“No man is an island”

from “Meditation XVII,” by the English poet John Donne

As human, we are all interconnected. We are a social creature and we need one another. We are also influenced by our environment. This includes the country, the town, the neighborhood, and most importantly, the space we live in.

Whether we live in a home, an apartment, a condo, or a loft, our living space, believe it or not, our surrounding environment can influence our mind a lot more that we realize. Ever visited someone’s place and wonder how that person could ever live there. You know. A place where there is no room to walk, stuffs spread out everywhere, and not enough lighting. And what’s with the weird smell that seems to suck the life out our every breath? How did you feel being there? Could you live in a place like that? Ever wonder how the owner of the place manages to live there?

The truth is that the place probably did not start out that way. The chaos just slowly builds up overtime. After a long day of work or school, family, and all the extra things we have to do to live a life, who has time and energy to clean and organize? I mean, what harm is it to just let things be for now? We all can probably agree to that. But as we already know, we pay for it later on. Our living environment get worsen overtime and we wonder why we could not think straight or get anything done in our life. It takes constant efforts to keep things in order. But the reward is so worth it. We get to live a more productive life. You probably wonder what the deal with the picture above? It’s my garage. This was taken after a few days of cleaning and organizing it, and there were two of us doing this. I know, it’s not the neatest garage you’ve seen, but it could be worst (notice I didn’t post the “before” picture). So, what do you say? Ready for a clearer and more orderly life? Let’s pull up our sleeves and get started.

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Have you ever been so upset at someone to the point of losing control? Have you ever get so mad at someone that you turned into a completely different person you never knew existed? Has someone ever pushed your buttons?

For me, the answers were yes, yes, and yes. I had a heated argument this past week with someone I am very close with. I won’t go into detail of what the argument was, who was right, and what was said. All I can tell is that I completely lost it in the heat of the moment. I turned into a completely different person and it wasn’t a nice one. Things were said that should not have been said. The whole event caused quite a stir in my relationship with that person. It also affected my interaction with those unfortunate enough to witness it. The whole thing was a mess, to say the least.

It was only after a few days had passed that I was able to think back on it without getting angry. Time always helps. Despite what the other person did and said that were unjustly and wrong, I had no excuse in losing it. If only I could take back what was said. If only there was a time machine. If only I was a better person. If only…

From reading the biography of Benjamin Franklin, I learned that he often wrote an angry letter to someone who had wronged him but never sent it. The process of venting it out on paper was more than enough to free him from anger. Someone once said that even though a person had pushed our buttons, they were still “our” buttons. We do have control over them. We can choose how to respond.

As long as there are people, there will always be someone who will rub us the wrong way. There will always be someone who will push our buttons, whether accidentally or intentionally. And as long as we cannot change other people (Oh how I tried…), the only thing we can do is to change ourselves. We can gain control back by choosing not to respond to the stimulus. We can “un-push” the buttons. I know, I know… it’s easier said than done. Oh how I’ve tried and fail again on this. But the only way to succeed is to try. So the next time someone pushes my buttons, I will try to remember to “un-push” it and just walk away.

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Some people like to read. Some people like to exercise. Some like to meditate. For me, I like to shop. Not just any shopping though, I like bargain hunting. Finding things for a really “cheap” price is like finding treasure for me. I feel so good whenever I find a great deal!

To start this blog back up again, I needed materials to work with. I went to a used book store (notice the word “used”, what a cheap *&@%!). The books there are priced at about half the regular price. Most items are hardly read at all and are in excellent condition. They even have brand new older books for sale there. I browsed around and found some books on inspirational quotes and stories. There is also a clearance section in the back where items are marked down, and I mean way down. After perusing through the many titles on the shelf, my eyes caught this one item. It was a biography on Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan, a Professor of History at Yale University. I have heard over and over again about Ben Franklin in the past and have always wanted to read both a biography and also some of his famous writings. This book was on the New York Times Bests Seller list and was on sale for $1.00!

So there I was, gloating all the way home. To me, it felt like I had just won an Olympic gold medal! It’s amazing how silly little things in life can make us so happy. In our society, we are conditioned to associate happiness with big events in life, like meeting the love of your life, getting a dream job, or traveling around the world. Many times, we fail to see that happiness doesn’t have to be just on special occasions. It can be found anywhere and anytime, as long as we look for it. Even in the midst of the direst situations, there is always something to gain, even though we may not realize it at the time. Imagine what it would be like if we were to be happy, very happy, and quite often, almost all the time. Got a used book store nearby?

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Dear Readers,
This is the first post since my last one in June 2008. There were many reasons for my absence over this past year. One was the career pursue that took a lot of focus. Another was the time I could spend on thinking and preparing for the blog. In any case, I have no excuse. I received an email earlier this month (Jan 2010). It was a reminder from my web hosting company about the expiration of the web hosting service. It has been two years since I first started isuccessblog.com and the service plan will be expiring at the end of the month. A decision had to be made. Either I could let the service plan expire and put this project into the pile of things I could have done better. Or, I could restart the blog and put in some efforts to really make a difference with this website, although, the biggest difference would be for my own personal growth. I spent some time pondering what to do. At the end, I chose the latter and decided to give it another effort to really revive this blog again. So, here we go. No promises on where this will lead and how far we’ll go. One thing I know though… it will be quite a ride… and we will definitely learn from one another along the way for sure.
Yours,
iSuccessBlog.com

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Many of us who read other blog posts on this site would probably found out that I like to eat. I mean I like to eat a lot. For a man who is 5’7” and weigh about 140 lbs, I can really eat a lot more than average portion. I do exercise regularly to stay healthy and strong.

With food prices today, I tend to eat out less and cook more. Cooking to me is to do whatever the fastest that I can with minimal efforts. Usually, it involves a lot of frozen food and pre-made meals. I do make something (real cooking) off and on to spice things up a bit. Recently, I began to notice the constant dullness of the one and only meat cutting knife that I have for a long time. Cutting meat would take twice as long and lots of extra effort. It didn’t bother me the first few times. But after a while, I had to do something, for it began to really stand between a hungry man and his food.

So I went to the store and thought about getting a new one. But getting a new one turned out to be more expensive than I thought. Then I saw on the bottom shelf a sharpening rock that cost $2. I thought to myself, for $2, I’ll try it. To my surprise, the rock worked like a charm. The rock was strong and it refined the sharp edges of the metal knife. A thought went through my head. There is always something better. Although a stainless steel knife was real strong, there is a stronger material like that rock. And for everything that we do, there is always a better way. There are always things we can do to improve. If my knife didn’t get dull, I would never have thought of the sharpening rock. Now my knife is even sharper than ever before. We don’t have to wait until something doesn’t work in our life before we find something better. We can do it now. Even if things are going well, wouldn’t it be great to rise to the next level?

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Anyone likes tomatoes? Did you know that it was once believed that tomatoes were poisonous? On one late autumn day in 1830, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson stood on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, Massachusetts with a basket full of tomatoes. Despite warnings that its poison would turn his blood to acid, he told several hundred spectators that he planned to eat the entire basket – and survive. As we can probably guess, he survived all right.

Anyone likes to travel? Did you know that it was once believed that the world is flat? People would dare not to go beyond the known boundary in fear that they would “fall off the earth.”

These beliefs may seem ridiculous now. But they were not so at the time. One intriguing thing about these stories is how beliefs can change. The things we thought to be true at the time can turn out to be completely fault. Our beliefs system has a lot to do with the world we grow up with. If our parents, our families, our friends, everyone we know, and the world around us agree on one fact, it must be true right? It is so most of the times, but not always. We do have a choice. We can form our own belief. And when we do, our actions will also follow. So if our old beliefs are holding us back, why not try a new one for a change? Who knows, biting on that tomatoes might not be so bad after all.

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Standing behind the base line, my eyes were focus on the yellow ball on the opposite end across the net. As the tennis ball angled toward the deep right corner, I rushed to cover and returned it with a sharp cross-court forehand. It was a good return as I put it deep into the opposite corner. I rushed toward the net knowing that my opponent won’t be able to put much of a return if he gets to it.

I was right; he barely put his racquet to the ball. But the soft stroke went over my head, and I leaped up the air for it. As I came down, my footing was off. My hand somehow took my body weight and scraped against the concrete floor. Blood were dripping from my fingers and my hip took a major blow. I was shaken but in the heat of the moment, I wasn’t gonna quit, not when I’m about the win the match.

After the sweet victory, I went to wash the blood soaked fingers. The pain that wasn’t felt before started to come as I let a stream of warm water through it. The sting was surely there as I felt the soft tissue at the end of my right pinky finger. My mind went berserk as I realized that my nail was gone. I was shocked for it didn’t hurt that much at the time I fell. After a trip to the emergency room and a few days of rest, I realized something about this whole episode. Our action depends on our perspective. If I were aware that I lost a nail at the moment, I would have stopped playing for sure. It’s amazing how our mind can do wonders over our body. What we focus on controls our mind. If we could learn to control our thoughts and focus on only what we want to achieve, who knows what we can accomplish. How far would we go in life, if we let it loose and just pursue on?

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When I first saw the movie The Matrix in 1999, it was quite an experience, for I’ve never seen anything like it before. It stretched my thinking with twist and turn in every corner throughout the entire film. The idea of a world called “the Matrix” that was computer generated for human was the first of its kind. A group of people who had realized the truth about the Matrix were being hunted and eliminated. One person, who could save them, humanity, and the world, was Neo, the main character played by Keanu Reeves.

Neo was normal just like the rest of the people. He worked as a computer programmer during the day and spent his spare time as a hacker at night. Through a series of events, Neo came to meet Morpheus, the leader of the underground rebels whose mission was to free the world from the Matrix. Neo was “the One,” a man who was prophesized to save the world. Morpheus’s job was to show Neo the truth and prepare him to fight for humanity.

One of the most intriguing scenes was when Morpheus told Neo to make a decision. Holding a pill in each hand, Morpheus asked Neo to choose. If Neo were to swallow the red pill, he would learn the truth about the matrix and his life would forever change. If the blue pill was chosen, Neo would continue his life as if nothing had happened. Just like Neo, there are times in life where we have to make a decision. Would we choose the comfortable path where everything is familiar and live a subpar existent? Or would we live a life filled with road blocks and dangers, but maximizing our fullest potential? What are we here for anyway? If we only had this one life to live, how much of a waste of life would it be if we didn’t live at our fullest potential? What if the world is a Matrix? What if we were given a chance to save ourselves? What if we were given a chance to change our situation and change our life? Would you go for it? Would you take the red pill like Neo did and change everything forever? What would you do?

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Recently, Warren Buffett was named the richest man on earth. He is one of people I most admired because he became unbelievably successful starting from nothing. The most amazing thing about him is that wealth did not change who he is. The guy still lives in the same house he bought 30 years ago for $31,500. Even with the richest man on earth, the law of nature still holds true. He will turn 78 this year and will be gone some day. This is the reason he decided to give most of his wealth to charity and plan for successors to run his business.

This brings us to one of the truth in life. Time does not wait for anyone. No matter how old or how young we are, one certainty in life is that there is no guarantee for tomorrow. This is not to say that we should not dream and plan for our life. What I’m saying is that we should not put things off for tomorrow when we can do them today.

I do it too. I put things off in hope that it will go away. We hope that the things we need to get done can be taken care of later at another more convenience time. But, what if there is no tomorrow? What if there is no such thing as a “convenience time”? What if today is our only chance? Would you do it? Would you start it? Would you get it done? Opportunity comes and goes. The ones who take advantage of the opportunity will be the ones who get the rewards. Successful people take action while the rest wait for “convenience time.” They try and fail and try again until they succeed while the rest is still waiting. What can you do today to better yourself? What can you do right now to make it happen? The next time we get the urge to put things off, think of this question; what if there is no tomorrow? What would you do today?

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A verse from the bible says that ask and you shall receive. It doesn’t matter what our religion or belief is, we can still use this saying in our life. Asking doesn’t guarantee that we’ll receive. But asking is sure to improve our chance of getting what we want. The sad truth is that many people don’t even bother to ask for what they want. The result is no surprise; they don’t receive because they didn’t ask.

But why is it that we don’t ask? One main reason is that we don’t believe we deserve the things we want. This is total B*&^$H!T. Pardon my typing but I’ve seen too many of us who got ripped off in lives because of this misconception. I’m here to tell you that we are the master of our lives. We are in control of our destination. It is up to us to make our dreams come true. It doesn’t matter what other people think or say. It’s what we think and say that count. And the only way we’ll ever get what we want is to first believe that we deserve every ounce of it!

Another reason we don’t ask is because we don’t believe that we’ll get it. It all begins in the mind. Thought becomes reality. When we think that we won’t get it, we don’t even bother to ask. But what if the answer is yes? What if the things we want were there for our taking and all we have to do is ask for it? Would you try? Would you go for it? Would you, for once in your life, ask for what you want, I mean what you really want? There is no secret to this. Most successful sales people already know this. The one who asks the most gets the most result. For every “yes” response, there may be 20, 50, or even 100 “no” responses. It’s all a number game. Many people stop asking after the first few nos. Little did they know that a yes is there, just not at that moment. Many circumstances need to come together to get a yes. Sometimes we may need to change the way we ask or the person we’re asking. But the more we try, the more we learn, adjust, and get better. Sooner or later, a yes will surely come for those who ask.

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