Life Capsule

The Search For Happiness

Just finished another read. This time, by a French author, Francois Lelord, titled “Hector and The Search for Happiness”. The book comes in a sizeable package, easy & delightfully light to carry around, overall an insightful and enjoyable read.

Some great Lessons & Hard Truths Learnt extracted from the novel, for Sharing and For YOU to Ponder …. Cheers!

Lesson #1: Making comparisons can spoil your happiness.
Lesson #2: Happiness often comes when least expected.
Lesson #3: Many people see happiness only in their future.
Lesson #4: Many people think that happiness comes from having more power or more money.
Lesson #5: Sometimes happiness is not knowing the whole story.
Lesson #6: Happiness is a long walk in the mountains.
Lesson #7: It’s a mistake to think that happiness is the goal.
Lesson #8: Happiness is being with the people you love.
Lesson #9: Happiness is knowing your family lacks for nothing.
Lesson #10: Happiness is doing a job you love.
Lesson #11: Happiness is having a home and a garden of your own.
Lesson #12: It’s harder to be happy in a country run by bad people.
Lesson #13: Happiness is feeling useful to others.
Lesson #14: Happiness is to be loved for exactly who you are.
Lesson #15: Happiness comes when you feel truly alive.
Lesson #16: Happiness is knowing how to celebrate.
Lesson #17: Happiness is caring about the happiness of those you love.
Lesson #18: Happiness is not attaching too much importance to what other people think.
Lesson #19: The sun and the sea make everybody happy.
Lesson #20: Happiness is a certain way of seeing things.
Lesson #21: Rivalry poisons happiness.
Lesson #22: Women care more than men about making others happy.
Lesson #23: Happiness means making sure that those around you are happy?

~ END ~
 

My Nike Walk 2011

The Red Wave 

The Wait

And so the run-walk begins. Its a human battle. Half the time, I’m trying to avoid brushing the rest and their sweat. And if thats not exhaustive enough, there’s a few suicidal slopes to conquer along the way…which I didn’t attempt a single one. Didn’t bother.

And so my face brightened when I saw this. Couldn’t resist but to STOP and SNAP. Tadah…. my last 500M…Nothing Can Stop Me Now

This is GOD SEND! The last and best BURST for this experience… My 250M

Tadahhhh! I survived. Its Finished

My Sweet Reward & Victory

Culture is not a goal, but a collective set of behaviours

You cannot just create the culture you want in your organisation or family. It has to be influenced, and over time. I’ve seen how one tries to mandate the desired behaviour through ‘brutal agressiveness’ and ‘ridiculous reasoning’ in the current place i worked for … the end result only deem temporal, otherwise futile.

You Can’t Dictate Culture - but You Can Influence It”
by Ron Ashkenas

Try practicing to influence with the following 3 steps as adapted from HBR:

1. Convey your vision. To define one’s aspiration and define the most critical behaviours thats imperative to culture you wanna create.
2. Demonstrate how new behaviours can help the business. Nothing reinforces behaviours more than success. Work with your team to apply your ideal behaviours to a specific project that needs improving.
   
   
3. Integrate the behaviours into HR processes. Use the desired behaviours as criteria for hiring and promoting.

Presumably, the above will only work with the willing minds. And definitely having  a good pink health to last through the enduring days. I do hope that in doing what i’m doing now, i can impact a little somehow. And may i find the strength to carry on this conviction, till i move on to the next phase of my life.

Is Marriage (or Wedding), Necessary?

“I’m getting married.
“You have to attend my big day!”
“He proposed.”

These words of recent, have never failed to send a reality check or chill into my life of indifference. This is particularly so when men whom I’ve romantically dated or some really close girlfriends tell me with brimming mirth, that I actually wonder if they know what they are getting themselves into.

Marriage is necessary, because at its best, marriage provides a safe environment for individuals to know themselves and be known by others. When a person is married, he expresses his intent and to commit as a partner. Insofar as a spouse can trust that promise, she is able to live in light and create a future by that promise.

Its like a potential employer signing me a 3 year employment contract, and I can make some budget decisions based on that commitment. In a marriage of course, it expresses a far deeper commitment that is unmatched by any other arrangement - also one when the government has no place in the equation.

But does it have to be? So comes after the declaration, particulary in SG, is … buying a house? or living together? procreating? Interestingly, someone just informed me this noon, that couples in France are able to share a permanent bond without any institution of marriage, and yet in all legality, they are ‘licensed’ to produce offsprings and furthermore, with the aid of government funding. Hmmm… 

Now, I’m definitely not against the idea of marriage. I do think that this post centered more on the question of “Is Wedding Necessary”. Perhaps its an indicative of how prominent the wedding is to our present idea of marriage. Well, for the majority of history, marriage was not initiated with a public ceremony. And in several cutlures, co-habitation was synonymous with marriage. Ok, what i’m trying to contend here is really the question, “What is the value, if any, of marking the beginning of a marriage with an expensive & unnecessary (to me) ceremony?”

So what now? My girlfriends getting married, and we can no longer have our impromptu lengthy-gossipy-high-tea sessions, for their time evolve now around either the prep for the ‘ceremony’ or their mates. So what now? My guy friends whom are already married, and we can no longer have a quick kopi session or movie dates? Will the wrath of consequences come doubly hard, because in a marriage, seemingly attempting to cheat is somehow more grievous?

And though this has not happened yet, I wish I never have to deal with the news of an impending marital bliss from people I have romantically involved in. For even when love has faded, memories still makes this harder to swallow than the evil parsley. Perhaps, such scenarios are highly imminent, for as it seems, people who get over me, always come out of it stronger and smarter then when they plunged in.

But of course, if the sequence of events turn out to be such, being me, I’ll still be extending my hands and unleashing my hugs in congratulations. Maybe life is meant to continue with flaws. I am not supposed to throw away jeans even if they are spotted with unremovable stains, because I might have been too focused on them that I missed the beauty of the denim. 

Cold Sore Killer

The previous time cold sore hit me, was a couple of years back. Horrid & embarrassing experience .. could hardly manage a kiss then. This dormant virus woke up yesterday and began its replication process on my lips again. Did a brief search on webbie, and alas, realised that there’s no cure for this virus after all! 

Stress is claimed to be the main trigger for cold sores to break out. Thats what Mr. Doc told me this morning too. And that kept me baffled for awhile .. my CNY break in the past few days have had been rather sedentary. I’d have spent an inordinate amount of time catching up with my sleep and my TVB. So where’s the stress.. well .. now I’m stress .. don’t quite know where’s the stress Mr. Doc mentioned.

Or maybe I do.

Chronicles of Christy

Lets count my misfortunes for today:

1. Got embroiled in someone’s office romance early morning. For that, i even have to fork out a lie .. ma de..
2. In the midst of madness, i have to attend to more than 3 work favours .. as a result, delaying my own schedule by half a decade ..
3. Nearly tripped & fell over two EMPTY boxes. I murmured some expletives .. and someone heard them ..
4. Another paper cut to my collection. This time, on a line of my right index finger ..
5. Someone with a bad heart, has to attempt warning me of unheard noises, knowing well that i’m probably the last one to exit office ..
6. Missed my gym session again ..
7. Met fren for late dinner, whom has unknowingly rubbed off the potent APNN smell from a potent APNN colleague. The stench was horrid ..
8. Have to discover a tiny tweeny cockroach in the bathroom during my shower ..

Lets count my blessings for today:

1. My taxi driver was commendable for his remarkable and skillful driving skills this morning ..
2. There’s an affirmation of some deserving financial news in the next couple of days ..
3. Ordered mackeral fish for lunch. The fish was so big, that i’m able to share it with another ..
4. There’s still stock of plasters in the first aid box ..
5. I laughed genuinely hard at a joke today from a fren ..
6. Mama nagged at me .. but i’m glad, thats her way of showing concern ..
7. Chatted with younger sista for many minutes, and that seemingly feels like a few hours of bliss ..
8. I’m home safely, sanity intact, stomach filled, met my loved ones, breakfast settled for tomorrow, i’m able to blog after some time .. i’m blessed.