Curious George - Philosphy on Life

Tonight on television they were showing the movie, Curious George. It's about a pretty average and 'boring' guy called Ted, who works in one of New York's museums as a Presenter. His Boss tells him that he has to close the Museum because it is not making money any more and no one wants to go to museums in this day and age. Frazzled, Ted blurts out that they could present something that could get people back into the museums... and accidentally suggests that he should go on a trip to Africa to find the Lost Monkey of Zagawa. He come back with a tiny one about the size of a paperweight, and trouble ensues.

I won't spoil the rest of the movie, but over the time period Ted becomes a more confident and outgoing person who does things that he would never do. He also finds the real Monkey of Zagawa and becomes a hero.

In the end, he declares this to all the museum goers:

"Anyone can memorize facts and figures. The real way to learn anything is to go out and experience it. Let your curiosity lead you."

Isn't this so true? Who here has ventured to do something they originally did not want to do... but in the end when they went through it, they looked back and thought, "Ah, this was a fantastic experience. I would do it again!"

In summary... just do it! :D

What would you do if you had 1 hour to live?

Yesterday while I was flipping channels on TV, I saw an Oprah show dedicated to the topic of "What would you do if you had 1 hour to live?" Although I am considered fairly young and people in my age group and younger generally think that they are invisible, you never know when you are going to die or someone you love is going to pass away. We never know whether it is today or tomorrow that someone we love dies due to their silent continuing health struggle or perhaps a freak accident like the terrible car crash I mentioned in my previous post.

The main guest, Kris, shared her experience about her husband, who had passed away. Her husband was Richard Carlson, the author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, which was USA Today's #1 best selling book for two consecutive years. During their 25-year relationship, Richard wrote love letters to Kris including one that was from their 18th year anniversary. This love letter was about what he would do in the last hour of his life - about what he would say about life and what he would say to his wife. Below is an excerpt of the very thick letter he wrote:

"If I had an hour to live, I'll tell you who I wouldn't call. I wouldn't call my financial planner, my banker or my CPA. I wouldn't be checking my voice mail, my e-mail or my Palm Pilot. … No, if I had an hour to live and I could make one phone call, it would be to my life partner, Kris.

If I could live this life over again, I'd spend less time talking and more time listening. Saying goodbye to the girls, I cried when I realized I hadn't listened nearly enough to them over the years and they have so much to say. In my attempts to share my own wisdom, I've missed out on hearing theirs. That's something I'd change for sure and it would have been easy to do."

This amazing letter has now turned into a book called An Hour to Live, An Hour to Love.

It made me think - what makes us detach ourselves from our community, our family, our friends, and our peers? In the end, do petty issues matter like whether your kid forgot to take out the laundry or whether the man of the house forgot to leave the toilet seat down? A heck of a lot worse could be done, but is making these small matters turn into a mountain of division the right thing to do? I think not.

It's all in hindsight that our perspectives of an incident or outcome are changed. What we think is important like work or checking the Blackberry for updates is not as important as spending time and listening to our loved ones.

Saturday blues

As I pause today in honour of 4 teenagers - 3 of them from one of my old schools; I wish to express my deep condolences to their family and friends who have been affected by this tragic accident.

As we wander through life, we often rely on the media to provide is with hopefully what is relevant and truthful information about what is going on around the world. A friend wishes to remind us all that what we read or watch in the media is not always the truth and to not believe what they have to say about the accident.

Regardless of whether we believe what the media has to say or not, it is another reminder to behave safely particularly after partying or just a late night in general. I have been over the road that they were killed on countless times before, and each time I go over that dip in the road while I am on the speed limit (really, I rarely go over the speed limit) I can literally feel my car actually jump through the air and land on the road. Dangerous stuff really, I don't know why the council/main roads haven't fixed this danger spot sooner.

As you come home from that dinner out or that clubbing or pub night out, remember to behave responsibly and be alert. The difference between life and death may be just moments away. Drinking alcohol and other recreational drugs generally slow your response and may be the difference between a bad accident and an even worse accident.

I too have been in an awful accident in Malaysia where the Mechanic fixing the car apparently looked at the car and said we should have all died but instead an Angel must have been there to protect us because none of us came out with a single scratch. We hadn't been drinking alcohol at all, and we definitely don't do drugs. We were on the highway speed limit (100/110km per hour) and we weren't tail gating or anything dodgy like that either. The car for some reason just spun out of control.

Especially in today's love of binge drinking (even if you don't identify as doing that), everyone thinks they are invisible - that nothing bad will happen to them.

One of the kids killed in the accident is someone whom I remember as a kid - the kid sister of one of my old friends from high school. They come from a real A Class family - in terms of the goodness in their hearts and actions. My friend's sister was not the driver but was a back seat passenger - just like me in my accident in Malaysia.

Last night when we went to a restaurant, a friend closer to their family and I tried to keep the tragedy a secret, old high school friends of ours were calling to tell us of the horrible news. They couldn't believe it could happen to such an amazing family like that. News - both good or bad, accurate or inaccurate travels fast.

So as you walk or drive off in your car from a great day or night out - act smart. There may be outside factors involved (such as in my accident in Malaysia) but it's better than acting stupidly.

Will Smith Talks about Success

I came across this interesting YouTube video where Will Smith talks about success and how he doesn't want to be an icon, but an idea.



Although I don't agree with some of the things he says, particularly 2+2 does not equal 4 because that's impossible in mathematics. However, I do agree with some of the other non-stupid things that he does say:

* We are who we choose to be. Sometimes we human beings like to wallow in self-pity, blame circumstances on someone else. For example in law you get all these cases where child molesters say that they were sexually abused as a kid, and therefore that's why they have abused other kids. But if they actually got over that mindset, they would be like, "I don't want kids to receive the treatment that I received when I was younger" and not participate in these immoral activities.

* Deciding to be what you are, who you want to be, etc. People always concentrate on the negatives, like, "I don't have enough time" to do something. In regards to time - everyone's busy these days. If you decide and are committed to do something then you will make time for it.

My Malaysian Trip

In my last post, I mentioned that one of my goals that I set at Christopher Howard's 'Breakthrough to Success' seminar was to take my family to Malaysia next year and that instead I won a prize this year where I was able to achieve that goal.

Some of you may think it is a bit of a fantasy story, but it is actually true. I won this trip in February or March 2008 at the Convention Centre. There was a free expo, so I decided to go along to it. I noticed that all of the stalls had competitions, so I went to each one and filled in an entry form. Tourism Malaysia had a stall there, and that's where I won the prize! You know what I say - you gotta be in it to win it!

Below is the photo to prove it. It was taken at the Tourism Malaysia Board office in my city. The trip that I won was a trip for 2 flying Royal Brunei to Kuching, Sarawak staying for 5 days at the Hotel Grand Continental in Kuching. I'm there (crossed out) with staff from Royal Brunei and the Tourism Malaysia Board Officer.


I don't mean to use this goal to impress you, but rather to impress upon to you that you can achieve your goals that you really want to achieve. In my wildest dreams, I could not have known that in the future I would win a prize. My goal that I put out there was not something I had been thinking for a while. It occurred to me while we were doing the activities in the seminar. My goal was to be in Malaysia with my family, so after that I committed to saving money from my fortnightly pay. When setting the goal, I didn't state that I was going to pay it, although I guess that's an automatic assumption unless I really wanted to hijack the aeroplane. :S Free is good! No.. it's not good... it's GREAT!

Breakthrough to Success with Christopher Howard

I first attended the 3-day weekend seminar, 'Breakthrough to Success', in May 2007. Some suckers paid $895 for it, but tickets are free if you're referred by someone. In my case, I found a link to a free ticket while I was browsing the classifieds online. I'm not entirely sure why I even decided to enrol, but I did it anyway. I guess it was just something to do on the weekend. :p

The seminar started on a Friday morning. Now, most people have work but I was lucky to be working in a company that had flexi-time and I had plenty of time in lieu. So, I went on the Friday afternoon and was really lost because I arrived in the theatre during the middle of Chris speaking and I had no idea what he was going on about. But quickly, there was some kind of written exercise and I was able to speak to the lady next to me to get me up to speed on what Chris had been talking about.

I was so amazed how nice the people who attended were. I expected them to be all old people, but there were some young people around my age as well because this was my first ever personal growth or personal development course I had attended. The participants were all so warm and friendly, I immediately felt comfortable even though I was a latecomer.

Basically at the weekend, you get to work on a 1 of 3 particular areas in your life that you feel the most stuck on. These 3 areas are health, relationships, and career/finances. You then try to align your values because what you value in your mind doesn't equate to your actions otherwise you would be a lot less stuck in that area. Goal setting is done, however it does not have to be anything to do with the particular area that you chose that you stated you were the most stuck in life at. Chris then leads you through some strategic visioning, attempts to get rid of your fears to destroy the decisions that limit you to where you want to be at.

Now, all this sounds like some really funky junk. But it actually works if you really do the hard work - as in the more you put into the activities, the more you get out of it.

I invited my friend (who came for 3 hours) and kind of lost momentum as I became really self-conscious. I could also tell my friend was really self-conscious because she kind of refused to tell me what she had written down when we were supposed to share what we wrote about a specific topic in the book. Because of this lost momentum, I couldn't really get back into the game for some reason.

A few months later, I received a copy of the Breakthrough to Success audio. It was quite funny actually, because my relationship with my partner was going under - as in we were so angry and upset with each other we were considering breaking up. I remembered that I had a copy of the Breakthrough to Success tapes and listened. This time, I really put everything into trying to fix my almost-broken-at-the-seam relationship via these audio tapes because I had absolutely nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain.

And you know what? Listening to the tapes and participating 100% worked for me... for us. My partner was ready for a vicious war when I showed up, but realised that I was actually quite calm and quickly realised that there would be no use in arguing. We are still together today. :)

Since May 2007, I have attended all of Chris' seminars for a live-in-person revision. All the goals that I have set so far have come true. For example, I wanted to pay for my family to go on a trip next year to Malaysia to visit our relatives there. Guess what? In February or March of this year, I actually won a trip for 2 to Malaysia! How totally awesome is that?

Therefore, I would really encourage you to attend Chris Howard's 'Breakthrough to Success' seminar and to really and truly participate and play full out. If it can help me repair a broken relationship and achieve unreal goals, it can surely help you in whatever area of your life that you feel broken or stuck in the most. Plus it's absolutely totally free so you have everything to gain.

The 'Breakthrough to Success' seminars are currently held in:
- Australia - Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide
- New Zealand - Auckland
- England - London and Manchester
- Ireland - Dublin
- USA

Inspiration Points....

towards greater knowledge, thoughts, wisdom, and action. That's what I believe good inspiration is, anyway. Inspiration may comes to us personally through reading, sharing with others, or during various experiences; or through someone we admire.

In 2007, I started working on a casual basis while I was a student at the Convention and Exhibition Centre and that was when I was exposed to various public speakers (some of them famous), fun events (some of them live on TV!), and both business and Government-level meetings which I found mostly quite interesting to learn on a knowledge level.

I love reading fiction, but all that standing around listening to people talk during my job made me curious to learn more about it. As they say, knowledge is power. But real power comes from using or acting on that knowledge.

Therefore I am using this blog for my own personal interest - to document things that I have read, heard, or done. Hopefully it will inspire others in some way or another. :)