Rising to the level of incompetence

The Peter Principle... hm, very interesting, never heard of this one. But the idea of humans rising to their level of incompetence actually has some truth in it.

Sept 12 - I'm ONE in the Land of Dreams!

When I first took up my current job, I took it to lose myself, and then, to find myself. To open my heart and eyes and learn more about the world than newspapers and packed trips can accommodate. We need sometimes, to escape into open solitude, into the unknowing, run into hazards - in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship and shake up our complacencies. I like that people cannot put a name or a tag to me, and have the opportunity to come into contact with more essential parts of myself.

Part of the enjoyment comes in finding fun in ordinary things, and truly discovering - not in seeing new places but in seeing with new eyes. The past year has taught me not to get answers, but to ask better questions. It has given me the chance to be transnational - able to adapt anywhere, used to being outsiders everywhere and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder. The most valuable Pacifics we explore will always be the vast expanses within us. The year past has brought me to a heightened state of awareness, in which I am hopefully more mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to transformed.

The freedom and joy of traveling in the midst of work has been phenomenal. If a diploma can famously be a passport to a journey through hard realism, a passport can be a diploma for a crash course in cultural relativism. As what Santayana said, "There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar; it keeps the mind nimble; it kills prejudice, and it fosters humour." I know I have evolved to be a better person with a stronger character yet a lighter heart in the past year in the USA. I hope to keep this going - even when I eventually, hopefully get back home. :)

On an aside note, my sister is here, along with Clone! :p We celebrated their visit, along with my 1 year in the USA (which was just purely coincidental) with an evening at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL. I love the bowl! Tonight's concert had guest star Bebel Gilberto (one of my fave. Bossa Nova singers), alongside the LA Philharmonic Orchestra and eye-popping Samba dancers. It truly went beyond what I expected, with even a spectacular firework finale as part of the concert "Firework Finale - Blame it on Rio"!!! What good fun, considering we're going to Brazil - Rio in a month's time! Talk about the little things in life that come so nicely together.. ^_^ (Paiseh, meant to edit the video but no time for iMovie now, so pardon my crazy cheers...u got to see the finale at the end..the fireworks are REALLY amazing!)

The power of Focus & Energy

Buddy & Xiaomeimei left today. I'm missing them already. So much to do, so little time, so many distractions, all rolled up in a period of bad/tight timing. I need to focus so badly. A holiday should be a rather simple affair; it can be so draining when it ends up being a list of justifications and plenty of moving parts. Speaking of which, I read this article in the Harvard Business Review on "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" which I thought was pretty interesting.

The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic. I was reminded of a time in the past when I experienced how interacting with someone really drained the energy out of me even though our conversation hardly lasted 5 minutes. It was so unbelievable, I made it a point to reflect on that. So I really believe in this, we have to learn to manage our energy, not our time. :)

On an aside note, I've been appreciating how God creates opportunities for us in every day life. The way in which things we think are less than ideal do work out beautifully fine like a clockwork mechanism in His time. Really amazing when we get to reflect upon His blessings in retrospect and go "Uh-huh! NOW I know why it happened!" :p

Being an Entrepreneur

Lots of entrepreneurial ideas brewing in my mind lately - I wished so much I could be back home in Asia to make things happen. Hopefully I'll get to be back come Dec/ Jan :p Really liked the part: "Discover what is needed that you believe in with all your heart" ... "Earn enough for your need but not your greed..."

Funny!

Mgmm - this is why I am (was) laughing! I hope you feel better soon! :p Love you! Gmail is really cool...we both tried gmail google chat with video for the 1st time and boy, don't we love google? :) [I love the 2nd photo- check out the funny panty face!]

Just confirmed that I will be in New York, Chicago, Connecticut etc. next month for several business trips...and plan to take the weekends to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto!! - hope that works out!! And hopefully a vacation to Brazil too! :)

Twinternship

Came across this today and initial thoughts were: "Wow, that's cool the way they coin such things"; "Gosh..the economy must be really bad.." but beyond these, it's interesting to ponder over the tremendous impact of social networking tools and how businesses can bang on it for affordable and targeted marketing. :p It's good to be alive!

Muses on life & relationships...

Love people and use things; not love things and use people. I am unusually positive/optimistic/ love to see the good in people/ don't get upset easily but I'm starting to see a trend that in the cases where I have felt disappointed, it's always (100% hit rate) got to do with relationships and how I've perceived others to mishandle it.

To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart. I'm a big relationship person. One who would be proud to say that I'm an extremely loyal friend. If the trust is broken, well, that's another story. I've been telling myself to love others unconditionally and not to expect that being kind to others mean they will be kind to me -so I don't set myself up for disappointments. But whatever happened to the golden rule? - Do unto others what you want them to do unto you. I wished more people could get that. I also wished more people didn't take things for granted. -//-

I've been thinking about whether being nice is a sign of weakness. Many would say that in the -real- world where ethical egoism rules, that's for sure. You need to learn to love yourself; to protect yourself; because nobody will do that for you. But in many ways, being nice is a sign of strength - it's easy to put yourself first; it's easy to only consider your own points of view and tread over the needs and emotions of others. I wish to tread lightly on earth and hopefully have some years to give it more than what I've consumed. -//-

Wedding bells (if not relationship jingles) have been ringing lately. Sometimes I question myself if I've missed out on the best years of my life (for dating) by being all alone here in the USA. I think of the opportunities I've passed on and of the "might-have-beens" scenarios and then what? A tinge of regret, but a lot more faith that the divine works of nature will all come together at some point and one need only be patient. And loving. -//-

Your calendar doesn't lie

Big thought: "Show me your schedule, and I'll show you your life". Hours slip into days, days slip into weeks, weeks slip into months, months slip into years and before you know it, you get what we call, Life. Your calendar doesn't lie. So if you say that health is important to you then there ought to be 3-5 times of workout scheduled in your week. In that respect, much of today has been spent planning how the next couple of weeks are going to look, aside to 5 weeks of Golf class that I've scheduled. Current project ends on 18 Sept (still plenty to be done) and I've got a mega presentation on 23 Sept.. >.<'''

I found out about my next rotation, and am grateful that I'm going to be in LA for the next 4 months. I always wanted to leave LA / go back to Asia/ explore other parts of the world but I think it's a recent development that I'm starting to like living/ working here. I think it's in part because I have companionship from people visiting + my new 'family' (landlord) here which always makes living abroad easier. And it's nice to have the stability of life set in - note: stable but not mundane. (It's an interesting acknowledgment for me as I perpetually run on novelty, change and new experiences.)

Came home from golf to find the following video that Sue made me: (very sweet of her, and a funny video too!) Gosh, I gotta get my healthy regime (i.e. gym, dance and fitness) up and going! (esp. now that I'm gg to be here longer!)

SeafOoOoOoOooD!!!

This is dedicated to my lovely family who came to visit me in June, rushed like a comet from Grand Canyon to Las Vegas and still missed the buffet, 2 nights in a row... Especially dedicated to my littlelest sister, aka MGMM (meiguang meimei- long history behind the name so just take it as it is) with the message, COME BACK SOON! ^_^ (Note: You might want to pause the music on the left side of the blog first, where the purple dog is at)

Wisdom: The Cockroach Theory

Every day, I meet with someone that teaches me something about life. That's the good part of working in an organization where you throw a stone and there's a 50% chance that you'll hit someone who has worked at least 15 years in this company. Today, I met with RR (he's retired now) and he shared with me his greatest investment lesson - the Cockroach theory: whenever you see 1 cockroach, there's bound to be more of them. So if there's a negative surprise, don't wait- just sell the stock straightaway before the massive downward price spiral. It's not always right, but it's right 19 out of 20 times, says RR. That's quite quite hard to do in practice. I wonder about its application to relationships - might that hold too?