Have You Taken a Pulse Check Yet ?

Have You Taken a Pulse Check Yet ?

Fine, we're all still stuck into this long drawn pandemic.  Now, just a quick check:  when was the last time you have a taken your own PULSE CHECK ?  If I may guess, you hardly did [probably because of this pandemic] ?  And likely still, the last PULSE CHECK you had was way prior to the pandemic when your bosses sat down with you for your performance appraisal.

Thing is, it is immaterial and irrelevant to state that you hardly had taken a PULSE CHECK because we're still in this pandemic. Truth is, we should have egged ourselves to take a PULSE CHECK because this is all that matters.  Who else can best measure ourselves than us ?  Why can't we measure up to our top performers at work?

Why is Japan popularly known as the LAND OF THE RISING SUN ?  It's more than just because the sun rises first in Japan.  Its generational work ethics is what brings the Japanese, generation to generation, crossing over to the latest challenges today.  They had that tragic 1923 earthquake.  They lost in WWII.  They got submerged by those huge tsunamis recently but where are they now?

What we have learned from the Japanese is their hard core work ethics that never waivered or withered through generations.  Ironically, Japanese are compared against Americans because while the latter are self-motivated. Japanese have unconditionally embraced that 'GROUP MENTALITY' wherein they always look up to their superiors for approval. 

At the end of day, get back to yourself and when you do a PULSE CHECK, figure out if you are genuinely happy and proud enough as to how you have carried on with life OR do you have that guilt feeling because you have not done MORE THAN ENOUGH for your health, MORE THAN ENOUGH for your family, MORE THAN ENOUGH for your work and MORE THAN ENOUGH for yourself.  If you fail in any of these benchmarks, indeed you FAILED but do a CATCH UP dude, redefine yourself now❗❗❗

How's the Tread of Your Tires ?

 How's the Tread of Your Tires ?

Hmmmm, how often do we check the TREAD of our TIRES ?  Likely rarely I guess.  And likely you'll get the time [finally] to check the TREAD of your TIRES only and before you go for a long drive. Conclusion:  if you were not going for a long drive, you would have not thought of checking the TREAD of your TIRES.  Note that we have our own TIRES in LIFE.  Our MOTIVATION in LIFE is akin to the TIRES of the vehicles.  The tire treads need to be reasonable enough to handle and pre-empts any slips and where necessary, to be able to guarantee that grip of the roads. 

Who has not suffered flat tires ?  It happens even in life.  Those are the moments when our tank gets emptied, when our energies are drained, when our very own selves feel zapped.  True that even if your tire is well treaded, you would suffer a flat tire but here's the big IF.  IF your tire's treads does not mean the accepted benchmarking, then your tire becomes more vulnerable, right ?

BAD ATTITUDE, any ?  Yes everyone does have it [I myself I had tons and tons of it in the past], there's nothing to hide about it.  Analogous to the tires, a bad attitude is often compared to flat tires because a bad attitude will bring you nowhere in life.  Such is the case for flat tires too.  Dude, do a QUICK FIX of your bad attitude so you can move on in life.  Otherwise, that will be a 'baggage you will be carrying on as a burden.  And frankly, your success tracker will get heavily hit with lots of misses when your life is peppered with BAD ATTITUDE.  So you gotta do a QUICK FIX.

I got a Russian colleague with whom I share the same brand/model of our SUV but there is a marked difference though.  I just got a set of tires whereas he maintains two full sets of tires to cater for the winter season.  And it's the same best practices all over again. Whether you're in winter season or not, you gotta keep a close eye on the treads of your tire.  Where the treads have thinned out or at worst, if they have worn out, your life is on the line.  You just can't accept that risk in your life, right ?

We can debate overnight if there are 5 or ten or a hundred things we can control in our life but there's one thing that's non-debatable.  If you feel your life is moving south and getting uncontrolled, you gotta arrest that skid, fix the TREAD of your LIFE.  Worn out tires are akin to a rolling coffin [and you DON'T deserve that].  Instead, ensure that your MOTIVATION in LIFE remains as treaded as possible so that your life can continue to have a tight GRIP of the terrain folks✅✅✅

Are You 'ADRIFT AT SEA' ?

Are You 'ADRIFT AT SEA' ?

How's things ?  ARE YOU 'ADRIFT AT SEA' ?  Hope not but if you do, it's never late.  What we need to do and act on is to recognize that, indeed, our life seems 'ADRIFT AT SEA'.  Acknowledging that we're 'ADRIFT AT SEA' is the first step for us to turn around the direction and its trajectory towards the north [instead of going down south].  Truth of the matter, if our life seems 'ADRIFT AT SEA', it will be akin to a purpose-less life. It will be similar to a boat with no sail, a ship that sails rudderless.  Reason being, we got to live a PURPOSEFUL LIFE and no less than that.  If we simply redirect our pointing fingers to our parents as the reason for us to exist, that is self-defeating and it negates the very reason[s] for our existence.

Instead, being 'ADRIFT AT SEA' necessitates that the FIX is as urgent as it is given the survival mode of the current state.  When you wake up every morning with no crystal-clear plan what to accomplish for the day, that by itself manifests that you are likely 'ADRIFT AT SEA'.  Dan Pena, the $50Billion mogul said:  'YOU MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE TO YOURSELF'.  If you DON'T hold yourself accountable enough, surely, you will come up with all the left and right reasons why you CAN'T do this and that.  

Brendon Burchard, the New York Times #1 Best-selling author said: MORTALITY MOTIVATION is founded on these questions we need to ask ourselves, i.e. DID YOU LIVE, DID YOU LOVE, DID YOU MATTER. If your answer in any of these three interrogatives is NOT in the affirmative, you are in dire straits and you gotta fix things up, pronto.  And even in a worst case scenario wherein you go through the worst of things [like surviving a major accident], you're still here for a reason, so you gotta earn that blessing.

To quote Ralph Marston from The Daily Motivator, 'IT IS NOT EASY TO LIVE A PURPOSEFUL LIFE.  BUT WHAT'S FAR WORSE IS A MEANINGLESS LIFE.'  Oh, this can't be farther from the truth.  If you breath for life with little or no purpose at all, doesn't that give you a meaningless life ?

Respective inspirational speaker Robert Quinn was quoted that finding and having a purposeful life 'ADDS UP TO YOUR YEARS'.  If we need to go into transformative learning, this means re-tooling ourselves and redefining our mantra to avert those frustrating stories where one is led to lead a hollowed life.  BTW, studies show that most people fail in life NOT BECAUSE they aimed HIGH and failed BUT BECAUSE they aimed LOW and many times, THEY NEVER HIT AT ALL.  Where do we go from here ❓❓❓

Are You 'OUT OF THE WOODS' Yet ?

Are You 'OUT OF THE WOODS' Yet ?

A lot of us [including me, in the past] thought that life can be as clear and as smooth as silk.  And when we got trapped in the woods, we did try to wiggle out of those situations and presto, we managed to extricate ourselves, albeit often times bruised and scathed.  After hitting those lowest points, it drives us to foolishly think that from that point onwards, the road we're trekking is devoid of any pitfalls, any traps.

In real life, we would get trapped in those woods more often than not.  Challenges will push us to the wall.  Those 'uphill climbs' will drive us crazy and drain us with all our energies until we almost get drained, till our fuel tanks almost gets emptied.  Too bad, many us never get into that realization.  Hence the vicious cycle.

But who can blame us humans.  Once we're in the clear, amnesia creeps in.  We tend to miss out that life is peppered with pitfalls, with booby traps, with planted land mines all over.  How to extricate ourselves from the woods should always be our overriding goal.  And even before we reach another wooded area, let us anticipate that somewhere down the road, we'll pass through it because there's no other way.

Truth of the matter, in the past, i sometimes got fearful of the future because, knock on wood, I knew it that down the road, i'll end up in the woods all over again.  That was a dilemma I had to overcome with tons of rethinking and soul searching, asking myself how far will I survive.  To set the tone, I managed to re-shape my mindset in such a way that being trapped in the woods didn't deter me anymore.  On the other hand, I started telling myself that I'm prepared for it.

So what's our trick then ? Let's remind ourselves over and over again that being trapped in the woods DOESN'T MATTER at all.  THAT you're mentally ready for it.  THAT you're "ALL IN" and "LOCKED IN" for it.  THAT you're ready for the long haul.  THAT you're resilient enough if along the way you get bruised and scarred.  In short, let's 'ACCLIMATIZE' ourselves to being in the woods.  If we live amidst problems, we can overcome it ONE AT A TIME though.❗❗❗

Does $$$$$$ Buy You HAPPINESS ?

Does $$$$$$ Buy You HAPPINESS ?

Who doesn't love money.  We all love it damn crazy but hold on a second.  Can we reaffirm to ourselves that in our pursuit of our DREAMS, of your GOALS, of well-meaning FRIENDS, of HAPPINESS, of LOVE, all those bundles and tons of monies will be good enough to see us through it ?  Sadly not at all folks.  In fact, all those monies are a non-factor because they DON'T solidify your situation in a favorable manner.  Monies DON'T strengthen your standing across all fronts.  Monies DON'T favorably shape things in our life if money is the 'BE ALL' of everything.

Oh, let's pluck out BILL GATES and JEFF BEZOS and do a quick compare.  What commonalities do they share ?  Obviously, they're seating on top heaps and heaps of monies as the world's top billionaires. Guess what other commonality do they share ?  Yessirrrrrrrs, one after the other, they grabbed the headlines of all newswires and across social media.  WHY ?  Yesssirs they both got divorced as well.   Ironically, they share a lot of commonalities including that harsh reality that after amassing their billions of $$$$$, both their marriages did end in breakups.  

We love those holidays at Ha Long Bay and Bali but "WHEN THE PARTY'S OVER", we're back to where we last left and stood on.  The thing is, in life, we have been awakened so many times, with life's lessons being taught on us that all those pursuit for monies for it be the "BE ALL" is the worst mockery of our life's goals because to achieve our goals, we need to build the foundations of a true character.

Don't get me wrong please.  Money itself is neither good or bad.  It's just a medium of exchange.  What you choose your money for may be good or it may be bad .  How you use your money is a REFLECTION of WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU VALUE.  Whether it's good or bad is as much your own judgment on how you spend your money as it is a judgment passed on by others who observe how you use it.  In the end, it all comes back to your ETHICS and your character.  Having money isn't evil.  Earning money isn't evil.  

The next chapters in your storied life will be shaped, influenced and dictated by YOU and not external factors.  Influences, both good and bad, are always part of the equations in life but at the end of the day, you call the shots and the buck stops on your desk, no less.  In brief, LET NOT MONEY MUDDLE YOUR LIFE❗❗❗

Is Your WEEKEND a 'WEAK END' ?

Is Your WEEKEND a 'WEAK END' ?

No pun intended.  BTW how's your weekend going? Can't blame many of us.  Ever since calendars were first used way back 1700s and later when Gregory came up with his Gregorian calendar in 1852, we're all hostaged by calendars such that businesses and even our daily lives are dictated by the calendar.  And that's where our problem lies.  We got so framed with weekdays such that weekends became our respite from the rigors of life.  But the $64 question is, DO WE REALLY ALWAYS NEED WEEKENDs ?

Ok let me pre-empt everyone by blurting a resounding "NO" !&%#?  Yes sometimes we do need weekends for specific family errands and priorities but that's about all.  But other than those 'MUST DO's, weekends should NOT be blocked off as our days to 'turn off and shutdown' because life goes on even on weekends.  Life does NOT have a power button to shut it off [else you will end up lifeless].  But at the end of the day, it's 'YOUR CALL'.

Everyone knows and hears TGIF.  That used to be my favorite expression EVERY FRIDAY, as in EVERY FRIDAY.  Not until I realized that unless I have a 'MUST DO' on a Saturday, almost all of my SATURDAYs are gone wasted.  DON'T get me wrong.  Prior to this pandemic, bringing my family for weekend malling was part of our sched and that just makes sense because you need to spend QUALITY TIME with your family.

So here we are, going back a full circle harping and hoping that your WEEKENDS do not become your 'WEAK END'.  How can WEEKENDS become your 'WEAK END' ?  One too many probabilities.  You procrastinate doing the necessary fixes in your home.  You spend your weekend going for a movie binge in Netflix or Viu.  Or social media gobbling up 99.99% of your time.  Or you just go for those endless counts of laziness in life.  Or frankly, just wasting your time with endless runs of nosy gossips that give you ZERO-benefits except becoming a 'certified busybody'.  And you might ask how your weekend turns into a WEAK END ?  Easy.  You wasted all your precious time over the weekend.

So, frankly and bluntly, SATURDAYS and even SUNDAYs are not being served 'a la cart blanche'.  You gotta earn for it before you can truly deserve a SATURDAY, a SUNDAY or both.  Else, i'll piggy-back on this poster which tells us that GRIND means GET READY IT'S A NEW DAY [and that includes SATs and SUNs].  Otherwise, please let us do a reboot and reset of our mindsets to remove SATs and SUNs as weekends that mean we could just lazy up.  

Now here's the deal, to quote: "IF YOU'RE STILL BROKE, THE GRIND INCLUDES SUNDAY".  Indeed this is non-negotiable.  There is no respite in life UNLESS/EXCEPT you have achieved the pinnacle of your 'defined success'.  And even then, once you reached atop after your most recent success, treat it as just another milestone success and then, SCALE-UP because SUCH IS LIFE✅✅✅

Find Your SPARK and Bring that SPARK to LIFE

Find Your SPARK and Bring that SPARK to LIFE

Who doesn't need 'SPARKS' in life ?  Everyone does and it becomes our very helpline but before we even dilly-dally about this helpline, we need to agree that there are points in our life when the days seem so hard and gruelling, those points in time when and where you're literally struggling, seemingly at the edge of the cliff.

Before anything else, even when at times we seem to have lost our 'sharpness', we still need to be sharp enough to detect the tell-tale signs that we have lost that SPARK in life.  DEPRESSION and ANXIETY are the most common major triggers but there is a long list of the possible triggers.  At the end of the day, you need to figure out when your 'LIFE SEEMS LIFELESS'.

You could be a voracious reader but one day, you might notice that you're struggling to read [even if you seem to do your darn best].  You could be a student who started the academic term 'running and sprinting' until you reached a point where anything about your academics just sucks.  You just wanna damp it off.

So here you go.  You don't even have to consult for counselling as long as you discern any of these things that seem symptomatic of you losing your SPARK:  You tend to be CYNICAL.  You feel to RUN AWAY.  You're MESSING UP even normal tasks.  You seem TIRED frequently.  You seem DISGRUNTLED.  You keep SELF-DOUBTING yourself and many times you're SICK !  

What then do we do next ?  Simple.  Let's IGNITE our SPARK.  Anything and everything that needs to go full throttle needs to be IGNITED.  First off though, you need to appreciate that's going on in your life, even the seemingly bad ones.  How ?  By telling yourself that THINGS COULD'VE BEEN WORSE ?  Then, do CHALLENGE all of your irrational thoughts.  Find something you can do FOR YOURSELF, everyday.  Lastly, commit to yourself that you're here to catch your second wind and you're COMMITTED FOR THE LONG HAUL.  Translate these rah-rahs into action and you'll go full throttle.✅✅✅

Butterflies in our Stomach

Butterflies in our Stomach

How many times have we experienced being either anxious or nervous [for whatever reasons]?  Likely we have experienced it many many times uttering, 'I GOT BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH'.  And that's fine.  What is not fine is we leave things that way when instead, we should have sat down and ponder not why it happened but rather, COULD YOU HAVE HANDLED IT IN A MUCH BETTER WAY ?  Being nervous has always a human element embedded but would have it been possible to be LESS nervous?

Come to think of it, in 90% of our real life scenarios, we get nervous NOT because of the situation but rather it should be faulted back to us.  For a student taking the exams come next day, did you 'burn the midnight oil' reviewing ?  For a worker, was your output 100% ZERO-DEFECT, 100% WITHIN SPECS and SUBMITTED WITHIN TIME-FRAME ?  if you're an entrepreneur, how's your financials ? Is your cash flow sufficient for the next payroll and other operational costs ? Likely, you're 'in the red'.

Besides NERVOUSNESS causing those butterflies in your stomach, think of those moments of FEAR and ANXIETY.  How well did you anticipate something imminently unfavorable but you just looked the other way.  Been there, done that.  That faux pas wherein an upcoming problem is about to explore right in your face yet rather than plan for a 'damage control', you literally ignore its coming by looking at the other side of things.  FEAR and ANXIETY are not life-threatening challenges that leaves you paralyzed.

These are all 'off the shelf' antidotes.  FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CHANGE.  Means, take action on what is within your control.  DISSECTING things to figure out what's really bothering you.  DIVERT on thoughts and things that will mean less anxiety.  And of course, take a deep breathe and if you're into yoga, those solitary moments are shots in your arms.

Or you could be in the midst of things, caught within the crossroads and stalled in the middle.  Sounds familiar.  Been there.  Done that.  How did I get over that hump?  I sat down, scribbled a "T" column, listing all the upsides of one particular decision and its downsides.  Thereafter I did a compare and simply put, if the upsides did outweigh the downsides, it becomes a no-brainer. If it becomes a close call, then it becomes a judgment call.  In a nutshell, YOU GOT TO TAKE A STAND.  NEVER BE A FENCE-SITTER because you'll lose by default.  Believe me, dude.❗❗❗

What Comes Next After The 'GOLD MEDAL'

What Comes Next After The 'GOLD MEDAL'

Yehheyyyyyy the 'OLYMPIC FEVER' is ON with the Tokyo Olympics in full swing the past days.  And to date, what's grabbing both newswires and the social media are the winners [and the despondent losers as well]. Winners go up the podium, basking in the aftermath of their respective successes.  Question:  how often do we see winners unashamedly weeping or crying unabashedly ?  Many many times, right ?  WHY are we then witnessing that uncontrolled emotional expressions of the winners ?  And obviously, we do witness as well dejected losers, with bowed heads.

Hmmmm, for the winners, surely they are now basking at the limelight now and they all deserve all the adulation and attention they're all getting once they go up the awards podium.  Back to our lives, do we agree that we are comparable to those Olympic athletes as well ?  We are all aiming for our respective gold medals in our respective events but here's the $64 question:  HOW ARE YOU PREPARING for the competitions ? HOW FAR HAVE YOU PROGRESSED YET ?

Similar to the olympian athletes, very likely, along the way, you have achieved your respective GOLD MEDALS in life.  And that GOLD MEDAL comes in various forms and shapes,  You landed a plum job.  You got a brand-new car.  You had your new family home.  You started to have increased financial cushion as you and your family have been having annual overseas holidays.  Your business has not only been booming but likely expanded by now.

So, what else will motivate you ?  After savoring the fruits of your labor, go and revisit your goals, RAISE THE BAR asap.  You might argue why do you need to RAISE THE BAR ?  Simple.  You have already achieved your previous goal.  Do you want to get stalled there ?  

Just like 'boy wonder', never rest on your laurels that long.  Fine to get intoxicated with boose only during your celebrations.  Come next day, get back to the drawing board, go and aim for your next goal, definitely much harder than your latest success.  KEEP SCALING UP because you will reach much farther, man. Trust me. ✅✅✅

Always 'SHARPEN THE HARPOONS'

Always 'SHARPEN THE HARPOONS'

This piece is NOT about whales and dolphins [as that is beyond my domain].  Instead, with 'SHARPENING THE HARPOONS', we're referring to its relevance to our lives, what it takes to be done and why it takes to be done in the first place.  Nevertheless, to ensure we're all on the same page, let's agree that 'SHARPENING THE HARPOONS' means ensuring our readiness in life, when it's time for whale-hunting, when we wanna catch the bonanza of a lifetime.  As we all agree, catching a whale is the apex of a whaler's achievements.  Such is the case in life as well.

By nature, we humans are ambitious, and that's just laudable because it means there is some level in the purpose of our life.  What sets apart then the successes versus the failures ?  It's NOT in those common aspirations for 'big time' success.  Instead, it is in the approach HOW to achieve such 'big time' success.  Whereas the bona fide success stories will tell us that the people behind those successes really worked their butts out, grinding the hardest and being damn harsh to themselves, exacting the highest 'dose of efforts' they can exert, not efforts exerted more as a lip service. just for coasting.

As 'icing on the cake', besides all the LUCK we kept praying for, we even top it off with feng shui practices.  And while feng shui per se is not wrong, hopes and expectations that are boosted because of feng shui is by itself, MISPLACED HOPES.  Too bad because man's most common [and recurring story retold everywhere] is that we WANT THE BEST WITH THE LEAST EFFORTS.

At this point, let's pull the brakes and and go for a full stop in terms of LUCK and let's all agree that we all welcome LUCK, let LUCK run its own course.  And in the meanwhile, let's get glued at the our ultimate goal in life which could revolve around having a peaceful and fulfilling life with our families, alongside our valued properties in life and obviously, preparing for the future of even our kids.  Note that there are NO IMPOSSIBLE GOALS at all.  We simply have to break them down into bite-size chunks, write down those goals, believing and sticking that we will attain it then go 'FULL THROTTLE' ahead as if it's part of your routine.  To quote, "AVERAGE PEOPLE HAVE WISHES & HOPES.  SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE GOALS." ❗❗❗