It’s all about life

This is going to be a very long post.

The first part I’m going to talk about a friend, a colleague who is leaving today. The second part of this post, I want to talk about the new staff orientation my teammates and I attended today.

So let’s get started.

An unconventional friend

She might look just the same as the other Malay girls, but once you get to know her, she is just different.

The person I’m talking about is Sera. A colleague of mine who will be leaving us today to chase after her dreams.

Before she left, Kevin gave her a Hari Raya card tear out from his precious Starbucks diary and Peter gave her a paper toy monster that he used to play with for months who he called it “one cent” (because it has a one cent coin in it, as the brain -_-”’ ).

I have nothing special to give her so I want to dedicate this post to her as a way of saying thank you for being my friend.

We have been talking to each other a lot back in time. We used to tell each other about the problems and difficulties we faced in our lifes. What I’ve come to realise is, that she is a very tough girl, one of the toughest girls I’ve met other than Sophea.

She speaks well for herself and she has an open mind not like other Malay girls I know.

I have to admit that I am not as tough as she does because she has been facing so many challenges in her life and still she managed to overcome them all by herself!

Sera, if you are reading this (I know you do), I just want you to know that you have come a long way. Don’t give up on your dreams easily. Continue on doing what you think is right and soon I believe you will find yourself in a stage of life where you can smile and look back on the path that you have come along. You have my best wishes and good luck to you in every aspects of your life.

Good bye.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose

Now the second part of this post is about the new staff orientation organised by a new department of my company called Get Empowered Today. Although I’m not really new staff, but I wanted to know more so I attended as well. What they do is basically give training to the staffs and make them feel passionate about their job.

For that, Faridah – the trainer has done a way better job than just making us feel good about our work but she has inspired us start to think about our lives. Maybe not everyone but at least that’s how I feel.

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

Sounds familiar? Because it’s the tagline of my blog. I read it somewhere and I think it sounded complicated so I used it without really go and understand what it means. But today, I somehow grabbed a slight idea of this quote.

This so called “new staff orientation” turned out to be a session about self assessment, motivation, setting goals in our lives and makes us think about what we want for our lives.

She showed us a fabulous video about the exponential world that we are living in right now called Shift Happens.

She thrown a very good question to the floor. “If you believe in a higher power, what do you think is the reason God put you into this world? Is your purpose of life is to go to work, to stuck in the traffic jam, to have ur daily meals, to watch TV, to go to sleep and the cycle starts again the next day? Think about it.”

I was completely agreed with her. In fact, that’s the question I have been asking myself for a very long time. And we Malaysian Chinese can summarise all that into a single word, sien lah.

We did a few exercises on goals setting and life plans. Although it was only an exercise, but after I’ve done it, I realise that I didn’t really think about what I want in my life all this while. Of course I’ve thought of being a better person or having a better life, but the truth is they are all unclear to me and I really don’t know what I want in my life.

I told myself why not take it as a real deal and try to make it a reality? So I wrote it carefully in a way that it is achievable and it doesn’t cost me an effort of a lifetime.

So let me share with you what I’ve wrote. The words in bold are my answers.

Complete the following sentences without thinking too hard.

I would like to finish the project that I’m currently handling.

By the end of the year I want to get a new car and own an iMac.

By next month I’d like to take up a Chinese flute class.

I’d like to have enough money to travel around the world.

What I want to change most about myself is always afraid to talk to strangers.

I’d like to be the kind of friend who can be seen as a true friend and interact with them naturally.

One thing I’d really like to try is to study and work in a foreign country.

One place I’d like to travel to is New York City.

I guess these will be my short term goals for this year and I will try my best to make it a reality. Afterall, I don’t really want to be the “guy” who is just the same as any other guys in this world.

And lastly, two quotes that are so meaningful which really made an impact on how I think about lives.

The more you give, the more you get.

and

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.