Billy 的个人资料Streetwisdom Unplugged©照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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2月24日 Being Present, Be Now HereBeing Present,
Be Now Here
One of life's greatest challenge is often described as "pursuit of happiness". I have heard happiness described as though it is an object that you pursue, something that you do your utmost to acquire.
As human beings, we have a tendency to behave in a stimulus-response manner if we are not mindful. We tend to respond to whatever stimulates us. If we find ourselves in happy company at a party, we may respond by participating in the fun and be joyful. If we find ourselves amongst people who are sorrowful, we may respond by subduing any urge to be joyful and remain solemn.
As stimulus-response organisms, we tend to depend on external circumstances to bring us joy. Hence, the mentality that happiness is something you need to acquire. Something you "pursue" as though it is external to you.
In my opinion, happiness is not an acquisition. It is a state of mind.
Happiness is an inside job!
In other words, lasting happiness is something you bring forth from within, otherwise it is not lasting.
When you pursue something separated from you, it is not within you, it must be somethng that seems external to you. People who rely on external factors to attain happiness will have great difficulty keepng what they acquire externally. What you acquire externally can be removed from you.
What I seek, I am without. What I Deserve, I Endure; What I Endure, I Become; What I Become, I Am; I Am Within. Happiness is its own reward. You simply bring forth from within.
How?
Happiness is a state of mind. There are many ways to accomplish this.
Be present in the Now. Be present in the Here.
Be Now Here... or you may end up being Nowhere.
“There is very little difference between "Now Here" and "Nowhere" The little difference is a space wherein lies your freedom and power The big difference is in the choice you make.” (Billy Tan)
Copyright © 2009, Billy Tan. All Rights Reserved.
5月13日 Mother's Day 2007Somewhere In Time...
c. 1940
Remembering Mom
c.1958 c.1968
Mom has always been an avid practitioner of the ancient chinese martial art of "Tai Chi"
I am sorry... too choked with emotions to write any words.
Words can never do justice to describe
the greatest woman in my life.
Copyright © 2007, Billy Tan. All Rights Reserved.
12月31日 ReflectionsReflections &
Random Musings
( The Windmills Of My Mind )
“ It is never too late to be
what you might have been.”
(George Eliot)
I have never planned my life on a year by year basis, and yet, I sometimes find myself reflecting on the events of the past year and think a little about the coming year. I guess, in my situation being caught up in the corporate world, it is inevitable that I have to align my performance review and business planning on a year to year basis.
2006 has been a relatively “quiet” year, not as much excitement as the previous 2 years. In 2005, I did an incredibly super project in Taiwan in record time. In 2004, my crowning glory was being the Master Black Belt overseeing 13 Six Sigma projects in production, logistics, and customer serices – quite a feat accomplished in record time too.
This time, in 2006, I was called back to Taiwan to expand on the work I had done earlier, and spent 6 months doing that. We launched some new products. All that was also done in record time, but not of the same intensity as those projects in previous years.
Back in Malaysia, I set up a comprehensive market intelligence system, and also conducted advanced sales management training for the domestic sales team. Exciting stuff but not outstanding.
On the personal side, my elder daughter turned 21. A proud moment, I must say. But it was also a touching moment, one of my personal gifts to her was a key, a traditional thing dads usually give to their angels when they turn 21. Somehow, when my own child turned 21, I realized I had to “let go” something. I wasn’t losing her, but it was more like something I had to do inside of me. She has to learn to face the wild world with less and less “interference” from her dad. She is a big big girl in a big big world now.
I am rather proud of myself, this year. I finally wrote about my dad, something I had long wanted to do. I paid tribute to a great man, my own dad, it’s the untold story that is the Legend of the Banana King©. I felt great doing that. It was also a very deeply touching experience for me, to remember his greatness and also realize how much I miss him.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Maya Angelou)
The Banana King left behind a legacy of giving. I have much to learn and more to do here, but I am rather proud of myself this year in this respect. I sponsored a few charity events, and donated quite a bit to charitable causes too. It’s a great feeling.
“To do good is the greatest joy.” (Ancient Chinese Idiom)
There had been a brief time in the middle of this year, when I felt defeated by a personal disappointment in life, but I am happy I recovered.
“Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit.” (Napoleon Hill)
The Banana King taught me well. You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. People don't drown by falling into the water, only when they stay there. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats sometimes, so that you can know who you really are, what you are made of, and how you can rise above adversity and stand taller thereafter.
We live because we are a mortal creation of the divine Creator, but our own lives, the value we contribute to humanity, becomes our own creation. We become our own creation from how we turn creative imaginations into goals, and how we re-invent ourselves each time we rise from defeat, challenging conventional wisdom, to do the things we never done before so that we may finally become the person we might have been.
Now, its time for me to look ahead. Move on.
One of the things I really want to do, is to revisit places I have loved and missed. Nepal. Egypt. And Japan... I was last there 20 years ago, it was 1987. I have lived in a small town called Odawara in the Kanagawa prefecture in Japan for about 3 months in 1982 when I worked in a computer factory. And I returned for a few business meetings until 1987. Now, 20 years since my last visit, I want to see it again. Beautiful country, Japan.
I have an intense urge to do something different this coming year, on the personal front.
“If you want to achieve something you have never achieved before, you must do something you have never done before.” (Anonymous)
Doing something like this has been one of my dreams. Something I must accomplish before I leave this planet. Now is as good a time as any to start this project, I believe I have spare resources now. “Guard well your spare resources. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Invest them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
One of the greatest lessons I learned from the Banana King, is that greatness is not about doing great things, but it is doing in great ways those little things that really matter. Fear of failure is not in the vocabulary of the Banana King, nor that of his youngest child either! The legacy lives on.
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” (Robert F. Kennedy)
Dad has been a candle in my life. A candle is very selfless in every way – it makes not a sound, yet gently and surely, it gives away its light for others, sharing its warmth, radiating, always radiating. Then in its truly unselfish ways, it grows smaller until its energy has been exhausted.
I'm glad it is now my turn to be a candle. It is only possible to live a truly happy and meaningful life this way.
“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” (Malcolm X)
Copyright © 2006, Billy Tan. All Rights Reserved.
THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND
(Performed by Laura Fygi)
Round, Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel Like a snowball down a mountain Or a carnival balloon Like a carousel thats turning Running rings around the moon Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face And the world is like an apple Whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of its own Down a hollow to a cavern Where the sun has never shone Like a door that keeps revolving In a half-forgotten dream Or the ripples from a pebble Someone tosses in a stream Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face And the world is like an apple Whirling silently in space Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head Why did summer go so quickly? Was it something that you said? Lovers walk along a shore And leave their footprints in the sand Is the sound of distant drumming Just the fingers of your hand? Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of a song Half-remembered names and faces But to whom do they belong? When you knew that it was over You were suddenly aware That the autumn leaves were turning To the colour of her hair Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning On an ever-spinning reel As the images unwind Like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind |
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