront to fight against a world their parents did create to save their own future,

With tourism travel now at a total standstill, we turned to virtual tourism. And for now, the Kogi, an ancient people living in the remotest parts of Northern Colombia are, more than ever, they are determined to  retain their traditional culture in the midst of our modern world.  And their stern message ?  If we continue behaving the way we are, the planet will get sick and ultimately, it's us who'll get sick. 

But even before Covid-19 became a full-blown pandemic, 2020 did literally did start with a bang when that small remote Taal Volcano spew out all its anger, enveloping the nearby towns with nothing else but volcanic ashes.  What this tells us is that against nature, mankind is inutile and defenseless.  We can only be in reactive mode, rebuild and repair thereafter.  

In retrospect, why can't our mother earth offer us the serenity and splendid beauty of Taj Mahal with these swarms of birds fluttering their stretch wings while President Trump and FL Melania Trump did pay tribute to its beauty.  Which regrettably reminds me of our frustration of setting foot at Taj Mahal more than a decade ago during our year-long stay in India [no thanks to the Indian bureaucracy which required us to fly off to New Delhi just to extend our soon-to-expire visas at that time].

Or why can't we be like Prince Harry and Meghan who defied the world and shunned off the cruel media who made mountains out of molehills.  At the end of the day, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and with baby Archie [their first born] are living the life of their lives,  Just yesterday, they launched their podcast which was all about LOVE LOVE LOVE.  Oh, sprinkling our sordid situation with these bright notes in our lives !

To quote this enticing poster: ' Each year-end marks a new beginning.  To keep your spirit and determination unshaken, always have the faith and the courage to achieve everything you desire.  Ironically, what's grabbing the headlines of late ? It's vaccines vaccines and vaccines.  But before we end up in a false sense of security, till to date, medical scientists kept harping that even after [IF EVER IF AT ALL] you get vaccinated [lucky you are if you within the CORRIDORS of POWER in that Southeast Asian country where authorities are feigning ignorance as to why the close-in security of the head of state were so blessed to be vaccinated [4 months ago].  Ironically, to these powers, the end justifies the means, even if the vaccines were not cleared, not vetted and in fact, they were smuggled !@#  Whatever is the real score, let's continue to cling to the age-proven adage that when you're down, there's no way to go but up.  HAPPY NEW YEAR and keep yourself and your families safe from this pandemic.💥

P-L-A-N, if you will

P-L-A-N, if you will

✅ PLAN if you will.  But before we get embroiled with PLANNING, think of that cabinet that's now overflowing beyond its rafters.  And what a hodge-podge it is, nothing more than a dumping pit of anything that trickles in.  And when you need to retrieve something, how the hell will you have it ?  How much effort you got to exert ?  And how long will it take you.  Now, much as we detest this, isn't this a common sight around us, a ghastly one at that ?  And when your life seems to be akin to this topsy-turvy world of cabinet files, how far can you go ?  How much more can you go forward ?  Aren't you stuck in a dead-end ?  Unfortunately, this seems a script reused over and over again as we see it around us, right ?

No hard sell is needed here.  Let's ask ourselves, why do we need to PLAN ?  Oh, pity this Covid pandemic, it is being tagged as the culprit as to why many of us are in a state of stupor, with no plan[s] at all !@#%? A lot of us are pointing fingers to this pandemic as the culprit of all these furors.  But if this is our train of thought, it seems you woke up at the wrong side of the bed, I guess.  Why leave it all to this pandemic.  Obviously, there are mobility and travel issues but you were not shackled at all, you're not handcuffed at all.

Oh, I'd like to quote Jim Rohn a reknowned motivational speaker who says: 'If you don't design your own LIFE PLAN, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan.  And guess what they have planned for you ?  Not much, seriously.

Does this narrative sound familiar ?  When in the past, we tried to piggy-back on someone else's plan only for all those seemingly grandiose plans turning awry.  But whose fault is it ?  DON'T point fingers to that someone who did 'ran the show' because it's you who piggy-backed anyway.

And here's the booby trap.  We all got lots of wishes.  I wish I'll migrate.  I wish I'll work in Europe.  I wish I'll be a senior executive in a global organization.  I wish I'll be earning 6 figures NET monthly.  But we're missing something here.  Unless we scribbled down our concrete plan and did execute it, all those wishes will remain as such.  And what does turn us nothing more than just another dreamer, no more than that.

Let's go for the brass tactics here.  When we, you PLAN, you gotta have a Plan A, Plan B and a Plan C.  In the old school, having Plans A and B was already a safety net in life.  But in all the statistical probabilities, the iteration just gets compounded by new variables, and that explains why we need a Plan C as well.  Where A or B fails, you got Plan C.

And if you now dread to be tagged just as a DREAMER, you got to cling on another 'D' buzzword and that's DEFINING DAILY OBJECTIVES, as in DAILY.  Is this too much to ask ?  No sireeee, you got 8-12 hours of being wide awake so you gotta move the niddle on a daily basis.  You're not that pilot who'll just take care taking off and go in 'auto pilot' move.  Life is not filled with constants.  Instead, variables are cluttered all over the place.  It's for you to clear up and clean up the clutter.  Will you now pick up the gauntlet ?  Or do you prefer to see your life stalled and in that state of stupor ?  Be a game-changer.  Move that needle now.🔑





 

Can we be the CORNERSTONE [and not just FOLLOWERS]

 Can we be the CORNERSTONE [and NOT just FOLLOWERS] ?

❓ Who cares to be a follower ? Surely there are legions amongst us who won't bat an eyelash to be a follower. No pun intended, following someone in the digital world where we live now is the most effortless act someone can ever take, literally not even lifting a finger because it's just a point and click thing.  But not to be cynical about our digital world, isn't this effort to be following is the least worthy act one can ever take if he wants to leave his mark, his imprint in our crazy world ?  Can it be more earth-shaking than just clicking FOLLOW ? 

But who cares to be a CORNERSTONE ?  Wikipedia defines CORNERSTONE is that stone that forms the base of a corner of a building joining two walls.  So, why can't we raise the bar by aiming to be a CORNERSTONE ?  Whether at your domestic situation at home or at your workplace [even as we all work virtually now], as the head of the family or even as a member of your workplace, a deeply engrained motivation to be a CORNERSTONE  will eventually lead you to make your mark.  A well-meaning responsible role [at home or at work] will go a long way that may warrant nudging rationale out of the window for the moment.  Give it your best shot, that of trying your tail off at the other end. 

Imagine your impact to your family or to your workplace if you are deemed a CORNERSTONE ?  You can get that tick simply out of your ability and confidence.  Think about your UPSIDE ?  What else can you give ?  Anything else you can parlay ?  At the end of the day, you can be either a fish or that fish bowl.  You just can't be both but think about it, if you're the bowl, isn't it more impactful ?  Even accentuating your upside.

Oh, this is not a movie review of THE UPSIDE but touching on that movie between a quadriplegic billionaire and an ex-con, it tells us to discover the positive and life-changing opportunities we may face in life.  You may be faced with a family dysfunction that ravages everyone in the family but why you don't go back to that 'treasure trove for the rainy days'? Have that chip on your shoulder.

Quoting Albert Einstein, 'the one WHO FOLLOWS the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd.  The one WHO WALKS ALONE is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been".  Things may become dicey but if it comes with the territory, you're right into the fire and it's a hell of an opportunity for you to make that game-changing mindset if either your family or your workplace reaps the benefits of your UPSIDE🎨

Is 2020 our 'BEST' Year ?

 Is 2020 our 'BEST' Year ?

💊Is 2020 [that's MMXX] our 'BEST' Year ?  Surely, the mob rule will prevail and everyone will be chasing me down the narrowest alley till I get cornered for what seems a silly statement.  BUT who will debate that the worst brings out the BEST of us and from us ?  I hope this nips in the bud any arguments about MMXX being the best.

Seriously, it's moot and academic to state in unison that factually, 2020 was not our best year ever BUT... What happens to our realizations to date ?  Would we have those realizations if 2020 was just another calendar to flip over to the next new year ?  I don't think so.  When did we realize the value of our family ?  When did we realize the value of our work ?  When did we realize the value of our health ?  When did we realize all these ?

This is what I've been harping all along.  Because of this long drawn pandemic, we got into all these realizations.  Realizations that were hitherto unknown.  Not until this Covid-19 literally pushed us to our cramped corners.  Only when we got thrown off under the bus did we realize all these.  Obviously there were flies in the ointments, with some couples [finally] parting ways, some employer-employee relationships finally ending with a full stop. But then again, those were part and parcel of all these bundled realizations in our lives.

I, for one, i've been giving my health a lip service for the longest time.  NOT UNTIL when I got floored by this pandemic.  Suddenly, my weekly rituals of unlimited soda paired with 'well oiled' french fries are a thing of the past.  Suddenly, my 'eat all you can' lunches are nothing but footnotes by now.  Suddenly, those sweet Cadbury bars remained forgotten in the fridges.  In one word, as this 2020 poster says, I feel I have been SAVED.  My health was SAVED.  It may have come a bit late but as the old cliche goes, better late than never.  

Friendships ?  I felt I was over there at the Red Sea when the waters parted because we all realized which friendships are indeed genuine enough to endure versus the farcical ones.  A tinge of emotions even became seemingly the icing on the cake when my wife's long lost friend finally reached out to her after years of gap.  In brief, that disconnect of many years instantly dissipated, by one's genuine effort.

What does this tell us ?  All of us have BIG ice cream sundaes to cheer those with whom we had a disconnect in the past.  Or even with others who either are down or may be needing help from us.    Being generous to the less fortunate is a lesson imparted on us all during this pandemic.  We may not be living the life of the Bezos and Jack Mas BUT there are just one too many less fortunate souls.  And it pains to know if some of the less fortunate could even be our relatives or our real and true friends.  Again, realizations where we need to draw a line when it came to being kept into a hook.  Lesson learnt ?  Time for us to dip into our coffers.  And if we need to dip deeply, helping others makes us better off rather being on the receiving end, right folks ?💛

Keep on Stacking Good Days

 Keep on Stacking GOOD DAYS 

🎅Merry Christmas ho ho ho !!!

What do we gift ourselves this Christmas ?  A lot, dude, as in, a lot [and you don't have to spend a penny at all].

Guess everyone will agree.  We have good days and bad days but over time, it's been more good days than bad days, right ? What does that mean ?  KEEP ON STACKING GOOD DAYS, dude.

Got a scrumptious cake ?  And another cake ?  Hmmm, keep stacking all those good stuff.  And those lots of good days ?  Keep on stacking such good days.  Why ?  Because when those bad days come in trickles, when your spirits are dampened, you need to hark on those positivities you built over time.  It's akin to sports, whether it's that tough golf course during the recent LPGA U.S. Open or that buzzer-beating NBA game opener yesterday.  As you keep achieving small successes, albeits footnotes per se, continue turning something out beyond just energy and effort.  Endeavor to OVERachieve and OUTperform.  Be more reflective than celebratory.  

And that harpoon ?  Keep sharpening it.  There's no way you should put down that harpoon for anything as mundane as a fishing pole.  And if there is a particular element of disdain for me, it's that notion that someone else is so set up to succeed in life that it is not worth competing.  That's defeatism.  And that capitulation is unacceptable even if there is major roadblock ahead, down the road.  The worst part is in most cases, we are unconscious that indeed we are capitulating and giving up.

Overachiever.  How is it defined [NOT by Mr Webster] ?  That's a person who aims to achieve 4.0 when achieving 3.99 is just as good.  That snapshot of a goldfish jumping out of its fishbowl launches a thousand ships.  This analogy may be akin to both a gift and a curse as you want to accomplish something so much that you'll do anything even if it means hurting yourself in the long run.

Don't get me wrong.  This is NOT an Amazon sales pitch.  No need to buy this book from Amazon.  Just accentuating that stacking on good days can be habit forming because habits do stack up.  Be mindful that what's lurking in the dark are our [bad] habits too and they're damn sneaky.  Before you know it, your [bad] habits have taken the reins all over you and you will end up as another train-wreck.

Not to dwell into bar graphs and statistics but if you keep collecting brownie points, picking up and harvesting even those low-low hanging fruits, every drop in the bucket will add up till your pail of water finally gets filled up.  By that time, all the positivities you have earned have rubbed off on you, enough to boost your spirit and motivation when the dark clouds come hovering again before another heavy downpour.

As Sean Combs, that famous American rapper says, 'My mind is always racing and always going and  always working, and its a gift and a curse'.  Well said and to piggy-back on that, I humbly admit that I seem be [somewhat] aligned with that mindset.  Because while my sheer intention today was to greet you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, I realized I may have that gift and a curse in me as well.  MERRY CHRISTMAS ho ho ho !!!🎅

Reading the Tea Leaves

                                                 Reading the Tea Leaves

🔓What's our worst fear?  Don't we fear most the unknown? Not knowing what's in store for us is indeed the worst variable in our life's puzzling equations.  But the $64 question is, should we get hostaged by the unknowns of what is yet to come?  Can't there be footprints in the sand which we can trace?  Can't we read the handwritings on the wall?  Can't we figure out reading the tea leaves?

Oh apologies, my intentions for now is NOT to lead you towards Tasseography, that fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves.

But instead, we'd like to lead you towards what is pragmatic and prudent all rolled into one because in layman's parlance, reading the tea leaves is akin to predicting the future based on 'small signs', those tell-tale signs which could give us a good feel of the trajectories to date.  Being aware of that trajectory is just so damn basic for us to be aware of because we gotta figure it out whether we are going upwards or downwards.

What lies ahead is non-negotiable unless you wanna throw in the towel and lose by default? This explains why fortune tellers and feng shui masters are swarming around us again when our calendars are about to flip over over again to another year.

But do we entrust our future to these 'hollowed' shakers and movers?  Why can't we piece things together then prepare for a Plan A and a Plan B?

Feel free to challenge me.  Why do we need to craft a Plan A and another Plan B as well.  Oh well, you need to consider scenario planning and in fact and in truth, for meticulous planners, having Plan A and Plan B is just scratching the surface.  Why?  Because there could be 3 or even more probable scenarios in the offing.  So, that really leads us to go and read those handwritings on the wall.  

With 2021 just around the corner, let me push you to the edges now.  Why don't you craft Plan A as the worst yet most probable scenario to loom?  Take this pandemic.  As to when the dust will settle down in this Covid-19 conundrum, only God knows.  Not even the health experts.  Not even CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta.  So, shouldn't it make sense to anticipate that this pandemic will continue to hound us for the whole stretch of 2021.  Is that stretching things too far?  No sir.  Vaccines or no vaccines, I hate to say this but let's block off our calendars for another 3 to 4 quarters next year.  Not claiming to be a self-proclaimed Covid-19 expert, I'll bet that for now, it's like the buzzer sounded for the halftime break of our hoops game.  The coach and players just need to go back to their lockers and go back to the drawing board and plot out the final 2 quarters of the game based on all the humps they hit during the first half.  

C'mon, let's dip deeply into our capabilities to plot the plans for 2021.  Let's move forward.  Despite our doubts, our disbelief, our skepticism, our pessimism.  Those dark clouds hovering us now should nevertheless guide us in our next steps.  Let's look at things as a glass-full of crystal clear water.⏳

DON'T Kick that Can Down the Road

                                                 DON'T Kick that Can Down the Road

🚫That can?  DON'T kick that down the road, please DON'T.

We all got our lives to live and at any point, we just wanna kick that can down the road,   We hate problems.  Who loves it anyway.  But hey, if you gotta have those problems, DON'T ever kick it down the road.  NOT for you to procrastinate.  NOT for you to let someone us [be it someone within your family or someone within your team at work].  You gotta take ownership of every can, even it means it's a can of worms.  So be it.

The long and short of it, that's procrastinating.  And what does it mean?  Oh, can i let you know by tomorrow, HUH? Whoever told us that we were born  in Utopia?  With a silver spoon in our mouth?  Unless you're a scion of the Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Jack Mas, you just gotta shape up and do the needful.  Life is all about priorities and in case prioritization is not part of your personal regimen, do give it the most serious thought if you wanna fix things right.

Be it your family, your health, your career, your money, whichever are your TOP PRIORITIES in life, it must be on your front burner [and NOT on the back-burner] because your TOP PRIORITIES in LIFE must never play second fiddle.  If it does, you gotta problem at hand.  You gotta fix things ASAP, with urgency because your judgment call will, absolutely, MAKE or BREAK you, your plans, even your life. 

3 yrs back, in one of our family's 'annual sojourns', we were exploring everything possible Taiwan can offer for us tourists and we discovered that far-flung Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf.  Lo and behold, it offers that splendor beauty of the picturesque coastal landscape framed by the exhilarating Tamsui Bridge which looked so remote, so high and so far [how would you react if you had a septuagenarian as part of our group].  Yet, we ended up crossing it and witnessing the wharf with all the yatch moored all over [only for us to end up grabbing that genuine and authentic Taiwan milk tea as we were all quenching for refuge].  What does this all mean?  That nothing is insurmountable.  Not even Mount Everest.  Not even Mount Visuvius.  Not even the Red Sea.  [but probably, except the Bermuda Triangle, i'll confess I won't dare crossing it.  And suddenly I shiver recalling that tragic flight by JFK Jr in his Piper Saratoga].

So, let's go for it, PRONTO!  There's no need to to take the decision down the wire.  If it ends up to an EITHER OR thing, so be it.  It would be DERELICT of DUTY if you default from decisions in life that you owe either to your family or to your colleagues at work.  If you feel intimidated by people outside looking in, HEY they are not inside, anyway.  So where's the beef?  You just gotta make your mark, dude and it has to be soonest if not now.

That Stoic Veneer

                                    That Stoic Veneer

✂ COVID-19 vaccines are now the most common constants all over our global village.  From the U.S. to the U.K. to Indonesia, no one can't wait to get hold of the vaccines to fight this damn stubborn COVID-19 virus.  Seriously, everyone is just too gung-ho on this vaccine and we can't blame everyone of us as we have been hard hit by this long drawn pandemic.

What do we need then ?  It's to be STOIC. Stoic amidst this quandary.  Stoic amidst this global spiral.  Stoic in the middle of this conundrum.  And what better path to take than taking A STOIC APPROACH.  What will it take us to take this path ?  Let's be calm.  Throw away all the emotions.  Let's accept what's happening.  DON'T sulk.  DON'T brood over it.  DON'T indulge in self-pity [because who else will lift you up  but yourself].

Marcus Aurelius, the last of those Roman Emperors touted as one of the 'five good emperors' was more respected as a stoic philosopher.  He walked the talk with his most endearing philosophies, e.g. YOU HAVE POWER OVER YOUR MIND [not outside events].  WASTE NO MORE TIME ARGUING ABOUT WHAT A GOOD MAN SHOULD BE. Be one.  Just one too many quotes of stoicism.  

In our real lives, however, everything that's going on right in front of our eyes are everything that is an antithesis of stoicism.  We hear whining. screeches.  sobbings.  wailings.  yowls.  And shrieks and whimpers.  Where does that lead us to ?  We end up pushed at the corner, immobile, mentally paralyzed, in a state of stupor.  Meanwhile, those who need the most help end up helpless, rudderless because we ourselves seem to be drifting out in the high seas.

Even in the U.S. where Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna are at the forefront of the vaccine researches and fast-tracked productions, the first tranch of beneficiaries has timelines that stretch that will stretch for the next 3 quarters of 2021.  Give a buffer of a quarter, optimistically, we're looking at end-2021 before the vaccines are benefited even within the U.S.  NOW HOLD YOUR BREATH.  What did the health and medical experts have screamed ?  While the vaccines will protect you from getting ill, QUOTE IT'S STILL POSSIBLE YOU COULD STILL CARRY THE VIRUS AND BE CONTAGIOUS TO OTHERS UNQUOTE.  So, where do we end up ?  We're still within ourselves and once you are in this survival mode, you gotta build that STOICISM, be CALM, be IN CONTROL.  DON'T let the gusty winds throw you off.  DON'T let the tsunami-like tidal waves wash you off the shores.  BE STOIC and no less than that. ✊

 

Come the Rainy Days

Come the Rainy Days

⛳ Are you in the Nordics?  Or in the Tropics?  Regardless, surely you've got a couple of seasons all year-round.  And rainy days will always be a part of the equation.

In life, there will always be rainy days.  In fact, when we were just warming our feet at the starting block when we were very raw products from the academe, we wanna grab any job offered to us.  And surely we were telling ourselves, if I get paid $100, I could set aside 10% and if I hit pay dirt, I can comfortably double my coffers.  

Fast forward today, you could be earning 10x the first time around.  So whatz up ? Did things really come into fruition?  Or were those modest plans shoveled and buried under the dustbins into our deepest recesses?

A decade after, the downpours come and where were we during those heavy rains?  Were we ready enough with countermeasures?  Or did we end up chickening out, running like headless chickens from end to end?  Probably.  Likely.  Hmmm, so it's now time for a post-mortem.  What the hell happened through the years?

Whereas had we come prepared for the rainy days, it won't have mattered at all.  It would have come out as literally walking in the park.  Or walking around Disneyland

Instead, there you are, scampering, seeking refuge, clinging to the last fragile fibers stretched out so thinly, you would be feeling at the knife's edge.

Why can't we be like animals who don't change its print.  Like tigers who don't change their stripes.  Like the leopard who doesn't change its spots at all whether its BEFORE or AFTER.  

In a nutshell, why can't we be consistent by sticking out with our 'rainy day' goals during those times when we were that raw and just readying up at the starting block?

It's tough, man.  That of not being ready.  Because you'll end up in a free fall, a fast skid way beyond your control.  Is there a way out of this conundrum.  Yes there are ways you can wiggle out from those dire straits but you'll get battered and bruised and barely surviving even as you struggle for the flickering gasps of hope, those fading embers you least expected to slip past and fast beyond your grasp.  Lesson here:  be prepared for the rainy days.  Seriously.👆