Life is complicated.

People are complicated.

Things we do daily can be complicated, if you allow.

During your down time, take several deep breath, think about moments in your life that you felt wrapped with happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction… and you were on the top of the world.

You felt you could complete anything you want. You opened your arms widely to embrace the universe: I am brave, I can face anything!

Yes! There you are!

We need go back to check what have brought up us here today. You knew you can and you have accomplished something. You can “redo” it again.

We can not repeat our lives. But we can remember how much strength we have demonstrated, we can rewind the peak moments we had in our reflection.

You had peak moments in your life. You can have another one, another one, and another one…

Life is sweet, if you allow.

Sometime we feel we can’t move, stuck in a corner, face unsolvable situations.

What we need is to come back to our sense. breath, stand up, turn around, and walk away from the corner, or walk around the unsolvable situations.

Life moves on.

We don’t need feel stuck any where. Taste the full flavor of life and be agile.

Change your position, change your view, change your direction.

You move on.

Connecting with others is a big deal, a very important aspect of our life.

How do you connect with new colleagues, new friends, strangers? Do you connect with people by emails, social media, social events, calls…?

If you think connecting people is to introduce yourself to others, know who they are and what they do only, then think it again.

People are complicated. Knowing their faces, what they do is not good enough. It’s the beginning to connect – just like connecting two bridges, they need to overlap to connect smoothly.

We need to extend our effort, our sincerity, our service to others to connect with them. These take a lot of time, energy, and considerations. We do these without any expectation for returns. Only then we can build trust, empathy and build our mutual bridge. With luck, we may be able to connect with a few others.

Sure, you may think you have wasted all your effort and energy because you did not get equal responses from others. Well, this happens, very often. Those did not show their reciprocity are not your friends, your audience, or your partners any way. The world is huge. You do not need to waste your time on those not in your tribe.

Connecting with people is to open new worlds.

Do you have dreams to be a good leader, a successful person, a happy person with free spirit?

I do.

I have practiced, have been practicing to realize my dreams. I have had some success, and I have had huge failures.

When I was in my deep valley, I could not see sunshine. I was devastated like any body might be in that situation. I blamed myself, others, and environment… No one can help me to climb out from the bottom of the valley if I could not stand up for myself.

So I dusted the dirt from my cloth, stood up, asked for help. I knew I wanted to get out of the ditch, get my life back, and live a better life. It was a struggle to get out of there. It was a painful journey. I was hurt and bruised. And it was worth every step of effort…

No one is saint. I do not need to beat myself so hard.

I know I am resilient and people help me when I stand up for myself – this is good enough.

Are you hiding in life or at work?

I know, I do from time to time.

When she told me she had her limitations to accomplish something, I agreed with her. Without knowing it, I thought I had the same limitations.

Now, I realize that I was hiding. With the thinking of limitation as a shield, I do not need to try hard, or even to try.

I know I am hiding when I tell myself that I am tired, therefore I do not have to finish my plan.

I know I am hiding when I reply a question with long-winded, pointless story.

I know I am hiding when I pretend busy; when I pretend everything is cool: or I pretend to be somebody else…

Realize the moment of hiding is when you begin to grow.

Are you aware of the time when you are hiding?

I heard many people saying that a good leader is an authentic person.

Is authenticity a trait of leadership?

May be we are seeking a real person showing her feelings and vulnerability that we can relate?

Or we are seeking someone that we can depend on by knowing that she will do or deliver certain expected results?

In any rate, when you like her as a leader, you know her persona, her worldview, her action and reaction…

If she behaves like a crazy, unpredictable, then you may say, “This is unreal. This is not her.”

Being a leader calls her to be consistent to deliver, to lead, to head on forward, no matter what happens.

Authenticity means consistency for a leader.

Years ago, I was asked what was my dream in life. I thought about it and said, “being useful to others.”

Over the years, I have realized that to be useful to others actually is an ambitious dream.

It requires me to be conscious about my action, my intention, my impact to others.

It requires practice, trial and error, persistent.

It requires no ego, make fun of myself, and courage to admit my mistakes.

Reflecting the past, the actions being useful can start with:

• When talking to others, be with them (present)
• When talking to others, be insightful
• When facing gossip, stop it and do not be part of it
• When facing complain, give advice to improve it
• …

Being useful starts from tiny steps, builds up by daily practice.

Dream is only a beautiful picture until you put it into your action.

Miracle will happen from the accumulation of tiny drips.

Drip, drip, drip…

I like clarity.

In daily life:

• Clarity makes situation easier, simpler.
• Clarity saves time for everyone, no confusion.
• Clarity is kind – it cuts the chase to the matter and saves people’s misery.

In work place:

• Clarity is scary – it is scary because the person sends the clear messages needs to have guts to speak the truth.
• Clarity empower each other.

• Clarity is kind – to save colleagues labor sorting things out.

Give clear messages and start to learn how to do it better every day.

One of my girlfriends is a maximizer.

She does things with tangible and contagious energy, focused attention, and lives with “still monk-like” life from time to time… and she is my Wonder Woman.

Maximizing is about fully, freely express yourself.

Maximizing is about using your resources fully.

Maximizing is about living your true self.

I was busy last year, very busy, actually super busy. I have no time for myself.

I was busy in business traveling. I was busy to make time for my family. I was busy to stay on top of everything…

No one can stay on top of everything. Therefore, I was crushed by end of last year.

I was crushed mentally and physically. I was not myself.

The crush woke me up, shook me to the bones and to my heart… I had to slow down, took a break, started meditation, took time for myself.

After one month, I got better. Two months later, I gained my sense of self. The third month, I gained my clarity and energy back.

I have learned that I need to be slow to be fast.

Slow is fast.

Slow down your steps, relax mindfully and physically.

Creativity, new ideas, and happiness are derived from a free, relaxed, and quiet mind.