The Way to the Top is 'CONGESTED'

 The Way to the Top is 'CONGESTED'

Pictures DON'T lie. Who says the zenith is a deserted spot to go?  From afar, it looks like a 'NO FLY' Zone but climb over all to the 'top of the top' of Mount Everest and you would see that it's heavily congested, with climbers literally inching their way and endeavoring to inch their foot forward because it's the only proven way for you to get to the 'top of the 'top' of the world.

Climbing to the top, achieving the goals you have been nursing through is no mean feat because you could even set foot atop, the roads you trekked is littered with bodies and bodies of casualties, those who stumbled and really ran out of gas.  And BTW, in these times where everything is INSTANT from instant noodles to instant messaging, climbing up may take years and EVEN decades.  So, this is no overnight trek.  You don't pack up tonight and be there tomorrow.  BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.  It's an arduous and equally strenuous task to say the least.  And do you wanna know its 'icing on the cake' ?  Yesssss sireee.  Rivers of tears and sweat.  Deep thresholds of pain and frustration.  And to top it all, tons and tons of sacrifices that will lead you to scrape the bottom no less.

For around 90% of the stretches, it will be long, lonely and desolate climb where your only lifelines are yourself, yourself and yourself.  Not even your family.  Not even your closest friends.  Your external support structure can only help you so much but at the end of the day, it's you who needs to grind and grind the hardest.  If need be, kick your ass damn hard [pardon the hyperbole].

Not to despair though.  Life is not that brutally damn hard.  While you will have your 'pain points', there will be markers along the way, pointing you to your way to 'Mount Everest'.  But that's about it. Here's the catch. It will tell you WHERE the direction is but it WON'T and WON'T tell you HOW to reach 'atop the world'.  It's for you to figure things out because that's what is expected from us.  Every single thing in life is hard-earned

Here's the caveat though.  IF [and that's a big 'IF'] you manage to reach the top, let's set expectations here.  You'll be there so that you can see the world [and NOT the other way around].  In real life, many of us get drunk with success.  After savoring the fruits of one's labor, you get into frenzied celebrations that will end up only when the coffers have dried up.  LONG LIVE the 'short lived' success.  Let's move to the next goal post please.✅✅✅

Don't Wait for the Dam to Burst

Don't Wait for the Dam to Burst

This piece is not into geographical or spatial but more to run an analogy of those monstrous dams vis-a-vis our own lives. The infrastructure of dams were built for the long haul, enough to withstand even the worst scenarios related to AOG [Acts of God].  But in life, the expectations for us oustretch the longevity of all dams combined.

And no one would ever want to see the dams to burst.  We just cant fathom the enormous damage around us but that's another story for another day.  What's analogous to dams is our very own life.  As problems are part and parcel of our daily lives, it will be scary if when we are all burdened with just too much problems, as to how far we can grapple with our problems, it's for us to summon all our 'never surrender' trait.

The 'mother of all worst' things to come is this:  when we ourselves are running away from our problems because running away from it will never solve or close out our problems.  In fact, the same problems will linger and pester us until and unless we really get it closed. More than this, problems do get compounded, very much akin to interests of unpaid financial liabilities     herein penalties will overlap penalties.

Most common dilemma we share across all walks in life.  Problems get compounded.  Problems pile up.  Problems proliferate.  And before we know it, we are gasping for oxygen because we have fallen below our survival threshold.  Lesson here ?  Never let problems get compounded and never let them pile up, not for any reason.

More often, it's a domino-effect thing but all of it could have started with you having just one solitary problem.  Then it became two, then three, and so on.  Before you know it, problems were all over the place.  Why can problems get out of hand ?  C'mon, folks. STOP procrastinating and START prioritizing.  When there are one too many to prioritize at hand, go back to basic before tons of thoughts can overwhelm us, when things become so messy.❗❗❗

Why the Pursuit of Happiness Makes Us Unhappy

Why the Pursuit of Happiness Makes Us Unhappy

Who doesn't need money ?  Everyone does, right ?But can we have a consensus here that all those monies CAN'T and WON'T buy us happiness at all.  Obviously, there will be moments and milestones in life wherein we felt we have achieved the happiness we all wanted.  Graduating with honors.  Landing a plum job.  Going up the ladder of the organization faster than expected.  Settling down.  Driving our first car, albeit a second hand.  Having our own home, albeit it's basic and modest enough to start with.

But are we on the same page if I state categorically that our desires are just too insatiable, unquenchable, unappeasable and it becomes a vicious cycle we can't extricate ourselves out. We just momentarily savor those moments of happiness in a mundane and profane manner we humans are always known for.  When the excitement has dissipated, when the last kampai of the celebration has finally faded in the darkness of the night, we're back to where we were right at Day-1.

We don't need to dig up the archives.  Last year, the world's hitherto #1 billionaire, Jeff Bezos, divorced his wife.  Last month, Microsoft founder Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorced.  You might argue but they are bigtime personalities hence we're aware of that but would you agree that there are hundreds of millions living in the poverty line who have divorced ?  So the social strata does not matter, after all.

When you are 'in the moment', that's fine but once the dust has settled down, can I bet my whole month's salary that in your pursuit of your happiness, you will end up UNHAPPY ?  That regardless of your milestone successes, those will just fleet by and when things get passed behind you, there you go again in that vicious cycle, grinding and kicking your ass hard as you continue to pursue the happiness you want.  Unfortunately, the GOAL POST KEEPS CHANGING.

Now, Charlie Brown may be nothing more than fiction but there is an absolute truism in what he says, i.e. "I THINK I'M AFRAID TO BE HAPPY BECAUSE WHENEVER I GET TOO HAPPY, SOMETHING BAD ALWAYS HAPPENS".  Even in my life, this happened a zillion times.  I was just ecstatic during those moments when I recently achieved or acquired something.  Once things faded, I was back to my ownself, figuring out to be happy [AGAIN]!

I may not be a Buddhist but one of Budhha's teachings is that our suffering stems from attachment.  It may be normal to desire things but our desires are endless.  If we make our own happiness or SENSE of SELF-WORTH dependent upon things going a certain way, then we are MISERY-bound.  The more we cling of what things should be, our misery will remain deep-seated.  Time for us to get out from the mud folks.✅✅✅

The Beginning is Always the 'HARDEST PART'

The Beginning is Always the 'HARDEST PART'

Who says the beginning is the easiest part ?  Who claims that you can just coast along at the beginning? Who declares that he hardly sweat at the beginning?  If at all, all of those statements are fallacies.  Yet, by no fault from us, people around us who are more our influencers are giving us the wrong signals, the wrong cue.  Not to blame them though.  Most of the influencers who'd reassure us to take things easy because the beginning is that easy, they can't be faulted because they simply want to egg us to motivate us.  They wanna see us to take off from the starting line because they wanna see us move forward.
 

We don't have to look farther.  Just look around us.  Ask our parents and immediate relatives, how did they start off in life.  They barely had anything to start with.  Barely a chair, barely a furniture or fixture, barely the basic drinks we need everyday.  Everyone starts from ground zero.  And if you start off at a snail's pace, can you anticipate how long it will take a new couple to finally come up with a simple house equipped with at least the very basics ?  It could take them years unless they exert efforts ten-fold.

Look no farther than the babies in our own families.  They all struggled every step of the way.  They tumbled.  They tripped.  They fell flat on their face countless times.  But after all the sweat and frustrations, we have seen babies finally running around on their own feet, and it's heartwarming, right?  Move over to the budding entreprs.  They could have tons and tons of financial chest to invest in a startup business but it takes more than just $$$.

But hold on.  Even assuming your coffers are overflowing, more than enough for the seed capital, all your talent and wealth may not be enough.  The major giants today all trace back their startup stories to successful tandems like MICROSOFT's Bill Gates and Paul Allen, GOOGLE's Larry Page and Sergey Brin. APPLE's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, TWITTER's Evan Williams and Biz Stone, eBAY's Pierre Omidyar and Jeffrey Skoll.  We could go on and on.

Have you tried biking and you had to inject an unusual dose of energy within the first couple of pedals ?  Have you seen vehicles with the engines doubly working the hardest when on the first and second gears before they go full throttle ?  How about the ships, before they sail off, their engines work multiple more cycles before they steamroll !  And have we seen the NASA Rockets, at least on footage, when they get launched at the Houston launching pad, they burn thousands of liters of fuel before they fly on cruising mode ?  Back to the human race, we're never far different from the bikes, the cars, ships and the rockets.  Gotta kick our butts harder folks at the start, c'mon.

When The Last One 'BITES THE DUST'

When The Last One 'BITES THE DUST'

How often we were not at the top of the totem pole ?  How many times we were 'almost there but were not' ?  How frequent then success was within grasp till it slipped?  Indeed, it's nothing less than frustrating when we failed to 'bring home the bacon'.  Who wants failures anyway ?  Considering that the 'twin sister' of FAILURE is FRUSTRATION.  After investing so much time and effort that pushed up our expectations [sometimes unrealistically 'BEYOND THE ROOF'], we know how it feels to be down in the skids.  BEEN THERE, DID FAIL BEFORE [many times in truth] but again, such is life.  We were not born with that expectation that things will be a walk in the park.

Indeed, FAILING in LIFE is like a curse.  No one wants to be tainted with it but the truth is, everyone of us have endured failing and failing and failing over and over again.  What becomes crucial is if you have that intestinal fortitude to carry own, continue an agonizing journey that seems to drain and zap you under the scorching heat of the burning sun.

Surely, you know either relatives or friends who fell down seven times and they had to rise up from their bruised knees eight times.  No choice.  Hard choices in fact.  If you don't get back on your feet, everything will go down the drain, all the efforts, sacrifices and even the tons of failures you endured in the past.

Oh, this poster is verbose but I like this: "IF YOU WANT SOMETHING YOU'VE NEVER HAD, YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING YOU'VE NEVER DONE".  These words are just too straightforward.  In blunt terms, this tells us that you've got to have that deep-seated fervor to take that extra step that will mean extra efforts coupled with extra frustrations after frustration until you could have inched forward.  You might wanna know, what happens after you happen to grab the fruit of your hard work ?  That leads you to expand your comfort zone.  And it becomes akin to that equation 1 + 1 = 2 because that moves you forward, even if it means you only inched up literally an inch forward.

Have we know some perennial laggards?  Those who are frequently at the tail-end, those who literally are 'eating the dust' because they are the tail-enders of the life marathon ?  If this hits you hard, we hope this wakes you up that it's never late to be at the top quadrant of the marathon because when you hit the finish line, you deserve more than just the dusts from the frontrunners.❗❗❗

That Inconvenient Truth

That Inconvenient Truth

Truth be spoken that often times, truth may be that inconvenient.  But what's alarming is that, in our human nature, we would rather be part of that mile-long queue for that REASSURING LIE instead of queueing up for that INCONVENIENT TRUTH. Why most of us tend to avoid that INCONVENIENT TRUTH like a plague is indeed baffling.  Don't we realize that by keeping our ear or eye shut off from that INCONVENIENT TRUTH, the truth that we need to know does not get uncorked ?

Let's lurk around our workplace.  If nothing is 'silent at the western front', we should be seeing tell-tale signs of the INCONVENIENT TRUTH. If you're work is not up to par, if your relationships with your bosses or your teammates are skidding down, if your client relationship does not seem to be rosy and healthy enough, you gotta queue over to see for yourself the INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

Let's swing over to our health, your health.  Why will we shun the INCONVENIENT TRUTH if our medical test results will confirm some symptoms of a potential illness ?  Do we turn our heads and smell the flowers instead of validating that INCONVENIENT TRUTH which later on when it worsens, it will not just cause a plain inconvenience but a sheer debacle in our health ?

It's true that the INCONVENIENT TRUTH is so intimidating, such that the weaker souls will easily crumble down akin to those dominoes once they get tipped.  But such is life though.  The wrath and fury of the incoming storm has to be faced and there's just no other way to escape from it except mitigate it.

To quote Retired Canadian Senator Douglas Everett: 'THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN A DREAM WORLD AND THERE ARE SOME WHO FACE REALITY AND THEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO TURN ONE INTO THE OTHER'.  So, folks, which chameleon are you ?  For the sake of your health, your welfare, your life, will you still insists to avoid and ignore that queue of the INCONVENIENT TRUTH and prefer to be part of the mainstream ?  It's never late to realize if you are off-track but you gotta wake up sooner than later.  C'mon dude.❗❗❗

Why Are You SLOWER When Others Are SLOW ?

 Why Are You SLOWER When Others Are SLOW ?

We always claim that no one else can dictate our pace except ourselves.  TRUE.  AGREE.  But that has to be a conditional concurrence because while 'UNLI' offers are everyone, 'UNLI' is not available for TIME MANAGEMENT.  If and when you're SLOW in life, you would LOSE TIME.  If you're SLOWER, you'll LOSE MORE TIME.  If you are SLOWEST, you'll LOSE TIME BIGTIME !

But let us NOT underestimate ourselves.  When we're focused, if we want things done pronto, when we inject that sense of urgency and put both our heart and mind into something, that gets things done faster than what is normal.  And the truth is, if you are UNWILLING TO LEARN, no one can help you.  If you are determined to learn something, no one can ever stop you.

Even in sleeping, there are extremes, so we can discern if just for the sake of sleeping, do we have a problem at hand ?  But the most worrisome part is if we do not even recognize that there is a problem at hand.  If others are slow but you're slower than them, that should be your baseline to measure if you are still within the mainstream or you're becoming an outlier.

Oh, would you agree that where things are messy, that's the most common root cause that slows down things ?  Your total throughput takes a deep dip when your turnaround time takes that dive.  Why ?  For obvious reasons, a cluttered place can be equated to a cluttered environment which then causes you to become cluttered as well in the way you take action on anything in life.  CLEAN UP YOUR MESS.  Trust me, things will throttle up much faster than the slowness you got now.

At work, three traits are closely intertwined with each other like Siamese Triplets, namely work HARDER, SMARTER and BETTER.  Take out any of these three parameters out of the equation, you will be less productive, less efficient, less optimized.  And BTW, working HARDER, SMARTER and BETTER does not require you to pump up your efforts ten times from what you're burning out now.  

Is there something we should UNLOCK ?  Yes sireeeee, it's our MOTIVATION.  But of course, everyone will affirm that they are MOTIVATED.  To which I agree with.  But what sets people poles apart is their level of MOTIVATION.  If you're motivated to just finish your eight-hour work, please be aware of "SLOTH" but if you're grinding hard and kicking your ass damn harder, I hope everyone of us can be your replica✅

I Can, I Will, I Must

 I Can, I Will, I Must

How often do we pester ourselves and ask oneself when something needs to be done or accomplished ?  Oh, personally, I have known several folks to be that 'ANALYTICAL'.  And to be fair, for most people I've personally come to know as 'analytical', literally they would analyze after going through all iterations and permutations.  End result ?  They are then into their next step, i.e. analyzing their analysis.  I'm serious, I've witnessed people into this conundrum  and I sadly commiserate with them because, with their analytical capabilities, they will end up in 'ANALYSIS PARALYSIS' because they end up paralyzed and either unsure or simply indecisive 'TO GO FOR IT' simply because of that 'ANALYSIS PARALYSIS'.  

Now let's nail down things and call a spade a spade. In every thought process where the outcome is NOT a no-brainer, we just need to go through a 3-point TEST, namely:  CAN I do it, WILL I do it and MUST I do it.  Where all these interrogatives end up in a resounding affirmative YES, then DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.  No IFs, No BUTs and NO TOMORROW's.  For a not so simple action, acting on it may not mean literally tomorrow but within a concrete and specifically committed timelines.

So what happens when we are unsure whether what we can and will do, needs to be done as a MUST ?  The long and short of it, that's INDECISION.  And what happens next ?  We gotta fix that INDECISIVENESS, pronto.

Once INDECISIVENESS becomes apparent in our life, that should not be taken for granted.  That is no fun.  So where's the fix ?  Figure it out what's making your decisions hard ?  Are you AFRAID of FAILURE ?  Or even AFRAID of the CONSEQUENCES of SUCCESS ?  Probably, you seem to worry what other people seem to be thinking of you.  And that's a symptom of perfectionism creeping in your life.  

Now, let's get glued to this poster bluntly telling us 'HOW A WRONG DECISION IS BETTER THAN INDECISION'.  In fact, indecisions is not bad per se.  But it becomes that bad when you end up waiting too long.  But question is, HOW LONG IS TOO LONG ?  Grapple with the circumstances at your hands.  Could you end up losing something you've been wanting ?  Will that end up as an OPPORTUNITY LOST if you wait further ?  Or will coming up with the decision become just more difficult if you'll bide your time ?  What's not apparent to us is that INDECISIONS can sometimes become DECISIONS BY DEFAULT.  IF YOU DECIDE NOT TO DECIDE, you are, actually, giving up your POWER of CHOICE.  If you're jobhunting, someone else might be hired.  If you're house-hunting, another buyer might grab that dream home.  C'mon folks, let's get over that hump ❗❗❗

Are You Getting Antsy ?

Are You Getting Antsy ?

Are You Getting Antsy ? Getting agitated.  Getting anxious.  Or just being fidgety or restless.  These are some of our common behaviors which only seems to have exacerbated by this long-drawn pandemic.  Unfortunately, we should not just ignore our very own behaviors that could be symptomatic of a problem.

Fixing an issue has always been a must-do but our problem arises if we ourselves won't even recognize and accept that we got a problem to fix.  If we still accept things as normal yet they DON'T seem normal, then we have a problem.  But question, what's like being antsy ?  Hmmmmm, regardless whether you are a student or a worker now working from home, if there are moments when you feel 'edgy', that feeling that you're seating at the edge of your seat, those behaviors when you become fidgety or restless, those are behaviors that could be symptomatic of a problem. 

Indeed, we ourselves have become collateral damage of the technologies that have sprouted so fast, redefining how information flows at a lightning quickened pace.  Unfortunately, we can't blame technology because we embraced it with no qualms, unbeknownst to us that there will be moment when we'll become ANTSY, sometimes, all because of technology.  Either too much information is flowing or because of the dopamine effect, we kept and kept waiting for likes in our post which is coming in, only in trickles.

Understanding that feeling of anxiety is the way to go because it could be triggered by common causes like EXCESSIVE WORRYING, or your nervous system goes in OVERDRIVE manifested via racing pulse, sweaty palms, shaky hands and even dry mouth.  Restless?  It could point to an anxiety disorder.  Or just being easily fatigued is another symptom of a potential disorder.  

When these manifestations seem to be surfacing, 'nip things in the bud'.  Pre-empt things.  How ? As this poster goes, KEEP GOING.  LOOK AHEAD.  STAY POSITIVE.  And lastly, DO ALL YOU CAN.  To quote Chinese self-made billionaire Jack Ma, WORK HARD TO PROVE YOURSELF.  And if there is ocean-wide difference between us versus the success stories like Larry Page, et al, it's that they never exploring things.  And once they have explored, their comfort zone gets expanded.  Can we follow their path ?✅✅✅

Never Put Yourself in a Box

Never Put Yourself in a Box                                                                          

Everyone seems to ignore anything that looks like a box [especially if the box is empty].  But did we realize that boxes can be seamless, virtual and transparent ?  Quite often in our life, we are oblivious that we have been "boxed in" such akin to being pushed in a corner with no elbow room, no breathing room at that.  And that's the worst thing that can happen because being oblivious that you are already 'boxed in' may mean that you will not recognize that you are already 'boxed in' in the first place.

Indeed, it's tough, man.  Once you're kinda locked in a box, your options are very few, if at all.  Your mobility is close to nil.  And worst, you can't even figure out a fallback plan given your predicament.  If you're a student, can you imagine being dictated upon that you can only enroll yourself in a specific course or curriculum [and nothing else].  If you're working, imagine you're manning operations but you are told that there is/are no contingency measures to mitigate risks of your current operations.  It's akin to things seem to be designed for you to fail, and nothing else.

If you're a coffee drinker, imagine yourself going up to the counter and being told that there's only one coffee available and that's all.  To shun off customers, you will be told that the coffee is pre-mixed, i.e. sugar being pre-mixed even prior to your ordering.  C'mon, doesn't that drive you out as a customer ?  Whereas what's prevailing these days ?  You go to a salad bar, they'll offer you one too many add-ons.  And so are the resto's around.

American book author Catherine Pulsifer said it all: "IN LIFE, IT IS ALL ABOUT CHOICES WE MAKE.  AND HOW THE DIRECTION OF OUR LIVES COMES DOWN TO THE CHOICES WE CHOOSE".  Truth of the matter here is that, first and foremost, you must not lock-in yourself in a box.  Get out of that dungeon. Extricate yourself from that isolation because that situation deprives you of options you can hover and choose the best options for you to arrive at an informed decision.

Now, we can rattle off with the Top 10 or even 100 worst decisions we can make in our life and regardless if we made 10 or 100 worst decisions, there are key reasons why we ended up with those worst decisions.  First, you made decisions based on EMOTIONS.  That is a no-no because your thought process gets to be beclouded.  Second, when FEAR prevails because that leads us to pressured decisions.  Third, when you failed to HOLISTICALLY ASSESS your overall situation.  ❗❗❗