Humans are such silly creatures and can’t seem to stop from killing each other in a rapid pace…

Not only there are wars going on, we’re also shooting each other to death… as gunman kills 32 at university.

Einstein is right… Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. It’s saddening to see people lose themselves, give up on rationalization, and deprive himself and others for a chance.

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I talked about learning “better” breathing before. Closely relating to that, posture is almost equally important for our daily lives and health. Actually, getting the breathing down will depend on having better posture. Several factors together prompted me and helped me to fix my own postures: back pain from sitting in office (major), gym’ing, playing piano, and singing. Not only will better postures improve our health and make us feel better in general, with better posture, there will certainly be improvement in all activities/exercise.

By no means am I an health expert, but here are some pointers that I follow personally and have great results:

• Spread and relax the shoulders so they’re slightly angle downward
• Arms on the side of the body
• Straighten up the neck and tuck the chin in, so the head does not stick forward
• Push the sternum outward slightly so the rib cage is opened

These last 4 will help you not to slouch.

• Don’t lock the knees while standing
• Spreading your legs to shoulder width apart while standing
• Feet pointed forward, not diagonally. To allow the hips to relax and consequently, the spine also
• While sitting at a desk or in front of computer, maintain a straight back do not lean your body forward or backward
• Relax muscles around the buttocks when sitting
• Balance the weight of the body more towards the balls of the feet instead of the heels

These last 6 steps will help to reduce the strain on th back tremendously.

• Finally, together with everything, try to feel and monitor the body so you know when your body is tense and try to relax. Deep breathing will help to do that. Drinking more water will also help.

Those are the things I do, and I am noticing how it has helped me in everything. It’s the fundamental in all the things we do, be it piano, dancing, working out, singing, basketball. Fix and improve your posture, then keep it consistently to live a better life :)

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10 rules that I live by in financial aspect (I didn’t know I could come up with 10, yay!):

1. Spend less than what you make.
2. Use credit cards wisely – pay off credit card bills each month, make use of 0% APR offer for financing, use reward cards that accumulate points or have % cash back.
3. Pay off “bad” debt – this includes any high interest rate debt that is not tax deductible, which is credit card debt for most people (there are pay-day loans which should be avoided at all cost anyways because of outrageous interest).
4. Contribute to and fully utilize 401k – Most employers provide 401k these days, so contribute some or at least the % of employer matching (free money!) but also educate yourself of the available funds and pick wisely (hence the “fully utilize” part).
5. Contribute regularly to saving.
6. Develop your own investment portfolio – whether it be individual stocks or funds, but educate yourself first and invest in a style that suits you. I said “your own” because you should never just follow what others do because our needs, situations, and personalities are all different, so understanding yourself is essential here.
7. Have a spending budget – this allows you to afford hobbies, gadgets, travelling, etc.
8. Distinguish “want” vs. “need” – this is the most important to keep myself from spending too much because of how I LOOOOOOOOVE gadgets :)
9. Invest in ourselves – classes, books, or things that contribute to our general well-being.
10. Remember the ultimate goal – a reminder to be frugal and financial-smart but yet not becoming cheap :) In other words, balance is everything.

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I would like to clarify the growth that can happen to us into four separate categories.

• Physical
• Mental
• Emotional
• Financial

I know the line between mental and emotional can be blurry, but I’d like to distinguish them because in this case, mental means personal mental strength and emotional indicates more people-related feelings/thoughts. Already we can see how growing in these two categories can affect each other, and it is not difficult to create links between the four areas. In other words, when we grow in one area, it provides support for us to grow in another. Examples such as, when we grow physically, becomes healthier and more fit, we have an improved sense of confidence that strengthen us mentally. In return, the mental strength provides the discipline needed to continue to exercise, and the discipline we used in that can spill over to let us have control over our money. And then by having control over our financial life, we feel more secure and thus, able to divert our mental energy to better purposes than being stressed out all the time about money. Or when we become more emotionally stable, there will be less situations where emotions take over us and allow our logical side to help resolve the situations for us. Stability in the other three areas help our emotional stability… etc…

As we can see, that is exactly why we need to grow and never give up in all four directions on our paths of personal development. They are closely related. None of the four should be neglected because lacking any of them will weaken the other areas drastically. To visualize this, let’s picture what would happen to a four-legged stool if one leg is missing. You get the idea.

Somewhat related to this, I’d like to quote myself from a conversation I had today, “Only if we’re truly independent, we will make real friends in life.” This is a bit vague, but “true” independence amounts to reaching certain level/independence in each of the four areas I mentioned. What I said is what I fully believe in my heart. “Inter-dependence (friends) is possible only after Independence (self)”.

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I would like to thank all the friends and family who reminded me of getting old… I mean, for wishing me happy birthday today. I got a very unexpected call from an old friend too, it’s great!

I was asked somewhere along if it feels any different to be a year older… not really :P It is not like I can, or anyone for this matter. How can anyone possibly change and metamorphose himself within a day?? There’s even a saying that goes like this, “it is easier to move a mountain than changing yourself (personality)”.

Relating this to personal development and personal finance, that is exactly why we should not wait for these “special days” to set our goals, like birthday, new year day (aka. new year resolution), or even more generic like “summer”. We have to start as soon as we can and make it a continuous process just because sheer difficulties involved, that we have to learn new habits.

For me, I am aware and have been rolling in actions and the only difference of turning 24 is none but persist and continue to learn. We have to remember that we may not have tomorrow. If we want to start something, it needs to be start now. One we got started we cannot cease to push ourselves. Do not give up for even if we may not reach our goal, we are moving forward, which is why we must aim high. As I like to quote, “tomorrow’s myself” needs to be better than “today’s myself”.

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