We love to indulge in things that we can feel/taste/see/enjoy now than things that may happen in the future. For most of us, we believe in theories such as “enjoy now, worry later” and “tomorrow may never come”. So why bother to work so hard to resist the temptations, right? Might as well enjoy now!

Hmm it depends. For me, enjoying now does not mean neglecting the future. You can live our life to the fullest and plan for your future at the same time. Nobody says this is impossible. But if your “enjoyment” somehow will bring you short term pleasure, but long term pain, perhaps it’s time to change. Because not only will you harm yourself in the long run, you might bring additional pain for your loved ones as well.

One example that I can give you is smoking. Nearly all the smokers know that smoking is bad for themselves, and it is bad for people around them including their loved ones. So seeing a father carrying his baby girl in one hand, and holding his cigarette in another hand, just does not seem right for me. Is his short-term pleasure so important that he can neglect the health and well-being of his baby girl? What about the father who refuses to stop smoking and only to die due to lung cancer, leaving his 4 young children and his wife to fend for themselves? His short term pleasure, their long term pain.

So, don’t give me shit like “it’s hard to resist the temptations”. I’ve heard that countless times before. For me, it’s just a lame excuse. If those people who have been drug addicts can give up on drugs, why can’t you? And if those people suffering from famine in South Africa do not want to give up on their life yet, how could you give up yours so early? So stop thinking so selfishly. It’s not just YOU we’re talking about here, your loved ones are involved as well.

Last but not least, all I want to say is that nothing is impossible in this world. Our willpower has proven to be 1 of the most powerful things in this whole wide world. So don’t say you can’t resist the temptation or you can’t quit. Because you DO have the power to resist and to quit. Just use your willpower. Think of your loved ones and the consequences in years to come if you don’t resist the temptation now. Start saying NO to short term pleasure and NO to long term pain.

To close things off, here are some articles which can help you to resist temptations and start a new and healthier habit.

The Habit Change Cheatsheet.

Resisting Temptation.

10 Tips for Quitting Smoking.

I was chatting with my ex-colleague the other day. He was one of the guys who went to UK with me – also my housemate for 7 months in London. During our stay there, he always met up with this good friend of his who was based in London.

I used “was”, because my friend told me, his good friend has just passed away due to cancer few months ago. It was very sudden. My friend then told me the whole story and somehow, I’m deeply touched by the entire incident. Perhaps it’s because I can imagine myself in that position, to lose someone so dear, in such a short time and totally out of expectations. I was completely speechless after that and didn’t know what to say.

To make things worse, this friend of his has actually lost her boyfriend due to cancer 2 years before this. She was really unlucky even though she came from a very rich family and had the opportunity to further her studies in US and UK. Her friends used to be envious of her because of her background, and they often regarded her as someone lucky.

But in her diary, she wrote that her greatest gift was her family and friends… not the money, nor the opportunities.

And I agree with her. Having all the money in this world is useless if you cannot even spend quality time with your family and friends because money can only bring you ‘that’ far. How often have you heard of stories where rich people end their life due to loneliness or rich people trying so hard to know some real friends? Because money can’t bring you those. Money can’t buy everything.

And really, if you don’t have the opportunities to spend quality time with loved ones…. what’s the point? Do you think you can still lead a happy life?

So stop thinking that people who can fly here n there, buy big houses and cars, and can afford everything they ever need ….are lucky. Because that is not how you should define “lucky”.

At the end of the day, family and friends, and the moments you spend with them, are the things that will decide whether you’re a lucky person or not. Nothing else matters more than them.

And people, always remember that life is really fragile. It just takes a few seconds to decide your fate, to decide whether you’re going to continue living in this world, or not. So, just live your life to the fullest. Stop giving excuses for not doing certain things that you really want to do. Also, if you feel like you’re wasting your time doing something, then make a change. If you think there’s something you really want to try out, then go for it. And if there’s someone that you really miss, give him/her a call. Don’t just sit there doing nothing and waste your life. Life is too short for you to waste it like that.

Last but not least, all I want to say is that most of us have the wrong assumption that being lucky is to be able to buy all your needs and wants. This is how our world has made us think. In the end, most of us chase after all these things in order to be the next lucky person that everyone around us envies or talks about. And most often than not, this ‘chase’ will never end because it’s just too impossible to end.

But don’t get me wrong, it CAN end…. not by being involved in the ‘chase’, but by being content and appreciate what we have. Once we do that, I’m sure most of us will realize that ….actually…we’re all very lucky because we can spend quality time with our loved ones. So what’s next then? Help spread this ‘good luck’ of yours to other people.

Hope it helps.

There are a lot of people who want their partner to change. Some…as soon as they are together. Funny isn’t it? If they want their partner to change as soon as they are together, then why are they together in the first place? Perhaps the reason of them being together is to change the other person…or to so-called customize him/her?

What about the family member who wants everyone in the family to change for him….but the issue is actually with himself? Or the old man who keeps telling his grandchildren not to smoke while he is smoking?

Yes, we’ve seen or heard a lot of such stories and yet….it’s never going to end. They will still happen. Not when everyone prefers to look outside than inside. Of course it’s easier to tell other people to change. You just order them around! That’s all! But how convincing can you be, if you yourself don’t change? If you tell people to change to A, but you are not willing to change to A, you can be assured that most people will not listen to you.

That is why change should always come from within. Initiate the change that you want to make from within yourself. Be the best example.

And if you happened to realize you can’t really change, then you only have 2 options left – to give up completely or to accept things for what they are. I think accepting things for what they are can be difficult but it’s definitely a skill worth learning.

2009 is said to be a very bad year for everyone, even though the fortune tellers (or feng shui masters) are saying otherwise. I do believe that whenever there are bad news, there will always be good news as well. Same goes to opportunities vs problems. Whenever there are a lot of problems, there will always be a lot of opportunities. It’s just a matter of whether you are able to notice and utilize them.

But before that, we need to be able to predict what is going to happen in 2009. This is important since it will allow us to prepare ourselves better, and also to ensure we are ready to pounce when the opportunities present themselves.

Without wasting too much time, here are some of my predictions for the year 2009 (I do sound like I’m giving a speech eh?).

Will business hire someone to downsize in 2009?

Business in general

• More companies will close down.
• More startups will appear….and disappear.
• 2009 might be the beginning of some well-known corporations. Do remember that some of the famous brands we have now started during recession periods in the past.
• A lot of companies will start cutting cost, and some might mistakenly cut elements which are necessary for the long term prospect of the company. And this might send the companies to a downward spiral.
• There will still be businesses which can profit from this recession period. Do some research and you are sure to get some ideas.

Economy

• The world’s economy will become worse in 2009 since all the previous negative forecasts will become a reality. Also, more companies will report losses or minimal profits.
• Malaysia will most likely enter recession in 2nd or 3rd quarter of the year, even though our economy experts are saying otherwise. Malaysia has the highest number of people with debts/loans in Asia Pacific and even if our banks are very strong, we can’t deny the fact that there are a lot of multinationals in Malaysia. Struggling multinationals might start retrenching people or closing down their operations, thus increasing the number of jobless people. Jobless people will not be able to pay the debts/loans and this can be quite bad.
• I expect the stock market to bottom up in 3rd quarter of 2009 and starts its long journey towards recovery in 4th quarter of 2009 or beginning of 2010.
• USD will continue to rise against Malaysia Ringgit. I expect it to reach 3.7-3.8 range.

Health

• Cures for some diseases or illnesses will be found.
• However, more unknown illnesses will start to appear.
• Old illnesses will also start to become a problem but I doubt there will be any global epidemic in 2009, thanks to our advanced medical science.
• More and more people will start to become health conscious. Healthy food will become more popular this year. So will hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and labs (for blood test).

Job & career

• More people will lose their jobs due to recession and retrenchments.
• Number of candidates per job opportunity (especially in a multinational company) will increase tremendously since everyone wants to work in a stable company in 2009.
• Average salary will become lower because people no longer dare to ask for too much. Benefits might not be so good too.
• The differences will be very obvious between employees with good attitude and employees with not-so-good attitude.
• There will be lesser interesting jobs and more boring jobs. Why? Because interesting jobs tend to be risky at times and most companies prefer to do things with low risks in 2009.
• More people will go for certifications and additional trainings in order to make themselves more attractive to potential employers.
• Hiring and recruitment process will be stricter than before because nobody wants to hire someone useless. Also, terminating someone can be very expensive. Thus, prevention is better than cure.
• Starting salary for fresh graduates might be worse than years before because companies would prefer to hire someone who can hit the ground running on his/her first day.
• Employees should be prepared to step outside their “comfort zone” and be more than what they have been hired for. If they don’t do that, someone else out there will be more willing to do that.

The new IPhone which will change the world? You must be joking

Technology

• Internet connection will become faster.
• Mobile applications will be more popular but not the next “IN” thing.
• Web applications will be even more popular with the introduction of affordable netbooks.
• Microsoft’s future will rely on the upcoming Windows 7.
• Steve Jobs’ creativity will be greatly missed in Apple. I do hope he’ll be fine.
• Desktop applications which allow users to work online and offline, could be the next “IN” thing.
• Open source technologies will become even more popular this year since they’re free and every business wants to cut cost.
• However, be prepared to have a lot of IT projects (especially the big ones) suspended or postponed since IT projects are normally one of the many things struggling businesses would love to cut.

That’s all I can think of. Spent a lot on this. LOL and I just remember I’ve yet to work on my project today!

Do feel free to comment or to add on

I went for my first medical checkup 2 weeks ago – blood test. The result came out last week and I was surprised that I’m perfectly healthy. Just kidding. My title is saying otherwise.

Anyway, I got pretty bad high cholesterol problem. I’m not fat, in case you’re wondering. Ok, maybe a little but not THAT fat. I also tend not to eat so much unhealthy food…except for…..muruku and twisties. =_=

My level of bad cholesterol is quite high. The normal I think is 2.38 and mine is around 1.3 more. That is not good at all and I’m only 26 !!

My doctor said this to me which completely changed my behavior : “Either you go on diet or I’ll have to give you medicine for 1 month.”

It is THAT serious. Medicines to control cholesterol ?!? I thought that’s only needed for older people? =_=

Since then, I’ve changed my lifestyle completely. I go to gym whenever I can (1.5x more than before my blood test result came out). I don’t eat fried food ANYMORE. After 2 weeks, I didn’t eat anything fried. No more fried rice, fried noodle, nothing. No more fatty meat. No more junk food – no keropok (only a little bit of dark chocolate).

My friends and colleagues started to say that I’m getting paranoid and that I should just eat and don’t care. Some even “forced” me to eat. And I wasn’t very polite. I raised my voice and said “When I said NO, means NO. This is my body and my health. You don’t care but I care” to which my friend fell silent.

And no, I don’t think I’m getting paranoid. After all, it’s only 2 months. I need to control my cholesterol level and see if it will go down in 2 months time. I will go for another blood test 2 months later.

What about you? Have you done your blood test? Are you high in cholesterol as well?

p/s……… the reason I went for the med checkup, was that I didn’t feel good even after gym session. I think my body was telling me to go for check up and I did. Prevention is better than cure and don’t think that just because you’re young, you shouldn’t care about your cholesterol level.