When Things Don't Add Up to

When Things Don't Add Up to    

Life is such.  As we all live in an imperfect world, 60 to 80% of the times,Things Don't Add Up to.  The results you expect does not happen.  The outcome you expected does not materialize.  Your expectations suddenly turn upside down into frustrations.  And those are the worst moments in our lives.  When everything within our expectations do not come into fruition.  And worst, when things don't shape up as we expect, it will lead to a problem or a much bigger and compounded problem that becomes more unmanageable to handle.  Till things turn from bad to worse, pushing you to the edges of life.

No pun intended but this poster can never be farther from the truth.  That is, literally speaking, when things are not happening based on what you are doing or initiating, that's it, 'SUBTRACTING' is the logical way to go.  Meaning, if you keep doing things and t's not working out, just STOP IT.  What ain't working, won't work.  Just sheer logic.  Anything that's not working, don't push your luck too far.

Oh yes, it could be as simple as when a girl messages you first, even the dog become suspicious.  Why ?  Well, When Things Don't Add Up to .  You don't need to crack your brain to figure out what's normal or not.  When someone is chasing you to signup for job.  Do things Add Up to ?  When someone offers you a 'quick rich' scheme where a $100 investment turns around as a $1,000 dividend.   Do things Add Up to ?  When you're so keen to migrate to a First World country and someone offers you a guaranteed immigrant visa for a $$$$, will you be so naive to grab that offer ?   Do things Add Up to ?  When someone offers you a business lock, stock and barrel for a fraction of what it costs, will you grab it ?   Do things Add Up to ?

What's the fix to all these conundrum ? It's UNCOVERING THE FACTS.  But this is easier said than done because FACTS don't just lay around the surface.  More often, you have to zig and zag before you drill down only to pick up fragments which you need to piece together like a jigzaw puzzle.  But once you have UNCOVERED THE FACTS, you should be better off to figure out if Do things Add Up to

At the end of the day, it takes a combination of sheer common sense and practical reasoning that is devoid of DESPERATION.  When man hits that level of DESPERATION, his cognitive thinking gets impaired because it gest beclouded by that level of DESPERATION.  So, it pays to run a self-sanity check to make sure you yourself are 'in check' before you go off track till you lose that capability to detect When Things Just DON'T Add Up to.  But we don't want to be in that predicament, right  ❓❓❓

Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE'

Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE'

Yesirrrrs this is quite a statement.  Simply put, it means that we are expected to be loyal, filial, focused and faithful in our life.  Which means we are expected to Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE'.  In simplest terms, it means we do not have to beat our chest to make the whole world be aware that we are loyal, filial, focused and faithful in every endeavor we undertake.  Just be what is expected of us and stay true to that focused commitment.

And this practice is widely recycled across our life.  You can be a student and Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE' so that your school professors can attest to your consistent above-par academic performance.  If you're a worker, endeavor to establish that focused approach at work and Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE' and your bosses will recognize you for that consistency.  In your relationship with your loved ones, remain filial and things will shape on its own with a reinforced robust state of your relationship.  As an entrepreneur, maintain that premium level of quality service and trust me, your customers will reward you by becoming your repeat customers over time.

So what dividends do we reap once we are consistent to Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE' ?  In the shortest words, it 'FEELS GOOD MAN' as this poster goes.  That intangible FEEL GOOD feeling is just irreplaceable.  It's something that can't be bought from the shelves.  In fact, no amount of $$$$$$$ can ever buy it for you.  You gotta earn it, and earn it the hard and painstaking way.  No cutting corners.  No shortcuts.  I can attest observing close enough some people thinking that they can be a 'FLASH IN THE PAN',  those sporadic efforts to shine but NO SENOR, it does not work that way.  You gotta work on it, earn it, penny by penny.  And getting that trust from your academic superiors, from your work bosses, from your loved ones and from your customers will trickle in, in drips and drops but eventually, that huge pail of drips and drops will eventually get filled.

In the NBA, on any given season, there are approximately 450 active players but everyone needs to work their butts.  Even the superstars in LeBron James and KD, they worked their butts out.  And if you don't shape out, you can be shipped out.  Those are the realities in life, inside or outside the NBA.

So, to re-cap this thread, what happens if we are unable to Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE' ?  The probabilities will be one too many and to be blunt, even the worst case scenarios will be one too many but in the shortest terms, we got to SHAPE UP or get SHIPPED OUT.  And these are the last setbacks we want to endure in our life because this sets us back significantly unless we Be Like 'WHITE ON RICE' ⌛⏳

Managing Risks

Managing Risks    

Please don't get me wrong.  I do not have an aversion to taking risks in life.  Life without risks is not life.  Risk is something we can't do without but what matters most is how are we Managing Risks.  The roads we trek are peppered with risks, so risk is not something which we can set aside.  The constant challenge is managing the risks we encounter in life so that such risks are CONTAINED, CONTROLLED and where possible, CONSTRAINED.

You can have your dog with you and once you walk it around, the risk that someone will fall prey to your dog will remain imminent.  So, how do we CONTAIN, CONTROL or CONSTRAIN this risk ?  Simple.  Keep your dog on a short leash, enough for you to quickly restrain it if needed.  In real life, though, things get murkier especially if we do not have a good handle of the risks that are part and parcel of our journey.

Risks could be as simple as our aversion for hamburgers simply because we are closely monitoring our cholesterol levels.  But for you to deprive yourself wholly and totally of that scrumptious and mouth-watering burger may be too much to demand and as from yourself.  In short, you should NOT deprive yourself of that tempting hamburger without putting your health at risk.

So, where do we go from here ?  It all boils down to RISK ASSESSMENT.  How big, wide and deep is your threshold to manage a risk ?  If you're a worker, with your modest ambitions, are you willing to simply tender your resignation from your local job and take that risk of job hunting in Dubai ?  You need to ask yourself lots of WHAT IF questions.

When I was starting off my career, yes I did take risks but only on a short leash.  When I confronted myself with WHAT IF scenarios, I told myself I am unsure as to how I can CONTAIN, CONTROL or CONSTRAIN if I did get hit by the risks I have identified.  So, where's the beef ?  Get hold of that RISK METER, keep it handy because you would need it every step of the way.  Whether you play the game on HIGH or LOW RISK, it is your call but make sure you make the right call day-in day-out ❗❗❗

Be Your Own Master [Whatever it Takes]

Be Your Own Master [Whatever it Takes]

For many obvious reasons, we all want to be masters of our own lives but the overriding question is:  Have we been successful enough to Be Our Own Master?  It's true we all yearn to be in control of things but how often, even if we are the driver seated right behind the steering wheel', would end up 'thrown out' when our journey becomes nothing but a train wreck ?

Are train wrecks a fact of life ?  Yes they are, indeed.  Much as we do not want it to happen, at some point in our lives, our life was a train wreck, like it or not.  But that is not an embarrassment.  Neither should be a stigma that will get embedded in your lifetime.  The issue is not the train wreck but it is HOW WE SURVIVED out of that train wreck.  Nothing wrong ending black and blue, beaten or bruised.  It's how we 'rise up from the ashes' that matters most.  And what could trigger us to rise up ?  It's BEING YOUR OWN MASTER.  Only then can you prove your mettle that you have survived that acid test of life and that you're back on your own feet to pick up the pieces and restart from where you stumbled down.

When do we detect that we are at our lowest point in life ?  It is when everything in our life seems spinning OUT OF CONTROL  During those skids, we will experience blow after blow even after we have recovered from a previous blow.  Those are times where we are gasping to breathe only for things to snap off all over again.  So, how do we rise up from this ?  REGAIN CONTROL and BECOME THE MASTER of your own.  Have we seen why the most fatal mishaps happened ?  It's because the driver LOST CONTROL of the steering wheel.

When do you think you will regain that brimming confidence in life ?  It is when you are finally back behind the steering wheel and becoming YOUR OWN MASTER even as your life zigs and zags.  Once you reach that new lease of life, trust me, you would feel like a dog unleashed after being held up for so long.  The question is how can you regain to become YOUR OWN MASTER ?  A few ground rules.  STOP DWELLING on NEGATIVE THOUGHTS.  Truth us, our brains can do anything we want to but once negativities creep in, those negative thoughts will absolutely prevent you from moving forward.

We can always argue that things are easier said than done.  But unless WILL POWER takes over and reasserts your control of your life for you to BECOME YOUR OWN MASTER, no amount of resolve will lead you back to that ROAD back to REDEMPTION❗❗❗

Ensure ALL Your Pipes Are CLEAR

Ensure ALL Your Pipes Are CLEAR

It's true has a one long main pipe running end to end but between that end to end, there are multiple and practically countless smaller and mini-pipes that 'criss cross' across.  Regardless or rather, with the complexity of our life's 'PIPE INFRASTRUCTURE', it becomes imperative that we are all aware and focused that we need to constantly Ensure that ALL Your Pipes Are CLEAR at any point anytime anywhere because any single clogging can clog any other pipe.

In fact, our life is a jigsaw puzzle, with tons and tons of pieces which we all need to piece together.  BTW, piecing together tons of pieces is a huge challenge because all it takes is one mismatch to guarantee that you can't come up with 100% error-free.  On the other hand, all it takes is one mismatch, enough to trigger a multiplier effect of problems that compound.  There are one too many real-life scenarios, e.g you could be financially well but what happens if you have a failing health ?  Or, you can be achieving all the successes at work but how do you envision your life if personal relationship with your partner/spouse is hitting rough patches that keeps skidding ?

Thing is, INTERDEPENDENCE in life cannot be understated.  If early on, you have invested so much in building relationships across, as you trudge along, you would never know you need to reach out to any of those invested relationships.    If you are a worker, if all along you took a myopic approach of your career wherein you [wrongly] thought that if you did things poorly in your current work, you can just CLEAR and RESET things when you hop-on to your next pit stop?  Too bad the CLEAR and RESET switch does not happen the way you want things to happen.  As long as you deal with people, people will relate with people.

Swing things with all the do-good be-good.  Embrace your job like it's your life.  Deliver things like it is part and parcel of your passion.  Then wait for the end results.  BTW, those end results can and will reverberate across multiple times, more often throughout your career.  If for whatever reason, some of your 'small pipes' got clogged in the past, ENSURE ALL YOUR PIPES ARE CLEAR.

Oh, this poster says a mouthful.  LIFE IS AN ECHO.  WHAT YOU SEND OUT COMES BACK.  WHAT YOU SOW, YOU REAP.  WHAT YOU GIVE, YOU GET.  WHAT YOU SEE IN OTHERS EXISTS IN YOU.  In fact, this says it all.  Throughout the journey of our life, every chapter may seem to be a silo but it is not.  Because that silo is one single pipe that is interconnected beneath and it cuts across all the other pipes.  The extreme word of caution here.  Never take a myopic view of even the seemingly most petty exceptions in your life because that can haunt you back.  Not tomorrow but maybe in ten, twenty years down the road. So it pays that we  ENSURE ALL OUR PIPES ARE CLEAR. Remember, we're in a LONG-HAUL flight❗❗❗ 

All Hands on Deck

❗❗❗❗❗❗❗All Hands on Deck

Can't be denied now. It's All Hands on Deck.  The once sturdy boat we were all onboard has been hit with leaks, with water seeping in even as it is slowly tilting towards capsizing.  But this is not the time yet to trigger a Mayday Call as long as the global village remains in full control.  All it takes now is for All Hands on Deck.

Quoting these latest CNN numbers, there are close to 305 million Covid cases with the United States and Western Europe alarmingly in the RED.  If yourr country happens to be in the ORANGE alert, this is no time for complacency either.  Even my daughter's school declared a week-long Health Break this coming week.  As for myself, my barometer of our Covid pandemic are the number of company-announced bereavements which is now averaging close to one death per day.

This global pandemic has destroyed all the barriers that separate the First World versus the Third World.  Regardless of culture and even religion, we are now twenty-two months since this became a full-blown pandemic way back March 2020.  And when we let loose our guard during the Christmas Holidays, Lady Covid came back with a vengeance, swathing her sword across us all.  This is our WAKE CALL, in fact.

If you're still stretching the new year holidays or if you're on an extended break, it's time to cut and cut clean now, pronto.  Let us NOT be like the Roman Emperor Nero who continued to fiddle with his violin while Rome was afire and burning.  The scariest truth we want to avoid is if this Covid pandemic breaches the 50% positive rate [which our local tabloid confirmed today].

This book by Grant and Amanda McIntyre struck me hard because Grant McIntyre was touted as the sickest ever Covid patient reported.  While average hospital stays in the UK was pegged at 8 days, McIntyre spent more than four months.  His is an untold story of someone who, in the middle of his Covid ordeals, had a kidney failure and a collapsed lung, among others.  Oooops, I'm sorry I am not here to pre-empt you with this heroic story but I'm sharing this to magnify the fact that the survival rate [if we were in the situation of Grant McIntyre] will be less than 1%.  To accentuate how society can quickly adapt to the intensity of a situation, during that first wave of this pandemic way back March 2020, do we know that the manufacturers of the ventilators in the UK were Ferrari & Mercedes.  

BTW, what we are now witnessing is only the tip of the iceberg, whew. When the world will declare that it has finally clamped down with this pesky pandemic, let's tighten our seatbelts because what comes next will be the global depression, where all economies are literally depressed and for the economies to rebound, governments need to do a lot of articificial pump-priming to get back the sick man that we are now, back on our feet.  For now, it's ALL HANDS ON DECK ❗❗❗

DON'T 'Sell the Farm'

DON'T 'Sell the Farm'

Life is a cycle.  And it is a vicious cycle where we'll be hard pressed to cut and stop the juggernaut.  Add-in this 2-year pandemic and what we now have is a recipe for an utter disaster.  Despite all these, though, DON'T 'Sell the Farm', DON'T abandon what is now in place, DON'T give up on what are ongoing and DON'T dump whatever is on the pipeline.  Worst of everything, DON'T give up on your family because doing such is akin to giving up on yourself.

Such is life.  At various points in our life, we could be badly beaten, bruised or just totally obliterated.  But even if are clutching on straws, there is ZERO-reason for you to give up.  True, life is damn difficult when you face setback after a setback, a problem after a problem.  It will be extremely hard to remain optimistic and keep the same perspective of RESILIENCE  Indeed, when life is tough, GIVING UP SEEMS THE EASIEST ?

The reality is that when we contemplate giving up, there's a lot more in our INNER STRENGTH that remains untapped.  Heard of stories when Hurricane Katrina hit hard Southern U.S. ?  When residents are unable to explain how suddenly he was able to lift a refrigerator with bare hands ?  Or how a volunteer managed to overpower the sheer heat of the Australian wild bushfires all by himself ?  Or someone performing emergency PCR for the very first time and lo and behold, he managed to bring the dying patient to the hospital ?  The biggest challenge though for us when we are at our lowest point is how to OVERCOME that NEGATIVITY that starts to creep from within ?

I may sound morbid BUT the truth of the matter is that there is only one certainty in life and that's death.  As long as you are alive, you just do NOT have any excuse to declare that you CAN'T.  If you put your mind into it, you can practically do anything because anything is possible,  This might sound as a cliche advice that YOU CAN because YOU ARE ALIVE but this becomes extremely important because this should remind us of the ticking clock which is our life.

C'mon guys.  It's but time to get back on our feet.  BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.  That is a pre-requisite.  Then, you don't want to REGRET, right ?  So, dump that negativity.  On the other hand, you NEED TO PROVE [both to yourself and to the world] that YES YOU CAN DO IT.  And look forward to your future success because SUCCESS FEELS GREAT.  There's just no other better feeling in this world than knowing that you did face obstacles in life and only your true GRIT + DETERMINATION helped you overcome that mountain of a hump.  Lastly, remember this trajectory.  WHEN YOU'RE DOWN, THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO GO BUT UP❗❗❗

Playing Not to Lose

Playing Not to Lose

This can't be denied.  That we're all deployed in long-running games.  You don't even need to know playing Chess, Checkers, Dominoes or even Mahjong.  We're all tied to our lives which are running a lifetime of games.  Hence this thread because it is worrisome to see some of us Playing Not to Lose because that's not the mindset we recommend and expect if only to survive.

Are you aware in what situations [or games] are you most effective and likely to excel ?  And what factors strengthen [or undermine] your motivation ?  Oh well, there is no one size that fits all because PERSONALITY MATTERS.  Thing is, motivational focus affects how we approach life's challenges and demands.  Promotion-focused people see their goals as a CREATING A PATH to gain or an advancement abd concentrate on the rewards that will accrue when they achieve them.  They are the ones eager as they PLAY TO WIN.   Downside is, all the chance taking, speedy working and positive thinking makes these individuals more error-prone, less likely to think things through and usually unprepared with a Plan B if things go wrong.

On the other hand, prevention-focused people see their goals as their responsibilities, and they remain focused at it.  They often worry what might go wrong if they don't work hard enough or aren't careful enough.  They tend to be vigilant and play NOT TO LOSE, to hang on to what they have, to maintain the STATUS QUO.  They are often more risk averse, but their work is more thorough and accurate enough.

Although everyone is concerned at various times with both promotion and prevention type of personalities, most of us do have a dominant motivational focus.  it affects what we pay attention to, what we value, and how we feel when we succeed or fail.  It determines our strengths and weaknesses as well.  And this explains why the decisions and preferences  of differently focused people can seem odd at times.

Now for the harsh reality.  To play merely to participate is SELF-DEAFEATING.  It is a recipe of MEDIOCRITY.  The thing is, WINNING is all that matters in life and in fact, it is the ultimate criterion of SUCCESS.  Bluntly, if you want to wake up come next day simply because of it, you're positioning one foot into the precipice of failure.  But do you really deserve to lose after PLAYING NOT TO LOSE❓❓❓

Don't Disappear Into the WOODPILE

Don't Disappear Into the WOODPILE

True, there will be extreme and stretched circumstances in our life when we may just disappear altogether but it should not be caused by a one-off thing.  Otherwise, the stern reminder to us all is:  Don't Disappear Into the WOODPILE.  Why ?  Simple.  Unless it is the 'end of the world', then it is NOT yet the 'end of the world'.  And if it's not, why do you need to Disappear Into the WOODPIL ?  No one deserves to end up in ignominy unless nothing can be worst than you.

Breakups.  Bankruptcy.  Controversy. Crisis.  Medical Illness.  Natural Disasters. Tragedy. These are all givens in life but not anyone of these should cause us to Disappear Into the WOODPILE because that is akin to raising the white flag.  But still, this is just not acceptable at all.  Why give up when you've got an ounce pf energy yet ?  Why throw everything to waste when you have invested so much time, efforts and probably $$$$$ ?  Why let everything that have been exerted, spent and exhausted suddenly go down the drain ?

BTW, you may have not [yet] disappeared underneath that WOODPILE but if you are just one of those books inserted incognito in the endless run of bookshelves, that does not make things much different because INCOGNITO mode is still INCOGNITO.  But after going through all the chalenges, do you deserve to be in INCOGNITO ?

Why do we need to suffer in IGNOMINY ? Even if our fuel tank is almost running empty.  You still got a liter or two left, right ?  At worst,  you've got that fuel tank with you.  Truth of the matter is that things usually feel out of control when we begin to neglect or ignore the things and people who matter to us, even if it is temporary.  It's at those times that we start wondering how to to get our life back on track.  It is also about understanding that once you let one thing slide, it will become easier to let other things go, which will cause us to feel off balance.

So how do we get back our life back to track ?  This is no simple formula but whatever it takes, you got to anyway.  So how ?  DO A LIFE AUDIT.  You need to figure out what things are running out of control.  Sometimes when life takes over and the frenetic fluidity takes place, we tend to neglect the vital areas that cause us to sacrifice our health, and even overcompensate our time and energy in relationships and things that aren't serving us.  Regardless, please Don't Disappear Into the WOODPILE❗❗❗

Our Weakest Link ?

Our Weakest Link ?

Good morning America and Canada.  Good afternoon Europe and Good evening Asia. Whether you are still up on your feet now or you're still in your deep slumber, we all share this commonality, Our Weakest Link that is.  Unfortunately, the human race is one damn bunch of species.  They all fall on their knees after they have outstretched their fortunes from strength to strength until it goes kaput.

BTW this real-time snapshot of the new Covid cases in the United States is just a sampling.  But across almost all countries today, the number of daily new Covid cases just didn't spike.  Spike will be a misnomer because the stratospheric increases has proven that everyone of us is wrong to a fault, and that includes almost all governments save for states with a tight grip like Malaysia and Singapore.

In Malaysia and Singapore, while theirs are indeed democracies, their governments know enough when to extend the carrot and when to crack the whip.  Swing over to the so called democracies where protest rallies and lawsuits will sprout like mushrooms.  Where do they stand now ?  One particular Asian state had as low as 200 new Covid cases a week ago.  Today, there are 10,000 new cases [and still counting], whew !

What does this all tell us ?  It's that MADAM COVID does not recognize countries, not even the G-10 or other axis of powers.  MADAM COVID is simply that Sword of Damocles hanging on top of us waiting and raring to swoop down once it becomes the best time to spring up the latest surprise [over and over again].  But hey, isn't this deja vu ?  How many times we insisted that we all subscribed to this poster that WE ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS OUR WEAKEST LINK but from thereon, it is all lip service.  No thanks to a human race of a FREE WORLD now kneeling at the mercy of MADAM COVID.

Ooops my apologies I am not trying to sound out Armageddon, not yet anyway.  But how SOON and how QUICK can we learn our lessons ?  When governments clamped down all industries because of this pandemic, the greedy BIG BUSINESS prayed and strongly LOBBIED to open up the economies for the sake of the country.  I hate to bluntly tear off that alibi because BIG BUSINESS is simply motivated by $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Now who is paying the price ?  Poor people.