My dad is in his eighties, now in a hospital for a surgery. I am with him.
My dad has one roommate, who is a man just turned to 50. He is hospitalized due to heart failure.
Then I learned this roommate is a business owner, running a successful business. He admires my dad as a cheerful, happy man and wishes he could be like my dad…
This comes to my mind.
Do not: Live fast, die young.
To choose live happily, truly, fully is a choice to make.
I am busy with my company matters.
Then I got the news yesterday that my dad will have a heart surgery tomorrow. He insists in saying it will be a small operation that I don’t need to take time off to see him in the hospital. He has two helpers with him and mom.
I had hesitation on making the decision whether coming to see him or not. What came to my mind were tightly scheduled meetings, reading, writing for this week. One colleague heard this, he said to me, “Go back to see your dad. Family is more important.”
This goes straight into my heart.
Live life.
Life happens while I am busy making other plans.
Life takes priority over everything. No life, nothing happens.
I came to be with my dad and my mom. I felt the immediate peace once I made the decision to do so.
I need re-examine my life from time to time. Just like someone says:
An unexamined life is not worth of living.
You love seafoods. You are invited to have “all you can eat” seafood buffet. You are super happy to have the opportunity.
You eat, eat, and over ate.
At last, you no longer have appetite to the seafoods you’ve loved so much.
Over nutrition, or overeat can cause indigestion and lose appetite.
When this principle applies to learning, we need to learn with the right pace and right amount of knowledge.
Slow may be fast for me.
Less may be more for me.
Fast and more may be for you.
To feed the right amount of food, information, knowledge is a skill. And this skill can be tested and learned.
I live in a big city in China. There are cars everywhere.
Sometimes cars park behind or in the front of a parking lot in my community. They make the cars in the parking lot impossible to get out. If your car is among the parked cars, you have three options in the situation:
If you are going to work, meeting others, or shopping by car, you can see that only the first option can possibly solve your problem quickly.
It is the driver’s consideration makes the difference. Leaving a contact phone number is a kind consideration for inconvenience. And it is not difficult to do. It shows your humility.
We need more kind, considerate people to live a more civilized community.
I gave a presentation to an international group today.
I felt terrible after the presentation. Because I prepared in English and I realized I needed to give it in Chinese.
I was struggling in find the suitable Chinese phrases during my talk and felt I was not best of myself…
When the event was over, we had business matchmaking session. I found people talking to me with curiosity and respect. I did not find any trace of blaming me not doing a good job for my presentation. I actually had great time to making connections with attendees.
What a relieve!
This sounds familiar?
There is no things so bad or so wrong in our lives. It is the thinking makes so.
The best memory very often is the one we had setback, difficulty, failure, or hurt.
And it is also during these periods that we grow in a hurry – when you look back in a ten years of time.
I invited an old friend to give a presentation about his research to my teams. He not only gave us his research, but also his philosophy on how to live your best life.
He said that money is not the most important thing in one’s life. It’s the freedom to do what you love to do and a good health you have. He got this conclusion after his ten years of struggle and learning.
We sometimes go a long way to move forward for a short distance. However, that the price we need to pay. That is the pain we need to experience.
Growing is painful, yet it is a journey no one can replace for you. And the reward is huge.
The shelf life of an elastic band can be extended if you let it bounced back to its original shape, and relaxed.
If you want to make your career sustainable, you need make time for self recovery. Such as, take a vocation, a nap, a walk, or watch a movie, read a book… whatever that suits your style.
Only when you intentionally make self balance a priority, you can recover your elasticity quicker, you will have more moments of happiness, you will be more energetic.
Be aware of the time for self recovery. The last resort is that you have to rest because of illness.
Find the best way for your recovery early is a skill. You can get skillful quickly be practicing it.
Recovery of your elasticity, recovery of your longevity of happiness.
You are not happy about colleague A who bad mouthed you behind your back.
When you talked to colleague B, you almost mentioned how terrible A was… suddenly you realize if you do this, you are no difference from A. You know that gossips at work are killers for trust, killers for productivity.
You are a sensible person.
We need more sensible people at work to build better relationships.
Sensible in action is reflection of professionalism.
Sensible is glue at work, at home and among friends.
You have all the passion and energy and dedication to make this project work. You work 12-16 hours a day for nine months…
One day, you suddenly broke down by just one loudly No from your colleague, your teammate. He said No to you when you demanded his action, and he commented that you are not capable of doing what you do in front of your team – 20 colleagues.
“How could he do this to me? He is supposed to be my loyal workmate.” You felt lost face, like an imposter, and felt humiliated by wrongful comments…
You wanted to know why.
After many conversations, dialogues, and a few sleepless weeks, you learned that it’s the fear of change brought your colleague’s rebel. It got little to do with you.
However, by being wrongly accused it somewhat made you feel that you no longer need to pretend to know everything any more. The ego you had is disappearing. You feel much more breathable, more freedom coming to your way.
You break free.
You don’t need to pretend to be something you are not.
You don’t need to live other’s life, begin to live truly.
You don’t need to worry making mistakes.
You have stretched and grown more.
Vulnerability makes you stronger, braver, more present.
You walk on the road with good mood. And you step on a pile of sh*t by accident.
What would be your reaction?
Will you curse the sh*t? Will you blame your bad luck? Will you be going mad about it?
You probably say No to all the questions. It’s just a pile of lifeless sh*i after all.
What about something unpleasant and dirty staff happened to you at work?
Well, sh*i happens!
Laugh at it, forget it, and move on.
You have so much fun in life than a pile of sh*t.
WE-FIVE 