The Journey Within

Ever wish you have a gadget that could just blend away the blunders that you’ve made? To be able to start over? To be given a second chance?

Sometimes, you get a second chance, sometimes, you don’t. In either case, you’ll still need to create a mental blender to shred up the blunder you’ve made, in order to move on. Maybe this blender should be part of the office supplies. Maybe we can create a ritual around the trusty old blender.

Imagine writing down your mistake, acknowledging it in front of everyone. Then ceremoniously shred the paper containing your blunder in front of everyone. You could also include a one minute silence to honour the ritual, with everyone around vowing never to repeat your blunder, and never to use your mistake against you from now on.

If you haven’t already guessed it, I recently made a blunder at work, and losing sleep over it. I’m dumping my thoughts here and hope to move forward, since that’s the only direction that time flows – forward. And now is the only time I wish time flies!

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I was lucky enough to be invited to stay over at an organic farm, only to be the generous blood donor to those pesky mosquitoes. So here I am typing this article while the bite marks stare evilly back at me. Still, I’ve enjoyed the stay. It’s a breath of fresh air, literally, from the monochrome buildings that I’ve been working at every day.

I’ve read Michael Pollan’s book – the Omnivore’s Dilemma, where he writes a lot about the way our food is prepared and how difficult it is for us to get a decent wholesome meal that respects the environment and the animals that we eat. This is my chance to see an actual organic farm in action. But one night stay was only sufficient for me to sample the fruits from the farm.

I spoke to the couple who’s managing the farm, so I can only get a glimpse into their 10 years’ toil (and still going strong!) into this farm. I guess to sum up, it’s not easy. It takes a lot of observation, a lot of trials and errors, before something decent can come off the farm. Even selling the fruits from the farm proved to be testing. The shops will demand a low price, but sell them off at 600% mark up! (Beware organic food buyers!)

I think they should go direct, and make people go to their farm, instead of them going out of their way to market their fruits, but our conversation did not get that far (yet). Maybe I can propose something the next time I’m up, and I believe there will be a next time, with my insect repellent at hand of course.

Nevertheless, I have been trying to connect the dots of how we manage the environment, in the literal sense and in a broader sense as well. If you’ve been following my blog, I’ve been reading a biography on Maria Montessori, and she also mentioned about creating an environment suitable for the child’s learning. My current Tai Chi teacher is also trying to create such an environment so that we learn more wholesomely rather than just copying what the teacher does (see article on avoiding imitation).

So what’s the line connecting these dots?

I believe it’s “respect” – respecting the environment, respecting the people around us. The organic farmer will try his best to respect the soil he’s standing on, to respect the plant’s whims, to respect the uncertainty of the weather, to respect that brute force is not the best force for the plant to grow. The children’s teacher will need to learn to respect the child as having her own thoughts, respect that the child will know what’s best for himself. The Tai Chi teacher will need to respect that each student is unique, and that there’s a time for growth for that student, and the time may not be now when the student’s not ready.

All these doesn’t mean that we should allow free flow, and let the environment survive on its own. You might as well grow weeds. It also doesn’t mean the student should be left alone to do whatever she wants. The title of this article is managing the environment, so we have to place certain limitations for growth.

It sounds contrary to growth, but it’s only with limits that we are liberated to do what we can. See my recent example on how limits are liberating.

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I woke up at 5.30 in the morning, without an alarm clock. Since I’m awake, I might as well do something productive. So I listed down what I wanted to do, booted up my computer and started arranging my work place. Then I found a bill which I needed to pay. So I went online and pay the bill, and saw that the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) is on, and they’re talking about the new iPhone! So i started following the blog on engadget. Before I know it, it’s 6.30 in the morning, and I haven’t done what I’ve set out to do…

Limits are definitely important. It forces us to focus. It even helps us to do better if we have artificially created a limit on ourselves (see article “Imagine hitting the wall“). Without limits, we are faced with endless choices. On the face of it, it sounds like a good thing to be given so many choices. On closer scrutiny, the many choices actually fill us with more confusion. Here lies the paradox of choice – more is less.

Going back to my morning of non-productivity, I ended up setting myself a few 30-minutes block. Each block of 30 minutes, I set to do something on my to-do list. On that morning, it’s to clear my desk, to write something (I’ve got some half finish drafts), to read something (plenty of newspapers, magazines and books to catch up on) and to have breakfast. I manage to write more and read more in each of those 30 minutes block of time, with ample time to clear the desk completely. I even had time to have a slow unhurried breakfast with my wife.

So, when you thought you have a lot of time in hand, you actually don’t, unless you know what you’re going to do with that time, and for how long. Otherwise, it’ll be going from one task to another without actually accomplishing any task. Like clearing the desk, and seeing there’s a bill to pay, letters to file, books to read, food to eat, water to boil, and the desk remained cluttered…

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Someone on the train chose a baby’s cries as a ring tone on her phone. Her phone rang which made everyone turned their attention to her, only to realise she’s pregnant. Someone then stood up to offer her a seat. She didn’t even thank him and seem to think it’s her right. And her crying baby kept on crying, which is very annoying, especially when I found out it’s a fake cry. Must be a bad day at home (because of the incessant phone messages). She must really like the cries, or like the attention. I wonder if she’s going to have the same attitude towards the real baby when he/she’s out.

Nevertheless, it has presented a good useful alert to others, and if you’re pregnant, your chances of getting a seat will probably be very high, unless someone is so kind enough to use other strategies, like the one suggested in this post.

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A panda destined to be a Dragon Warrior, and yet do not have a clue how. Let’s face it, have you seen a panda fight? Even his teacher is clueless how to teach this panda kung fu.

So the movie begins with how each other found faith and belief in each other, and themselves – the panda to believe he can learn kung fu, and the teacher to believe he can teach kung fu – to anyone.

The best quote I liked from this movie is this:

There is no special ingredient

If you’re waiting to learn about one special ingredient so that you’ll progress tremendously in whatever you’re trying to learn, you’ll be disappointed, because there’s no such special ingredient. You can definitely get away with the skills you have, but it will not bring you very far, unless you realise that there is no special ingredient, then your mind opens and everything is acceptable.

This is the mind of the child, the absorbent mind, as discovered by Maria Montessori. And maybe, this should be the mind of the learning adult as well.

p/s: i like kung fu movies, even the really bad ones, and this is not half as bad. Do watch it. It’s hilarious, if you don’t mind it being a cartoon.

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When it comes to money, the holy grail of all questions is always “how to make more money”. I believe this is only part of the equation of making money. We also have to know how to spend the money so that we will end up having more money to make more money. I believe this is what I mean when I say:

Think BIG, drive small

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I got this quote from a comic book about a kung fu kid:

To surpass yesterday’s me, I have to train today’s me.

It’s original Chinese version is:

为了超越昨日的自己，所以要磨练今日的自己。

Enjoy.

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