I definitely didn’t coin the term. In fact, I am pretty sure I’ve come across the term ‘choice architecture’ before when reading Nudge. But it didn’t strike me then that I could be that person.

Of course, I’m not pro in designing choices, probably not even close to pro. I will leave that to the likes of Thaler and Sunstein. But since this is my blog, I will just put it down as my aspiring job title.

I guess I have always been designing my personal choices such that I can make them more easily. Calling it finding sanity was probably a bit extreme, and makes me sound like I am locked up in a mental institution trying to break free, which may not be too far off from the truth if you consider the corporate world a mental institution.

I am always trying to find a more sane way of doing things and whenever an elegant solution presents itself after some thoughtful sculpting, I feel at peace, like how I found the shortest path to writing.

For now, instead of coming up with a new theme every now and again to force this blog center around something, I’ll just stick to this job title, until another rabbit runs along and makes me a Rabbit Chaser.

If you haven’t been to the website lately, do drop by as I’ve made some choices to the website design. Maybe you can let me know how bad I did as a Choice Architect.

Have you found your job title yet?

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1. Journey within must be spiritual?

I remember my first experience with meditation. I did Vipassana. I laughed out loud. Somewhat embarassed after that, but since no one was allowed to speak, the embarass-o-meter kept to a minimal level. However, I could never figure out why was I laughing during a quiet time of solitude and reflection. It is only today that I realised this – laughing is a healthy response.

Meditation is one of the many tools that can be used to journal within yourself. My regular tools are writing, Tai Chi, running, day-dream, and stare at something, anything… I laugh during all those activities as well. I don’t know why I did, until a book told me more about laughter. I was laughing at the revelation, of how the truth is so simple and how I build ridiculous barriers around the truth that when the barriers fell, I laughed at my stupidity.

All these while, I thought laughing was an inappropriate response to reality. At some point during my adult years, I learned that reality can only deserve a serious response – reality cannot be a laughing matter. I’m so glad I unlearned this course in life, that reality can be a laughing matter. All you need to do – is laugh.

I laugh. I know I laugh all the time. Now I know why I laugh. Still, even if you don’t know why you laugh, I personally believe that there is not anough laughter in the world, so laugh some more. It is contagious if you laugh out loud. Yes, some people might think you are strange. Some might even think you are disrespectful. Them being uptight is not a reason for you to stop laughing. Just go somewhere else where laughter is appreciated, even welcomed.

You can go out and laugh now.

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When I propose to focus on the journey within, it often attracts a spiritual comment i.e. I must include a spiritual or religious aspect to a journey within. I believe that a journey within could be interpreted as such, but I don’t intend to impose my beliefs on you.

My beliefs are not your beliefs. Everyone has their own beliefs. My purpose here is to promote a journey within. My objective here is to encourage you (and myself) to reflect on our actions and inactions. To ponder about the world within relative to the world outside.

I believe the word “spiritual” or “religion” is just a label. You want to find out more about yourself and your relationship with the universe. Ultimately, our goals are the same. What is our purpose in life?

We don’t have to start with the big question of “why am here on Earth now”.

However, we could always start with something small. Something more tangible. Something that is within reach. Like what is your purpose of reading this article? What do you intend to get out of it? Do you just want something to read? Or do you want to understand why you would like to journey within, even though you feel you are not doing it often enough?

There are many reasons why people hop on to this route. There are as many reasons why people hop off from the route.

By joining this route, you join countless of people who were able to identify exactly who they are, and what is their passion in life.

You may be distracted along the way, and do not wish to be on a journey within. Sometimes, when things happen, you are attracted to this journey again. The journey within acts like gravity. You may busy yourself with life, but you will always gravitate to your journey within.

My own purpose of taking this journey is not to forget myself as part of the equation of this world. Everything I do, I need to do it based on my choice, given any circumstances. Some circumstances offer not a lot of choices, some offer more. I do prefer the former, as life is simpler then. I only need to choose from a limited set of choices, sometimes just from one choice. At other times, my journey within offers a glimpse of other choices which may not be obvious initially.

I do hope you will join me in your own journey within.

If you would like to share your own journey within stories here, just drop me an email through the contact form.

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I use Gmail personally, and if you are a Firefox user, and likes a minimalist way of doing things, check out the firefox extension here. You will love it.

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There was once a ball of light. It came into this world with a glow so bright that everyone can’t help but welcome it with cuddles, blankets and milk.

Although the ball of light is curious by these gestures, it doesn’t question their love and welcomes them with glowing pride.

Soon, as the ball of light got used to the milk and cookies, it began to ask for more. It wants muffins and cheesecake. It wants them to be served on a golden tray. It wants to be carried in a golden chariot to meet them.

After a while, the people who welcomed the ball of light finds it more and more difficult to meet the demands of this ball. So the ball of light rolled around. It rolled outside the comfort of milks and cookies only to be treated to trash cans and banana skins.

Determined to earn its own golden trays and golden chariots, it hurled itself towards the dusty world.

Finally, it got its golden chariot. But the chariot no longer carries a ball of light. As it gathers more dust, the ball of light started to dim. Dusts started settling on to the ball of light, creating layers upon layers of crust. After a while, the ball of light started to get sluggish. The crust formed upon itself is slowing the ball down. It could no longer roll as it use to. The light no longer shines as it use to.

The ball of light doesn’t know why has it come down to this stage. As it look upon its reflection in the mirror, it sees a small ray of light shining through the cracks. The ray of light looks strangely familiar. As the ball of light ventures deeper into the source of this light, it came to the conclusion that it emanated from itself!

It finally realises that it has lost its own light in blind pursuit of other lights. Gold, after all, only reflects light from other sources. The ball of light knows what to do now. It knows it has to find its own light before its too late.

p/s: Inspired by stories from Karate Thoughts Blog, for example, a story of a Karate Sensei traveling in a time machine.

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Now, the cross roads seem to have 2 main roads – be an employee in some firm or go into business. My third eye saw a third road. It hasn’t been surfaced with tarmac. It’s dusty, even cloudy. Doesn’t seem like anyone has been on that road before. And yet, my third eye sees it. And part of me is telling me to go down that road.

Seeing this road reappearing now starts to cast some shadows of doubt on myself. I don’t think I’m a confident person. I guess when faced with new untested things, there will always be doubts. Yet, this test here shows that I’m innately confident, overconfident in fact! I guess when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. In this case, the road will appear. Unfortunately, this road is not clear. I guess I am the one who’s not clear. Not clear where this road will take me. I seem afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of failure? Afraid of throwing everything away? Throwing everything that I’ve spent so much time collecting? Accumulating?

A thought does come to mind now.

Forget about looking good and you’ll look good.

How about…

Forget about the third road, as ultimately, there’s only one road – your road.

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The meme works as follows. You post five things about yourself. Four are untrue. One is true. All are so outlandish, implausible or ridiculous that no one would be inclined to believe that any of them are true. And despite the pleas from your readers, you never divulge which is true and which are fabrications. You then tag five other people (four seriously and one person you are pretty sure would never participate).

Here’s my 5 implausible things:

1. I used to be a woman.
2. I’m a descendent of a Royal Family in China.
3. I can do a real life version of Kamehameha using Qi.
4. I used to dance Salsa competitively. Now, I only do social ballroom dancing.
5. I never thought I was a prankster, until I set off the fire alarm in school and feign ignorance. It was an accident, of course.

Now… the 5 “lucky” ones to do the same would be…. Prata Princess, Jonathan, Matt, Teck, and Michael.

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I quit my day job.

It’s not that the day job is bad. It’s not that I don’t realise the economy is bad. It’s not that I don’t realise everyone else is losing their job and I’m voluntarily losing mine. All these reasons made it more difficult for me to make this decision.

There seems to be something I need to do, but I don’t what that is yet. The day job is not fun anymore, it’s just to pass the day and earn a living. A lot of what is said here strikes a chord with me as well.

I don’t know where this will take me, and I wouldn’t advise this to you as well (yet!). All I can say is this – I am learning. I am learning how to uncomplicate my life. I’m learning why less is more. I’m learning if I can work less and make more profits. Basically, I’m learning the meaning of “less”.

I guess “learning less everyday” does sum it up.

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Today, I treated my silence with words from a page.

I walked into a book shop, and picked up a book called “This is water” by David Foster Wallace. I finished it within the 20 minutes I was there. It’s not so lengthy like a standard book. You can even find the whole text online (if you google hard enough). I read it quickly because I felt the message. It seems to be talking to me there and then, when I needed it.

And then another string of words jumped at me. It’s one of those motivational wallpapers (those that are literally on a wall, rather than those that fills your computer screen). And , surprise surprise, it’s on water again. It’s about a lecturer meeting a group of his ex-students who’s complaining about the stresses in life. He then asked them to pick up a cup of water from a table. Everyone did, only to find out that they picked the best looking cups. The lecturer’s message?

If all you want is water, why go for the pretty cups?

Maybe these water messages will drown out the drought. And I thought of these while having my dinner by the pool. Must be a sign…

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I’ve recently just understood the meaning of working for free. In fact, I’ve been working for free for all these time, when I’m training for my Tai Ji.

Somehow, it’s the things that we do for free that makes life seems more meaningful, until what you do for free is being exchanged for something else, like fame and fortune. And then it becomes complicated, like training for a medal, or training for glory, or training for money, or even training to look good. It’s difficult to ask the mind to concentrate on one thing, and then at the same time focus on attaining something else. See, on the one hand, you’re training to learn the art. On the other, you’re training to attain some physical reward or recognition.

I don’t know whether I’ll ever need the recognition, but the training towards attaining recognition might be counter-productive to learning. The more you train, the less you learn.

Maybe working for free does have its merits. Get paid doing something else. I guess that’s what the day job is all about.

So, I’m good in numbers, spreadsheets, and maybe some writing. Anything I can help you with for free?

Hopefully, if I really add value, the money will come. I guess that’s what Rich Dad’s advice really is. Don’t work for the next pay check. Work to really add value to other people’s life. Money, fame, glory will then follow. So the theory goes…

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