When Do You 'DOUBLE DOWN'

When Do You 'DOUBLE DOWN' 

In life, anyone who is forward-looking will always PLAN and STRATEGIZE.  Now, here comes the 'exciting' phase.  Once you hit 'ROADBLOCKS', you will endeavor to hurdle it but alas, not everything ends like fairytale storybooks.  Many times, we fail in hurdling such 'ROADBLOCKS' so that's when you may 'DOUBLE DOWN'.

If and whenever we hit such roadblocks, we either maintain the status quo by continuing what we are doing OR we  'DOUBLE DOWN' or even change one's strategy.  To keep the status quo or changing strategy are the extreme options but somewhere in the middle is our option to  'DOUBLE DOWN'.

 Alas, 'DOUBLE DOWN' is a familiar part of that lingo in the casinos not just at The Las Vegas Strip.  Simply put, to 'DOUBLE DOWN' means you continue on your tack and on your plan but you crank up by pursuing that same goal by taking a higher risk towards that goal.  That's why  'DOUBLE DOWN' is one of the most popular casino expressions.

But hey, DON'T get me wrong.  I am not inciting here everyone to 'DOUBLE DOWN' whenever you hit a roadblock.  As this poster goes,  'DOUBLE DOWN' on your strengths.  Figure out your best cards on the deck, your strongest strengths which you can leverage on as you  'DOUBLE DOWN'.  The worst blunder is when someone decides to  'DOUBLE DOWN' when he has ran out of cards to play, no strengths left to be leveraged on.

Let's look at a workplace scenario where you were flagged down for lapses at work.  Wanna 'DOUBLE DOWN'?  How?  Look at your strengths.  If you have proven yourself well with multi-tasking, why not volunteer to your boss in back-filling for a colleague who went on emergency leave?  Once you recover that 'lost ground', you can get back on track to be in 'good graces' with your bosses.  That may give you a NEW LEASE of LIFE ✅✅✅

When You're At The EDGE

When You're At The EDGE

Here's an early morning question for us.  How often do you find yourself AT THE EDGE?  May not be always, I guess.  But surely a few times in the past you found yourself in that predicament  When You're AT THE EDGE?  Could that have been averted or avoided?  Yes because sometimes, being AT THE EDGE happens to be a consequence of our decisions

Now, let's take out those freak accidents because obviously they are outliers.  But by and large, often times we end up being AT THE EDGE because of decisions we made in life.  If you're still in the university, maybe you enrolled in a one too many subjects, way beyond what you can COMFORTABLY handle.  If you're an up and coming employee at the workplace and you've been fumbling here and there, probably you just have TOO MUCH ON YOUR PLATE?

 So, what can we do [outside of those outliers] to avert being AT THE EDGE?  Most common antidote is to always challenge yourself if ever you will end up AT THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG  TIME. Most common culprit is ending up in an event where you are UNINVITED.  Who knows, you will end up given with a COLD SHOULDER by the event host?  So obviously, there's something we can do to avert all these.

Even for quite a number of problems on the road when you're driving, a good number of such challenges could have been averted if we were PROACTIVE enough to ensure our car is in a 'TIP TOP' shape for that long haul drive. And even if you really need to take that drive but your car's shape is kinda iffffy?  Then, if you're in the U.S., take that Greyhound bus instead.

 Oh, i'd like to borrow this quotable quote from Patrick Overton, one of America's most famous authors wherein he states " WHEN YOU HAVE COME TO THE EDGE, FAITH IS KNOWING YOU WILL BE TAUGHT TO FLY". In simple terms, you GOT TO DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE once you are AT THE EDGE, dude✅✅✅  

Those ROUGH PATCHES

Those ROUGH PATCHES

No sirrrrrrrrs, who says that LIFE is a JOY RIDE?  That's FAKE NEWS no less.  And if someone peddles that as a HALF-TRUTH, it could offer a slight semblance of truth when we make reference to the moments of joy, blissfulness and success.  But hey, that isn't the case even 80 to 90% in our lifetime.  Truth is, in our early adulthood, those ROUGH PATCHES could be somewhere 50%.

Oh, I like this blank N white poster.  It is what it is.  that those ROUGH PATCHES is life by itself and if there are no ROUGH PATCHES, then that is NOT life all about.  Life is a 'rough and tumble' game.  And those ROUGH PATCHES could go on long stretches were things can just turn from BAD to WORSE.  And that's where your mettle will be tested to the hilt till you beckon your inner strength akin to clutching on straws in an utter state of desperation.

And by the way, in life, we are NOT on our own.  Expectedly, we should have our life support structure, to whom you can reach out.  As John Donne wrote it up, 'NO MAN IS AN ISLAND'.  When you are in the middle of those ROUGH PATCHES,  reach out to your LIFELINE because they may need to extricate you out.  That is a worst case scenario we cannot just ignore.

On the other hand, life is not a combinations of travails and tribulations.  Life being a journey, you got to ENJOY THE RIDE.  When the skies are clear and the shine shining brightly, make the most of life.  Those are the phases in life where you could be achieving little successes here and there.  But after you reach a PIT STOP for a break, simply pull the hand brake but never STOP the ENGINE because life has to keep goin' and goin'.  That's the TRAP many of us get caught up.  We thought we can slacken and reduce our pace but life is a grueling rough & tumble journey.

So what's our fix for this?  If you can be your own LIFE COACH, take up that mantle of responsibilities.  Where you may be ill-equipped, figure out who   can be your LIFE COACH in life.  That could be your partner/spouse or your most trusted siblings. Truth is, you would need your LIFE COACH during those ROUGH PATCHES✅✅✅

Push Your CHIPS to the Middle of the Table

Push Your CHIPS to the Middle of the Table

No sirrrrs, please DON'T get me wrong.  I'm not egging you to fly over to The Strip at Las Vegas to try pushing your luck.  That's a stretch.  Instead, I'm referring to our very own CHIPS in life, our CARDS which for personal reasons, we often keep close enough to our chest.  The storyline here is that we all got CHIPS & CARDS but do we ever PUSH OUR CHIPS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE TABLE?

I'm sorry folks.  We're not here to encourage you to ZIG and ZAG in life.  But the point is, regardless as to your standing now in society, regardless if you are still a student in school, or now a worker in the corporate world or a budding entrepreneur, each of us have our respective CHIPS & CARDS.  Those are valuable assets we should leverage on.

CHIPS & CARDS  are more than just commodities.  In terms of LIQUIDITY, they could approximate the liquidity of your real-life assets once you are able to translate the value of such CHIPS & CARDS.  Try keeping them closest to your chest and I can bet my lifetime of [limited] assets.  Such CHIPS & CARDS  would never 'grow' in terms of value.  In real life, you need every single CHIP & CARD to play on, to gamble on, to take the risk, albeit in a controlled and calculated manner so as to mitigate the risks at hand.   

If there are two words so close in terms of affinity, it is RISK and REWARD.  In fact and in truth, only three letters make those words unique.  Other than that, they are symbiotic partners running on the same direction because if you pick up the gauntlet and take on the challenge to take a RISK, you can end up with a REWARD

Simply put, NO RISK, NO REWARD.  And I can attest to that by taking a leaf from my hard-earned experiences in life [where many times in the past, I ended up BLACK and BLUE].  In all humility, however, I can beat my chest and attest that I would NOT have been what I am [modesty aside, I DON'T belong to the top tier] if I didn't PUSH MY CHIPS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE TABLE✅✅✅

The TRUTH Remains Most Convincing

The TRUTH Remains Most Convincing

In this convoluted world we live in where technology lords it over with social media hovering all over the place, two pills which are difficult to swallow seem to force upon us that Number 1, TRUTH is here to stay and Number 2, there are multifarious versions of TRUTH.  WTF [pardon my jargoned expletives] but does this mean we go to live with MULTIPLE TRUTHS?

Hey, what does these all mean?  That we are to live with this and day-in day-out we need to struggle and get into that cycle of SIFTING TO THE TRUTH? But which TRUTH do we sift?  Is that our own version?  Our BFF's version?  Or the version of the nosy meddlers and intruders in the community ?  Or do we fall prey on SOCIAL MEDIA? When do we realize that the TRUTH remains most convincing?

Often times, things get stalled in an impasse when we grapple with a 'HE SAID' versus 'SHE SAID' conundrum.  So, how do we wiggle out of this vicious cycle?  Let us all go back to the unquestioned principle that The TRUTH Remains Most Convincing  and there is even NO 'close second' next to it because the reality is, anything could just either be the TRUTH or the UNTRUE.

When the 'human factor' gets injected in an equation, a murky situation just becomes 'murkier'.  Within the confines of your homes, the TRUTH should be more manageable but wait once you step out of your home.  From that point onwards, brace yourself to hear multifarious versions within your local community or even in your workplace or within your business environment.  Remain wary of 'whispered' TRUTHS.  You'll never know.

Even mirrors have caused more confusion than clarity.  Whereas before, we were just told to FACE THE MIRROR, you'll never know if the TRUTH gets projected when you FACE THE MIRROR. And if there is a 'wild card', that's social media.  Fiction and blatant lies can spread out faster than the speed of light via social media.  Let's keep this closes to our chest: The TRUTH Remains Most Convincing❗❗❗

Do OPPOSITES Attract Or Repel, REALLY?

Do OPPOSITES Attract Or Repel, REALLY?

Good day folks.  So sorry to confuse you.  Today's piece is neither related to science nor physics. Instead, Do OPPOSITES Attract Or Repel, REALLY?  Let me put things in the right perspective.  If we're dealing with magnets and magnetic fields, everything we have read and learned in school are all facts.  But for us to do a 'copycat' and replicate those science-based facts over to our human lives is quite a stretch.  In the first place, our human lives have never been part of all the theories that have been tested and proven as facts.

So, that's where the FAUX PAS really happens.  Our life by itself is a web of complexities and it can NEVER get simplified by X's and O's.  So, when we get asked if Do OPPOSITES Attract Or Repel, let's just give that question a thumbs down and let's proceed to the next question.  Why?  Because if it is referring to us, as humans, things are not as simple as being OPPOSITES or NOT.  Our life is the aggregation of all its complexities.

To cut the crap, all these claims of OPPOSITES as triggering attraction or repulsion is all part and parcel of the bundled fallacies and proven myths in life.  If you tell me now that a NEAT and ORDERLY person will be attractive and compelling enough to a MESSY and CHAOTIC person, I'll throw that statement out to the window right now.

For all those myths, I won't blink my eye to dump them off straight away.  Why?  Life is the equation that entails the variables to MIX & MATCH.  And when a prospective couple who's trying to spend time to know each other quite well enough needs to CHECK ALL THE BOXES before they can even sing HALLELUJAH !

In a nutshell, life is all about CHECKING ALL THE BOXES.  For a prospective couple, is each of them serious enough for a long-term commitment?  Or maybe one of them doesn't want a long-term window at all? Are both partners damn serious enough to settle down and start a family?  Or is there no BUY-IN from one of the partners?  Do OPPOSITES Attract Or Repel, REALLY?  Think about it folks❗❗❗

Are You Fine to be JUSTa Spare Tire?

Are You Fine to be JUST a 4th Wheel?

Four-wheel vehicles have breached the 1.4 billion mark.  But today's piece is NOT about vehicles but instead, it's all about us, it is how we parlay our life vis-a-vis the four wheels of a vehicle.  And the nagging question is: Are You fine to be JUST a 'SPARE TIRE?  Or worst, are you just fine being that 'spare tire' in life?  That is pitiful if ever you're somewhere there.

Please DON'T get me wrong.  Nothing wrong to be a 'spare tire' especially since it becomes so impactful during such isolated cases.  But again, we need our awareness to factor-in the fact that the usefulness of that 'spare tire' is very fleeting, simply to fill-in that moment when you ended up with a 'flat tire', be mindful of your usefulness.

In life, do we want to play the role of a 'spare tire'?  Hope NOT.  Why?  Because that leads us to this poster's question:  HOW FAR CAN YOU DRIVE ON A SPARE TIRE?  So, given that this is a GIVEN, we really need to RE-THINK if we want to be just like a 'spare tire'?

Meanwhile, while being a 'spare tire' is no mean feat, it behooves that we widen and expand our perspective to realize that in life, our role is NOT JUST to be a 'spare tire'.  With one too many goals we set in life, with just an overflow of 'deliverable goods' we need to deliver, making a living by just being a 'spare tire' will hardly MOVE THE NEEDLE. Looking at the vehicle tires, why can't we be one of the four tires that are constantly cranking and grinding once the vehicle moves?  Without the four tires, how can we complete our travel?

HOW FAR and HOW HIGH can you go on in life heavily hinges on us, on YOU.  But absolutely, if you remain as a 'spare tire', I can absolutely guarantee that it may be just a 'pipe dream' for you to reach FAR and HIGH.  Bottom line is, if we got to initiate a paradigm shift, if we need to overhaul things in our life, if we need to take a 180-degree needle-moving change, let's go for it. Let's rethink:  ARE WE CONTENTED TO BE JUST A SPARE TIRE❓❓❓

Control What You Can, Period.

Control What You Can

Lazy Sunday indeed.  Why?  Instead of cracking my brain for my Monday piece, I thought I'd grab my topic today from my relative's FB post today RE Controlling What You Can Control.  Indeed, most of the time, we're just fully aware with regard Controlling What You Can.  Those commuters taking the Metro Train ride, we've not seen anyone scampering and chasing the train breezing past him.

In approximately fifty percent of our failures in life, such failure[s] was/were attributable to one or more variables in the equation which was/were way BEYOND OUR CONTROL.  In many relationships that have 'GONE SOUTH', at least one of the protagonists tried to control the other partner.  Maybe NOT in the literal sense of CONTROLLING but more likely, imposing his/her own will over his/her partner/spouse.  If that is NOT CONTROLLING, I'm not sure how to tag it.  But that's the whole nine yards of narrative that seems to become a common narrative across cultures, generational ages and social strata.

Let's swing over to the workplace.  What's one of the most common culprits in frictions between colleagues is that 'CONTROLLING' factor wherein someone literally imposes his will on the other.  Now, let's swing over to miscues or mistakes causing lapses in operational processes?  There are some workers who [wrongly] think that he/she can simply sweep such exceptions under the carpet.  But truth is, he/she is probably a misplaced optimist with a misplaced optimism that he/she can simply cover things up.  Such is not the case though.

In our long journey in life, the roads will always be littered with obstacles, some of which are high-risk and worst, fatal.  And frankly, we get disrupted and distracted by such as our attention and focus veers away from the rightful one and instead get 'hostaged' by distractions which are way beyond one's control.  Even for obstacles itself, figure out what's CONTROLLABLE versus NON-CONTROLLABLE.

Now, before we get 'hostaged' by what is NOT, why DON'T we shift our focus to what are those which we can CONTROL?  That way, you are able to leverage on all the 'positivities' and on the same breadth, negating all the negative vibes.  What can you benefit outright by ignoring the NON-CONTROLLABLES?  First off, you avoid wasting your effort, time and even resources on something that is neither winnable nor doable.  Secondly, you shield yourself from frustrations which should not happen in the first place. Lastly, you've got the right focus❗❗❗

When To Take That LEAP

When To Take That LEAP

Good Sunday.  No sirrrrs, I'm NOT pulling a rabbit trick here.  Instead, we'd like to spend our time for our Sunday morning coffee by looking back and looking forward When To Take That LEAP at any point in our life.  Surely, you have leapt a few times in the past.  And how were your LEAPS?  Was it daunting but successful?  Or was it a FLOP or worst, a FAILURE?

Let me share some of my LEAPS in the past. That LEAP when I abandoned my life in the countryside to explore and figure out opportunities in the Metro Area.  That LEAP when I tendered my resignation from my employer who happens to be one of the Top 5 Global companies.  That LEAP when I risked my arms and limb [figuratively speaking] to explore my LUCK in Asia Region's #1 ranked country in GDP terms, economic and financial clout in the Asia Region.  That LEAP when I renounced my naturalized citizenship from Asia's #1 ranked country to take an offer from the local arm of a Top Global I.T. conglomerate.     

So, you might be itching to ask me.  What triggered me to take all those LEAPS in my life [which I humbly admit were all successes to say the least]?  The answer is quite straightforward.  I always TRUSTED myself as soon as I made up my mind to plan things out before taking those DEEP PLUNGES.  Had I doubted myself, I could have fell short of my goals.  Had I feared to fail as well, I would have ended short of where I should be.  But again, TRUSTING oneself is NOT just a motto, a mantra.  You got to have it embedded within yourself because that has to be innate when you PUSH PUSH PUSH yourself for your goals.

If there is one thing we need you NOT TO BE please DON'T be like Spiderman because his heroic tales are fictional per se.  Instead, what is expected from us is a REALISTIC confidence and trust all rolled into one, because that paves the way for you to succeed in your next LEAP. 

At the end of the day, after you achieve a breakthrough with rounds and rounds of successful LEAPS, that should give you a SENSE of ACCOMPLISHMENT that should lead you to smoother sleeps.  Until then, do consider to take the NEXT LEAP again.  And NEVER rest on your laurels because successes smell good only as long as the scents of success will last.  In due time, it withers and dissipates.  So, never stop asking yourself When To Take That LEAP✅✅✅

Hey, Why is There No 'RECYCLE BIN' in Life?

Hey, Why is There No 'RECYCLE BIN' in Life?

Happy Saturday.  Sharing our piece today while you sip your brewed coffee.  Oh, does this question make sense?  Truth is, we can continue asking this question.  Why is technology many light years ahead than human life.  Why is there a 'RECYCLE BIN' in all devices and even smartphones.  But Hey, Why is There No 'RECYCLE BIN' in Life?  Isn't this a matter of serious concern for us? Because this deprives us to recover, rescind or repeal any previous decision made when you just DUMPED things as easy as 1-2-3.

Indeed, that is a huge gap I doubt humanity can even ever hurdle, not even if you combine all the almost bottomless reservoir coming from Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg combined.  Just as this shared poster goes, once you have decided to jump, there's NO way you can 'UNJUMP' even if you totally miss your goal.  And that's our dilemma because everyone got so spoiled with the 'UNDO' function such that they frequently [wrongly] think there is a 'RECYCLE BIN' in life.

That's the thing.  You can pounce and pour out your frustration [a.k.a. disgust] for whatever ill-advised decision you may have made but that's about it, there is just NO turning back because that's all there is in life. We just got NO 'RECYCLE BIN'.  So, how do we address this?  Throw away that 'UNDO' mindset because tha just DOESN'T EXIST, not in our lives.

Oh, I love this poster as it says it all.  Indeed, when you 'CROSS A BRIDGE', there is toll fee to settle.  But more critically important to note is that once you have CROSSED the BRIDGE, that's it. you are done crossing and you paid that toll fee.  Want to go back?  That's another round of decision you got to grapple with under NO EASY TERMS. 

What's the hardest lessons we can learn from all these 'UNDO' struggles in life?  You got to patiently, assiduously and thoroughly comb all the considerations, all the pluses and minuses of each option at hand before you take that step of NO RETURN, that of making a decision that has to be done.  This way, we can avoid seeing you scratching your head with disgust and 'SELF-BLAME' all because you made an ill-advised decision and worst, there is NO RECYCLE BIN IN LIFE, whew✅✅✅