Staring at the Sky

I have just started to give some serious thought about setting goals. Its amazing how close you are to you want and seldom get it. 

I always told of a story how me and 5 of my friends were trying to get to a cinema but none of us truly know how to get there. So we would all take turns giving directions. 2 hours later, the movie was over and we stumbled home defeated. I had blown 20 bucks worth of gas and spent 2 frustrating 2 hours driving in circles. 

When I popped open my directory all I could do was laugh. I noticed that all the times we had turned left instead of right, right instead of left, we were always just moments from our goal. 

So now i sit to set goals so i never have to make the wrong turn again.

The Kitchen Sink Dilemma

Have you looked at your kitchen sink filled with dishes and then heck... I will do them later. And later. And later. Well chances are if you have said later more than once. Your life is for a lack of a better word. Complicated and you never seem to have any time. 

The reason is because you put your jobs off to well... later. I think nothing in life is pointless. Even a simple thing like your kitchen sink has a lesson to teach you about life's little lesson. My dad enjoys in telling me that you should always learn one thing about life everyday and even if you devote your life and live to the age of 100, you will still not have learned all of life's secrets. 

For me, the Kitchen Sink Dilemma is one. No matter how many times you clean, it will be filled almost instantaneously. You get to the point and say why bother. Well.. i for one love to clean my dishes. It taught me ... no matter how complicated, difficult and confusing everything may seem to be. If you get started with one, then another and then another, the picture becomes clear. Plus you get to eat on clean dishes too. 

It also taught me that if you put your mind to doing something, once you get started, in all honesty, it doesn't take a long time to do. 

Bottom line: Set your goals and get started... 

Life's Little Irony

"It doesn't take a great task to do something amazing. Getting started is the amazing thing. The great task you achieve is simply a bonus" - Simon Foo

Back in Oct 2007, on a warm summer month, I looked myself in the mirror and resolved to make my 30th year my renaissance year. I would rebuild the new me based on my three pillars. I would achieve goals to build on what i considered to be the important aspects of my life: Improve the Soul - Things I love and live for, Improve the Mind - "Learn" for the lack of a better term and Improve the Body. 

By an large, I have done quite well. I have completed a Finance Diploma, 12 Exams from finishing my 2nd Degree, Studying my 3rd Degree at Penn State University and lost 8 kg ( bringing my total weight loss since coming to Japan to 34 kgs). 

Life is ironic in two ways - One, Tom Venuto's BFFM ebook was published by Renaissance Works and the Second, Adam Waters also heard the same song but he focused all of his energy on his body. To him, I say great job but the Victorian in me ( the competitive bred Aussie) can only think " You bastard..." Adam, if you are reading this.... I mean it in the friendly way that mates do.

To all those who read this... I hope you can take from this - Find your path and start down the journey to your goals. I started this blog to inspire myself to greater heights and hopefully bring a few guys along the way but Adam took it one further and he took the world with him. 

Get started... you will be surprised how far you come.

Worst Days

"Its hard to imagine that even our worst days can seem like paradise to another"

Yesterday, I had an odd day. By an large, it would be considered a bad end to a day, a week or maybe even a month. I had failed an exam by the barest of margins. 1 percentage point. Make matters worst, it was an expensive exam which I had failed for the second time and yet that even isn't the entire story. I had planned to make the 22 minute trip across town to get there but 2 minutes before I arrived at the station. By the end of the day, I made the exam but didnt make the grade. And yet, I felt better than I expected because I was able to put everything in perspective. I failed but I can always try again. I lost money yes but I also learned a valuable lesson. 

Arnold once said "Only by facing challenges do you truly find your strength - if the challenge is great, then you must get stronger"

This is my challenge and I will get stronger. 

Importance

"Which is more important? What you have already achieved or what you are about to achieve?" - 28 July

When you face this question and when asked of strangers, you often get some interesting responses. Some say the Past and the other the Future. I see it as one and the same. Every incident in our life touches us in a way, either large or small. It affects out decisions and in turn changes our fate.

Past achievements bring us to the here and now and puts us in a place to move to the future. No doubts every future endeavours seems harder, larger and more audacious than anything you have attempted in the past but you must never ever forget that is always the case when a challenge falls to you. You always climb up with challenges and never down, thats why its call a challenge.

Mistakes

"Some if not all people are fearful of mistakes, they shun it and do all they can to avoid them. Sometimes its best to welcome mistakes" -- June 15 2008

George Soros once said "Every day I hope I find a mistake, when I find one I am extremely happy" or something to that effect. Soros approach to investment is to come up with an idea and then find what wrong with it. When he find a mistake, then he is able to correct them. Each mistake makes his plan even stronger.

To me, I believe it in the same way. Mistakes tells me that I am expanding my horizons and I am trying to improve. Mistakes allows me to stay humble because it reminds me that there is still more that I do not yet know. Mistakes give me feedback on what works well and what doesn't. Mistakes are real, not hypothetical. Small mistakes allows me to grow one step at a time. Larger ones not only forces me to work harder and work smarter to solve but challenges me psychological to overcome perhaps the greatest failings of men, our egos and I have a large one.

Life's Mysteries

"The excellence of life is its filled with mysteries that we can't help but yearn to solve, that is the human strength, not the weapons we craft, not the cities we built nor the societies that we cling to" -- June 13 2008

Barry, A fund's manager I spoke to once, told me "don't be a pessimist, don't be an optimist, be a realist" it was such a profound way of thinking. I won't insult him by mispelling his last name but I asked him how can someone who deals with so much money in this market that has more wild mood swings than a tropical hurricane, can he be so happy all the time?

He replied, I live in a world full of possibilities. Each day I wake, there are a million more and I can't wait to find out what they are.

Thanks Barry. it really changed the way I looked at the world.