Tales of Fortune & Feng Shui

Each year, without fail; there will always be an increased interest in fortune, feng shui and predictions for the upcoming year as we draw nearer towards Chinese New Year. Whilst I would usually flip through the newspapers or magazines to read the summary, I went one step further this year. Thanks to a friend who had persistently recommended me to buy Lillian Too’s guidebook, I got hold of the “2007 Fortune & Feng Shui for Sheeps” which is a personal guidebook for those born in the year of sheep. The book supposedly offers a blueprint for the year’s activities with predictions of good and bad month in the areas of work & career, wealth & business, love & friendship, family & children as well as school & education. It also has a section titled “Enhancing Luck” which provides advice on how to use symbolic enhancers so the year becomes trouble-free. For less than RM20, I doubt we can ask for anything more than what this book already consists of.

The reason, I am scribbling all these down is not to show my prowess in introducing a book as I have no intentions to be doing book reviews. However, I am enthralled with the predictions that are in-store in the upcoming lunar year that starts on February 4th for those born under the Sheep animal sign. As a matter of personal interest, my babblings would revolve mainly around those born between 28 Jan 1979 to 15 Feb 1980 which is the year of the Earth Sheep. To all those lucky enough to be brought to the world during this time, fasten your seatbelt and be prepared for an awesome year as Lillian Too says that, “2007 is the year where the Sheep is truly blessed. Sheeps are the singular most successful animal sign of the year 2007, when everything combines just right to provide the perfect backdrop for success. There is little that will come in your way of achieving victory and success.” In other words, almost nothing can go wrong and almost everything we touch would turn to gold.

Career wise, Sheeps would have a great year and 2007 brings the opportunity for those born in the year of Earth Sheep to “go for the big league and play for large stakes.” Having started working several years back, it’s about time the Earth Sheep unearths his or her true potential and show the rest what they are really capable of. Bosses would be impressed whilst peers would be full of deep respect with the results that are bound to be brought in. 2007 would most likely see promotions and high increments on top of a “silent acknowledgement” that you are now in the big league which separates the boys from the men. For those running their own business, new opportunities might come along and the advice is to be always on the lookout for these hard-to-come-by instances and start socializing more to expand your network.

This year would also hear plenty of “Wedding Bells” for those who have been attached for a while and the stars are just right for what would be a blissful wedded life. Singles need not despair for there will be abundant of options and if one is still single by the end of the year, it’s probably about time to re-look your expectations. Attractive singles of the opposite gender would come flocking towards the Earth Sheep this year and all the sheep would have to do is to make choices. Hmmmm….. I wonder how accurate this is???

When it comes to the other areas such as family, friendship, health etc etc, the luck of the Sheep knows no bounds and there will be no major upsets. This sounds like a paragraph from a children’s fairy tale that never fails to have a happy ending but according to Lillian, this is what the Sheep should be expecting. Certain months would be much better than others and the great months would be Feb, Apr, June, Sept, Oct and Nov whilst Mar, May and July are supposed to be slower months where it is advisable to lay low. Nonetheless, Sheeps can expect nothing less than a “rocking year!” To ensure that all this comes true, Lillian of course does recommend some luck enhancers like placing a golden monkey on top of a golden horse on the office desk or to wear what is called a 21-eyed Tzi. This is just to name a few out of the many other luck enhancers that could be bought at World of Feng Shui… What else would you expect for this lady needs to make some fortune too.

Having finished reading the predictions, I am in a confused state of disbelief for the predictions seem too good to be true. It would be great if everything I were to touch would turn into gold but I doubt that would be the case for I would still need to get up every morning and turn up at work. It would be awesome if attractive singles of the opposite gender would come approaching me but I doubt that would be the case too. In a nutshell, I am definitely taking the predictions with a pinch of salt but I might probably start believing it if by the end of 2007, I have been promoted, got a big increment, hanging out with the big boys and going out with an attractive partner. In the meantime, life goes on as usual but I am definitely eagerly anticipating the months ahead and hopefully, Lillian is right.

My 10 Commandments

Someone asked me a few weeks back if I have any principles in life that shapes my actions and thoughts. Having put some thoughts to it, I figured out that despite me not having any specific principles, there are certain things that I strongly belief in. The following is a list of my “10 Commandments”, in no specific order summarizing how I belief life should be lived.

1. Shape up or shut up – If you’re not satisfied with certain things, either rise to the challenge by doing something to improve the situation or stop complaining & learn to live with it.
2. What if tomorrow never comes? – Live life to the fullest and never live to regret a single day. Be cheerful, be thankful and try to accomplish everything you have set out to do for the day.
3. The glass is always half full – Look at everything from the positive aspect. Things might not change but if we change the way we look at it, there would be a significant difference. Be a ruthless optimist!
4. Eat what you cook! – If you’re intending to do something, always be prepared to face the consequence (be it good or bad). Never blame it on anyone else.
5. Never ask, never know. Never try, never know – When there is something that you are hoping for or have been wanting, do not be afraid to ask for it or try to achieve it. The worse thing that could happen is to be getting “no” as an answer or not getting it. By trying, you would at least have a 1% probability of succeeding as compared to a 100% assurance that you would not be getting anything if you did not even attempt.
6. Do unto others what you would want others to do unto you – Treat everyone with respect and try to see how you can make things a little better for other person. (Belief or not, though this might sound a bit corny; I do consciously remind myself to treat everyone with respect and I do try to make things better for the people I interact with.)
7. All T’s crossed and all I’s dotted – Nothing can be taken for granted and we would need to do all we can to ensure that things fall into place the way we want it to be. What might be an easy way out today will somehow or rather come back to haunt us later. Hard fact of life is that there are no shortcuts.
8. If it’s no longer fun, walk away – Whatever it is we are doing must always be of value to the individual. Do not do it simply because others are asking you to or expecting you to. When it’s no longer something we enjoy doing, always put an end to it and never compromise on this.
9. There are no certainties in life – All good things might come to an end and as such, we should savor it while we can. Life is never a bed of roses and the least expected can always happen. Appreciate everything we have and be prepared to lose it all the very next moment.
10. Rules are meant to be broken – In total contrast to the 9 “commandments” above, I don’t belief in planning for everything. Sometimes, we just have to follow the flow and take risks. As such, the final “commandment” is my “get out of jail free” card which leaves me with some space to maneuver around.

Life is a game!

Although some people think, that life is a battle,
it is actually a game of giving and receiving.
-- Florence Scovel Shinn, Philosopher / Author

I was reading a book and one of the chapters required the reader to complete this sentence with the first word that comes across the mind: “Life is a __________ .”

The first word that came to mind was the word “game”. Life is a game! Thankfully, the first words that came to me was not “bitch” or “challenge” for I can imagine how miserable life could be if I were to see it as a constant struggle. I would not want to be driving around town with a bumper sticker shouting out “Life is a bitch. You live to die another day.”

What then constitutes a game? There needs to be at least one player, there needs to be a way of keeping score to let the player know whether he is winning or losing and more importantly, a game is supposed to be fun; not something that we dread. When I reflected at how this could relate to life, there were surprisingly many similarities.

Every individual is in fact the player in his or her own life. We choose our own destiny, we choose our next moves, we make the calls and we decide what exactly is it that we would want to do. Just like in a game, there could be other players who might try to affect the way we play the game but it is entirely up to us to decide our very next move. Like it or not, life is also like a scorecard for someone is keeping track of the score. At times, we do come out as the victors but at other times, things do not always turn out the way we would want it to be. Achieving what we had set our sights on in life would be considered as a win and when things are heading south, that is when we are losing in the game of life. Life should also be fun as we should live each day with no regrets as if it would be the last day. I would not want to have a miserable day in the hope that the next day would be better. What if there was no tomorrow??? As such, I would want to continue doing all the things to the fullest despite what others tell me for this is my game. I would continue smoking for as long as I feel like smoking. I would continue eating as much fast food and drink as much Coke and coffee for as long as I have the craving for it and I would continue doing all the things that I am doing as long as I think that it is right and for as long as it does not goes against what my heart is telling me.

Some might then ask that if life was a fun game, wouldn’t I want to prolong the game? In order to go into extra-time or the bonus round, I must be doing some of the “right” things such as keeping a healthy diet and quitting smoking. Well, there’s some truth to it but being confined by certain rules and boundaries would take away some of the fun. I might not win every single time but what matters most is that I played the game the way I would have wanted to. Winning is not as glorious and satisfying if I were to play the game of life the way others had wanted me to. Though I hate losing, I would rather end up not winning if I had to choose between losing or living life “pretentiously”.

The following is a “Sportsmen Prayer” that was engraved on a tomb in one corner of my secondary school and it sums up perfectly how I would want to lead my life:

Oh God, Please help me to win, For I always want to win.
But, if in thy inscrutable wisdom, thou willest me not to win,then make me a good loser.
For when the one great scorer comes to write against your name,
He writes not that you won or lost; but HOW YOU PLAYED THE GAME.

The year that was....

As I look back to the past 12 months, I suddenly realized that I have just breezed through an amazing moment. It was a year that had been filled with challenges, joy and despair, successes and failures, ups and downs and more than anything else, it was a year that has shaped me into the person that I am now. Who I am now would be a different person compared to who I was a year ago. The things that I have experienced and witnessed in the past 12 months would have played a pivotal part in changing my thoughts and beliefs. Despite the fact that I am still supporting the same football club, going to the same carwash, working for the same company and hanging out with the same group of friends, many other things have changed. I no longer do my grocery shopping in the same hypermarket, have stopped calling some of the other guys I used to be talking to very frequently and heck, I’ve even started having grey hair! The list could go on but these are just a few of many other things that would have evolved in the past year.

Looking back at the year that was, I had a remarkable year at work intertwined with a packed social calendar but I have had very little time to myself. As busy as I was attending meetings, planning the integration of new brands that my company had acquired, calling colleagues to check on progress of projects and whether we would meet the sales targets; I was also spending a lot of time moving from one place to another to catch up with friends for drinks after work and to go to the next football game that had been arranged. All this were at the expense of my own personal time as I come to realize that I have had very little time to reflect and perhaps relax.

In the one week break I took away from work in the last week of the year, I suddenly felt a vacuum as there was nothing much to keep me occupied. I did not have any reports to submit, friends to go for lunch with or football games to play. I then realized that I no longer have a favorite pastime or neither was there anything that I was really looking forward to. That came as a wake up call as it then dawned upon me that I have been busy for the past 51 weeks doing something which either had little value for myself or probably didn’t even meant much. Well, work was a big part of my year but at the end of the day, I would want to be remembered as someone who did more than just work. I would also want to have tales to be told that does not relate to work. With that, I started to recollect the things that have happened and hopefully, there would be a lot more to recall.

On a lighter note, that was perhaps an indication that I need to start getting a life…

What Will Matter

The following is a poem from Michael Josephson extracted from the book titled "What Really Matters". I've read this book a couple of months back and someone recently sent the poem to me; refreshing my memories of what is it that really does matter.

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you have collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built,
Not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is every act integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
But how many people will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstances but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Reflections from the past…

In a fast-paced environment whereby people are more often than not competing with each other to be the first to reach the finishing line, many of us fail to realize that the rat race we are in is a never-ending one. After getting the promotion that you have been hoping for, it would not be long before you start eyeing an even bigger role. After moving into the dream house, it would not be long before you start having thoughts of how nice it would be if only the front yard was a big bigger and if only the ceiling was a big higher. The list goes on…. Desires and wants very quickly become a thing of the past the moment we get hold of it and it would then be replaced with a new list altogether. There have always been and there will always be a list of demands and wishes which we would want and this is part of the human nature where greed lies in one corner of the soul. The more elusive something is, the more we would want to get hold of it.

Whilst I have come to live with the fact that greed is inseparable from mankind, I have also come to realize that we should never cease to take a step back to be thankful of what we currently have and to reflect on the past. Most if not all the great individuals that I have come to know, met or read about are appreciative of what they currently have but similarly, this group of people whom I have deep admiration and respect for always have their sights on the next thing that are currently still eluding them. The one thing that is evading them now is their beacon of hope and what gives them the motivation to get out off bed the following morning to live yet another day.

As we sojourn from the previous year and move into a new one, I started reflecting over the past 12 months. Prior to this, I have put little thoughts on how things were going on in the year that was. Perhaps, I was just too busy running the never-ending rat race. Perhaps, I sub-consciously chose to ignore what was happening around me. Or perhaps, I was just too engrossed with chasing after my desires and wants to the extent that I had forgotten to savor the moment I was in. A friend recently reminded me that life is a journey and that we should always stop to smell the roses.

The birth of this blog marks the inauguration of my journal to pen down my thoughts as I step forward to embrace yet another day.