Spend less than what you make.

A very very simple way to explain this… If we compare two persons, one making $50,000 and spending $45,000 and the other making $100,000 and spending $105,000, who’s going to be better off and has more money?

Now to be able to do that, it means following one or many of the behaviors below:
- don’t spend more than your monthly salary
- tracking your finance (money in-flow an out-flow)
- have a monthly budget
- distinguish wants” and “needs”
- try not to “borrow” from credit cards
- pay off any “bad” debt at high interest rate

Last time I mentioned Awareness; however, there is one thing that goes hand in hand with it. It’s being open-minded. Being aware alone is not enough. If we’re close-minded, how do we change ourselves? How do we allow our thoughts to change and to improve?

You may already think, “Of course I’m open minded.” Well, let’s not be so sure yet and give yourself some leeway to be skeptical about that.
Continue reading Keeping an Open Mind

I will talk about a most significant attribute that will make a huge impact on a person’s development, change his behaviors, and allow him to see the world differently, IMHO. THAT attribute is awareness.

This awareness does not just involve paying attention to things. It has to begin with open mindedness. Because on top of observance, we have to think critically and understand, to understand the environment around us, to understand the people we interact with, to understand the different events happening… so on and so forth. If your mind is close, you only hold on to what you believe already and new observance/thoughts/ideas will not be able to enter and stay in your consciousness.

Amont those, we have to understand ourselves most importantly. This goes hand in hand with the saying that “We are our own worst enemy” and ““We should know our enemies”. Therefore, we need to know (be aware) of ourselves, and to develop ourselves, the first step shall be paying attention to ourselves, our minds, our body, our emotions. When we know ourselves, we then know which part of ourselves need improvement, and also know how to act accordingly everyday.

Beyond that, our awareness should also apply to people around us. By being aware and paying attention with an open mind, we can come to understand other people better. Hence, we will also be able to communicate better. There are also events around us we should be aware of, to understand the flow of the world, how things work in each system (by system, it could mean school, company, family…)

I have only scratch the surface of this topic, but the rest is best grasp by personal experience. Raising awareness will allow better attention to ourselves and our surroundings and then absorb and learn. It is not something to adopt in one day, and a certain mindfulness is required to learn awareness. Better way to say it is that we make awareness our habits, an integral part of us just like breathing, eating, and sleeping.

Notice I have changed the tag line for this blog from “As the Journey Continues…” to “Journey to Success”. This is a way to signify a new stage for myself, a new mindset in seeking, and also a focus for this blog. Let’s take a look at the most important word in the phrase, the definition of success from dictionary.com:

1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success.
4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show.

Those are good definitions that all apply to the word success. However, let me break down I have in mind about success.

I believe an individual would have to define success himself because success entails so many areas of life, despite the fact that we often associate success only with career, fame, and wealth. Here at this blog, the core of the success breathes constant self-improvement, personal development. I will talk about personal experience and learnings within the realm of personal development. I want to share them here because hopefully all of you can get something of out this, to get to a better life, to get to a happier life, while allowing me to keep track of my own thoughts and ideas.

Financial success is an element that enables easier access to success in other areas of life, which is why this blog owes it a category, the “Personal Finance” category. Hopefully I can provide some interesting and helpful ideas for everyone in that area also.

Back to the topic of success, one thing that comes to mind immediately is the philosophy of wushu mentioned in Jet Li’s Fearless, where wushu implies the strengthening of one’s body, mind, and soul all together. That basically covers the ground but to be more specific, success for us should also envelops improving ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. To achieve this, we have to understand that life takes us on a path of constant self-discovery and we shall learn from the choices we make, good and bad. Here I will quote Jet Li, “The biggest enemy of Jet Li is Jet Li. I need to beat up myself. Today, we need to become better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.” As such, the path to success is a relentless pursuit of personal development.

With that, I will leave you to think about the kind of success and the kind of personal development that you seek. I would love for everyone to share and provide comments on this blog. Thanks!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! May you all have another fruitful years and have your wishes and dreams come true (or move closer to them)!