improvelifeblog.com

Life is such mystical.  When one sees despair and destitute in the unfortunate,  one cannot help but feel sorry and empathises with these group of people.   But then life is how one makes it out.  My belief   moulded by what I learned and inculcated along the many years hard trotted path tells me that it is not what one is endowed with that matters.  It is what one determines to make out of it.

I believe that each and everyone of us are borned into this world for a purpose and reason.  And it is only for he and himself to discover it and to live it out.  A lot of people who came into this world who have never tasted the bitterness of life at such level would not have understood.  Sometimes, with good intent, we tend to say we understand.  In reality, we do not.  Until and unless, one has undergone the same experiences and situation,  he would not be able to feel the pain that the person is undergoing. 

On the extreme, we see people who came into this world with lots of complaints, complaints about so many things in life,  as if the world owes it to him.    It is only when we reflect upon on matters deep enough that we realise that we only be able to take from this world equivalent to whatever effort we put in. 

It was only a while ago that someone handed  me a video.  After watching it,  I felt so strongly that I should share this with you all.    Tony Melendez is without arms,   and who could imagine that someone with  such deformities can make such great efforts to scale to great heights as in the words of the Pope , to go round the world to spread the Gift of Hope.     Such is a good life example that can bring untold inspirations to those who are fully normal but requires others to motivate and inspire them.  This is indeed making the impossible possible.

See for yourself in this video

Who could have imagine a Guitar player without arms? Toe Jam is one such amazing example of someone who perseveres to this stage. How inspiring?

Please share this if you find it inspiring.

Posted by
Ivan

Written by : Ivan                                                                  

I choose the topic of sustaining happiness because I think that we are mostly happy at one time or another. The issue is only how does one keep sustaining the level of happiness for a longer duration.  With happiness, there is also sadness, for without sadness what then is happiness.
This an a universal sought after.  Be it someone from the Artic down  to the Antartica,  .  The topic is extremely wide and varied and the writer would like to share his opinion, understanding and offer those few tips and tricks that he encountered  and picked up along this journey.

Happiness
Perhaps at the fundamental level, we must at first try to understand what Happiness stands for and what it means to us.  Our upbringing,  background , environment , educational level  and many other factors shape our outlook towards life and what life stands for.   From this, subconsciously,  we all view Happiness in different light. So at the fundamental level,   one must do some soul-searching and determine for himself what constitute Happiness is to him,  and no one else except him.  The essence is Happiness means different thing to different individual..  This definition can take on lengthy debate, but suffice to say,  it would not do much good to get into an analysis paralysis situation and defeat the purpose of the article.

   
From my own experiences,  I am aware that there may be a spiritual definition of the term Happiness, but for this article, I would rather focus on as it applies to the secular world.
If there is ever a universal gauge on happiness,  and a  measure of  the degree of happiness, we could then see whether there is any difference..To my knowledge, there is non.  For instance can we say that a rich man is more happy than a poor man. This I would say not.

   
Is Happiness a state or a journey.  I am sure we can say that we are all happy at various point in time but the question is that how do we sustain and maintain that level of happiness.
So,  we now need to define Happiness within our own context.. And let us not  confused it  with Success in life. For success in life enompasses the ingredient of happiness,  and  without happiness where then is success. 

 
My tips in my own journey to seek out and sustain my  happiness level  involves the following;
• Keeping a balance/harmonious lifestyle
• Make Necessary Changes & start by changing 

 
 Start with Yourself 
 “When I was yound and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older, and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.
But it, too seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in the one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realise, If I had only changed my self first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.”           Anonymous

  
• Take Action/Do not procrastinate
• Communicate & Communicate
• Learn to Say No
• Take your Vacation
• Take and accept responsibility.
• Learn to Forgive and Forget/Letting it go relieves a great burden
• Accept differences and diversity
• Be appreciative of what you have while you strive for more
• Keeping a Healthy Lifestyle.

For some people,  the above may be seen as lethargic,  non-progressive  approach but really, it is sometimes this greed that we harbour that drives us to keeping wanting for more,  and when we do not get it,  we become unhappy.

Just as in  life, happiness is mystical, and as  man seek to understand it more, he will find that they are still unexplained phenomena and more  unknowns uncovered.  As man continue to seek further knowledge on this topic,  let us individual not dwell into all the “if” and “but”, but instead embrace it and maintain a state of mind that we can say we are at a  good level of happiness in Life. 

Yours truly,
Ivan

If you think this can motivate someone

Posted by Ivan                                         September 30, 2008

Today is an important day as it marks  my first foray into Blogging,  and the mark of a New Beginning , at least in creating a new personal history for myself.

Internet/Blogging

The media today is flaunt with too much information and knowledge about internet , blogging …but still I am sure that to many, this is still hazy.  I am not too sure what the differences are between Internet and Blog,  but I always imagine that Blogging is more for social and community networking without realizing that it can be profitable until I see the Profit Blogging BootCamp.   Infact, I had just prior to encountering this, signed up an Internet Workshop that helped created a web-site for me..   The problem was there was no interactive sessions , and while the website was done up nicely  for me,  the documentation itself although clear, was insufficient to motivate or push me to put it into action. 

Accidental Encounter

When I saw the Ads on Bootcamp and attended it, what really caught my interest was the 2 workshop programme and to be  followed by the 2nd payment to be paid out of any  the income derived from setting up the blogg.….which means that  the  interests of the Organiser to see to it that participant will actually start making income.

Bootcamp

When I signed up for this Bootcamp,  I must say that I have mixed feelings.  Firstly whether  I am consider old and gone past the hill to embark on this.  But the urge to initiate something at a reasonable cost and that does not take me away from my current job,  make this more appealing to me.  Furthermore, the continuous advert blitz in the media somehow  reinforces the value and the attractiveness of this whole thing.  For far too many years, I have been managing Technology, but to create value for the organization I worked for.  But for now,  it is to create value for my own personal interest.   How rewarding if this is successful.  So I took the plunge and here I am…

The 2 Days sessions was very well organized, with clear and easy to follow step-by-step guide.  During the 1st Day,  with hands-on, I was a bit rusty, unlike the younger group who seemed to have no issue following..  But I managed and survive.    I left the 1st session with every confident that my Blog would be up and running in no time.   The 2nd Day Advanced session was more interesting, where I realized that I am not in that that bad a situation, considering all the other participants.  So all you elderly folks out there,  don’t despair and be put off by all these technology jargon and stuff.  The 2nd session has instill more confident in me.  I felt energized,  rejuvenated to get my Blog up immediately… this time to really do create value for myself and my family.   For me, with my background and knowledge,  I must say that the Bootcamp was very good, practical that we can embark on and make it work.  I have attended a couple of others but find them theoretical and unable to put into practice.

Metamorphose

Now, my focus is to get my first Blog up immediately, within 30 days from the Bootcamp, and to start generating income within 3 months.

While this is going on,  I am still embroiled with my current job,  a  stable and well paid one.  The  new knowledge and skills that I have acquired over the last couple of weeks have instilled in me renewed confidence of really embarking on a new venture that will provide me passive income and  improve the lifestyle that I would dreamed of that comes with retirement.  Perhaps, retirement is a wrong choice of word, for its connotation that  someone is  considered  over the hill in their career.

Beginning of A New Horizon

I have come to realize that one must always spare some time to plan and create value for himself, his family and his environment.  Perhaps, this has come a bit late in my twilight  years in life. I had always held the belief and rightly practise it to the letter  that we owe it to the organization who employed us to deliver good work for the salary we are paid. No one pay us for shoddy work, good work is expected, not even average work.  But the reality is when one approaches his twilight years, one has to fend for his remaining future himself. Blog profiting has given me this opportunity and I  hope and this is my first Post since the inaugural launch of my blog   Improvelifeblog.com.
Yours truly,
Ivan

If you think this can motivate someone