Hey guys,
It’s been a month plus since I started my weekly writing and I’ve grown to a dozen of you who has supported me from the bottom up and for that, thank you. Wow, never thought I have 12 people with the opportunity to share my thoughts with. You guys are the reason why I continue to do this and I hope I can deliver more value so that you can take them and go forth, in life, work, and play. Stay woke guys.
On to these 5 weeks’ thoughts and ideas!
We must have a conscious mind to separate our things from what we are as human beings.
There I was sitting alone in a 5-room HDB apartment, lonely, broken, and tired.
I'm surrounded by a 60k fully renovated, victorian themed house. A dream marital home went wrong.
The number of buyers who came over wowed by the intricate gold trims on the walls and ceiling. I just smiled in my heart and pray for them to please buy this house so that I can get over it.
None of them knew was how much I suffered trying to repay the loan taken for this renovation. The long hours I had to break even, the number of times the bank chased for my repayment, stress whenever I saw red letters and creditors’ letters arriving in the mail.
Imagine the pain of all your hard work flying away just to pay off something you don’t even enjoy. Expenses were more than my income. The endless nights I cried battling my depression.
We are often misguided by clinging to statuses that have us believing we're doing well when actually we’re just digging our own graves and becoming a slave to the title. To impress who?
Flexing Lambo's is a means to an end, just another shiny object syndrome that's depreciating in value, another expense you have to keep up with.
This applies to work statuses too.
Don’t get stuck in that trap. Nobody should have to go through that.
Giving is a process for us, not them.
This tweet I replied to Mizi Wahid, got a few retweets and I thought I’d share them here and carry forward the idea.
This is a really interesting story because you would think that the road to recovery from being hurt is to take what’s yours or take revenge. You know, an eye for an eye.
I’ve learned that you can fight fire with fire, which will only lead you to more fire and a broken situation, or you can take it in, and do the exact opposite.
First, you do that by replying to pain with love. Hate, with kindness. Do this without expecting anything back. The process of doing that becomes healing. So it doesn’t matter if you do something and someone doesn’t return them.
You do it for yourself.
It’s okay to have a non-linear career path
Attending reservist is fun for me because I get to talk to other guys and ask where their paths have taken them after serving in National Service.
I’ve spoken to four other guys and all of them have different and interesting career paths.
A just landed a new job in chem tech from his high-paying job as a surveyor. His reason, he wants more time for the family. He’s also thinking of going back to his studies.
B is currently taking his master’s while working as a sports and sciences teacher so that he can continue teaching somewhere else.
C was in cabin crew right after he finished his NS and not sure why he’s in there.
D is planning to hold on to his shift job because he needs stability until he can buy his own house.
Nobody has it figured out or set with what they want to do in their lives. You work a job that has nothing to do with your studies. You take a break so that you can have a mental recharge. You take on a higher demanding role so that you can survive it out through tying times. You’re retired but taking some online courses.
Sometimes we feel that we don’t deserve to share our progress unless we’re at our career peaks — let’s not be afraid to highlight the achievements we’ve made by going backwards.
For me, taking a career break and doing food delivery has allowed me to have my own freedom, develop the discipline to wake up early, and most importantly be with my family every night.
It has allowed me time to also write this newsletter!
Time is your muse
This is Beeple’s Everydays, the first 5000 days which is a digital art sold for $69 million at Christie’s. I got to know about this inspiring post from here.
This isn’t a post about NFTs but about what we can learn from committing to a task every day.
Beeple has never missed creating art every day for the past 14 years.
Click here and If you zoom into the top left, you would see sketches that were early days of his work slowly that work evolved over time.
The underlying story here is that this mosaic, this 131 GB of artwork, is not something that could be done overnight. It’s not just some collage but an encompassing story of one man’s work to persistence, courage, and diving into the process of not being bothered by the outcome.
You could say the same about life. Sometimes we envision ourselves 5 years down the road and become too obsessed with our end goal that we forget the most valuable thing, which is the process, the task at hand.
That process is what shapes our skills and refines them to be more valuable than some end goal status we’re trying to accomplish.
The trick is to be hyper-focused. Do your best each session. Be it, working out, writing, or getting stuff done. Don’t worry about the end as it will come, just focus on now.
If you work on that today, every day will be like Beeple’s commitment to his craft. One task at a time. Over time, you would have a huge load of experience and a story to tell.
What’s your story?
Simplifying your shower
Living a simple life is not just about being normal but about being mindful of the process of how you use the stuff you have.
That includes well for me, showering.
In the past, I would have many different kinds of soaps for my body and shampoo. I’ve also bought expensive shampoo brands which still didn’t work for me (I get dandruff if I don’t take care of my head well) but not anymore.
If you’re sick of leftover soaps piling up in the cabinets, I want to share something I use daily for more than 6 months now.
I’ve been using Dr. Bronner’s Castille Soap (top left) and it saves me plenty of headaches.
I can use it for both body and hair, but the list of uses actually goes on and on, like washing laundry, mopping the floor, and dishwashing soap. Yes. 18 in 1 uses.
What I love about it is that it’s more concentrated than other soap brands meaning you only need a few drops to cover your entire body. 4 - 5 drops at the most. You can mix it with water to dilute it or use it as it is.
I started with the 16oz (473ml) Lavender before buying the 32oz Peppermint (946ml).
I still remember how amazing the lavender smelled. The peppermint has a cleaner with a bit of minty aftertouch on the skin like Gillette’s shaving cream which is great for beards and feeling fresh, but if you can’t take that, Lavender works great.
The Lavender smell for me was the best all-rounder. The smell is therapeutic like as if I came out of a spa after every shower.
I’ve been using the 32oz for 3 months for a two-person usage, yes that’s pretty long. Meaning you only need to buy it 4 times a year. This also means lesser buying of soap products on the shelves and saving the earth.
If you’re thinking about changing soaps for a while and looking for a solidly good one, this one below is a no-brainer. Try using the 16oz first. That will last you for a solid two months.
That’s about it for this week's issue!
I’m still posting on the Substack chat every week to keep up base with everyone. It’s the most direct way to discuss and chat with me and other like-minded people same as you.
If you somehow manage to get to the bottom of this page, thank you so much. I enjoyed writing this newsletter as much as you enjoyed reading it.
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Till next time!