Motivational Stories
Based on Real Life Experiences
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Activities that you could do over the long weekend that won’t break your wallet
Activities that you could do over the long weekend that won’t
break your wallet
Some people say money is everything
because everything needs money. However, not having enough money shall not be
made an excuse to waste our precious weekends. There are so many activities
that we can do on weekends which do not require us to rob a bank.
The first activity is reading. For
those of you who do not like to read, let me share with you a few health
benefits of reading. Before that, let me remind you about one important fact of
life. All of us will become old and weak whether we like it or not. In order to
keep the mind young and sharp, reading is the only remedy. When you read a book
especially a novel, that imagination of yours while reading every word will
keep your mind young and active. When you read the newspaper, some
controversial topics will keep your mind busy arguing with yourself in your own
mind regarding the issues. On the other hand, those who love to read have a lot
to share with others. Their general knowledge is awesome.
Pot-luck is one of the most
economical but fun activities that you could do on weekends while watching your
favourite movies. You may decide which family or which friend will come up with
a particular menu so that you will have a variety of dishes at home. In your WhatsApp
group, you can also propose the type of movie that you want to watch together
that night. This two-in-one activity will definitely leave meaningful and
wonderful memories for each of you especially your children.
To be religious is not something that
is easy to achieve but doing good deeds at religious centres is something that
everyone can do. Whether you are a Moslem, Christian, Buddhist or Hindus, there
must be something that you can do at your own places of worship. Taking care of
the traffic, mopping the floor, cleaning the toilets and cleaning the
cemeteries are some of the charity work that you can do at the mosques,
churches and temples on weekends. On the other hand, for those of you who are
good at technical work, you may help to replace the malfunctioning lights or
fans or perhaps fix the air-conditioners.
If you have friends who love
adventure, climbing mountains or exploring nature is one of the most meaningful
activity that you can do on weekends. Not only it is good for your overall
health but nature has its own unique way to heal our feelings especially when
we feel down. At the same time, taking pictures of nature can give you an extra
income if you submit them to certain websites that appreciate good pictures. On
the other hand, as you get older, the only thing that you will have will be
those pictures of you and your good friends and loved ones hiking mountains
together. Those pictures will give you a long smile as you travel back to the
past as the old saying goes “ a picture is worth thousands of words”.
Blogging is also another activity
that you should keep in mind. You can either use Blogger or WordPress as your
first platform as they are free to use. You may write anything you wish. If you
love gardening, you can write about tips about gardening and fruits at your
garden. If you love cooking, you can share your secret recipes and pictures of
your own personal delicacies. If you love to motivate others, you can help
others online. You may meet some new people who could be your online friends or
fans. You can exchange points of view about certain topics which may make you
more knowledgeable or wiser.
In conclusion, weekends are short.
Therefore, make it as interesting and as wonderful as possible so that Monday
would stop bothering you. ( 642 words)
How I learned to deal with my own self-doubt and make the best out of it
How I learned to deal with my own self-doubt and make the
best out of it
Self-doubt is a social disease that
is experienced by everyone because the biggest battle on earth is the battle
between the mind and the heart. Sometimes the heart is full of doubt while the
brain is strong in faith and vice versa.
The best way to deal with self-doubt
is to face it. Take life by the horns. A collection of experiences will
definitely help to reduce self-doubt because the knowledge that we get from the
experiences will help with the self-preparation. For example, if you are not
sure whether you can be a good writer even though you have the talent, just
join any writing websites or competitions. Listen to the ones who criticize
your essays as their factual responses will help you to understand where you
stand as a writer especially your ranking in the cyber world. If you doubt
yourself when you want you pursue your career as a chef, just try any recipes
that you can download from the internet especially YouTube. When you have tried the recipes, choose your
audience carefully especially the ones who are good at cooking. They will tell
you honestly about how far you can go if you were to be a chef. Getting used to
their criticism will help you to face the real world especially your potential
customers who could be the meanest person on earth due their level of
perfectionism as you shall not undermine the complexity of a person’s taste
buds.
Another way to deal with self-doubt
is get rid of naysayers. There are two types of negative people. The first one
is meant to help you no matter how bitter the truth is in what they say while
the second one is meant to drag you down. You shall keep a distance away from
the second one as they are the ones who are governed by self-doubt and your
success is their worst nightmare. You shall not be too hard on yourself when
you have decided to get rid of the negative naysayers as they could take you
miles away from your dreams as words can either build or destroy us.
Having a long meaningful conversation
with your good friends or the ones that you can trust is also an effective way
to reduce self-doubt. Talk about what you want to achieve in life and share the
hurdles that you are experiencing. Perhaps they have something valuable to say
that you might not have thought of before. The best thing about this kind of
conversation is you are free to express yourself in your own unique ways. You
will not be scared to be yourself throughout the conversation. In addition to
that, that conversation feels like you are at home. The presence of threat is
absence.
Reading books which are related to
your self-doubt is compulsory if you are committed to reduce your self-doubt.
Books such as Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins and 7 Habits of Highly
Successful People by Stephen Covey shall be made your permanent companion.
These books will help you to see the real power you have been keeping inside
and how you can develop that power to turn you into a new you. Another book
that you should read is Chicken Soup for The Souls. This book is great because
it helps you to do a long self-reflection about your own self-doubt because
this book offers a collection of real life experiences which could make you
think and reflect on many things.
The last one is prayer. Whether you
believe in God or otherwise, there are so many things in this world which
remain a mystery in which there must be a superpower that has been governing
this universe. Even death is not a full stop. Even our knowledge about
afterlife is limited. Prayer may change the whole thing overnight but the soul
needs divine intervention because only the unseen can really understand the
depth of your self-doubt. (662 words)
Originally written by Mr. Mani Jack
Why being an early riser made me a changed person
Why being
an early riser made me a changed person
Richard
Whately once said, “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day
hunting for it.” It is a beautiful quote
but the regret is ugly as we can never take it back, even a second of the lost
time. If you are always looking for ways to improve yourself, your first battle
is your ability to wake up early in the morning.
Waking up
early has many benefits but it takes a solid self-discipline to turn words into
reality. The first benefit is you will have a lot of time on how you should
start your day. In other words, if you wake up early, you control the time. You
become the boss. Time is technically your slave as you are ahead of your old
self. As you head towards the bathroom, you will have a lot of time to do a
long self-reflection on how today should be better than yesterdays.
Doing
physical exercises can also be done if you wake up early. If jogging is too
much for some, taking a walk or cycling at the nearby park is good enough to
boost your mood throughout the day. If that is not your cup of tea, sitting at
the park while listening to the voices of nature Furthermore, improving your
relationship with nature is very good for your overall health.
Of all the
daily meals, having breakfast of high quality early in the morning is
paramount. As the old saying goes, breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen
and dinner like a princess. If you miss breakfast, mentally you will not be
able to stay focus throughout the day and emotionally you will be too sensitive
in which everyone or anything could annoy you by accident.
Nature is
beautiful but if you wake up late, you will miss the first chapter of the
lovely morning. As an early riser is you will be able to contemplate the beauty
of sunrise. That is actually a very beautiful experience as having the chance
to witness the sunrise serves a very good starter for a positive day. You will
also be able to be more grateful for your surrounding that you might miss if
you wake up late. Your senses could be utilized to the maximum when you wake up
early as you will be able to smell the morning breeze and the sounds of the
early birds which serve as music to your ear. Nature will be very clear to you
when you wake up early as you become more observant of what is happening around
you.
Nobody loves
accident especially car lovers. Being among the first to hit the road in the
morning, you will be able to drive in peace. In other words, you don’t have to
be an angry bird early in the morning. Moreover, you don’t have to shout or
curse at other drivers or condemn the traffic jam. Obviously, you could
consider yourself a little saint that day as you manage to bite your tongue. On
the other hand, you can also avoid unnecessary accidents as traffic jam can
cause anyone to lose control over their anger or some may drive over the
legally suggested speed limit. Being trapped in the traffic jam is the last
thing that you want to happen to you as traffic jam can take away most of your
precious time.
One of the
best things of being an early riser is, when you are the first to reach the
office, you will have the chance to plan your day well as you flip through your
files on your busy desk. You will be able to reflect on yesterday’s progress or
weaknesses to make today better than yesterdays. When you have extra time to analyse the
expectations that you have to deal with on that day, you will have a clear
picture on your personal priorities. If this becomes a habit, being
well-organized will also become a part of your life.
I know it is
not easy to redesign our daily routine but a journey will always begin with a
single step. ( 694 words)
How to balance and compromise your own principles in a relationship
How
to balance and compromise your own principles in a relationship
Ego is the main culprit in any failures of
relationship. Sadly, ego is human nature. It is a part of us. We cannot delete
it as it is biologically there. However, we can reduce it if the love for that
relationship outweigh our personal ego.
Relationship is about two different souls who are
attracted to each other. Some may look physically compatible, but there is no
chemistry between them. Sometimes, even if the chemistry is there, if the
amount of ego is excessive, that relationship will also fail.
When a man decides to have a serious relationship with
a woman or when a woman decides to be committed into a serious relationship,
they can’t avoid the collision of principles. Each of them comes from a
different family background. Each family has cultivated or embedded a different
set of principles which create tension between a man and a woman when they take
their relationship to a another level. Therefore, if both of them refuse to
compromise on their principles, that relationship will be short-lived because
it takes years to build those principles in a person.
Let me share a few principles which could threaten a
relationship. Let say this man has a few of good friends that he loves to hang
out every weekend. These friends are very important to him perhaps they have
helped him a lot in the past. When this man gets into a serious relationship
with a woman, he insists that he will preserve his friendship and will continue
to spend time with his friends every weekend. This belief may make the woman
thinks that she is not important. If she feels unwanted, she may want to say
goodbye early to this man. Therefore, a compromise should be held between this man
and his woman. They should have a thorough discussion about this collision of
priorities. In this case, the man must explain why he treasures his friends so
much and how they have shaped him into a successful man today. His woman must
also acknowledge the man’s need to appreciate his friend’s good deeds.
Regarding the weekly gatherings, they can kill two birds with one stone. They
can also hang out as usual as they have 24 hours a day. A win-win deal must be
achieved at the end of the emotional deliberation. Most importantly, that man
must not make his woman feel that she is not important in his life.
Another principle that could jeopardise a relationship
is no one shall bring problems at workplace home. Perhaps the woman does not
like it when his man brings any issues at workplace home. This principle may
challenge the man’s ego as he may believe that his loved one must know what
happens at the office. Conflicts arise when the man assumes that his woman is
not interested to know about the challenges that he faces at the office. In
this case, perhaps, the man must learn to cool down himself before he reaches
home. Maybe the woman may feel uncomfortable when his man comes home with anger
and frustration. Anger and frustration may cause the man to say certain things
that he should have never said and perhaps these two negative elements may
cause the woman to feel emotionally unsafe at home. Therefore, that man needs
to find a place to reorganize his fiery thoughts due to too much pressure at
the office before he comes home so that he can share anything that bothers his
mind in a manner that does not hurt the feelings of his woman.
No one can avoid conflicts in a relationship because
it is a normal process between two different souls who are trying hard to get
along well with each other. Conflicts are meant to make us more mature.
However, the ending of a conflict depends heavily on each party’s willingness
to reduce their ego because the love for our partner shall always be more
important than our selfish and destructive ego. (673 words)
How to handle grief without disrupting your responsibilities
How to
handle grief without disrupting your responsibilities
There are certain things in life that we can never
avoid such as death, failure and sickness. If we are so healthy today, one day,
sickness will knock at the door. If we are so happy to be alive, angel of
death, sooner or later will come for a compulsory visitation. If we are so
excited with continuous success, failure may come unexpectedly as that is a
rhythm of life. Of all these predicaments, grief is the most painful as today
continuously becomes yesterday as not everyone is emotionally strong enough to
handle grief especially when we lose the ones we adore and treasure so much.
Some people may look okay after they have lost their
loved ones but deep inside them is a buried sadness which is beyond
description. Some may choose to live in illusion believing that the deceased is
still alive. If we refuse to accept the fact that that person is gone, waking
up in the morning is the last thing that we want to do and having a sleep at
night becomes more difficult as the mind is flooded by thousands of tears and
the heart is burdened by the sweet memories with the deceased. I know it is not
easy, but we have to gradually remind ourselves that life on earth will always
be temporary. The next journey after life on earth is a subject that is too abstract
for our mind to comprehend. In other words, letting go is an agonizing process
but if we don’t learn to let it go, that grief will take our body and slowly we
will be lost in our own seas of past in which today is no longer a present that
we should have cherished the most.
If we look at volcanic eruptions, that process has
everything to do with the buried sadness that we have been keeping within. Some
people may shut down themselves after attending a funeral. Their wrinkles are
growing due to repeated frowns. They lost appetite to enjoy their favourite
meals, movies and hobbies. In other words, they are dying as emotional struggle
can badly affect one’s physical appearance. It is impossible to enjoy life in
one week after losing someone. However, we need to make efforts to redevelop
our love for the things we love as I don’t believe that the deceased wants us
to destroy our lives. If we expect the deceased to rest in peace, we should
also learn to live in peace.
The rate of our success in handling grief depends on
the many things that we have to do quickly as a day wasted is equal to wasting
the whole life because tomorrow is just an illusion. Every day should be
treated with love and self-appreciation. Good friends and close family members
should be the first shelter that we look for if we were to handle grief
effectively. They may not be able to offer you a permanent relief but a
constant communication with them including lots of hugs will definitely heal
the invisible wounds that have been stealing your smiles for so long. If you
want to cry in front of them, just do it. The one who does not cry suffer more
than the one who decides to release that pain through every drop of the tears.
Your eyes might be red but at least your heart is able to breathe the air of
happiness again.
Some people may question God in anger when they go
through a grief. It is common to vomit that dissatisfaction on the altar as we
are emotionally and spiritually too weak to understand things which do not
offer quick answer and explanation. Prayer may not be able to put ice on that
anger because letting go takes time as time heals everything. Some people may
take more time than the others as our emotional wounds are different. We may
lose faith sometimes but a second thought about coming back to Him is
obligatory because the shouting heart can only be understood by the divine
element as human beings can only hear but God has the power to listen but it
takes faith to believe that everything happens for a reason. (707 words)
How do you save for that dream vacation of yours?
Title: How do you
save for that dream vacation of yours?
Daydreaming is everyone’s hobby especially when we
think of the beautiful places that we always want to visit once in a lifetime.
The ones who could turn dream into reality are the ones who have clear plans
and a solid determination which is supported by concrete actions while the ones
who can’t make it stay as daydreamers as they refuse to embrace the number of
commitments of a complicated plan.
Thinking of your dream vacation is not enough. You
need a special diary for you to list down everything you need to know about
that vacation. You may print the pictures of that place and keep them in your
diary. If physical diary is too heavy for you, digital diary could be the best
option as your pen-drive can store almost everything you need to know about
your dream vacation including videos of those who went to that place. Their
testimonies will be your best guidelines.
If we take more than we can chew, the plan may fail
miserably as we need to dive deep into the mirror of self-reflection especially
the amount of money that we earn monthly. Even if you do a business, without
self-discipline, the flow of cash is vulnerable to your big appetite. In other
words, the place that you want to visit must be compatible with your wallet. If
you earn RM 1200 a month, I don’t think that you can afford a trip to Bali.
Even if you are single, you need to wait for at least 24 months if you insist
on going to Bali provided if you are willing to save RM 50 a month as you need
at least RM 1200 if you were to stay in Bali for three days including the
flight tickets. It is better to have extra in your pocket. Otherwise you might
end up as beggars in a place where friends and relatives are nowhere to be
seen. It is okay to dream big but we have to acknowledge the bitterness of the
reality of our wages as greater thing comes with a greater price.
As the old saying goes, the world favours the ones who
are prepared. If you really want to turn that dream vacation into reality, you
must act like an FBI agent. You need to gather the intelligence regarding
everything you need to know about that particular place including the expected
and expected cost. You also need to think of an extra budget should something
go wrong throughout the trip as it is better to be safe than sorry.
Everyone can make money but not everyone can save
money as not everyone is taught about financial intelligence or not everyone is
taught about money management at a very young age. Now let us talk about the
amount of money that you are willing to save every month. Let say your vacation
dream may cost you RM 2500 and you want to be there in next December. Basically
you have about 5 more months to go if this August is your starting point.
Technically, you need to put aside at least RM 500 a month. If this proposal
sounds impossible, how do you make it possible? First, you have to study your
daily habits. Do you dine outside three times a day? Do you go clubbing on
weekends? Do you hang out with your friends every weekend? Do you buy
unnecessary items twice a month? Can something be done to reduce the money you
spend on gas? Are you obsessed with online shopping? All of these questions
have to be scrutinized first so that you will know specifically which “luxury”
that you want to sacrifice in order to help you achieve your dreams. No pain,
no gain.
Life is all about creating sweet memories. However,
those sweet memories need careful plan, self-discipline and some money. If we
hate being prepared, don’t whine about ordinary memories. Good luck. If the
other travellers can do it, I believe you can do it. (689 words)