Smelling Blood In The Water

 

As we are all aware of, life is NEVER a bed of roses.  There will always be antagonists, foes, adversaries, nemesis, name it.  For clarity, we are NOT insinuating that we be aggressive in our life WHEN it comes to conflicts but having said that, it is in our best interest for us to develop that ability to SMELL BLOOD in the water.  For alignment, this means scenarios WHERE we are at risk, in danger or in peril from the hands of an opposing party.  For further clarity, we're NOT referring to purely physical acts BUT instead, most of possible conflicts in life are far from physical BUT instead, such conflicts could be verbal, mental OR worse, for some WHO piggy-back on the power of social media to turn a mountain out of a molehill [WHICH is regrettable]📘📙📗

So, you might wonder, WHY do we need to be sharp enough to SMELL BLOOD IN THE WATER.  Plain and simple, much as we cannot be unconditionally shielded from any risk in life, at the very least, we need to be a step ahead in terms of monitoring a situation that can quickly turn from bad to worse.  BUT as they say, if we're a step ahead of things, we may possibly nip things in the bud.  That's WHEN we take a unilateral step ahead📌📌📌

As an analogy, let's swing over to social media WHERE, after many years in your FB, you know well enough your 'FB FRIENDS', especially those WHO tend to be easily triggered in arguments and conflicts that quickly escalate into full-blown ones.  WHAT IF you had a 'run in' with one FB FRIEND WHO carries that 'notoriety' of someone WHO does NOT back off from conflicts BUT instead, still goes full throttle.  We've heard of horror stories WHERE one of the protagonists uses social media to peddle half-truths and even concocted versions of a story.  SO HOW [after you SMELL BLOOD IN THE WATER], WHAT NEXT?  One immediate option is to watch out your FB and as a proactive measure, you may want to distance yourself from that person for now, at least via social media💥💥💥

WHAT IF you have this laid back outlook wherein you would just shrug off things even IF you did SMELL BLOOD IN THE WATER?  That's a double-edged sword hanging over you by then because either you, you are at risk.  IF you turn a blind eye, you might be perceived as a pushover, a weakling at that, WHO could be 'bulldozed' even randomly.  IF you take a proactive approach, just be ready for a 'fallout'❗❗❗

Our takeaway:  Once you're threading a very thin line WHERE the margin of error is very low, take a step back momentarily and reassess comprehensively the situation.  WHERE your assumptions seem to be more speculative, weigh-in and validate the probability of your assumption being correct.  Either way, it pays that we hone and sharpen our ability to SMELL BLOOD IN THE WATER😡😡😡

Need HELP [Ask For It!]

 

We could have all the dexterity our hands and extremities can facilitate BUT it's undeniable that from time to time, every one of us needs a HELPING HAND, one way OR the other.  BUT what's quite puzzling is WHAT I witnessed through the years. WHILE many really have managed well those situations WHEN they are in need of HELP, many times I did bear witness [first hand at that] some WHO need HELP BUT will hardly lift a finger!!!

If we have been part of those professional lectures and speeches, OR have read books OR watched movies, you'll notice that the one too many acknowledgments are always a healthy portion of those things.  WHAT explains those many acknowledgments?  Experts advise us that no one achieves greatness all by himself.  Because as humans, we depend on each other to learn and grow [and sometimes, to even survive specific challenging situations].  And numerous researches show that helping others actually make us feel good.  And I can attest to that.  Very recently, WHEN we invited our trusted handymand and his wife for a good meal in one of the best local restaurants and even had them go to the supermarket and go on a shopping spree😁😁😁

So, you might challenge me, if this is the case, HOW come it is so difficult for some people to ask for HELP?  For most people, even thinking of asking for HELP can chew away at their confidence.  And to complicate matters, spice it off with EGO and PRIDE, WHICH frankly become misplaced ones WHEN you are in dire need of HELP.  Surprisingly, it makes us start to question our abilities, and sometimes it even tends to paralyze us with anxiety.  The fact is that none of us can go through the journey of life all alone, by just our own self.  YES YES yowwww, NO ONE achieves that greatness all alone by himself📗📙📘

Again, this is one gap that is NOT so obviously missing from all our schoolings and studies, that is, learning HOW to ask for HELP, and almost more importantly accepting the fact that HELP is perhaps one of the greatest skills we can develop.  SO HOW?  HOW can we ask for HELP and actually get the HELP we need?  I have two shortest words here.  Be CONCISE and SPECIFIC.  This all comes down to clear communication.  NO need to over-explain WHICH only overwhelms and confuses us more❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  I've seen and heard this.  Some people WHO need help end up either blurting out one too many words without hitting the bullseye OR hardly saying any word.  WHY CAN'T we simply describe WHAT the task is, WHY it matters and HOW the person you're asking can contribute and HELP.  Key here is to be specific as possible as the other person needs to know exactly WHAT it is they will need to do and they can also accurately judge HOW much time and energy the task will take.  YES, we all need HELP at some points in life and NO ONE jumps out of their seat in excitement to help those WHO apologize for asking.  YES dude, NOTHING WRONG TO ASK FOR HELP [if need be]😡😡😡

The Randomness of Life

 

For the longest time, I can take pride that I evolved through the years parallel to PLANNING and PLANNING.  Anything RANDOM was farthest from my mind, if at all.  YET, my realization like NOT so long ago, six years ago to be precise, is that we should be living life as it is, inclusive of everything that's RANDOM because contrary to our misconceptions, life is more RANDOM than planned, regardless your being a planner📗📙📘

Please DON'T get me wrong as I am NOT contradicting myself because all along, I always preach for PLANNING and PLANNING no less.  BUT let me qualify things here.  PLANNING is NOT inclusive.  Once you step out of your home and regardless WHETHER you will drive OR you're commuting, almost everything right outside your doorstep becomes random.  True, you planned to leave home way past the traffic peak hours OR you purposely waited for that heavy downpour to weaken BUT the bottom line here is that WHILE we are taught and reared to PLAN and PLAN, more importantly, handling and managing the random things in life would matter as much as PLANNING💥💥💥

NOT too long ago, I plotted my plans in that typical 'WBS' [Work Breakdown Structure] discipline with inter-dependencies and critical paths identified up front.  YET, along the way, I realized that I just CAN'T cover the whole nine yards because rather than striving for a thorough and perfect order of things, UNCERTAINTY creeps and that's WHEN we will realize those things in life WHICH are way beyond our control.  BUT so as NOT to scare you, WHILE we will bluntly preach that we need to embrace UNCERTAINTY, let's coaxed things in a subtle way by articulating that we need to embrace change, and letting go of any UNCERTAINTY that comes our way❎❎❎

WHICH means, once we can focus our personal actions MORE on the 'CONTROLLABLES', we can then navigate WHATEVER unexpected that surfaces and along the way, build up that resilience in the face of the 'insurmountable', if any.   And once we become more humble, less competitive [without being laidback and lazy] and more compassionate [without neglecting ourselves either], researches showed that we can likely find our 'happiness levels' and life quality can even steeply improve😊😊😊

Our takeaway:  Frankly, our brain abhors RANDOMNESS and instead it seeks patterns and craves control BUT RANDOM processes are fundamental in nature and are ubiquitous even in our everyday lives [YET most people seem NOT to understand them OR think much about them.  If you heard about that spine-tingling narrative of United Airlines flight attendant Elise O'Kane WHO was supposed to be in that ill-fated Flight UA 175 which rammed through the World Trade Center's North Tower BUT due to their computer system's glitch, she was WRONGLY assigned to another flight.  After retiring from UA, she trained to be a nurse because she admitted she wanted to 'GIVE BACK AND FULFILL' herself in life.  Just another testament of life's RANDOMNESS🙏🙏🙏

DON'T Miss Out That 'LOCKING' Feature!

 

Statistical data of phishing scams continue to go up unabatedly.  As per Channelnewsasia, last December alone in Singapore, at least 103 people got duped of at least US$ 122,000 after they fell prey to phishing scams involving the impersonation of banks through spoofed SMS's.  Another 750 victims did fall prey to Android malware scams first half of this .  For now, DON'T Miss Out That 'LOCKING' Feature📙📘

With scammers being many steps ahead of even the best regulators and technology experts, the least we can do is to leverage on the security functions offered by our bankers and one feature very often missed out [I'll call it 'IGNORED'] by many of us is that 'LOCK' security feature.  As every LOCKING feature is unique across banks, we won't get into specifics BUT simply put, IF you invoked that 'LOCK' feature, you are "ALMOST" guaranteed that your account is safe [take note that it's "ALMOST"!@#$?]

Just the other day, I was paying with my credit card a few items we bought in a local store but the transaction failed with the message 'CONTACT BANK' only for me to realize that I had to UNLOCK my account before that payment transaction.  BUT hold on, awhile ago, I stated that once your account is LOCKED, the security of your account is 'ALMOST' guaranteed secure BUT NOT 100% secure enough.  WHY?  Because with scammers gaining access to banking credentials and one-time passwords [OTPs] through their deceptive ways, our bank account [and that's our smartphone as well] can be literally 'TAKEN OVER', whew!@#$?

There's this misconception that FIXED DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS like Time Deposits are safe and sound?  While those accounts could have fixed maturities, we should NOT forget that that kind of account can be prematurely withdrawn!@#$?  WHAT IF that guilt-less scammer breaches your account login and proceeds to your FIXED DEPOSIT ACCOUNT and initiates a premature withdrawal [and NOT an account closure so as NOT to raise the highest levels of alarms]?  WHILE that breach is not a one-step transaction, once the scammer passes through the login validation + OTP, that's it, you're TOAST by then!@#$? 

Our takeaway:  Please consider choosing a banking service provider WHO offers the services of either a 'PRIVATE BANKER' [PB] or a 'RELATIONSHIP MANAGER' [RM] because with that service support structure, you can be assured that your PB or RM will personally reach out to you IF and WHEN your banker will 'SMELL BLOOD IN THE WATER'.  As your bank is your next layer of defense and protection from those unscrupulous scammers, please be curious to inquire if your prospective banker offers PB or RM services.  Bottomline is, please always keep your devices a.k.a. smartphone 100% physically and digitally secure because that's your FIRST LINE of DEFENSE!!!

Do We LACK LUSTER Or Are We Simply LACKLUSTER?

 

For one OR two simple words, there seems to be a huge mix-up between LACK LUSTER and LACKLUSTER.  And I thought we need to clear up the air for now [before this becomes like a desert storm].  From time to time in our life, either we hear someone having a LACKLUSTER performance either at work, in a competition OR even in an activity OR event he's performing.  Talk about a boxer WHO gets knocked out OR World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen tumbling down in a classic game. BUT that's fine because you can be an A-lister of a competitor BUT at sometime, it could be your 'off night' OR probably the law of averages did catch up on you.  Even in the NBA hoops world, top-tier superstars like Lebron James, Stephen Curry OR Kevin Durant would have below-par performances from time to time📗📙📘

On the other hand, you can be one of the most capable, most experienced, seasoned and skilled BUT WHEN you're thrown out there in the mud OR in a competition, you just end up like one amongst the crowd, NOT a crowd-drawer BUT just one of the thousands in the big mamooth crowds.  So WHAT probably ails you WHEN you have yet to perform?  And this is where there is that likelihood that you may LACK LUSTER💧💧💧

If you ask me, WHO has a bigger problem at hand?  Is it someone WHO just had that kind of LACKLUSTER performance?  OR is it someone WHO has yet to perform that it seems he just LACKS LUSTER even before the actual game, activity OR event commences?  I'd say the latter has a bigger challenge at hand because of two things.  Numero uno, and this is the most common dilemma amongst us.  Sometimes, we really LACK LUSTER but we're NOT aware of it at all.  Ironically, I've met close-up and first hand some folks WHO seem to LACK LUSTER but the way they strut their wares, they seem to carry too much weight, moving along and carrying on in a braggadocious manner.  Sounds more than just ill-advised moves💥💥💥

If there's something that should be the least of our concerns, it should be those LACKLUSTER performances [unless it becomes more than just outliers].  You can be the best musician BUT there will be those even 'small' moments in their performances that they wished hadn't gone that way.  LIKE an orchestra conductor, you could have practised enough on your own BUT DIDN'T get the feel for playing with your ensemble❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  Let us avoid mixing up those LACKLUSTER performances versus real-life situations WHERE we seem to LACK LUSTER, WHERE we seem to stand out in a crowd, WHERE even our expertise does NOT seem to be highlighted.  That means, you've got 'some work' to do BUT the most crucial thing here is for one to be aware that he LACKS LUSTER, so he's got to do more than just coming from a LACKLUSTER performance out there💚💛💜

Navigating Anger [CONTROL ANGER BEFORE ANGER CONTROLS YOU]!@#$%?

 

Question:  WHAT is the most complex rocket science?  YESirrrreeee, it is NAVIGATING ANGER!  And this age-old slogan "CONTROL ANGER BEFORE ANGER CONTROLS YOU"  should be embraced by us all from the time we wakeup till we hit the sack.  YES YES yowww, we all know WHAT ANGER is all about as we've felt it from time to time, either as the one manifesting it OR at times WHEN we are at the receiving end📗📙📘

WHETHER as a fleeting annoyance OR as indeed, a full-fledged rage, ANGER has always been considered completely normal and even a healthy human emotion.  In fact and in truth, the worst fears I dread to face in life [WHICH sometimes I still face these days randomly] is WHEN someone does NOT show OR express any emotion, much more ANGER❎❎❎

BUT here's the catch.  WHEN it gets out of hand and out of control and turns its ugly head of destructiveness, YES it can lead and develop to problems, WHETHER at work, in relationships and even in the overall quality of one's life.  End result?  ANGER can even make us feel as though we're at the mercy of an unpredictable and powerful emotion.  And while ANGER does vary in its intensity from a negligible slight irritation to an intense rage and fury, it is WHEN ANGER gets expressed WHEN we come to witness its ugly head💥💥💥

True, the instinctive and natural way to express ANGER is to respond aggressively as ANGER is that natural, adaptive response to threats and it inspires powerful and often aggressive feelings and behaviors, WHICH then allows us to fight and to defend ourselves WHEN we are attacked.  In the end, a certain amount of ANGER is necessary for our survival.  DON'T look far.  Let us recall those boxing fights involving Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and even Muhammad Ali.  Once they step into the ring, they are in BEAST MODE😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  Let's take a step back and try to rationalize things.  Indeed, ANGER can be suppressed and then converted OR even redirected.  This happens WHEN we hold our ANGER, then stopped thinking about it, and then focus on something positive.  Our aim then is to inhibit OR suppress our ANGER and convert it into a constructive behavior.  No mean feat BUT if we can embrace this approach, let's go dude!!!

Where Possible, NEVER PLAY WITH FIRE

 

From our childhood years, we were always taught NOT TO PLAY with matches.  We were warned that we might get burned.  Oh yes, looking back, I was one of those recalcitrant boys WHO DIDN'T always heed and listen to my parents.  And because I DIDN'T pay attention, YES, that got me in trouble a few times.  Looking back, I could have been burnt black and blue beyond recognition if things went out of hand.  Today, allow me to do a mapping of those 'childhood' trials in our life because decisions are needed from time to time and Where possible, NEVER PLAY WITH FIRE😌😌😌

And quite a few times in our life, the decisions we made and reached will burn us.  Common culprit?  Some of our decisions are arrived at NOT out of collated information BUT sometimes out of GREED [Oooops, this reminds me of the latest corruption scandal running to hundreds of billions, ouch!].  Oh yes, we seem to be inclined to quote statistical data.  And although I was never into that Statistics field, I did hear a statistician proudly strut off that statistics can be bent to WHATEVER you want them to go.  That should make us realize as to why politicians would show off statistics always painting a rosy picture of themselves💚💛💜

These days when the buzz words are BIG DATA and DATA SCIENCE, it's like PLAYING WITH FIRE because eventually they will get burned.  Frankly, across countries and continents, if we have a commonality, it is that we live in cultures that PLAY WITH FIRE.  That culture says "IT IS ALRIGHT TO DO WHATEVER I DO AS LONG AS I DON'T GET CAUGHT".  LIKE "I CAN GET DRUNK, RUN AROUND, ABUSE MY CHILDREN, DO WHAT I WANT" and so on❗❗❗

Our common problem, though, gets exacerbated by the widespread monopoly and influence of social media across all landscapes.  Those days when 'RISK' was the buzzword and 'MITIGATION' was the fix.  So, this all boils down for us to reinforce our awareness of 'RISK' because it comes about anytime in our daily lives.  Try giving 'RISK' a lip service and knock on wood, God knows WHAT happens next.  Forget about the MILLENNIALS for now.  Instead, let us brace ahead with our Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta💧💧💧

Our takeaway:  Let us NOT be quick to pass the blame to our Gen Z's, Gen Alpha's and Gen Beta's because the onus falls back on our shoulders.  We CAN'T run away from that innate responsibility to ensure that our latest generations DON'T get 'off tracked' in the midst of all the distractions in our daily lives.  Throw in the unabated influence of social media and we could end up either with a huge circus or a very scary nightmare that will haunt us over and again.  YES PLEASE, it should NOT be hard for us to cascade the sage messaging for our new generations to be RISK-averse and RISK-conscious before it's too late, before those PLAYING WITH FIRE GET BURNED💥💥💥

No FUN FACTS But INTERESTING FACTS!

 

These FUN FACTS seem to be all over the place [and that's perfectly fine because we need to live life that way].  BUT without belittling those FUN FACTS, if there is something more deserving and much more noteworthy than FUN FACTS are INTERESTING FACTS which can be culled from the psychology experts.  Allow me to share some of those snippets and insights from the psy experts.  LIKE WHEN we need to turn down [OR OFF] our car audio/music WHEN you're looking for something OR a location you're NOT familiar with.  That really makes sense because the psy experts tell us that our mind CAN'T focus on two things at the same time.  LIKE WHEN you are into your goal-setting and even before you're able to achieve it, you tend to sort of 'announce' it to your friends and colleagues.  Studies show that it is likely that you'll NOT succeed [as studies have proved it].  WHY?  Because most of us can lose our own motivation by then, whew😡😡😡

LIKE WHEN our mind cannot simply 'create faces' BUT studies proved that for faces we dream of, chances are we would have met them at some point in our life, even if only in passing.  LIKE WHEN everywhere and everyone wants and expects us to go multitasking, WHETHER at home, in school, at the workplace OR even in our business forays.  OH YES, tragically, you would have heard various accidents along the road [NOT even freeways] because the driver [WHILE driving] was texting OR engaged on a phone call.  Bottomline is, multitasking is simply NOT realistic.  Except maybe during emergencies WHERE you got to do it.  Other than that, zillions of researches proved that multitasking is simply NOT the way to go❌❌❌

Even in the technology space of OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] like IBM, Dell, HP, etc, through the years, they tried to outsmart the competition by launching processors with computing powers double OR triple the power of the existing competition.  And WHILE I am NOT an OEM techie, allow me to share my 2-cents here.  All those ultra, high-powered processors of the OEMs pitched the 'computing power' of their processors BUT NOT much is known in public that each of those processors are NOT really multitasking BUT instead, the OEMs introduced multi-threading to kind of prove the multitasking prowess of their bandied processors!!!

LIKE that our actions toward others does impact others' beliefs about ourselves?  Thereafter, that triggers OR causes others to act in a certain way toward us, thus reinforcing our beliefs about ourselves WHICH then may influence our actions toward others.  On a positive note, this reminds me of the PYGMALION EFFECT, that psychological phenomenon WHERE the high expectations from others can lead one to end up with a performance OR result way beyond WHAT he/she was originally capable OR expected to achieve.  Think about parents WHO closely monitor their child's academic performance such that they end up setting a bar high enough [BUT in many cases, I did bear witness WHERE the child did 'over-achieved]💚💛💜

Our takeaway:  Much as expectations are proven to influence behavior, it behooves that those expectations should start from our own selves.  Meaning, it just makes sense that you expect yourself to end up LIKE THIS OR perform LIKE THAT [although preferably, those expectations should be positive enough].  At the end of the day, I'd like to go back to that age-old one-liner WHICH says:  WHAT YOU SOW IS WHAT YOU REAP.  So, here's hoping that every single iota we sow is good enough for us to benefit once we reap its fruits down the road.  YES dude, these are NO FUN FACTS BUT INTERESTING FACTS😃😃😃

Are You In That TOXIC Environment?

 

Quick question:  HOW ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?  NOT to be cynical OR pessimistic, you might feel stressed right NOW and still be forcing yourself to keep standing on your two feet despite feeling tired, drained and probably exasperated.  And I've witnessed situations in the past WHEN someone somehow feels undervalued [a.k.a. UNRECOGNIZED] by people around him, WHETHER it is at home OR at work, even after he has poured it out, giving everything and squeezing himself high and dry.  Despite all those, WHAT can be worse than NOT seeing any progress and instead, finding oneself in a reversal mode from WHAT he wanted to achieve📗📙📘

WHILE there seems many common scenarios, WHAT IF we were in their shoes?  HOW will we feel IF nobody [AS IN NOBODY] wants to acknowledge our modest achievements?  And instead, WHAT happens next is people would be literally talking right behind your back if only to drag you down?  Let's think of the unnecessary discomfort and distress we will feel every time you were in that quagmire???

SO, WHERE do we go from here?  True, working damn hard and kicking your ass and NOT complaining is great.  BUT that is a rare gem to find these days because that's WHAT many of us do lack sometimes BUT again, that should NOT be the reason for all your discomfort.  You might feel the discomfort because you DIDN'T get any recognition from other people, even for just a little bit.  WHICH means, you're NOT seeking validation❎❎❎

YES, you tried to bring about WHAT you did, WHICH is most laudable and important especially at the workplace BUT you just found yourself becoming the most arrogant person in the room for the work you have done.  People then become irritated with your work and you talk about it.  Then, they just DON'T want to acknowledge it, whew! Hey dude, at times, we got to be aware because sometimes NOT all problems that we have are because we DIDN'T do the right thing, NO sirrrrrrs😓😓😓

Our takeaway:  Fact is, most of the time, there is SOMEWHERE WHERE WE WANT TO BE.  You might be imagining somewhere else OR a place that you remember WHERE you feel peaceful and happy.  You might even think that you want to leave WHERE you are right now and believe that somewhere else is better than the place you are right now.  Hmmmm, well, that might be a sign for you because our bodies can tell us WHEN we are actually NOT in the right condition.  SO HOW?  Acknowledge the environment you are in and once you have validated it, the next best move is find a place WHERE you think you will become comfortable BUT to move forward, start by taking a small step towards that place you want to be.  Lesson is, they might dislike you BUT at the end, you are the one WHO LIVES YOUR OWN LIFE.  So, are you still in that likely TOXIC environment.  Do your thing, dude👍👍👍

Blessed To Meet GENUINELY Good People

 

NOT to be nostalgic OR emotional, BUT WHEN I sat on my laptop to draft our thread for today, I realized I've been touching on many topics and threads BUT I have one huge miss, and that is, talking about GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE.  YES YES yowwwww, NOT just GOOD PEOPLE BUT those GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE.  And it works both ways.  WHEN others would meet us for the first time, they would have normally have the same subset of questions LIKE: Is this a GOOD PERSON? Can I TRUST him?  WHAT is behind his smile?  Surely, when I met face-to-face for the first time the other day my latest corporate clients, it's fair enough that they could be asking themselves those questions about me📗📙📘

Oh YES, I love this Tibetan Proverb as it rings and sounds loud enough:  GOODNESS SPEAKS IN WHISPER, EVIL SHOUTS.  And I can do a mapping to draw a parallelism of this proverb with regard the people we get to know and interact in life [let's NOT talk about the outliers like one-off interactions with sales folks, with restaurant and service personnel because those are more transactional than anything else].  And I can attest on a first person basis that I've met and interacted from time to time with tons of people.  There were even cases WHERE I met a long lost cousin after so many decades.  And just last year, I got reunited with my classmate and his wife who was very much part of our closely knit group way back in school.  And I realized that even after decades have past, GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE remain as such unfettered and unaffected even by the passing of time💥💥💥

In our cultural landscape WHERE virtue is increasingly commodified and morality is filtered via curated content, we tend to lean on signals, a smile, eye contact, even a polite gesture like those lighthouses in the foggy seas.  BUT here's something quite debatable BUT WHICH I'll push hard.  Many of the signals we rely on are actually "PERFORMATIVE".  Frankly, some of the most 'dangerous' people I have ever met [BTW that was NOT one too many] have mastered the "ACT LIKE A GOOD PERSON" persona❎❎❎

NOT so surprisingly, some of the most generous people's kindness and goodness exists behind quite and unassuming facades.  YES, I have made it a personal challenge, often by painful trial and error, to learn HOW to hear that 'true language' of character.  YES YES YES yow, GOODNESS whispers.  Go anywhere, interact with people from all walks of life.  The GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE will remain 'true to form' despite the passing of time.  For the LESS GENUINE people, we just need to be more incisive if NOT cynical.  WHO knows, on the periphery they may manifest LESS GENUINENESS but eventually you can bear witness to their REAL PERSONA and here's hoping their 'true colors' will be more positive than anything else😊😊😊

Our takeaway:  NOT to be cynical OR negative but validating the GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE takes various forms and ways BUT in a nutshell, NEVER expect to truly know a person via superficial interactions.  In truth, even talking about families and even your very siblings and next of kin, live with them under one roof and surely you will get a 100% accurate picture of one's persona [and NOT just via social media].  Ironically, instead of having technology help us understand people seamlessly, technology gives tons of challenges as it even ironically blurs things.  Nevertheless, we should be TRULY BLESSED TO MEET GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE💚💛💜