Always See The Good In Every Situation

When a pregnant lady walks into the train, the lady at the reserved seat did not stand up to offer her seat but 2 gentlemen not on the reserved seats quickly offered theirs.
What is the picture that you paint in your mind? Will you condemn the lady or will you commend the gentlemen? If you understand the true meaning of kindness, you will know that giving is without obligation, it cannot be forced upon (lady on reserved seat) but given from the heart when nothing is expected of the giver (gentlemen who offered their seats).
Also, always see the good in every situation, rather than remember the bad. It will change your perspective of this world and that makes you happier too.

Doing My Part For Children with Cancer

"Mommy, why does everyone else has hair but I don't?"
This is one question that children with cancer could be asking their parents when they suffer from the side effects of chemo treatment. They may not understand why they are going through this difficult phase. Their self esteem could take a dip when they lose their hair, especially when they are teased by their classmates.

It has been almost a week since I shaved bald. Despite the assurance from the barber that I had a fantastic head shape, family members commenting that I actually look better in the new look, I still feel weird and somehow a little insecure walking around, esp. when meeting shocked colleagues and friends.
I think for children or anyone, men or women, suffering from cancer, the most morale crashing thing they fear is for people to look at them in different light and think they look weird or shun them thinking the illness is contagious. This is a double blow on top of the physical trauma (hair loss, appetite loss, the pain and suffering experienced during the treatment process).
We as fellow members of the community can do so much more for them. If we can encourage them by telling them it is okay to be bald, to show them they are not alone in this fight, and to provide that little financial support for the families in need, it will make their lives so much better. When we give them hope, we also give ourselves hope.
This is my humble fundraising project for children with cancer and their families: https://www.ccf.org.sg/giving/fundraisng_event.php?id=fundraising-for-children-with-cancer
I do whatever I can, whenever I can, within my means, and I feel blessed to be a giver rather than a receiver. This is not a quest to prove how much I can raise personally but a quest to prove that every one of us can help make a difference to shape a better world together.
When you know that your existence helped made someone's life better and when you know you have achieved things that money can't buy, you will realise that your life is a well lived one.
Thank you everyone for your support and kindness !

3 Things we can learn from babies.

1. Always curious, always learning.
Babies are always curious and always keen to explore the world around them, as a result they learn a lot within a short period of time. As we aged, our curiosity and desire to learn things slow down because we thought we knew a lot already. But the world we live in is big enough for everyone to keep learning and exploring, until the last day of life. Technology advancements (think google and youtube) mean that these information are more readily available as compared to 20 years ago. So, keep learning and keep improving.

2. Keep trying until you succeed.
What happens when babies first learn how to stand or walk? They fall, then they get up, then they fall again, then they get up and keep trying until they succeed. No babies ever thought that this is too tough and decided not to try anymore. As we grow older, the negative thoughts, self doubts we have inside us made us want to give up more easily and thus stop us from reaching our goals. Be like the baby, ignore the negative voices and keep trying until you succeed.
3. Love the people who love you, and ignore the rest.
If a baby loves you, they enjoy playing with you and they want to spend their time being with you. Babies don't waste their time on people they don't like, nor do they do harbour hate in their mind. As we matured, we start to get affected by the negative people, the negative events but these are things that do not matter, yet take our focus off those that matter. So, be like the baby, focus your time and energy on the people you love most and ignore those who are not deserving of your time.
The traits of a baby represent the purest form of human beings, there is no prejudices, discrimination, hate among the different races, religion, nationalities or skin tones. If we truly want the world to be a better place, it is time we "almighty" adults take a leaf out of a baby's book and start to bring out what we are truly made up of

Start the Day with Positive Thoughts

When you wake up every morning, what are your first thoughts?
If you wake up thinking, oh man, another working day, so tired, you dread about facing your boss, the workload, demanding clients and so on, chances are your day will be uninspiring and boring because you have given yourself many reasons to be unhappy and negative. And this happens when your day has barely started.
If you wake up feeling blessed that you are alive, you don't have major health issues to deal with, you are living in a safe country, you have all your basic needs fulfilled, there are variety of food options everywhere, the public transport system can get you almost anywhere, you have an income to support yourself and your loved ones, then you set the tone for a happy day ahead.

Even if things don't go your way and negative events are happening, e.g. stuck in traffic jam, more workload, you will still feel thankful that you have so much more that matters, beyond these ad hoc negative events. But if you start your day already feeling negative, any negative event happening is going to make you further demoralised or depressed.
So, pay attention to your thoughts as you start your day, because how you think determine how you live. How you live affects the people around, your loved ones, your friends or even strangers online. If you live your life in a very negative fashion, it rubs on to the people around you, more anger and hate will be generated in our world. So, let's all be more positive and spread more positive vibes around, shall we? It may not be the easiest thing to do but we can all try ya?

Counting Blessing in a Power Outage

We often don't realise how much we are blessed until the blessings are taken away from us. For instance, my block experienced a power outage just 2 nights ago. During that one hour plus of outage, we were basically doing nothing in darkness because the lights, fan, TV and whatever electrical appliance were all down. We had torchlight but it was not bright enough for us to carry on our normal activities. We had battery operated hand held fans but they were not strong enough to keep us cool.

It is in these times that we realise that we have taken for granted the many blessings that we have in our lives, simple things like having electricity to operate the household appliances, the lights, the fans, the aircon, the water heater, having clean drinking water off the tap, having gas for cooking...etc. Not everyone in this world gets these things readily like we do. Even within Singapore, there are poor families who had their electricity cut off because they couldn't afford them.
The more we realise how much blessings we have, the more thankful we are for having them, is the more contented and happy we will be. Stop being unhappy with what you don't have and instead shift the focus to the many blessings you already have.

Give when the Opportunity Comes

Was clearing my old stuff when I chanced upon a stack of uni notes. Back then, I loved doing mindmaps to understand the concepts better, and I am glad that I shared these mindmaps with anyone who found them useful during that time. Because if I held onto the mindset that sharing would let my peers gain an edge over me or made me acdemically weaker, and I missed the opportunity to help someone, then it is an opportunity gone forever. The syllabus has changed after so many years and the notes are pretty useless to me or anyone now.
Opportunity missed may be opportunity gone, what we can give today may be irrelevant tomorrow, so let us give whenever and wherever we can. Life is too short to look back on missed opportunities and the things we could have achieved when we are given a chance to do so.

Know Your Needs vs. Your Wants

Overheard the PA behind me asking one of my junior staff about his new bag. They then went on to talk about the price and the conversation goes something like this, "His (another junior staff) bag cost $200+ because it was made in Korea, mine cost $100+ and it was made in US."
I just bought a new bag too, I thought it is stylish, lightweight and fits my needs. Because it was brandless, it costs only $20. I have nothing against young working adult paying hundreds of dollars for a backpack but they must not later complain that life is tough, everything is so expensive and work is chaining them down because they can't survive without the income. There are options out there and they chose the one that is more high class which obviously comes at a higher price.

If we can all learn to manage our "wants" and focus on our "needs", life is not that bad afterall. We may eventually learn that we are more blessed than we thought.