WHAT IF You're Not Prepared for 'WHAT IF'

WHAT IF You're Not Prepared for 'WHAT IF' 

Lines are everywhere.  How I wish all are straight lines, if only to make like simpler. Too bad, there are just one too many WHAT IFs.  From the wavy, to the curvy, to the punch line, to the broken line and that's even skipping diagonals, horizontals, name it. That saga about lines is just analogous to our life because instead of a straight path, quite often, we end up in various turns.

Which brings us back full circle to the chess game.  Inevitable indeed to go back to the chessboard because life has as much iterations as the chess game itself.  Without going into the seeming complexities in chess, we gotta realize that life is ten-fold much more complex than chess.  Why ?  Because ours are real life scenarios where sometimes we are bordering between success or failure, walking that fine line.  

Question for us:  are we prepared without preparing for the WHAT IF scenarios ?  Surely we'll fall flat when such exceptions do happen.  Why ?  Because you get caught flat-footed.  Because you didn't provide for contingencies.  Because you were just living on a single dimension, that is, a single assumption that things will go your way.

In any 'unknown' that pops-up, the ramifications will be dependent in the way you handle things during those 'pop ups'.  Worst, if you were not in control during those moments, whatever chaos prevailing that time might end up in pandemonium.  Not because the 'unknown' evolved but it's because we didn't run a 'damage control' to contain the impact that eventually hit us.

To quote Bruce Bochy, the famous French-American  baseball player: "if you're not prepared, it's not pressure you feel, it's fear".  Exactly, and fear is worst unknown because when fear creeps in, even our judgment gets impacted.  And as the dominos get tipped, panic creeps in.  God knows what happens next.  LESSON HERE ?  Be prepared for all possible WHAT IFs.

MAKE SURE You Add a Cherry on Top !

MAKE SURE You Add a Cherry on Top !

Prior to this pandemic, every add-on you wanted means you got to fork more $$$.  With more than a year with this pandemic when businesses are severely hit, businessmen have become innovative in their come-ons.  Those milk teas ?  They will now offer Xtra pearls for free ?  Other add-ons, you can get it for a song.  Why things can become this so enticing ? 

It's because it's 'crunch time', man.  During the hard, difficult times, things get tighter, roads get narrower, belts need to be tightened, loose ends need to be tied up.  And if you need to take risk to recoup the lost financial opportunities, you won't think twice to throw your lot.  And if someone offers you an opportunity based on a contract that, even on paper, looks so onerous, surely you would grab it without the slightest alacrity.  Humans behave exactly that way.  When you are in dire straits, all you want is to survive.

And since you've got fuel in your tank, that's all that is left on your deck of cards and if you have to ace things up, surely you're willing to empty the tank if it leads you for a homerun.  That's the QUID PRO QUO, that give and take in life.

In real life, a QUID PRO QUO is simply a give and take.  I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.  I'll part off with whatever is left in my pockets if I can expect something in return.  And that's fine.  And that's ethical and morally correct as well especially when you're in SURVIVAL mode.  And getting into this nerve-wracking pandemic when anxiety and mental health is getting into our skin, if it takes to GIVE and TAKE, go for it.  Sure, I can scratch your back as long as you scratch mine too.  When it is survival time, if you have to be shrewd, so be it.

When things become dicey, kinda go for broke, that's when all hell will break lose.  Those will be the trying times that will separate the men from the boys and for the men left still eking it out, it will be the last man standing.  And even in a worst case scenario, you end up with a fumbling act, that's just fine because you will end up fighting with your teeth down to the very buzzer of the game with your head unbowed. ✅✅✅

How Motivated Are You in Life ?

 How Motivated Are You in Life ?

Ask any Tom, Dick and Harry.  Is he motivated ?  Absolutely you will hear a chorused response of 'OF COURSE'.  And I just won't doubt the truthfulness of such responses because by nature, we humans are motivated.  And frankly, even the 'lazy dogs' are motivated.  Motivated ?  Yesirreee, even 'lazy dogs' are motivated to be 'lazy dogs'.  So, let's not get caught with a roundabout discussion whether one is motivated or not because everyone is.  Instead, let's dissect this motivation further.

But c'mon, flip the calendar because the next day is a Monday.  Monday ? Oh c'mon.  suddenly, temps go down, energy levels simmer down, the adrenalin suddenly evaporates in thin air.  What is wrong with Monday for temp levels and energy levels all go down ?  Let's blame the calendar because Monday means it's the start of another week-long 'calvary'.  Oh really ?

Yes, either you need to catch that elusive motivation or that will just elude you no end.  It is that tricky because many of us just take this in stride, taking it that motivation is just there, off-the-shelf.  But it's not there

Take this motivation by FEAR.  Anywhere between 10-80% at any given time, FEAR motivates us to whatever it takes.  And studies have shown that motivation by FEAR is damn effective at 80%.  The 20% shortfall is attributed to the inferior outcome a.k.a. quality defects.  So, the damning question is, why can't we just implement MOTIVATION by FEAR across the spectrum? No way, Jose.  Not for the long-run, not for the long haul.  Because motivation by FEAR 'kills'.  It 'kills' the health, it kills the kindred soul.  No takers for MOTIVATION by FEAR.

And how is MOTIVATION by INCENTIVE? Oh, i luv it, luv it, luv it because that's $$$.  And studies have proven that motivating via incentives have achieved a 90% hit rate but where is it now.  Oh no, it badly hits the P&L.  Finance was not buying into this.  It's hitting hard the books and no amount of accounting window-dressing can cover-up the extent of financial incentives dangled just to motivate 'lazy dogs'.  Finance folks were all in a consensus that MOTIVATION by INCENTIVE is NOT the way to go, not by a long shot either.

So, what works ?  It is MOTIVATION by ATTITUDE.  And I can attest to this proven formula whenever I remember that test of a barracuda in an aquarium.  Once we get motivated by our attitude, getting into 'auto pilot' mode becomes a no-brainer.  Why ?  Since you are self-driven, the effort comes out instantaneously and once you achieve the result, you tend to get that sense of fulfillment, that sense of achievement.  C'mon, let's get MOTIVATED by ATTITUDE ❗❗❗

A Tale of Two Countries

A Tale of Two Countries

Singapore and Malaysia are two countries I quite know like the palm of my hands simply because of my 9 years residing in Singapore which brings me to the next point.  Once you're a Singapore resident, it's as good as you live in Malaysia too, at least that side of Johor Bahru [where I recall I'll cross the Causeway [that short bridge linking the two countries] just to go for grocery at GIANT before I go for that UNLI sumptuous lunch for half the price had I taken my lunch in Singapore].

Other than their distinct flags and respective government structures, everything else between Singapore and Malaysia is kinda 'mix and match', just one too many commonalities.  Their cross-cultural environments, the way they manage their infrastructure with a long-view [unlike in other third world countries where the government's infra projects are more catch-up and reactive rather than proactive & forward-looking.

Without becoming an interventionist in the domestic affairs of either countries, as someone looking in from the outside, the past months, it may not be apparent unless you are a darn political student of international affairs because what shaped up in their political landscapes are the real real real colors of their key leaders, namely Malaysia PM Muhyiddin Yassin and Singapore Deputy PM Heng Swee Keat.

Few days back, Singapore DPM Heng dropped a bombshell by advising PM Lee that he was shying away from where he stands now, a breath away from taking over the PM's reins once PM Lee walks off.  Reason ?  He admitted that he's got a short runway ahead, not enough to prepare him for the rigors of a PM's job.

 As the pandemic exacerbated, here comes PM Yassin who eked out the approval from Agong, the Malaysia King to suspend the Dekan Rakyat [Parliament] sessions. all because of this pandemic.  With the rising tide of opposition, the UMNO-controlled Barisan Nasional Coalition has declared their withdrawal of support in the upcoming GE 15 [15th General Elections]. Which means, PM Yassin is now clutching on straws.

Here's the apples-to-apples:  While Singapore DPM Heng requested PM Lee to remove him from Singapore's succession plan, over in Malaysia, the government of PM Yassin, who's parliament majority is now seriously questioned and doubted, by invoking the emergency laws, he suspended Parliament Sessions to avert a no-confidence vote.  

Going back to our lives, it is imperative that, day-in day-out, we are accepted and embraced by our families and our workmates, which includes your bosses.  If there a dissenting view across them, it behooves that you work hard and earn their trust and confidence in you.  It cannot be demanded.  It has to be earned.  But there's a challenge in life.  Sometimes, it is damn hard to understand once we rejected unless we re-examine and soul-search ourselves.  That is on the assumption that we, you, are willing to re-examine ourselves in good faith and if and where it is needed, to reboot and reset your life.  When we loose our foothold, let us recoup our losses in life.  Not all is lost.

What lessons we learnt from this tale of 2 countries ?  Whilst in Singapore we witnessed selflessness by its leader, in Malaysia, what we're witnessing is the utter greed for power.  Let us pray that eventually that our human greed will dissipate, insyaallah.

The Circle of Life

The Circle of Life

Happy Safe Sunday.  It's another Sunday that's supposedly a lazy day but we can't be lazy enough, what with this pandemic hounding us for more than a year now.  And this brings me to this [overdue] realization that, indeed, there's this CIRCLE OF LIFE, that inevitability that everything in our life comes around full circle.  You could be at the height of your success and power but, as in physics, when you're up, there's no way to go but down.  Conversely, if you hit rock bottom, there's no way to go but up.  The $64 question is what else should we be doing if this is the inevitability we will all face in life anyway.  We can't lose by default simply because of this given.

Question is, is there anything else we can and should do ?  A lot, a hell lot in fact.  Let's paint this scenario when we are at the zenith of our lives, enjoying all the fruits of our labor.  Obviously, we should enjoy those moments, even with cheers and kampai.  But not for long though.  Do put a cap to all the kampai's.  It can't go nonstop and UNLI.  Why ?  Hmmm, we got to prepare come the rainy days.  Even if you've readied your 'raincoats and umb rellas' in life, preparing for the rainy day is more than just that.

And, unfortunately, preparing for the upcoming rainy days in life can't be that just effortless.  You gotta put your focus in it, plotting not just Plan A and Plan B but even a Plan C [at the very least].  Why ?  Ummp, we gotta hue over to Murphy's Law which says 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong'.  In a nutshell, always inject that 'WHAT IF' condition in our lives.

And as we lord it over when everything in life is good, let's learn the rudiments of 'contingency'.  WHAT IF a heavy rain suddenly pours ?  WHAT IF a strong typhoon comes ?  WHAT IF your very own location gets hit by the 'eye of the storm' ?  How can you kick-in your contingency plan if there's very little wiggle room for you to flex your muscles ?  These are perplexing real-life scenarios which we'd rather prepare for [even when the 'sun is still shining']. Heard of people stranded waist-deep in the middle of unabated floods even if precipitated by just a sudden downpour? That happens in our life too.

Not to forget that we are most energized and endlessly motivated when we're 'UP THERE' savoring our success or at least the good things in life.  So, you better GRAB that window of opportunity for you to plot your Plan A, B and C.  And DON'T ever forget we need that 'long rope' to which we will cling to when the strong typhoon ravages our life.  To BE PREPARED is to BE READY for whatever comes into our life.  There are no excuses for us to fail ✅✅✅

Will You OR Won't You ?

 Will You OR Won't You ?

Good morning and have a weekend keeping our families shielded from this pandemic.  Oh, I love this 'stairway to heaven' because behind the caricature, it shows us the obvious, that is, how we humans can turn simple things that compleXXX.  This should be just akin to tossing a coin, simply a heads or tail thing but because of our propensity to complicate things, the more we get befuddled.

We could nothing but one task on hand or we could be having ten, eleven tasks all in one go.  But does that matter ?  At the end of the day, it is simply getting things done but if you want to be tough to yourself, then take that 'staircase' decision-making and I'll bet.  You will likely vacillate between 'I want to do it' versus BUT 'How do I do it?'.

Fact of life is, there are many corners to turn along the way and your decision at those crossroads can just either veer you away from the path or it assures that you will 'stay the course'.  To 'stay the course', it seems like a no-brainer but it's not.  A lot of us get off-tracked in those junctions but the challenge here is that you won't be aware that you are already off-tracked, not until you get hit by the consequences of that 'off-track' decision.  By that time, it's just too late in the day to change course.

So, how can we avert getting off-tracked? We might sing the usual hossanah like getting your priorities right BUT isn't it almost all of us do have our respective priorities ?  Yet we still end off-tracked.  So, what's the trick in here ?  Everything is hidden in the 5-letter trick spelled which is F-O-C-U-S.  That's all.  Looks simple BUT it's not.  Why ?  Because getting focused to your priorities needs you to beckon all your self-discipline and consistency.  Worse, you got to shield yourself from all distractions in this very disruptive topsy-turvy world.

And while eagles stand out as they are proven to have the best excellent long-distance vision, we humans shouldn't harp on our vision as an excuse because that just doesn't matter.  What matters is our F-O-C-U-S.  As long as it doesn't get snapped or distracted, you remain glued to your priorities and that helps you to 'stay the course'.

Yes dude, you got it.  You got the grits to grind and get focused but until you hit the finish line and reap the honors you deserve, even when you 'stay the course', you gotta eke it out, dude.  It won't be a 'walk in the park'.  You got to earn your spurs and 'kick and kick your ass damn hard' till you deliver the goods.  Get tough on you because you can do it.

Just Ignore Any Chatter and Noise

Just Ignore Any Chatter and Noise

The world we live in is a totally chaotic cacophonous topsy-turvy world and any less disciplined soul can quickly get drowned by all those chatter and noise.  Caveman's days are way back pre-historic era.  Silo's are Post-war relics.  Lighthouses are the seafarer's navigational aids more than anything else.  Everyone else ?  We live in     

a dissonant, deafening and discordant global community where decibels of chatter and noise are way beyond thresholds.  So, what's next for us ?  Well, we gotta be discerning and precise to filter what is the valid noise versus the invalid noise.  BTW, even if you congregate with your best friends, not all the chatter and noise will be valid. Gotta filter it

Not to advertise Qualcomm but this is one palpable explanation why we need to filter things out in life.  Noise cancelling and reduction technologies are all over the market precisely because chatter and noise has just gotten way out of hand.  No one can just handle it anymore.  So technology intervenes.  But in our lives ?  I'm sorry, we cannot leverage on technology for our lives to filter the chatter and noise.  Like when you reconvene in a mini-reunion with your classmates from way back, many interchanges will be valid ones BUT there will be an equal number of unnecessary chatter and noise.

It's a given that clutter increases anxiety.  And if we're talking about cluttered noise and chatter, that equally raises anxiety as well.  To complicate things, factor-in social media.  And the end-result is ?  It's bedlam and chaos of untold proportions.  And there's no quick fix but prior to fixing it, we gotta recognize and acknowledge that such chatter and noise does exist.

Think of that irony when you want to reconnect with your long lost friends or your classmates from yesteryears but by the time the team does meet up, what do we see ?  Everyone is so damn busy with their gadgets, whew !  Isn't this too ironic? These days, we don't distribute soundbites to create a reaction, right ?  But thing about how intrusive and disruptive social media is.  So please, do ignore all these CHATTER and NOISE, at least, until the dust settles down ❗❗❗

State of Flux

 State of Flux

Except during the time of our forefathers, this world has never been in a state of flux as it has been now for more than a year in fact.  Who could have anticipated this seismic and cataclysmic pandemic.  But then again, we can never point at this pandemic if we remain stalled, passive, immobile, unproductive in our lives.  On the other hand, when this pandemic went all hell broke loose, this should have been our 'wake up' call, assuming some of us were, all along, were still in a deep slumber.  

We don't want to be likened to those rusty, corroded pipes, right ?  Such that, its corrosion may even cause contamination across.  Instead, we got to be cleansing things out and there's no other way to go around that either.  If you gotta 'makeover' yourself, JUST DO IT please because the likelihood is, that's something overdue anyway and with our backs now against the wall, these are moments were we can all challenge everyone that there is NO TOMORROW.  Prior to the pandemic, if you uttered there is NO TOMORROW, you'll end up as the laughingstock.  Not these days.  These are trying times leading to desperate times.

BAD traits.  BAD habits.  BAD discipline.  Dump it all, pronto.  Those things pulled you down.  You went down south because of those.  Got to dump it all because unless you have the intestinal fortitude to throw it out in the window, there's no way you can put your foot forward for the next step.

That explains why in social media, there is an option to BLOCK anyone you wish to BLOCK.  Why ?  That's precisely the point, you need a BLOCKER to BLOCK those BAD traits, BAD habits, BAD influences. Yes, even BAD friends. Remember, all it takes is one bad apple for the whole barrel to get rotten.  Conversely and unfortunately, one good egg will hardly make a dozen.  What this means, if you're the good egg, never expect all bad eggs to become good. 

At the end of the day, what matters most?  It's our ACCOUNTABILITIES to our own families.  All the right things we pursue, our families will benefit.  All the wayward things when we went south, the ramifications and implications are not on you.  It's on your families.  Why ?  Because their future are all tied up to whichever track you take.  Whether it's your actions or your inaction, think of the consequences.

During this pandemic, who's our common enemy.  Hint.  It's NOT  5-letter word spelled C-O-V-I-D.  It's a 4-letter word which can be stretched to be a 10-letter word from L-A-Z-Y to L-A-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Y.  Bluntly, laziness is that creeping creature, that monkey behind our back.  Unless you get that monkey out of your back, I doubt it you will turn over a new leaf.  BE ALL YOU CAN BE, please ✅✅✅

Turning Over a New Leaf

 Turning Over a New Leaf

There's a kilometric-long list of names who did hit rock bottom but through sheer determination and resilience, they managed to turn over a new leaf. Brad Pitt.  Charlize Theron.  Kourtney Kardashian. Miley Cyrus. And going through their respective narratives will gobble much of our limited time to spare now but just to pick up a sampling.  Take Brad Pitt.  He admitted that as he was smoking too much weed, he was turning into a 'doughnut'.  And over at the crime world, there's another list:  Jay Z, Georgia Durante, Charles Colson.  Their crimes were unfathomable but they did 'rise from the grave' after going through hell.

To quote Francis Kong, the respected inspirational speaker, what is more important than the mistake itself was the way that mistake was handled.  Mishandling that mistake is indeed worse than the mistake itself.  Surely, we all can relate to that faux pas because at some point, we could have committed that slip-up.

Too bad, a lot more that's happening is because of our own complicity to it.  Like it or not, often, we are culpable for those slip-ups because of our own undoing.  Being predictive, preventive and proactive would go a long way in pre-empting things that will shape up to our own detriment.  Turn to your being passive and laidback, can you expect what to expect ?  Very obviously, what you plant is what shoots up, what you sow is what you reap.  Too tough to redirect that pointing finger to other protagonists if you are the eye of the storm.

VERIFIED FACT: We all have had our own oops moments in our lives, those mistakes, this and that faux pas.  And BTW, that's fine.  What won't be fine is IF you didn't either rectify your mistake or at the very least initiated a 'damage control' to contain the ramifications and consequences arising from that 'oops' moments.

BUT, regardless of the magnitude of the mistake you may have caused, look deep inside you, find your positivities, your pluses, your strengths.  You'll be surprised that you got more than enough fuel left in your tank, that you can even run through all the remaining pit stops without emptying your tank.  There should be enough reservoir of milk left.  And what you need next is to separate the cream from the milk so you can leverage on your upside.  Yesirrrrre, TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF is not far fetched.  You can do it ✅✅✅