#26 Rise of the Crescendo

       It’s towards the end of the year again. Traditionally, as we approach the final weeks in the calendar it gives us more reason to celebrate.

     Kids would be joyfully throw their bags aside awaiting parents to bring them for holiday. Our colleagues would probably be busy clearing their annual leaves in the company whereas some will start putting some Christmas decorations in their home.

     Coincidentally, it’s also the period when most of us will look back throughout the year to assess one’s personal self-development.

     I have a friend who told me that when it comes to the end of the year we usually have an outlook for things happened to us over the past 12 months and resolutions for the coming year. It’s not unusual for someone to ask himself if he’d explore something new over the course of the year. 

    Because, after all, trying out something we’d not experienced before serves as an indication of improvement in the sense that we take new challenges like no before.

     Recently, I got a chance to prepare salad by myself. I remember I went to the market that morning handpicked and bought the ingredients all the way.

     The preparation process required a significant amount of work, as the lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, eggplant and bell peppers had to be individually sliced before being put to the plate.

     I fully understand that preparing salad for the very first time may be no big deal for certain individual, but it’s the logic behind the action that speaks louder.

     Although the idea of preparing a salad is nothing like setting up your own business company or going for ice skiing or even trying out a bungee-jumping – for the first time, the principles could very much be the same.

     If you don’t explore something which is new to you, then you are always oblivious to the hidden risks and opportunities that are present. The point at here is not to encourage you to become overly eager in ‘tying out’ whatever that comes to you.

     We always have a clear perspective of what is being positive and the ability to weigh between options should the chance arises. The way our brain is wired, enabled us to distinguish between the good and bad.

     When we ever come across with any situation that defeats logic, defies parents’ teachings or against the religious law, then it’s certainly a no-no for whatever reasons.

     As I’ve repeatedly mentioned, it’s good to explore a whole new experience (it can be healthy activities in form of widen you social cycles, going for yoga classes, etc.) or simply picking up some new skills at certain point of our lives, but strictly no other than that.

     I remember when I just started writing this column in the beginning of the year, I put too much emphasis on my personal feelings. Remember what I said before?

     Those moments are arguably the lowest point in my life and if there is a scale to weigh between happiness and sadness with a rating from 1 to 10, with the level of happiness increases in ascending order, I would put myself at 2.

     I encountered the tough challenges I’d never endured in my whole life, I’d to fight off the depressions, I lost all my friends, I met a female Casanova who jive at affairs, blah blah blah.

     Luckily enough, those experiences have provided me with the invaluable knowledge and the often required maturity to fit into this society.

     In 2014, I've met dozens of new people, probably more than the number of fresh faces I’d met over the past two years combined. The environment I’m living in, all the great peoples, not only made me feel appreciated, but also gave me the warmth and happiness.

     And yes, there were still dooms and glooms until I met a couple of really fantastic people this year – they’ll know who they are. I truly feel grateful for all the kind of support they’ve given to me, which particularly helped me a lot to grow into a better person. So take my hats off to them. Thank you.

     Face it or lose it. Do you want an environment surrounded by good vibes and positive peoples? Or you prefer a lifestyle which eventually resulting in a downward trend?

     Depending on the decision you make today, these options you choose will manifest themselves into a chain reaction of events which you ought to face in the future.

     In conjunction with the Thanksgiving Day (I wrote this article yesterday), let’s us be grateful with what we have and treasure the people meant the most to us because nothing in this world is inevitable.

By: Vincent Ti

#25 Epitome of Wisdom

To walk the talk is not a walk in the park

     Basically, we have an undeniable habit of not practising things we’d promised, occasionally, if not most of the time.

     Of course, we can argue there are reasons which hindered the efforts from keeping our words but when the talk and action are not in line, we’re pulling someone’s leg.

     A promise not to repeat mistakes, try to perform better in examination or even pretending to be sick in order to skip classes would be what most people have done.

     It still cannot be considered as lying, though, because there are stark disparity between lying and failure to keep a promise.

     Lying indicates the telling of false statements with intention even knowing what repercussion it might bring afterward. Whereas the latter indicates that a person has no desire to go back on his words initially, but under certain circumstances, the promises failed to materialize, for whatever reasons.

     For instance, your mum asked you to put all the laundry into the washing machine but you are too busy with your video games and the dirty clothes are never washed even after the next day. Another good example would be keep telling yourself that you will do a task later and the delay goes on.

     Talking about myself, I was extremely masterful at procrastination which in turn, I felt had held me back in many ways.

     I can always put my assignments on hold first just because I wanted to catch a movie. I can always go to bed later because I wanted to trawl the web reading sports news. And the list goes on.

     Sometimes, it resulted in the habit of delaying the works which we are supposed to do. Our mind keep telling ourselves to do a task later because we think there is still plenty of time for that. But when the moment of doing that arrives, we are simply running out of time or don’t feel like doing that again. Then, the cycle repeats itself.

     Interestingly, I was taken aback when I had the chance to meet my little cousin, Carmen, recently. It’s astonishing to see how determined she see out everything she’s promised to do (I can see that from her behavior and body language because she was staying temporarily at my home). I felt ashamed as a kid can be that wholeheartedly fervent whereas as an adult, I failed miserably in this area.

     I did not realize how impactful this was until I started noticing that my philosophies and principles have been slowly edging towards a more lackadaisical edge.

     Nobody is perfect and everybody has weaknesses. It just depends on if we ever make a conscious effort to right them.

     Here are the five reasons I’d listed out on the pros of eliminating procrastination and doing exactly what you say (or think) without any delay:

1.      You’ll never push things to the eleventh hour

     Often, we have a wide array of ‘To-do lists’ when it matters. This is because we neglected their importance and not knowing the debilitating consequences of doing things at last minute.

     Well, since the ‘bad attitude’ is now gone, you will find yourself more relaxed instead of feeling panic in meeting deadlines.

2.      You’ll earn the respect (or trust) of others

     Not only do we like to work with people who are trustworthy and responsible, we are also keen on reliable counterparts. Definitely the attention now shifts to the people around us.

     They are more likely to place their trust on us more than ever. It’s always fascinating to see how much people like us for being steadfast, hardworking and reliable.

3.      People around us will feel motivated

     Maintaining good attitude consistently is no easy task. Perhaps once in a while, when you are feeling tired or ‘lazy’, you put things aside again. To understand this, procrastination is an overwhelming, all-consuming voice in the end. It can easily infect people of any age, all the time.

     Imagine. What if the boss of a company is a slow-starter? For sure the staffs have the tendency to be sluggish in their work attitudes as well. It is true that model breeds action. Procrastination is highly contagious; it can affect every one of us before we realize it. In contrast, if we don’t procrastinate, it works the other way around.

4.      You’ll feel happier

     Here, it seems to have general correlation of idea between this and the first point. The key is, however, Point 1 refers to how delightful a person can be to not prolonging an action. The latter tends to explain the joy of being a man of action rather than talk.

5.      You’re a winner

     As I’ve repeatedly mentioned in this column, we are always in the process of growth. In every aspects of life, there is room for improvement. Since transgressions cannot be avoided, all we can do is just to embrace past mistakes and file them up for future references.

     The moment you feel you have achieved the aforementioned points then you are a natural winner. Life is not about winning because the ability to conquer and win over yourself matter more than anything else.

By: Vincent Ti

#24 A Freakish Halloween Experience

     Last weekend, both of my cousins, Vicky and Foong paid a ‘surprising’ visit on the evening of Halloween.

     While my family has not been a habitual celebrant of that occasion, we had our dinner and rushed back home early to avoid the expected congestions on most major roads in the city.

     Just because we had our dinner near a popular shopping mall renowned for its celebratory count-downs in festive periods, we started to observe teenagers roaming the streets in grotesque costumes waiting to prey on passerby with their threatening minor pranks.

    In one occasion, I saw a lady got freaked out as one of the ‘monster’ waited in ambush and suddenly leaped in her back, much to her terror. Little did I thought that ‘my turn’ to get spooked is just lurking elsewhere.

     As I got home, my instincts told me something was not right as I could see Foong smirking cheekily with his sister, Vicky and I probably sensed it may be associated with me. It won’t take long just as I turned my back and headed into the kitchen to get a glass of milk then in split seconds, Foong ambuscade from behind.

     I were caught by surprise because the prospects of a mysterious, shadowy figure coming without any hint gave me all the creeps.

    To add to my fear and anxiety, the kitchen was lightless and I noticed Foong covered his face completely with powder. Haha!

     Not bad, not bad. I have that thought in mind, considering how clever an eleven-year-old boy with the effort to make himself look more horrifying in attempt to pull out a hoax on a faint-hearted person like me! [ Laughs ]

By: Vincent Ti