Being Steadfast in Life

Hold yourself steadfast in life, unaffected by external events and you will enjoy every moment of your life.

I am sure we all have goals and wishes. We all have things that we want to achieve even though not all of us will be actively pursuing them. For those of us who do strive to pursue them, sometimes things get us down and we easily lose the motivation or drive to continue our pursue.

I have been working on building a web development company for close to 3 years and building a successful business for more than 6 years. I would say that the current result is not to my satisfaction. Everyday, I work towards my goal of a successful business but for the past few months, it has not been enjoyable and rewarding.

In the past, whenever I have a goal, I wake up everyday with a strong urge to achieve it. I will drill myself everyday until the day that my goal is achieved. Thereafter, I will walk away from it and find another challenge.

I seems to lost this feeling for a while. Perhaps it is the length of the pursue that dilutes the passion in it. Perhaps it is the height of this goal that requires more of me. Perhaps...

This morning, I am not feeling motivated and yet I have to work. My goal seems to become a compulsory situation that I am in. My life has become such that I MUST complete this goal before I can ever move on. Such "trapped" situation is certainly not very encouraging for me.

This posting is not meant to be a lamenting post. Sometimes the choices that we make in life drive us to the path we are taking now. It is not random nor by chance. My choices in life has so far making me a better and stronger person and hence comes the lesson of today - Hold yourself steadfast in life, unaffected by external events and you will enjoy every moment of your life.

My situation may not be the worst in the world, but it is definitely not envious by anyone. No matter what, holding myself steadfast in my goal and not to be affected by external events, I have come to understand more about life, and learn more about enjoying it.

We all have choice to allow what events to affect us. We all have the power to choose. So let's choose to keep the positive things in us, and to keep the negative things away. This way, we will be accumulating happiness, and appreciating every moment of our lives.

Self-Appreciation Generates Good Feelings

How often do we forget to give ourselves due credit for the great things we have done? I am a person who don't really give a hoot about what I have achieve before. I used to believe that what's achieved, is achieved.

However, I have a new prespective about that now. You should always remember what you have, have achieved, and how great you are as a person. You should be giving yourself the due credit that you deserved instead of ignoring them. I am great as a human being, no matter how much imperfection I have.

So here's some self appreciation for myself. I am a great person! I have done many things which many people might not think it's possible to achieve at that time.

Probably one of my greatest achievement so far is being able to set up two Rotiboy stores from scratch. Rotiboy is a very delicious coffee bun and together with 3 other parters, we have managed to set up two stores. To set up a store, you would need at least S$150,000. That's a lot of money for someone who is at age 23 from a middle-income family. Well done, Steven!

I am a great person whom my friends respect and some, look up to (unless they are just being nice). I treat people as fair as I can, and I respect people as far as my temper allows (haha!). I have a beautiful 6 years relationship with my girl-friend cum future wife Rong Rong. She is my soul mate who understands me, tolerates me and believes in me despite my failings.

Think about yourself. You must have some achievements in your life, no matter how small they may seem to another person, as long as they matters to you significiantly. You are a great person. You just forget about it. Smile! =)

Beating the Giants

Everyday we wake up to face a new day. When the going gets tough, I find my escaping from the situation more than facing up to it. This seems easy for me, "I can do it tomorrow..." or "I gotta do that (unimportant) thing first..." or "Let's relax for a while first.." In the end, the real thing is not done or done in a slip-slop way. When months have passed and I reflect upon my past actions, I see that I have not lived my life the way I wanted it. I am still the same as before. I am stagnant.

There is a giant in all the problems we faced everyday. Financial giant, relationship giant, smoking giant, giants, giants, giants... Often we may feel small fighting against them. We may feel that we are inadequately equipped to deal with them. We may feel that it is unfair in life that we have to face such giants and not given the power to defeat them easily.

Those who understands "The Secret" knew that we all have the power to defeat all these giants. However, it's easier said than done. When faced with a giant, our inner sub-conscious and inner fears took over. We stop remembering our true powers, and we give in to the situation. We became victims. We act like victims. We stop growing.

There is no secret on how to defeat the giant. In fact, most of the times when we start to try defeating the giants, we can't. That's why most people give up after a few tries. It just seems impossible. The giants seem to grow stronger. The giants seem to be unaffected by our efforts.

Then, it dawned on me one day while I was bathing. "You learn more from losing. Winner learns little." From every battle with the giants, even if we lose, we learn more about the giant and ourselves. IF we stand up again, we will become stronger and more equipped to fight the giant again. WE GROW. From every losing battle with the giants, we grow stronger. This is the only way to grow stronger... to lose.

Eventually, we will grow to be bigger than than the giant and we win.

Hence, here's the message to myself and to everyone out there who has the giants to face everyday, "Keep standing up to your giants". You will win it eventually. This is the journey that's meant for us. The giants are meant to be there for you, to grow you, to nourish you for greater things.

God bless!