Time to Smell the Roses

... October is here already. It's a New month... I have to write a NEW Posting!!!! Time flies when We (I mean "I") are Lazing around... =)

Just had TWO Big glasses of Vanilla Tea. Bought it in Mauritius some time back. It is tea, with a tinge of Vanilla. Yummy.

Anyway, I'm gonna be an owl tonight, so I might as well Blog. Give you "Eng" people something to read about and less thing to complain about...

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During my younger years (not that I am old now), I was a "Green" person. I supported "Save the Environment" campaigns, I recycled, reduce wastage and most importantly, I cared. I believed that I could make a difference.

By entering teenage, everything started to change. We break free from our parents, whether they liked it or not, we started to develop our own set of thinking and we begin to allow ourselves to be fixated on certain beliefs, be they true or not.

I was an idealist. I always thought I could change the world. Make it a better place. (I know it sounds cliche, but that's was the way I felt).

As life moved on, transiting from 1 life-stage to the other, I started focusing on studies, then to career and money. I forgot about my ideals. I forgot what I wanted to do. I only remembered that I had to climb the corporate ladder, needed work hard for money to start and sustain a family. I got caught in the rat trap.

Many of us get "entangled" in the working society, and we either forget our passion, or we forgo it.

Fortunately for me, I found a ray of light guiding me to a tiny hole in the rat trap and squeezed my way out of it. I'm glad I followed the light, the light which many others were skeptical of following. (* Watch too much Ratatouille *)

With the flexibility that I have now, the time can be used to do so much more meaningful stuffs - write a blog, do some planting, feed some fish, recycle items, take mini-steps to saving the environment...

Every single minute, we are killing the Earth. And, it is retaliating - constantly showing us it's wrath. The tsunami, the recent and more frequent earthquakes, the increasing sweltering heat, the adverse temperature changes. If everybody does just 1 small part to be more Earth-friendly, it would make a difference.

2 Small Steps to start:
- Drive Less, Walk More. (It's good for health anyway)
- Use Less Paper. Recycle more Paper.

All of us have limited time. Some longer, some shorter. Regardless, do we want to look back with remorse, or look back with pride? I know I don't want to look back thinking that there were so many things in life that I wanted to do but never got a chance to do. Neither do I want to look back and lament about the things that I have done, but shouldn't.

We only live 1 life. Remember to Take time to Smell the Roses, Enjoy the Greenery, and Save the Earth. Save OUR Earth.

Phew!

Wah! It's been almost 1 month since I wrote my last blog! It's unbelievable... but it happened....

I could not LOG-in!!!!! Because, for some reasons, the site could not recognise my user name! It was scary.... Anyway, obviously, I was able to reset everything, and here I am sprouting again...

Back on track... For all of you who've read my previous post and commended it, THANK YOU!!! (It gives me motivation to write more...)

For those of you complaining that I haven't written my blog for so long... STOP complaining!!! I very busy one ok.... ( busy complaining that I am bored, busy doing nothing.... )

To reward all of you for reading, I shall write a long blog so that you will have more things to read about... And then you won't complain that I write too little, too infrequently. ( This blog should be able to last for another month!!!! )

So, let me start this issue of blog properly, by telling a story.... ( sounds familiar hor... )

Last Friday, I met up with an old friend, also my ex-colleague, for dinner. During dinner, we started talking about what we are doing, on how his job is, where to go for holiday, and so on... (the dinner topics). He started commenting that I was taking things too easy, that I should work, and not take things so lightly, and that it is difficult for the man to take care of the family. (Having said that, it's obvious that he's also married lah...)

So I told him, I am bringing in the income, just that I don't have to work for a single day because I enjoy what I am doing.

The sad thing was, he replied, How I wish I can be like you...

Immediately, I asked him, "Why not?" He wasn't able to reply me. And if I was to ask most of the working people the same question, they won't be able to answer as well.

Even now, I'm thinking, Why not? Who states that we HAVE to work? Crawl out of Bed every morning? Follow rigid hours? Get Stressed? Spend more time with colleagues, bosses, office people than with the family? Pursuing a career is one thing. But having to work?? I can't see myself doing that anymore. The sheer thought of doing something I'm not interested in, wasting that precious time and energy - No way. It's like, once you've tasted the "forbidden fruit", nothing else will ever come close to it. (Also, abit like drugs lah... but I MUST declare, other than medicinal drugs, the social drugs I never take before.)

I remember someone once told me, "If you love doing what you do, the money will come." And I believed in that. I still believe in it. Even if the money don't come, the experience, the joy, the sense of fulfilment - All these money cannot buy.

Of course it wasn't easy for me at first. After I left my engineering job, I was "running" around for 1 year, jumping into everything else I could get myself into, instead of doing what I already knew I wanted to do. I feared that the money wouldn't be enough, that there would not be enough to sustain the household. I scringed on everything, food, clothes, transportation, leisure, etc.

Finally, I decided enough was enough and I took my leap of faith. The result today - I'm simply enjoying life. I don't work. I merely go out and have fun, enjoy myself, and bring in the income. Do I earn 5-digit income a month, NO. Will I get there - eventually. At least for now, I am making more than what my previous company would have paid me if I had stayed there for another 3 years. And I "work" half the total hours a month. Do the math yourself if you want. The income of a starting Engineer is about $2500 a month. Add in pathetic increments, pathetic promotions, maybe some loyalty bonus, in 3 years time, how much would it add up to?

Today, I'm already making more than that and the BEST is:

It's from Doing what I LOVE to DO!!!

Then, there will be those who read this and say, Cheh, that's you mah. You lucky, your case different mah. I got this commitment, that commitment, how can any how...

Everybody is different. Among the people who succeed, there are no two who were in the exact same situation. Everyone has their difficulties. But yet those people succeeded. If they can do it, why can't I and why can't you?

Know what you want. Do what you love. And everything will fall into place.

My MM Experience

Finally, the cat is out of the bag.... Why did I suddenly start a blog... Why did I start writing my journals online.... (drum rolls.......)

I wanted to share about a Wealth Creation Program that I attended about 2 years ago (Nov 2005 to be exact) in KL, Malaysia:

Prior to November 2005, I attended a preview seminar for the Wealth Creation Program, via an invitation from a local bank. The preview seminar was titled "You Can Create Wealth" (YCCW). I sat in that seminar for almost 4hrs and was blown away by the ideas that were shared by the speaker on how to take action, take risk, think out of the box, create wealth, move towards financial freedom, etc... To top it up, the speaker mentioned that he would help us make $10,000 (SGD) in 2 years, if we signed up for his main program "Money Mastery", which encompasses a 3-days boot camp and 2-years mentorship. Believing that the Money Mastery Program would really help me, I signed up for the program.

After attending the Money Mastery Boot Camp in KL in Nov 2005, I was sure I could achieve my goals - Create Wealth, Step out of the Rat Race, Reach Financial Independence and To follow my passion.

Now, as I write my blog and look at my current status, I have left the Rat Race and is following my passion. But, I have yet to Create Wealth, and is not reaching Financial Independence any time soon... Still, I believe that I will get there so long I focus on my goals and not on the obstacles.

Did my life change after attending the program? Of course it did. And it changed for the better. I stopped working, and started enjoying life and still had my income. How cool is that!

Who says you can'y have your cake and eat it?

Why choose Money over Passion when you can have both? =P

OMG

My blog has been up there for... ... ... ... ... TWO days....

and there are no responses.... that's sad....

My first time...

Wow....

I can't believe it!!! MY first blog... It's almost as exciting as writing my very 1st journal....

Sharing my thoughts online... That's a little weird.... it's like writing in my diary book that I had to hide from my mother... just that in this case, I'm showcasing it to the world (except to my mom - she's not IT savvy) ;P

Still collecting my thoughts... so still don't really have much of an idea of what to write for the debut blog...

That's probably it for now... Will come back with more in future...

Stay tuned. =)