fir3man

I found this online in one of the blog at Law Of Success. It's interesting :)

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install Love. Can you guide me through the process?
Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?
Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?
Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?
Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?
Tech Support: What programs are running ?
Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.
Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However,you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ?
Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?
Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.
Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?
Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.
Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components." What should I do?
Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.
Customer: So, what should I do?
Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.
Customer: Okay, done.
Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.
Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files.Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?
Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.
Customer: Thank you, God.
God/Tech Support: You're Welcome, Anytime.

• We let the economy to decide whether we should be happy or upset.
• We let the economy to decide whether we should move on to pursue a better career or stay back with the current company despite there are so many things we are not happy about.
• We let our boss to decide what is our address, whether it's 20 mins from the town or it's 40 mins away from the town.
• We let our boss to decide what time we should sleep and what time we should wake up, when should you work and when should you stop, which day is holiday, and which day we need to work...
• We let our job to decide how much time we are going to spend with our loved ones, whether we only see them in the evening, or once a month.
• We let our job to decide which college should we send our children to, and which course should they enroll so they can make a living after the graduate.
• We let the company we work for to decide how long are we going to stay at home after we or our spouse deliver our baby
• We let the company we work for to decide our fate when the economy is bad.
• We let our income to decide how we live our lifes, the first week of the month versus the last week of the month.
• We let our income to decide how many child we are going to have and when should we have the first baby.
• We let our subordinates / employees to decide whether we should be happy or upset, relax or stressed, peaceful or worried...
• We let our customers to decide how much dignity we have.
• We let our investments to decide whether it's a sunny day or not

Is life really just about work and making money? If it is not, how do you live with a different set of rules and achieve your freedom, both personally and spiritually?

Personal freedom is about doing the things you like (without harming others) at the time you prefer and at the place you most favor.
Spiritual freedom is about having peace of mind.

Let me ask again....do you have freedom? Think again....

Please do not wait until 20 or 30 years in your "sand clock of time" have passed to realize that; then you look back and moan about the past, and there's nothing you can change about it... The saddest part of all is when you look into the future, you fear and lose hope about life.... You are miserable and don't believe you can change your future...

A 70 year old man has the most sparkling expression in his eyes when all he has is hope, a 30 year old man lives his life like a living dead when he has no hope at all...

Belief & Success, there is a great deal of connection between the two. Our choice of belief always influence what our success is going to be. Read on for the possibilities that could come upon your life...

James is a man in his mid 40s, all he wanted is just a normal life. His picture of a normal life is to be employed, have a fix income, pay the bills and support his family members consisting his wife - Amy who is also working and 2 children. James and Amy choose to live below their means, so that they can put away more money for their retirement plan while supporting their children in their schooling fees. In the next 3 years, Michael, their eldest son will be going to college, because they need to save more money now, many years back they had chosen not to have overseas travel until the eldest son completes his studies and start working so that their burden will be less...

Did they retire? Of course they do, they retired at 62. They didn't have overseas trips for the past 25 years before their retirement, they had also decided not to because they now discover their retirement plan can only allow them to continue to live below their means, but they are happy too; just a bit stressed when the medical bills come and they need to ask for money from their children.

>> What did both James and Amy achieve? Yes exactly a normal life!

Kenny is a man in his mid 40s, all he wanted is just a normal life. His picture of a normal life is to be living stress free, no longer have to be worried about his income. He does not have a big dream to own a corporation or a personal jet. He just want to lead a normal life with his wife Jenny and 3 children where he can spend more time while they are growing up. He wants to instill the right values into his kids Sarah, Jack and Natalie. Both Kenny and his wife Cindy likes to spend time together with their children, they travel overseas once a year. Kenny and Cindy do not need to worry about their retirement, they have built a stream of income that will continue to support them after they have retired.

Kenny was grateful about the fact that he choose to venture into business many years ago, during that time he was having a lot of life commitments, his wife was going to deliver the 2nd child to the family yet he made the decision to do own a business. Sometimes when he reflects, he is very grateful that he made the change 12 years ago to let go of his high position in a big corporate and started his own business. He had struggled but it was worth it. Now he has more time to be with their children because they don't have to spend time on making and saving money. Kenny and Cindy continues to travel once a year after they have retired. Their business continue to runs and support their normal life.

>> What did both Kenny and Cindy achieve? Yes exactly a normal life!

What am I trying to highlight here? The two men up there both want a normal life, just that they have different meaning about their normal life. None of them had failed in their life, just they had choose to believe "normal life" differently. Are they both happy? Yes they are all happy. Perhaps Kenny lives a longer happy life while James lives a happy and occasionally stressful life...

Did James make a wrong choice? I don't think so. I would rather reckon the environment Kenny and James were in had influenced them to make the series of decisions that lead to their outcome. Kenny was influenced to have the vision that his picture of normal life is to spend more time with his family members and not to focus on spending most of his time to make money. James's influence was otherwise, his surroundings must have instilled an image that he need to work hard, live below his means and save money for his retirement, that way he will be happy...

The two stories are fictitious yet it reflects a very close relation to many people living in this world. Life is all about choices, what we believe would then lead us to make certain choices. Moreover, many people are not good at making choices, it's not because they do not have a belief to support them, they have too many version of the beliefs. Some that supports them to take the leap and some that shows them otherwise. We are all living in a world of influences, many of those are always contradicting, existed to make us stay at where we are - study hard, get a high paying job, save money, retire at age 55 or later...

What kind of normal life you really want? James's or Kenny's version? Or you just know you want a normal life but you have yet to define how you want your normal life to be? If you haven't defined, I urge you to spend some time to think about what you truly want for your life.  Come on, we only live ONCE!

There is a saying that goes like this "If we continue to do what we have been doing, we will just get what we already have..."

Sometimes to see life clearly...
you have to open more...
than your eyes.

This period in my life I had lived to consider it as a period filled with happiness, meanings and values. A period I treasure...

Time flies, countless words, meaningful moments...Sometimes I wondered how would things be if it didn't happen the way it had. But one thing I am sure, given a chance to choose again, I would choose to want it the way it is happening now...

I certainly hope for the future to come upon us, definitely there will be challenges ahead but that just can't stop us.

I reckon we only live once and we only love so dearly once, for you and I...

Ever thine
Ever mine
Ever us...

I was revising the show "Hellboy" and found what mentioned by the John Myers (cast name) very meaningful.

What makes a man a man?
A friend of mine once wondered...
Is it his origin, where he comes to life?
I don't think so, it's the choices he makes.
Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them...

That's very true...

...... Some topics going on before ......
Friend : and ... did i tell u... i'm accepted for my masters
Friend : starting this fri.. RMIT
Me : MBA?
Me : congrats ~!!!
Friend : so it'l be damn busy for me
Friend : haih
Friend : thanks
Me : what motivates you to pursue MBA ?
Friend : err..
Friend : cos i find that the degree that i have in my hand is rather useless cos i dont work in IT line
Friend : and in that case, what i want in future is to be at a managerial and above leve..
Friend : hence.. MBA is the best choice for me to enhance my knowledge n learn more organisation skils lor
Me : i see
Me : very good
Me : you will be very successful one day
Me : i can tell that
Friend : 'seng lei kuai yin' (I hope to have what you said)
Friend : how bout u?
Friend : anything new? new plans?
Me : plans? build business, retire young
Friend : yaya.. retire young.. i want that too.. but..sigh...
Friend : i'm still kinda far to see myself thre yet
Me : well, you have to be working on different quadrant of the cashflow
Me : it's about leveraging
Me : if you don't leverage, you will be leveraged
Friend : oh ya
Friend : well... its easy to say but hard to implement
Me : i heard that a lot
Me : there are only choices left to make
Me : whether you choose to let yourself stop you or you overcome all the challenges to become
Friend : hehe
Friend : well, right now i dont think i have the time to think that much
Friend : am only focus to get through my MBA and then c where i am at that point lor
Friend : ya...ur such capable person, i'm sure u can overcome them easily
Me : nothing is easy lo
Me : it's just want or don't want
Me : your MBA studies is not going to be easy
Me : i am sure you want it so badly you will overcome all the challenges to grad from MBA
Me : it's the same, about this retire young thingy

"Easier said than done", is that really the case? Personally, I don't think the journey of  MBA study is going to be an easy ride. My friend definitely knows the challenges awaiting in that path. I am definitely proud of my friend's decision.

What really amazed me is when someone expresses interest in something he/she wants then exclaims the fact that it is not going to be easy to achieve what he/she wants because it's challenging....yet, at every aspect of life, he/she is living through difficulties and challenges...

Now, what is easy and what is not? I don't believe there's anything easy. If someone wants an easy life, they gotta win it to have his/her easy life. And winning is about stop telling "It's easier said than done"...

I would say, it's harder in imagination than actual. If there's a price for success, pay it! Overcome all the challenges and achieve! There's no cheap success but only cheap excuse.

Sometimes I wonder, does everyone truly understand what they really want? How can someone says he/she wants something yet looking for excuses to act otherwise? I call this personality crisis or if you read chinse - 人格分裂. How can one's heart and mind lead the individual to different paths? No wonder so many people are unhappy nowadays.

I don't mean to insult any individual's values by sharing the conversation here. Certainly I don't mean taking MBA is a wrong choice. The reason I write this article is to highlight the irony in life that has blinded so many souls to pursuit what they truly want and be daring about their lives... not with fear and voices that stop them to move foward.

Ultimately, who teach us "It's easier said than done"? You'll bet it's someone who has never done it. Such sentence leaves a deep imprint in us, hence develops the fear to stop us from trying to make any first step. Life is good, be daring and live it!

I received this in my email. It is about what happened at Wen Chuan earthquake and what one of the greatest mothers on earth can do. I also urge everyone out there to make donation to any authorized funds of this regard. Thank you.

There were so many touching stories from the Wen Chuan earthquake. I cried so many times watching the news coverage in the past week. But this forward from a friend has to rank as one of the most touching. As a salute to this mom, I have translated the original into English, so my non-Chinese-speaking friends could read it, and pass it around, too. It's a story that should not stay only within the Chinese community.

Violet

抢救人员发现她的时候，她已经死了，是被垮塌下来的房子压死的，透过那一堆废墟的的间隙可以看到她死亡的姿势，

When rescuers found her, she was already dead, crushed by the collapsed house. Through gaps in the rubbles, they could see her posture.

双膝跪着，整个上身向前匍匐着，双手扶着地支撑着身体，有些象古人行跪拜礼，只是身体被压的变形了，看上去有些诡异。

Kneeling on both knees, her entire upper body bent forward, held up by her two hands pressed against the ground, as if performing the ceremonial bow in an ancient ritual. Except, her body had been compressed out of shape and looked somewhat eerie.

救援人员从废墟的空隙伸手进去确认了她已经死亡，又在冲着废墟喊了几声，用撬棍在在砖头上敲了几下，里面没有任何回应。

A rescuer extended his hand through a gap and confirmed her death. He called out to her, and tapped on the bricks with his shaft, but received no response.

当人群走到下一个建筑物的时候，救援队长忽然往回跑，边跑变喊"快过来"。他又来到她的尸体前，费力的把手伸进女人的身子底下摸索，

As the team walked toward next building, the squad leader suddenly turned back, yelling as he ran, "Come quick!" He came to her remain, labored to maneuver his hand under her body, searching.

他摸了几下高声的喊"有人，有个孩子 ，还活着"。

He called out following some rummaging, "There's someone, a child, still alive."

经过一番努力，人们小心的把挡着她的废墟清理开，在她的身体下面躺着她的孩子，包在一个红色带黄花的小被子里，大概有3、4个月大，

With some effort, rescuers carefully removed the debris burying her, found her child lying beneath her, bundled in a little red blanket decorated with yellow flower prints. He was about 3-4 months old.

因为母亲身体庇护着，他毫发未伤，抱出来的时候，他还安静的睡着，他熟睡的脸让所有在场的人感到很温暖。

Shielded by his mother's body , he was totally unharmed, sleeping peacefully as he was brought out. His soundly asleep face warmed the hearts of all rescuers on the scene.

随行的医生过来解开被子准备做些检查，发现有一部手机塞在被子里，医生下意识的看了下手机屏幕，发现屏幕上是一条已经写好的短信
As the rescue team's doctor unbundled the blanket to examine the baby, he discovered a mobile phone tucked into the blanket. He subconsciously looked at the display, found there was a SMS message.
"亲爱的宝贝，如果你能活着，一定要记住我爱你"，看惯了生离死别的医生却在这一刻落泪了，手机传递着，每个看到短信的人都落泪了。
"My Dear Baby, If you were to stay alive, you must remember that I love you." No stranger to the pain and sorrow brought by death, the doctor nonetheless wept at this moment. The cell phone was passed around, every person who read the message wept.

Last year, I wrote about - "What do you position yourself as?" in mandarin - 对自己的看法,想法.

Now after a good 9 months have passed, I realized it would be good if I could translate that into English and cite some examples to paint a better picture.

Translation:
The first type of people position themselves as "manpower" or "headcounts".
They consider themselves contributing the "manpower" to a certain work item. "manpower" or "headcounts" are numbers.
They always say, "Your place need people, Okay, I will come."

The second type of people position themselves as talents.
They always say "I am a talent!"
Everyone knows, it's always the talents that give orders to the "manpower".
What is "talent"? "Talent" is just the chess piece on someone's chess board.

The third type of people position themselves as "personage".
What is "personage" ? Let's look at the example below:

In a construction site, we can see all 3 types of people:
The foreign workers are manpower, the site supervisors or contractors are talents, the developer is personage.

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So what are all these "manpower", "talents" or "personage" mean to you out there? Allow me to relate them to you.

It's not uncommon that we know one fact - "nobody is undispensable in any organization". I do not deny this is a sad fact for whoever that is working for an organization but let's put the emotion aside and look at the analysis of the fact. Companies are built to make money for the owners, for public companies, the owners would be the shareholders. System is put in place to make sure the companies can run on its own and make money for its shareholders. In the event if someone that leaves the company can cause the company to stop making money, there is something very wrong in the company; no shareholder would wanna invest their money in such company.

Looking at the picture above, for an organization with 5000 employees, over 95% of the people are just "manpower". Only a mere 4-5% are the talents, they are scattered around the in the mid-management to senior-management. What about the personage? Those would be the CEO, CFO, directors, financial controllers and the shareholders that choose the board of directors. A lot of money are spent to keep the personage, moderate money is paid to the talents while the rest are getting the average market pay; not too much, not too low to keep them working and continue to contribute their manpower (no pun intended).

In fact, there is nothing wrong with all these "manpower", "talents" or "personage" that goes around in the economy world. The only thing that is wrong is the ignorance of laying your fate in someone else's hand. We all know we never choose to be just "manpower" but not many choose to be any different too...not many choose to do something about it too. Most just enter the "system"...

Someone once said to me: "It's okay to climb the ladder (corporate ladder or any success ladder), but before you climb, make sure that is the ladder you wanna climb" True enough...So have you checked out the outcome of the ladder before you climb it?

Time, the very witness of our existence. Some says it's the most valuable asset we are born with, I reckon it flies, whether with or without any meaning added to it. Time flies.

It was amazing how many words can be spoken and exchanged given the time available; 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years. Time flies, countless words. 

Time flies, countless words...It is astonishing when the meaningful words that are spoken and exchanged in 3 days no longer bounded by the very witness of our existence.

Oh, I had forgotten about the time. I remember some of the words. I will cherish the moments.

Many years back, I watched this movie called "Serendipity". That was the first time I saw Kate Beckinsale on screen, she is so feminine and gorgeous. Overall it was a nice movie.

Serendipity was a new word to me back then, I looked up in dictionary and found the meaning of it:

"good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries"

Serendipity, that is a nice word! So much so I never thought I could have a chance to use it until this very weekend. This weekend is a serendipity weekend for me.

I had a wonderful weekend, just backed from a 2 days seminar. Before It's time for bed, let's do some writing. To start off with the title above, the top destination that I would make my foot steps there would definitelybe this place that look like a female's boot on the world map. Yes, it's Italy. I remembered back in form 5 or my foundation year, I used to download wallpapers of nature and places, I always downloaded pictures of places from www.away.com and Italy made my heart really fond for all this long. You may noticed, the calendar on these wallpaper is dated back in 2000. All these pictures are courtesy of www.away.com. I am not sure I am allowed to post them here but I think they are no longer available on its website because all are dated many years back.

Simply love to visit Italy :) What if I could only go to one place in Italy? It gotta be Venice. Simply love it! Somehow, I feel Venice is a more romantic place than Paris. I do not know why, I just feel so.

Many years back I had this picture, I would take the love of my life on a gondola, sailing slowly on the canals in Venice, while whiling our breakfast like time was not passing at all. Ah... nice!

(taken from wiki @ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Venedig_Seufzerbr%C3%BCcke.jpg)

Maybe it's not a good idea to have breakfast on the gondola, perhaps just a cup of tea is a better option. Food on boat is never a good idea afterall.

Ah Italy, just love it!

It's so soothing. It's a really nice song!

Lately, i've been having thoughts on my mind
Better tell you given that solitary time
Its the greatest most humble thing a heart will ever find
Just promise me that you'll be mine

We've been, we've been going out quite a while
And baby, the way you move is quite my style
So let me take this chance
And put my heart out on the line
Im just hoping girl, that you'll be mine

The winds of fate dont often blow our way
So lets chase them while we can, oh yea
Our waves are growing stronger while our hearts are getting younger i think we Can run a lifetime or two

Take this, take this ring i have here for you
And wear it, wear it til both our lives are through
Its the honest, most perfect gift i can gave to you
If you say that you'll agree
Girl if you promise me
I'll give everything i have if you'll, you'll be mine

Lately i've been staying back late in the office

better solve all the bugs given the quiet time

It's the scariest most horrable thing when they switch off the lights

Just promise me that you don't do that again