I know what my primary motivation in life is – it is fueled by my passions. If it is directly or indirectly related to health, fitness, beauty, wellness, grooming or shopping, you know I can go on and on. You don’t have to pay a premium fee to engage me too. Just a nominal sum would suffice.

That’s passion! And I really enjoy what I do.

Over the years, I have honed my skills in many areas such as people management, human resource, writing, service quality, audits, planning and leadership. As these areas are outside the scope of my passions, it takes time, effort and brainpower to be a master at them. Thus, it would only make sense for me to charge according to the market rates when approached. I can’t be doing them for free. Sorry, but I don’t do charity with respect to this. Money then becomes my sole motivation. It’s always good to earn extra cash and I’m glad the money’s coming

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To many of us, the world is our oyster. There is always more money to be made at the end of the rainbow, the gleaming new BMW to buy down the road, the sprawling new mansion in District 10 or 11 to hanker for…the list goes on. Because of our insatiable wants, we invariably work our butts off. There really isn’t a second alternative unless you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth or happen to be the lone winner in the lottery draw. Truth is, you really have to work hard for what you want in life. After all, from young, we have been taught that ‘God only helps those who help themselves’ right?

Take a minute to think about it.

On the surface, it makes perfect sense. I’m working hard for a better future for myself and my loved ones. There’s nothing wrong with that. The naysayers are those who choose not to slog their guts out despite having a pair of hands and are physically healthy.

I used to think this way too. But over the last few years, I have changed my thinking. Call me mad. Call me crazy.

There is truth behind my seeming madness. We come into this world with nothing in our hands. So too in the same manner must we return one day taking along nothing with us. It’s such a simple and beautiful concept to me. I’m all for working hard but I’m also equally advocating playing hard. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Just take a quick cursory glance and see how many dull Jacks and Janes there are surrounding us. These people are soulless. They exist only for their next big ticket item.

The concept of impermanence is different from that of leaving a legacy. Nothing we own today – our money, property, shares and even loved ones are permanent. They are just temporary instruments for us in this lifetime. Once our candle has reached its end, we need to bid farewell and move on to the next realm. We cannot bring along our assets nor loved ones.

Since nothing is permanent, why insist on making it permanent? This is something I cannot understand. Even if you engage the best sculptor in town, he cannot cast them into iron.

I’m happy with my lot in life. I’m content with what I have. I’m grateful for the opportunities that have come and will be coming. I’m enjoying my life now. I don’t need a fancy car to prove that I have arrived nor an LV bag to enhance my status. I am just me – plain, simple and happy.

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I didn’t expect my client to say this but she sure made my day today. This was what she said after the training. “I really liked the workout we did today. It’s different from the other ones we did previously. I really liked it. Thanks.”

I felt I was on cloud nine thereafter. My surroundings were super bright. My steps were super light. My spirit was super high.

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Do you ever feel that you could do anything – if you just knew what it was?

Nothing is worse than not having a clear direction. Without a clear direction, you are either paralyzed or busy running around in circles. Each of us is unique and different. Each of us has something special to offer to the world. Each of us has our own natural gifts and talents. For some of us, we have just not been awakened to them yet. That’s why we feel frustrated and zapped of energy.

Two women left indelible marks in my life this week. They are Susan Boyle and Hollie Steel, both participants in the ongoing third installment of Britain’s Got Talent.

Boyle, 47 and Steel, 10 didn’t know they had a wondrous gift that God had given them until they opened their mouths to sing. Boyle, the spinster who has never had a relationship was the target of many a joke and jeer because of her frumpy outlook and dressing. But floor the audience and get a standing ovation she did when she did a rendition of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’. Even Simon Cowell, the hard to please judge, is tipping her to win the competition.

Steel, the tiny little girl who looks just like any other school-going kid wasn’t impressive initially when she did her ballet performance. It was stereotypical. But when she launched into ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’  and hit all the high notes, she was proclaimed a child prodigy in the making.

There is greatness in all of us. Some of us lucky ones have already been enlightened to what our gift is. As for the rest of us who are still searching, come will that day when we truly come alive!

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When Fermina Katarina Sinaga, a teacher at Model Primary School Menteng 1 in central Jakarta asked her class to write an essay titled “My Dream: What I want to be in the Future”, one of her third-grade students by the name of Barack Obama wrote “I want to be president.” And in a written assignment on family, he wrote “my father is my idol.”

Barack Obama’s dream subsequently came true when he was elected the first black president of the United States of America on 05 Nov 08.

Many of us had dreams when we were younger. We dreamed of being someone great when we grew up. We dreamed of accomplishing some major feat when we grew up. For some, we dreamed of becoming an astronaut or pop superstar. For others, we dreamed of becoming a millionaire. For some, we dreamed of travelling the world with our loved ones. For others, we dreamed of building houses in third world countries. Whatever our dreams were then, we had the courage to dream.

When we started growing up, many of us forgot our dreams. In the pursuit of excellence, but more because of practical reasons, our dreams have had to be sacrificed. You want to be an astronaut? Come on, we don’t even have a space industry to speak of! You want to be a millionaire? Wake up as you can’t even make ends meet now! You want to build houses in third world countries? Forget it as you can’t even afford to own a roof over your head!

Isn’t it interesting to know that we don’t have to pay to dream? In fact, dreams are free! And that’s the best part of it. Yet despite this, many of us are afraid to dream now that we have become adults. We don’t dare to dream anymore because most, if not all of our dreams thus far have not materialised. Instead they have morped into our worst nightmares. We are saddled with credit card debts, so kiss goodbye to the dream of travelling around the world with our loved ones. We are holding two or more jobs concurrently, so kiss goodbye to the dream of becoming a millionaire. We can’t even hold a tune properly, so kiss goodbye to the dream of becoming a pop superstar.

What we fail to realise is that dreams are what give us hope to live on in this world. Without dreams, our life becomes uneventful and even draggy to an extent. Day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out – everything remains the same for us. Dreams give us courage to push through the veil and reach for that clear blue sky. Dreams help us re-establish our inner most power and become warriors in our own ways.

Had Obama followed the pack and not dared to dream big, do you think he would have succeeded to become President of the United States of America? He could probably have been someone’s slave now or a lowly paid teacher in a third world country. Because he dared to dream, and dream big, it gave him the impetus to go for it. The ultimate prize in the form of the White House was his to clinch in the end.

This reminds me of a group of people whom I really admire. They make things happen. This group of people knows what they want in life. They will develop a game plan, make goals and take action to reach their goals. They pursue their ambition with single-mindedness and ultimately succeed.

They will get out of their comfort zone, put on their running shoes and run their first kilometer after years of non-running. I salute this group as they dare to dream and thereafter take immediate action to realise their dream. Just like Martin Luther King who once proclaimed ‘I Have A Dream….’ and with that dream, he changed America and made world history.

Daring to dream is not good enough. We must believe in the dream and make it our own dream. Some of us have dreams but they are not ours to own. Many a times, we are living out someone else’s dream. Very often, it is the dream of our grandparents, parents or siblings. We can be that noble but it’s painful to be living someone’s dream for them. It’s like having to take the tonsure overnight.

This was a tale I heard when I was young of mothers and daughters. It is not uncommon of mothers to tell their daughters that they must open their eyes wide when they grow up and marry a rich man. By implanting such a sublimal message in the minds of the daughter, the mother has inevitably passed her own dream to her daughter. Of course, during the mother’s time, hers was an arranged marriage so how could she have chosen to marry a rich towkay? The mother’s dream is now the daughter’s dream. Suitors come and go but the daughter rejects all of them because they are deemed not rich enough to support her tai-tai lifestyle. When the rich man comes along, she jumps at the opportunity. But the marriage, though financially fulfilling, is not compensated in all other areas. Little does the daughter know that true happiness is not measured in monetary terms. It was not the daughter’s dream to begin with. Her original dream, if she ever had one to call her own, was to marry a man who truely loved her for who she was and vice versa.

Go on, dream as dreams are free. More importantly, stake your ownership to the dream as it’s your very own and nobody can steal it away from you except yourself!

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Friend S texted me saying there’s going to be a free meditation clinic in town and urged me to go along. As I am already practising meditation, I thought it strange to want to go check it out. But in the end I still went along as S really wanted to go. I suppose S was afraid it would turn out to be a cult gathering of sorts.

Indeed it was different. From the moment we stepped into the venue, we were warmly greeted by rows of volunteers lined up on both sides of the entrance leading to the lifts. These volunteers wore sashes, bowed and smiled like beauty queens. I was a little taken aback by the hospitality as I felt I was like attending a wedding dinner reception or was a megastar walking on the red carpet leading to the gala movie premiere.

The first impression they gave me was that of a warm and friendly host. Kudos! In fact I was quite tempted to take pictures with the “beauty queens with the sashes” but a pity I didn’t bring my digi cam along.

After we registered, we were handed a brochure and a translator set. Yes, the session was definitely not going to be in English. In fact, it was going to be in Korean. Oops!

When we entered the hall, it was already packed with people. I found empty seats on the left side and wanted to sit there when one volunteer stopped me. Seat’s taken I thought? No. Left side seats are for Korean speaking people. Right side seats are for us non-Korean speaking people. Oh I see.

As we non-Korean speaking people largely outnumbered the Korean speaking people, the introductory speaker declared he was going to speak in English. I remembered I was the first one to applaud loudly and even shouted out in total agreement. And so the session started.

We were treated to a video presentation of grateful people who spoke of how their lives had changed as a result of this school of meditation. I must admit it was a beautifully produced video with lovely CGI graphics of hills, valleys, running waters, birds, butterflies and the oh so pretty sights of Nature. I felt I was transported to the ancient pugilistic world of Louis Cha. Perhaps I was the Condor Hero incarnate himself? Maybe.

The ‘human stories’ or testimonies as we would call them in layman terms were touching. Again, the graphics were impressive. It certainly was gold standard compared to some of the trashy MTVs you see on Youtube.

And then the meditation founder spoke. That was the part I had to rely on the translator set as he spoke in Korean. Funny sense of humour he had but I half suspect he was eager to bond with the audience. We had to nod our heads and smile constantly to show that we understood what he was trying to say, less he would repeat it all over again. Non-verbal blackmail on a smaller scale? Perhaps.

Meditation is good as it helps one to relief stress, worry, anxiety and leads to ultimate happiness. I believe meditation of any kind, when done earnestly, will lead to ultimate happiness. Similarly, in his theory, the Korean founder spoke of the compelling reasons why mankind was not happy. He used his ‘film theory’ to explain the explain the stark differences between the Truth and False. Guess I learnt two new Korean terms tonight – chincha (Truth) and kacha (False). Not bad.

Men is false because he is living in a false world which is created by his own film. Men uses his eyes, nose, mouth, ears and body to record experiences he has had and stores them in his film memory. But this film memory is but a mere collage of his life from birth till date of the people, events and locations he has been and taken ’snapshots’ of. His judgement of what is good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or evil, is based on the film he has recorded. Simply put, the film is a hotchpotch, a photocopy of the world that is not the world itself. Thus, men is false.

Age old questions which have continued to plague scholars today like “where do men come from” and “where do we go after death” could be answered in the meditation sessions.

Yes, we all want enlightenment. But enlightenment at what price? As the Korean founder shared his personal story, he also touched a personal chord with me. Everyone has a gift to share with others. It doesn’t matter who you are. We are all unique in our own way. Just like the founder himself who began searching for the Truth after waking up one morning at the age of nine to find his father lying dead next to him.

People who live in the film will die in the film as it’s hell. Only when we discard the film via a method he terms subtraction, can we live eternally and return to the original foundation. From the original foundation, when we are reborn, we become One with the universe.

There are many layers in the human mind so we must subtract it layer by layer to reach the original foundation. So it wasn’t surprising to learn that the meditation course comprised 8 levels. Wow, it was beginning to sound like an education system altogether. And each level would take between 1 month to 3 months or even more to complete, depending on the speed of your progress and frequency of visit to the meditation centre.

I shared with S thereafter my own thoughts of the clinic. The subtraction method is not entirely new. What the Korean founder refers to the subtraction method would be in my own terms ‘peeling the onion’. Just like a human mind comprises many layers, so does an onion. In order to reach the core of human consciousness, we need to peel away the outer layers of the onion, slowly, but with full intention. Sometimes, when one peels the layers of the human onion, tears will fall. That’s natural as we are clearing emotional baggage and untying the knots in our life. You get the same effect too when you peel a physical onion. I alluded the peeling of the layers to that of an onion to my own meditation teacher back then when I first started meditation and he said it was a very appropriate one. I guess I have also contributed my own theory…hehe.

I thought we could at least have gotten a trial taste of the “subtraction” method but there was not to be. Owing to time constraint (which is often the case), it was only talk, talk and more talk. There wasn’t any actual sit down, close your eyes 10 minute meditation. If I were conducting the session, I would have given participants a taste of it. After all, how can we gauge for ourselves unless we try it for ourselves right?

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It was a pleasant surprise seeing my meditation teacher at the same course. It’s great to see him as we have had only a chance to meet up once after the Nepal trip. Time really flies when everyone gets busy.

When he saw me, he immediately commented that I glowed. I laughed. Indeed. When your spirit is free to pursue its true calling, you can’t feel any other emotion but happiness. Pure happiness.

Then he told me he had something to share with me and pulled me aside.

Being the obedient student I was, I followed the teacher to a corner of the hall. This was when he revealed the truth.

Nepal was a test for me. At Nepal, I learnt three lessons.

First, determination.

Yes, I was really put to the test. I had to go vegetarian for the meditation trip. Then there was the need to continue going vegetarian for the next 1 month after return.

The chilly mornings and nights, coupled with the hot afternoons was enough to throw my skin into disarray. I suffered from ultra dry skin when I returned and no matter how much moisturiser I used, my skin still felt it needed more hydration.

Second, patience.

Something unfortunate happened during the Nepal trip. As it was highly personal and sensitive, I have not blogged about it. I chose to forgive and forget the incident. I also bless the actor involved.

Third, clarity.

Nepal set my life direction up so clearly that when I returned, I knew what actions to take immediately. After I took action, I started attracting positive things into my life.

Though the months and years may fly by, I will always have fond beautiful memories of Nepal. Nepal transformed me and allowed me to be reborn. Thank you.

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Today is a very special day in my life as it’s the official last day of my employee work life. And what better way to celebrate it than fly back to Singapore from Bangkok? Tomorrow marks a new beginning and a fresh start.

I was jaded, I was tired. I didn’t know what I was doing. Yes, the pay was good and it gave me a comfortable standard of living. But inwardly, I felt something was missing. Physically I may be in the office working. But mentally and spiritually, I was somewhere else. And that’s not being fair to both myself and the organisation. You can call me a walking zombie, someone devoid of passion for his work. Sometimes I don’t even agree with the policies crafted, let alone compel myself to spread the message to the ground.

I’m a maverick. I hate rules and regulations. I hate the standard operating procedures. I like to be different and stand out from the crowd. Staying would mean a further compromise of my true self and a continued suppression of who I really was.

Like what I have shared with some of you, I didn’t plan when I would resign nor come up with plans to start my businesses in the fitness and wellness industries. Things started happening to me after my Nepal trip. I saw the opportunities coming and seized them. The rest as they say is history.

I am like the phoenix reborn. I used to be so lost in this world. But now I am so clear about my life direction. Crystal clear in fact.

A lot of credit must also be given to the Dalai Lama’s book “The Art of Happiness At Work” which I bought in Nepal. Reading the first few chapters already opened my mental faculties as every page was laden with pearls of wisdom.

When asked what he would do in the work environment should there be a lot of injustice and exploitation, the Dalai Lama replied that he would change the environment than accept it. He further elaborated that he would either cause a revolution or rebellion to actively resist exploitation from the boss (along the same lines as what he’s doing in the face of Chinese injustice to the Tibetans) or simply quit and look for other work.

I knew instantly that option 1 of starting a revolution would be simply unthinkable in my organisation as I could find myself marching into the cells of Changi Prisons Complex. Option 2 sounded a lot more logical. In fact, it resonated with what my heart really wanted.

For all of you who are still finding your special day, Robbie Williams sings, “I know all of you will find your freedom eventually…for eternity.”

Cheers to freedom

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Was having lunch with my friend this afternoon and we were updating each other. The grass always seem to be greener on the other side. But at the end of the day, we came to the same conclusion –  we are all looking for a better life…somewhere, somehow, someday.

This is the inspiration behind my newest extended sonnet “Rebirth”. The conventional sonnet has 14 lines, but my extended sonnet has 28 lines. The first 14 lines can be read separately from the next 14 lines, but I would recommend reading them together.

We are all seeking rebirth. Till that day comes, enjoy

Rebirth
I brought my hopes and dreams into this world
only to have them doused out over time.
Beaten, jaded, I give up all the fights
and just conform to societal norms.
Blinded through years by the fast pace of life,
I live with my self-doubt, self-fear, self-blame.
Knowing not who or what I am inside,
I have traded my soul and am now lost.
Is there meaning in life with fixed reprise?
Can I now still turn back the hands of time?
I pray let me connect with my inside
to feel the true essence of my being.
The old me has to now wither and die
I peel away the thick layers outside.
to find the true meaning of life’s purpose.
And this is when I reawake my mind.
I was sent to this world for a reason.
It’s a unique mission journey of mine.
I care not what others will think or say.
I will fight the fear and move on with might.
I will tread on new grounds to stake my rights.
I trust the universe to come along,
letting my heart decide my new life song.
No one can steal my dreams away from me.
With my hands, I create my destiny.
I shine my light onto this world with love.
Passion guiding, my gift for all to see
I am happy. I am light. I am free.

Lionel L (06 Mar 2008)

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Motivation comes in all forms – eg. having a feel really good emotion within, friends encouraging you on, good food you will treat yourself, a present you will buy yourself etc…

It’s strange how I find motivation from quotes. Quotes that are so meaningful and spur me on in my daily grind. Here’s some of them I’d like to share…

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‘You need not leave your room. Remaining sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet and still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.’ – Franz Kafka

‘Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.’ – Helen Keller

‘Each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow.’ – George W. Douglas

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