People always say we should appreciate what we have now…because grass always looks greener on the other side and we might not like it when we go over the other side. I must agree with this because most often than not, grass ALWAYS looks greener on the other side but actually is not.

But the question here is…how is it possible for us to know that the grass IS greener on the other side or not without actually being there? How can we know the ‘now’ we are experiencing is actually very nice without experiencing other things? How can we know our current job is very rewarding if we don’t try another job in another company?

Yes, we CAN learn to appreciate and be grateful of what we have but there’s no way we can truly understand how fortunate we are NOW without trying other things. We need something, another experience, to compare – we need to go over the other side, the so-called “greener” side. Only when we are there, can we actually say …. “Well, guess it is not that green over here after all. Maybe I should just go back and do what I used to do”.

Similarly, if you think you are not doing what you like to do now, and want to change a job to do something you truly like….then do it. By saying “do it”, I mean you can either go full-time or do it part-time, as a hobby. After you try doing it, you will know whether you truly like it if compared to your current job. If you don’t try, you will never know.

That is why I believe in one thing – experience many things and keep what you like. If you don’t experience or try it, you will never know if the grass is really greener on the other side…or not.

p/s…. there are certain things that you should not try because you will only have one chance in life – your loved ones. If you don’t appreciate them now and choose to ignore them, you might end up living a life full of regrets once they’re gone. Remember that life is fragile. For this case, I choose to believe that grass is never greener on the other side.

If you’re a fan of Malaysia’s MixFM, you should know that they are coming out with this new program called “dearly deported” or something. It’s a competition where the participants tell the DJs who they (the participants) really want to meet. The ‘who’ must be someone they’ve not met for a long long time.

So the other day DJs went to 1 part of KL to interview people. Their question was “if you were given a chance to meet someone you’ve not met for many many years…for 10 minutes, what would you do?”

Some of the answers:

• To have a good chat with the person and his/her family.
• To chop onion with her mum, just like the old time.
• To go for a walk in the place they’ve played together as kids.

As you can see, all of these things are very very simple. Some would call these “small little things”. There’s no big hotel, no luxurious restaurant, no cool gadgets (like Apple IPhone), no big BMWs. Nothing big at all. Ok, maybe there are, but not mentioned because those are not the point. All those things are so simple that a normal and fortunate person can do them anytime, anyday…but most of these normal and fortunate person never appreciate such ‘little things’. They always look up at the big things. And little do they know that sometimes, these small things don’t happen twice. They are there once, and they’re gone. You might never get them back.

All I can say is, big things are there in the sky for a reason. They are your inspirations, your goals, your dreams. They do matter in our life but what really matters now is the little things that happen in your life. In fact, they are everywhere. So start to pay attention. Notice them. Appreciate them. And perhaps 10 years down the road, you will look back to today and say “I’m glad I’ve enjoyed the small things that life threw me 10 years ago”.

Today I met up with few friends in 1U and one of them is a HR executive for an insurance company. What she told us was quite demotivating, but something that all of us should have realized by now.

A year ago, her company could not find enough resources. She said it was very hard to get the right people back then. Thus, her company actually went an extra mile to get the right people – publishing on newspapers, conducting walk-in interviews, posting up on Jobstreet, etc. Still, it was very hard to hire.

This year, a lot of people will be desperate for jobs

A month ago, her company conducted another walk-in interview. This time, the queue was so long that it took them few hours to finish all the interview sessions. And among the interviewees, there were few remarkable candidates which my friend can remember.

Candidate 1 – not the youngest of the candidates, but she has no job experience. She used to be a house wife but was forced to find a job because her husband recently lost his, and they were not able to support their family’s living cost.

Candidate 2 – 1 of the youngest candidates and did not have any proper qualification for the job. And when told that the job role was not suitable for her, she started to cry and beg the interviewer to give her the job. She said that her mum was sick and she needed the money to pay for mum’s medical expenses. The salary from her father was not enough.

And these 2 candidates were not alone. In fact, there were quite a number of them having financial issues due to the bad economy (retrenchments, job losses, etc).

Even Spidey lost his job

Then my friend told us that the job positions offered, all of them, did not have a good remuneration package. Those remuneration packages were well under the medium income bracket. And yet, there were so many people who came for the interview.

So if you still think you’re in a bad situation because of no bonus…or no increment, then think again. If you think your salary being cut is very unfortunate, then think again. There are many more people out there who are in a worse situation than you.

And for those people who refuse to do certain things because it’s not part of their job (without proper justification)….either you leave that attitude of yours, or you leave the job. Give that job to people who need it more. I’m pretty sure that they have a much better attitude than you.

Don’t want to do that? Then change your attitude.

p/s…seems like most people do realize how bad the economy is nowadays. 1u was shockingly quiet on Saturday. I was in Italiannies for lunch and the usually crowded restaurant has only 4 to 5 tables with customers. Anyway, I didn’t pay the bill since it was for my birthday. LOL. With my current financial status, I doubt I can dine in such expensive places.