When Rewards Are Worth It

When Rewards Are Worth It

Virtually watching the last NBA game in 2022 between the highly cultured Miami Heat versus the resurgent and rebuilding Utah Jazz, what else can you ask for from the recognized NBA stars when no less than Miami Heat's TYLER HERRO banked in his 'Hail Mary' shot way beyond the arc as time was ticking off down to the very last second.  And swoooooooop, it sinks in.  Oh that was nothing less than seeing things When Rewards Are Worth It💊💊💊

From a drafted rookie in 2019, TYLER HERRO has gone a long way from that NBA Draft Day till twelve hours ago when he banked in that game winning clutch shot !  BTW, a week ago, I read from the Miami media that TYLER HERRO literally made a 'splash' when he recently inked to purchase a US$ 10 Million sprawling mansion at the pricey Miami neighborhood of Pinecrest.

Hmmmm, while today's piece is centered on TYLER HERRO, this is NOT about the NBA, NOT about basketball, NOT at all.  This is more appreciating the fact that in the cycle of life, you always start from scratch, down at the totem pole, then for you to rise that totem pole, you got to work your butt out.  You can be skilled.  You can be gifted.  But neither of those criteria guarantees you that success will be served on a silver platter together with your Martini dinner.  What cemented TYLER HERRO's successes was the US$ 130 Million contract Miami Heat extended him last October 2022.  Indeed, When Rewards Are Worth It

Indeed, TYLER HERRO is another success story to showcase.  Despite the brutal business in the NBA wherein its players are more like commodities and products who get traded to another team [unless the player's contract stipulates the player's trade approval, which is a rarity], whenever he was asked by the media how is he handling the fact that his name gets repeatedly involved in various NBA trade iterations, TYLER's curt reply was that his job to keep playing top-level basketball regardless if he wakes up next morning only to find out he's been traded.  This is When Rewards Are Worth It

Why don't we take a leaf from all the success stories straight from the NBA?  THAT's when players take their job seriously.  THAT's when the stars take on basketball as their life.  THAT's when basketball becomes the 'be all' in their life in parallel with their personal lives.  To be honest, there is NO trade secret in all the NBA success stories but it's all a confluence of sheer hard work that would lead them towards the path When Rewards Are Worth It✅✅✅

You Don't Know What You Got [Till it's gone]

You Don't Know What You Got [Till it's gone]

How often do we appreciate the very moment we are in now?  How often do we appreciate all the love we have around us?  How often are we thankful for whatever modest possessions we have in life?  How often do we appreciate the job we now have?  How often do we appreciate blessings we receive in life [albeit such blessings may not be the best of the best but likely those blessings are many notches better than what everyone of us do reap and receive. So, don't you know what you got [Till it's gone]💹💹💹

BTW, 'tis true we got to LIVE LIFE to the FULLEST [BUT here's the big BUT].  You got to live life in a reasonably balanced way.  I've seen [FIRST HAND] people who had all the monies in the world, taking more than twenty flights a year for R & R [rest & relaxation] which, per se, I will be the last one to question because he worked his butts out the whole year.  But what was his shortfall?  He did send his family 10,000 miles away all the monies they need, period but how's things now?  The poor guy is now all by himself, with NO family and penniless some more.  What went wrong?

Seriously, I am NOT questioning if he did squander all his monies [because that's HIS and not mine] but what's despicable and pathetic is that as we speak today, he has NADA, ZILCH, TIADA, KEINER.  Not even the home he solely bought for the family.  Not even his favorite son [who squeezed him high and dry for monies and monies].  Not even the wife he wedded three decades back.  And to top it all, not even  the job which was his very sole source of income that enabled him to live the life he thought he was enjoying to the fullest not until he got literally stranded holidaying at BALI when the global pandemic lockdown did shut down global travel, whew

My God, this is a head-scratcher.  Is this fine, things simply dissipating in thin air? No sirrrrs.  Except for cataclysmic events which even science can't explain, things DON'T simply dissipate in thin air.  Our relationship with our spouse/partner may be robust today but there's NO guarantee that it will be robust forever ❗❗❗

My God, this is a head-scratcher.  Is this fine, things simply dissipating in thin air? No sirrrrrrs.  It's one thing to cherish our loved ones but it's another thing to literally NURTURE [a.k.a. dutifully taking care] of our relationship with our spouse/partner.  We all dream not only of good beginnings but most importantly, happy endings that meet our criteria and expectations because we DON'T want to hear that you DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU GO [till it's gone]☝☝☝

Do You Play HARD Or Do You Play WELL?

Do You Play HARD Or Do You Play WELL?

Would you rather that You Play HARD Or  Play WELL?  This question is one for the books because on the surface, it's a damn easy one, a no-brainer at that.  And If I take a random sampling, surely most of us will shout in unison that we all want to PLAY WELL because that gives us the improved probability of prevailing and winning that contest we're battling in.

But to quote Babe Ruth, the famous American baseball hero and Hall of Famer said:  IT'S HARD TO PLAY WELL BUT IT'S EASY TO WORK HARD.  Indeed, those are deep insights easier to read than to dissect.  But he's driving out here is that to PLAY WELL, it has one too many dependencies because to PLAY WELL is not solely dependent on you, the player.  You could be a top-notch player but if it happens that your opponent is craftier and playing at a higher level than you, your level of play may even be tagged as 'AWRY' because in the end, you have that shortfall wherein your opponent ends up PLAYING WELL.  Unfortunately, in basic logic, when the opponent plays that WELL, that puts into question if you can claim that mantle that you are PLAYING WELL as well

Whereas when you PLAY HARD, there is NO pre-defined ceiling, there is NO dependency on others, there is NO conditions that will influence either your success or failure.  Everything is left within your hands, your fate.  You can jump as high as you want.  You can score as much as you can.  You can hoop together with all those uncontested dunks.  You can throw those lob passes over to your next teammate but at the end of the day, PLAYING HARD solely rests on you📌📌📌

BTW, at the workplace, everyone is expected to PLAY WELL because they got to 'deliver the goods' based on the operations manual, based on the contractual SLA.  So, assuming everyone in the workplace do PLAY WELL, how can you stand out?  OR would you rather to be just another face in that mob of a crowd?  Won't you prefer to stand out from that crowd in the workplace and be singled out for PLAYING HARD 📙📗📘

So why don't we consider hook, line and sinker Babe Ruth's mantra here?  Bottom line here is that in life, by PLAYING HARD, it means you have poured your energy all-out.  You squeezed yourself hard for every ounce of sweat.  You pushed yourself not just hard but the hardest.  By embracing to that PLAY HARD mantra, you will be in FULL CONTROL of your fate, devoid of any dependency to anything and anyone except from within yourself❗❗❗

What To Do With Your 'TO-DO' List?

What To Do With Your 'TO-DO' List?

What To Do With Your 'TO-DO' List? Oh, this is a top-heavy question.  All the while, I thought that having that 'TO-DO' List caps and solves all my tasking woes?  Not until I realized that mu 'TO-DO' List is either froze or simply stalled.  And if it does change, that 'TO-DO' List just gets longer and longer.  What could explain that conundrum which surely was unintentional and totally unrecognizable not until when we started to react to that list getting longer.

Some may even end up being defensive by blurting, hey my 'TO-DO' List is NOT getting longer.  Instead, all the sticky notes and post-it notes are just all over the wall, all over the place.  What can explain this common phenomenon?  Logically, you'd think tht when your TO-DO List was at its longest would be when you'd kick into high gear and start ticking things off like a production locomotive.  

But in my personal experience, often the opposite happens.  When my TO-DO List grows this long, I would tend to panic, my motivation tanks and my brain fogs.  I end up stressing more than accomplishing.  Apparently, having so many things to do that you can't do any of them is a recognized psychological phenomenon..  And the clinical studies have buttressed it.

Knowing that I am experiencing something called my psychologists as 'OVERWHELM FREEZE' and that it is common enough to merit its own terminology, is soothing.  But I still have to figure it out what to get for my impossible-to-buy and when I'm going to squeeze myself.  There's even this joke:  'HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT?'  ONE  BITE AT A TIME.  

No matter the size of the elephant, those individual bites should be quite ridiculously small and concrete that you CAN'T possibly stress about them.  Think about rewriting your TO-DO List as if you were giving instructions to a teenager who doesn't really want to do it so you really have to be SPECIFIC💹💹💹

Are EMOTIONS & RATIONALE Twins ?

Are EMOTIONS & RATIONALE Twins    

EMOTIONS & RATIONALE As Twins?  The no-brainer answer is ABSOLUTELY.  Here's the caveat though.  They DON'T behave or manifest at the same wavelength, on the same page.  Never.  Instead, they are poles apart from each other.  Where emotions go HIGH, then that drives rationale to go LOW and conversely, when emotions go LOW, you can go all hands on deck and bet that rationale will zoom up HIGH💊💊💊

Tons and tons of clinical studies have presented the correlations between EMOTIONS & RATIONALE As Twins.  Too bad emotions have gotten a bad rap these days.  We're frequently told we should mistrust them and ignore them.  It may seem that humanity, especially the make segment, has always evinced this level of skepticism towards our feelings, viewing them as unreliable guides. But the role of emotions in our lives has not always been viewed so dubiously by everyone.  Instead, distrust in feelings waxes and wanes depending on the level of uncertainty.  

When life becomes predictable, chaotic and troubling, we tend to retreat inwardly and sometimes seeking to turn ourselves into stone.  It then seems too risky to expose one's true feelings to let anything but cold hand logic dictate one's decisions.  Because, the thinking goes, emotions are essentially irrational

Yet studies have shown that EMOTIONS and REASON are NOT contradictory but instead COMPLEMENTARY.  Studies have supported the theory that feelings have their own intelligence and wisdom and must be intertwined with our rational faculties in order to achieve the good life we all want anyway📌📌📌

In fact, we think of our thoughts as being under an autonomous control.  We our our cognition to weigh options and make decisions.  In contrast, we perceive EMOTIONS as just happening to us.  We then conceive our feelings as clouding our thoughts which are our REAL mind.  What's our FIX?  DON'T let your emotions CONTROL you.  Instead, grab the bull by its horns and you better CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS📗📘📙
 

When Life Snaps

 When Life Snaps

When Life Snaps.  There's a story going viral now in social media.  An American couple would have their daily exercise by simply walking their dog 'Rudy' every morning.  Recently, despite the biting winter, the hubby woke up his wifey for that daily morning walk but she begged off because she thought she had to catch more sleep.

And during those moments, it was like hearing someone strumming the guitar, the sound that is soothing no less.  So, the wifey went back to her deep slumber only to be awakened by the police knocking at the main door.  And the police advised her that an ambulance has rushed her hubby to the hospice after a kind commuter happened to pass by, seeing him sprawled on the ice-covered ground while his hubby's dog Rudy was kinda in grief fidgety around the almost lifeless body.  And the wife admitted, that was the swiftest time she moved, scampering to drive to the hospice for her hubby's emergency.  Sadly, the ER doctors admitted they were unable to resuscitate her hubby back to life again.

Such is life.  Day-in day-out, it is akin to the placid waters across the lake UNTIL tragedy happens and more often, way beyond our control.  So this is When Life Snaps.  One minute you can see the placid waters.  The next minute, the waters are in turmoil.  The least the bereaving wifey can share to the media was that very hurting lesson to enjoy every moment with your loved one[s].  Unless there is a 'show stopper', never let that opportunity be missed by you.

So, life is like traversing the high seas and suddenly, you end up in troubled waters.  Probably your boat's engine conked out.  Or water just starts tp seep into the boat.  So, if you're sharing your life with your loved one, when will you cherish every moment? Is it when you sound out an SOS call in the high seas?  By the time, do you still have those moments to really relish together with your loved one When Life Snaps?

When Life Snaps, what follows next are a hell lot of WHYs.  WHY did I not spend as much time with my loved one?  WHY did I give my loved one a lower priority?  WHY did I seemingly ignored his/her presence when he/she was very much alive?  WHY did I not give him/her the importance which I used to bestow on him/her when we were just dating? WHY oh WHY? C'mon, let us NOT wait [only to regret] When Life Snaps📗📘📙

Tides of Change

Tides of Change

Who says CHANGE IS COMING?  Yes it is, and it comes instantaneously, anytime now unlike to a 'SCHEDULED CHANGE' we would here across infrastructures. So how do we handle the Tides of Change?  For the uninitiated in life, when someone hears CHANGE IS COMING, one might just shrug off his shoulders and blurt out 'WHAT ELSE IS NEW'📗📕📘

Even the changes of the tide along the coastal areas are given constants.  Who cares if high tide is coming or if the water is receding soon?  Truth of the matter, if we start talking about CLIMATE CHANGE, no less than Former US Vice President Al Gore was the top advocate of CLIMATE CHANGE.  In today's new, the savage blizzard in the U.S. left 31 dead and that's besides the power outages.

We're NOT even talking about evolution here because that's predictive enough.  Instead, in life, we should be ready enough for anything that's beyond the theory of evolution.  As it is, there are zillions of "WHAT IFs" in life, so the question swings back to your COPING CAPABILITY💊💊💊

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HOW deftly can you COPE when suddenly you end up jobless [regardless of reason]?  HOW do you handle things when someone in the family gets seriously ill?  HOW do you mitigate the impact of the financial markets to your mortgaged home?  HOW do you do that elusive 'damage control' things start to spiral way OUT-of-CONTROL?  Or let's do a post-mortem now.  How did you handle EVERYTHING when pandemic hit us badly?

If at all, one factor that one has to have in his life is his AGILITY.  To be AGILE means you are capable to immediately 'change course' when the situation demands.  To be AGILE means you are able to go from Plan A to Plan B to even a Plan C or a Plan D.  Why do many of us get waylaid ?  For one simple reason.  That happens when we are unable to cope with the TIDES of CHANGE.  BTW, in life, CHANGE is a CONSTANT❗❗❗

The Circle of Life

The Circle of Life                                                              

The Circle of Life, yesirrrrrrs, that's the vicious cycle where we are ALL trapped, sometimes to our dismay, and worse, to our consternation.  And this life-long tale of travails from the time you graduate from the university.  You then start to set your goals [which is very laudable and natural to happen].  AND then you join the fray, plunging into the job market, selling yourself to the employers [and sometimes realizing that your credentials in that CV/Resume is that endemic, short and thin, but that's fine because you are effectively a raw product at that point in time📌📌📌

AND finally after rounds of interviews, with innocent and naive alacrity, you signed off the first job offer tendered on you [rather than take that riskier tack of comparing apples-to-apples and signing off ONLY that 'best offer'.  But again, that's just rational, logical and it made sheer sense.  I acted exactly that way during my early years but many years back, I always had an 'ace in my sleeve'

There was a difference though, even those times I was very 'RAW' in life.  In anything I aspire for, it was either I'm angling for a fallback or just a 'safety net' if things go awry.  So, twice very early in my life, I went through the job interview rounds and hurdled one interview after another till H.R. tenders a job offer for me.  And twice I passed off those juicy job offers and instead, twice I successfully referred my best friend [from way back].  Lo and behold, twice my best friend did impress the HR folks and they ended up extending the same job offer to him [which they originally offered me]

Fast-forward, when you felt that you have reached that 'auto pilot' altitude in life, you start about planning your personal life ahead, settling down, starting off your family.  But HOLD ON.  Heard of things getting stalled?  WHEN suddenly, you find yourself in a state of stupor?  WHEN you realize albeit belatedly, how come you didn't achieve the progressive strides the past years.  WHEN you realized of late that there was hardly material progress in you three to five years ago versus today?  If you are a migrant, you would realized that your 'immigration status' has NOT materially improved from yesteryears versus to date❓❓❓

Obviously lessons will always be learned.  But what's the dilemma of most of us?  We wrongly believe that with LESSONS LEARNED, we get absolved for our shortfalls and lapses?  NO sirrrrrrrs.  There is one thing you cannot recoup and that's TIME.  If you wasted precious years and ending up missing up to 'materially/significantlyu' improving your own lot, you got trapped in the CIRCLE of LIFE and you gotta wiggle from that trap📗📙📘

When More Water Seeps Into Your Boat

When More Water Seeps Into Your Boat

Life is very much akin to that sailboat ready to sail off as the waters out there seem so CALM and SERENE.  That's how we start off with our life.  At the onset, life is so alluring, so enticing and so tempting such that we can't wait to really sail off to the high seas, with ourselves all buckled up and equipped with all the safety and protective gears.  But hold on, who promised us that life will be akin to a consistently smooth sailing from the time you set off from the wharf?  No sirrrrs, the high seas may not show up neither the dreaded whales nor the unforeseen cataclysmic weather conditions⏳⏳⏳

But no sirrrrs, as we would witness out there in the wide open seas, risks abound all over the immense sheets of waters.  Enough of the 'horror stories' but we all have heard of boats that sailed off but were never seen nor heard to have returned safely to the wharf.  WHY?  Because such is life, once you set out there, you are on your own. Until  When More Water Seeps Into Your Boat

Not until  When More Water Seeps Into Your Boat when you will realize that probably, that's the BEGINNING of the END, that dreaded tragic end when you feel you're very much helpless as you are on your own.  Suddenly, while you're sending SOS signals, you would play catch up throw out the waters that keep seeping into the boat, my God📌📌📌

And when the boat starts to capsize, that's exactly your predicament once you would suffer a spate of setbacks, farther pushing you back three steps back once you move forward by a step.  Net result?  It means you suffered two setbacks for every step you move forward.  And when this hits us in life, this DOESN'T mean we're getting stalled.  Instead, we are moving backwards.

So,  When More Water Seeps Into Your Boat, what do you do next?  First off, you got to pour it out, squeezing every ounce of grit and energy you can exert.  And be forewarned that for every ounce of effort you pour out, your probability of surviving that struggle will only go up if you increase by notches your effort   When More Water Seeps Into Your Boat📗📕📘

DOING A Task Versus OWNING A Task

DOING A Task Versus OWNING A Task

Is there a difference between DOING A Task Versus OWNING A Task?  Yesirrrs there's an ocean-wide of a difference to such extent that outcomes and results were influenced and decided on either by those simply DOING A TASK versus those who took OWNERSHIP of the TASK

Take the innocent kids.  Assign them a task, they would take it on no doubt.  When they 'hit a wall', your guess is as good as mine.  Likely that kid left the task hanging up in the air.  WHY?  Simple, they were just DOING A Task and NOT OWNING A Task.  So, today's piece is not even all about stuff happening at the workplace.  BTW, this is all about the life we live, the life we push, the life we thought we are so doggedly determined to bring us to success.

So, this is not about the kids even when they are seemingly tireless.  Instead, this is all about us, adults, because a plurality [supposedly] of us adults are assumed to be MATURE ENOUGH not just to take on a task but to OWN it.  And why are we harping that we should OWN tasks and NOT just DOING it?  It's because only by OWNING a task will carry us through.

In the yesteryears of our ancestors and forefathers, have we heard about EVENT ORGANIZERS?  Nada.  Nothing.  Zilch.  But swing over to today, why is it the businesses of EVENT ORGANIZERS are considerably on the upswing and unabatedly, it continues to skyrocket?  Simple.  The EVENT ORGANIZERS are proven to OWN a task, that's besides DOING the task itself.  But other than that, between us and them, it really doesn't matter

Now, if the naysayers would stand up and allege that I'm making a mountain of a molehill, I'm sorry I'm NOT and I DON'T.  A lot of failures were doomed from the very start because there was NO ownership of the task[s] at hand.  Many successes basked in the limelight because that SENSE of OWNERSHIP was there, consistently📌📌📌