Denting the Universe

Good Afternoon guys, sitting at a Starbucks in Penang now, with my Café Mocha except today it,a venti, trying some variation out ( Venti 2 normal shots, 1 decaf, 6 pumps chocolate). So far my Penang trip has been amazing, the haze parted ways for my arrival 😉 the botanical gardens is an amazing place to chill and exercise; and i’ve actually been exploring Penang instead of just staying at one place, not that that isn’t fun but we need to try out new things. Checkout my twitter (@arkay6) or my Instagram (@arkaysthoughts) if you would like to take a look at the pictures of my trip so far.

So to the point of the day, it’s time for Thought of the Week, and today’s thought is simple enough, have you made an impact?

I can tell you this, one of the greatest sources of joy, satisfaction and happiness; one of the greatest feelings you can ever get is when you make a positive impact on somebody else’s life. Whether its a family member, part of your Team, a friend or a random person. I know it may sound bizarre to some out there, but it is true.

Making a positive impact doesn’t mean it has to BIG. it just has to come from the heart, it has to be a genuine act, something Straight From The Heart. It can be as small as helping a kid out with his homework which could be the turning point on his school year, it can be being there for your Friend in dark times and supporting him/her. It can be anything, because everything has an impact, it’s just a matter of scale. Remember, it doesn’t have to be BIG, start of small and then see what happens.

When I first started writing more positively about 3/4 months ago, during my “Second Coming” I got messages from old friends telling about how my writing was helping them, telling me how they could relate and thinking me for it. It was amazing, I felt great, made me feel like I was making a difference, that I wasn’t living in vain. Deep down, we all want to make a difference, but we have this perception that to make a difference it’s got to start of BIG, or they you have to have money to make a true impact, and while that may certainly help you, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make an impact or a difference around you without it.

Anyone can make a positive difference, you just got to believe you can, start small (Just Do It), and take it from there. You can start by taking on more responsibility at home, help out to lessen the burden on the other members of the family, that will make an positive impact/difference in their life’s. Be positive around the people around you, it will make an impact by helping to better their moods, when someone is having a bad day, find a way to cheer him/her out, if you’re friend hasn’t celebrated his/her Birthday in a while, plan a surprise Birthday party! Send flowers to someone when you think they need it, yes they will die, but I personally discovered this year that flowers will brighten the mood of the recipient, cheesy… Yes, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

Steve Jobs and Woz started out from a garage, they didn’t know that that would lead to the most valuable company at the moment, churning out products that make a positive difference in our life’s, My life. Mother Theresa started out with picking up one person before going on to helping out thousands.

But remember, as much as you want to make a positive impact, don’t forget about taking care of yourself, I am a big advocate of ensuring they you can take care of yourself, yes this will help you as well, but don’t get lost trying to save the world that you lose yourself.

Anyone can make a positive difference, it’s just a matter of scale.

Straight From The Heart

Sunday Reflections – Going In One More Round

It’s been a great Sunday so far, ventured into Bukit Gasing and pushed myself harder than I have in years and I feel incredibly proud of myself.

Achievement Unlocked.

Over the past week the first thing that I see when I wake up is a poster, and on that poster is a line that does like this:

“Going in one more round when you don’t think you can – that’s what makes all the difference in your life.” Rocky

I’ve been pushing myself over the last week, I’ve been trying new things, I’ve been focusing and most importantly I’ve been exercising. From basic 1.5km walks I pushed on to 3.33km, and then 4.5 km the day after followed by 4.8km and then today 5.6km through Bukit Gasing, which was incredible difficult. I found myself scared many times during the trail, it wasn’t easy and there were times I wanted to give up, but every time I would refocus myself and calm down, take a breather and push forward. I didn’t plan to go into Bukit Gasing, it was a spur of the moment thing during what was intended to be a chilled 5km walk.

I’m glad I did it, I really am. I keep surprising myself and most importantly, I’m showing the Fibromyalgia who’s in charge. I’ve been walking consistently at 8ish, getting myself 8 hours of sleep, I’ve been practicing better sleep hygiene (is it even called that?), I’ve been making it a daily goal to do something new, whether it’s trying a new cafe or going on a new trail, just anything new, and I’ve been feeling good. It hasn’t been all perfect but I’m working on it, and it’s been a good good week.

The greatest thing to happen over the last week is my exercising. It has filled me with energy, confidence and endorphins. It’s come to a point where I look forward to my workouts. I’ve been trying twice a day, and it’s been doing wonders. Of course there are the body aches, and they come with Fibromyalgia fuelled vengeance in the mornings, and the only reason I managed to fight them and get up out of bed is the fact that I wake up to that Rocky quote and also some other reading I’ve been doing, but the main motivation has been the quote. And truly, every time I’ve gone in that extra round when I didn’t think I could make it at first, I think of the quote and I push myself harder, I focus on being positive and I consciously change my thinking from “I don’t think I can” to “just do it”.

Yes I know this sounds cheesy and all that, but it’s truly been an enlightening week, and I’m going to follow through on that this week. I’m going to take a break tomorrow by just doing a 3km run, I’m not going to have a compete rest day because I don’t want to disrupt this momentum, and honestly I don’t want to rest, I actually want to do 6km at least tomorrow, but I’ve got to think and refuel.

Over the next week i’ll push further by focusing on being more responsible at home, focusing on academics and reading, following on from the great week.

Keywords: will power and discipline.

It’s been a great week of moving forward.

Straight From The Heart

Walk the Talk

I’ve been trying to do one new thing daily and so today, instead of Starbucks, I thought I’d try something different. So here I am, at Artisan Roast Cafe with my flat white. It’s pretty good, but I miss my Café Mocha, should have tried their mocha here instead, I guess that’ll have to be another time. By right now, I can say that this place is a nice chill out place for coffee purist, parking was a pain but I finally got a place. It has a very very different feel from Starbucks. But hey, what’s life if we don’t try out new things.

Today’s post revolves around the old saying, “Actions speak louder than words,” and “walk the talk.”

A lot of us talk a good talk but can we deliver? Are our actions in line with our words? Is our video aligned with your audio, as Robin Sharma says.

This is definitely something to think about, don’t say something if you don’t mean it, don’t make promises you can’t keep. You may say something is important to you, but do you actions follow through on it?

I remember this from one of Robin Sharma books, “your schedule doesn’t lie.” you may say that you family is top priority but do you schedule time to spend with them? You may say exercise is important but have you scheduled down workout sessions for the week?

Remember, anyone can talk a good talk, but not everyone can walk the talk. Listen to what you say regularly and ask yourself, do I really mean this? Do I really do these things? Am I just talking utter BS?

This habit is not beneficial to anyone in the long run, to you and your loved ones. You will hurt yourself and them.

Now one of the biggest enemies of walking the talk is procrastination, people have good intentions but good intentions are just that, intentions, and intentions won’t make a differences to anything or none unless they’re translated into action. The way to fight procrastination, start small , just do it and Keep Moving Forward. There are many decisions to make and things to do, just get cracking.

Do you remember what your new year’s resolution was?
When was the last time you made a promise and then didn’t keep it?

Words mean nothing until they become actions, yes words have the power to stimulate action, but they isn’t always the case as you and I both know.

Most of us (notice that i used ‘us’) are all guilty of these things, so here are a couple things to keep in mind that will help rectify this issue, it’s not an instant fix but it’s definitely the right way to go if you, like me, want to kill this habit/practice.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep, make sure your schedule is inline with your priorities or what you say are your priorities & don’t say something if you don’t mean it, if you’re going to say it, make sure you can do it.

Hope this helps,

Straight From The Heart

Striping Away the Noise

We are surrounded by so much damn noise. Everyday, everywhere. Whether it’s literal noise, or people asking us to do stuff, or chores to get done or even our own thoughts bumping into each other in our heads. There’s just so much going on and so many of us live life in this state of mess and confusion because we’re just going with it. We don’t take the time to stand back and look what’s going on, we just do. And yes doing is good, but make sure what you’re doing is in line with what you want from life, that it is in line with who you are and that you’re not just doing something because it’s there, or because you’re just too confused from the noise that surrounds us.

As Peter Drucker once said;

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.

Are you doing things and have no idea why?
Are you busy being busy?
Are you too busy doing things that you don’t even know where you’re heading?
How do we know that we are making the right choices if we aren’t aware of what we want?

Take the time to Strip Away the Noise that surrounds you, that plagues your mind. Filter it and then you will be able to see where you’re going, what you need to do and what you can toss.

The noise around us can seem so daunting that before we even try to strip it apart, we give up. You don’t want to be so busy climbing up the mountain only to realise at the summit that you climbed the wrong on. That may seem like a joke, but it does happen. Remember, there is nothing so useless as doing something efficiently that should not be done at all.

Take it a step at a time, as Confucius said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Make an attempt everyday to get clear the noise, take an hour to yourself everyday to do this, when is up to you, but I usually do it when I wake up because it sets me in a great mood for the rest of the day. How can we achieve that which we desire if we sent even clear on what it is we want? How do we know we’re on the right track if we don’t take the time to regularly clear our vision. We need to get clear of what we want if we want to achieve it.

Robin Sharma said it so well, “Awareness precedes choice and choice precedes results.”

Sometimes we are too busy having fun or working or doing things that we forget to look forward.

Get clear of what you want so that the choices you make will be in line with it, and then, since we’re making better choices we will see better results.

I hope this helped spur you towards getting clear on life and taking control of it.

Straight From The Heart

Enjoy the Journey

Good Afternoon readers, The weekend is here, have a break, refuel, you know you need it, but also, don’t waste the weekend. The weekend is a time where you can create new moments & memories to add colour to your life. For most the work week was probably dull and full of well, work, is that how you want to remember your life when you look back? Yes we have to work, but they doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create spectacular memories with the people you love. Hilary Cooper said it well when she said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away”.

Would you rather live a longer, duller life or a shorter, more memorable one? There really is no overall correct answer, just the correct answer to you.

But go out and do something this weekend, it doesn’t have to be something like sky diving or parasailing. Go meet loved ones and play some board games (check out Meeples Cafe in SS15 Subang Jaya), take your kids to the park this evening, gather the family and cuddle in front of the tv, take a short road trip to Melaka or Port Dickson, or maybe even a weekend away somewhere else. The Journey of Life is going to be full of potholes, so enjoy & experience as many Moments, without losing focus of what you want to achieve. Find they slender balance between work & play, otherwise known as the Work-Life Balance. It won’t always be in balance but keep trying, over time you can “average” it out.

So don’t waste this weekend, I understand that you need to rest the body, trust me I do, but also make sure you enjoy your Journey with the people you Love.

Straight From The Heart

The Silver Lining

Good evening people, the above quote has nothing to do with today’s piece, but I thought I’d just share it with you anyway. I’m at Starbucks with my sis, cousin and friend, just enjoying the buzz of humanity during the Starbucks Happy Hour. I was cracking my head as to what to write today until recalled a conversation I had yesterday. Haven’t really put that much thought into it, so i think it’ll be short. Here it goes.

Life isn’t pretty, bad things happen, but ironically these events may eventually lead you to something better. If I never had to take my intermission from Monash, I would not have developed my blog and my writing, which has now become so very important to me. In a way, I’m actually glad that my symptoms flared up because they lead me to this… Arkay’s Thoughts.

Actually, if I take a look at the last 3 years, or actually my whole life, I really don’t think I would change much because each fall, mistake or stumble either taught me or lead me to something better in the long run. They’ve made me more patient, more appreciative to the life I have and the people that are in it. I’m learning how to handle defeat gracefully and how to not let it stop me. I’ve become a whole lot stronger. I won’t lie, there was many a time that I just wanted to give up, but there was always a voice in my head telling me to Keep Moving Forward, that I could do it. I haven’t been able to jump all the hurdles, but I’ve made it over a lot, some barely, but I made it over. I picked myself up and when back to class after I dropped out of MUWCI. I graduated a Merit Scholar from CPU and got the business award even after all the absences (thanks to fibro), I did well in my first sem, I fought back against the slump early this year, I sorted things with Monash and I’m going back to class again. None of it was easy, but you know what… All the work was worth it. My family and friends were there to help me up when I was down and didn’t want to get up, they believed in me, when I didn’t believe in myself, and they played a huge part in my life, not just over the past 6 months, but over the past 22 years. I wouldn’t have made it even half this distance without them, especially my parents.

Every fall, every knock, every wrong turn, every mistake… They have lead me here, and I will continue to learn from them, for now they are no longer mistakes, but experiences. Lessons learnt. Memories.

Look for the silver lining, please. Because if you don’t, you’ll end up looking at life through dark tinted glass. I’m not saying that you should be that absolute optimist, but if you want to be happy, look for the sliver lining, it’ll make a big difference to the way your live life. Sort of like the glass half-full versus the glass half empty.

Look for the silver lining, it won’t always be easy, but mot of the time, it’s worth it.

Straight From The Heart

Being Grateful

Good Morning dear readers, I’m at my usual spot with my Café Mocha, thinking of gratitude and life, but before all that…

It’s the end of the workweek, time to look forward to the weekend! Hope you guys had a good week, if you did, enjoy the weekend, if you didn’t, enjoy the weekend. Take a break, crack open a Kit Kat, go get a massage and on Sunday night get a good nights sleep to prep yourself for the following week.

So back to the point, today’s post is about gratitude, about being grateful for my life. There are two ways you can live life, be grateful for what you have, appreciate it and if you want, work for more, or you can compare your life to others, complain about what you don’t have and be miserable. Above all else, happiness is a state of mind.

Why am I writing about this? Well last week I was in Penang and my dad got us great rooms at G Hotel, and once we were inside, I looked at my sister and told her, “we live damn good life’s.” I am grateful to my parents for all they have done, for providing me with whatever they can manage, for always taking care of us, for giving us a very comfortable life. When I was down and out, they were all over the place, looking for anything that could help me. I have a great family, i have a fantastic team of friends, I’m blessed with a pretty decent mind and so many other things.

However, I could go the other way and say that my health has been a problem from before I cod remember, I could say that in terms of education I’m behind my peers, I could say that my love life hasn’t been great, I could say so many things… In the end, it’s all about whether you see the glass as half-empty or half-full. I choose to look at the things I have going for me and appreciate them, and no, I’m not going to ignore the ‘not-so-good’ stuff, I will keep them in mind simply because I would like to work on them. I want to one day live a life, pain, fog and fatigue free, live a life where my peers look up to me in my field, live a life with someone special, live as good a life as I can.

We all have problems, our problems are relative to our own life’s. Some may be bigger than others, but to our own eyes, it is still a problem. But don’t let your problems and difficulties cloud the good in your life, I let that happen for a long time and you know what, I was not a very happy person then. All you can do in life, is your best, watch the piece fall in place and either celebrate & Keep Moving Forward or move on and Keep Moving Forward. (Onward Ho! as the pirates would have said)

Life will be filled with moments, some good and some bad, it’s entirely up to you which you want to make matter more in your life.

My health has been a pain for as long as I can remember, it hasn’t been easy but it doesn’t mean that my life isn’t awesome. Read the quit below by W. Mitchell and I think you’ll get a better picture of what I’m trying to say.

Before I was paralyzed, there were 10,000 things I could do. Now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1000 I lost or on the 9000 I have left.” W. Mitchell

Be grateful for the life you live, cause it could be a lot worse.

Straight From The Heart

Deep Work

Good Morning/Good Afternoon guys,

Thanks for joining me today. My plan of waking up early crashed and burnt, but I’ll try again tomorrow. The body aches were quite bad this morning, but hey, life’s like that, ups and downs. I had a helluva weekend and now it’s time to pay the piper. I am at Starbucks Monash, just sitting, thinking and sipping. My phone is on silent in a corner as I focus on the task at hand, as I focus on thinking and writing. I have initiated Ghost Protocol so that I may concentrate and do some ‘Deep Work’ as Robin Sharma calls it.

Too many of us get distracted whilst we are trying to focus on the task at hand, and though many would like to blame technology and social media for this, they are not to blame, we are. If we cannot concentrate on a task, if we get distracted by a message or a FB notification or a tweet, it’s not your phones fault, or Facebook’s fault or Twitter’s fault, it’s yours. Turn on airplane mode if you have too, put your phone on silent and tuck it under a pillow. Have some discipline.

Put aside a chunk of time to do some deep work or thinking, go Ghost Protocol. We all need A Room of One’s Own. Set some time aside, put your phone away and just get to work, do some deep, quality work, and when your done, you’ll be happy that you did it. You won’t regret not replying the message from a friend asking you to hangout, as long as you’ve made full use of that 1 or 2 or 3 hour chuck to do some deep work full of quality. And hey, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make it a full session without getting distracted, you don’t get to genius without first being a beginner and making mistakes. Just make sure you Keep Moving Forward , small daily improvements will lead to stunning results over time.

So what are you waiting for, go forth and do some deep work. Start small and Keep Moving Forward. Go start with 30 minutes without distractions and when you succeed in keeping 100% concentrated for that chunk of time, increase it, keep improving. And then one day, you’ll be able to put in 3/4 hours of full force deep work and then, you’ll realise that your productivity and quality has reached a whole new level of genius, simply because you got rid of distractions for a chunk of time and kept making small daily improvements.

We all make mistakes in this journey we call life, don’t let it stop you.

So Keep Moving Forward, go Ghost Protocol when you need to and most importantly, make sure you take responsibility and accountability for your life.

Straight From The Heart

Reference Points

Good Morning everyone, as you can see I’m at Starbucks, but not my regular one. Today’s Soy Café Mocha is much better than yesterday’s unfortunately I forgot my tumbler, oh well.

So today, I’m going to write bout reference points. Life is all about that. How you do what you do when you do it is based upon this principle, that we have reference points. The below is an excerpt from one of Robin Sharma’s books. It depicts this principle pretty damn well.

“Lance Armstrong is a great reference point on persistence. My father is a great reference point on integrity. My mother is an excellent reference point on kindness. My kids are superb reference points on what unconditional love an boundless curiosity looks like. Richard Branson is a spectacular reference point on living a full-out life. Madonna is a greet reference point on reinvention. Peter Drucker was a wonderful reference point on the importance of lifelong learning. Nelson Mendela is a brilliant reference point on courage and humanitarianism.” Robin Sharma

Many of us, as we grew up, faced this dilemma, after an exam our parents would say look at the people who scored better while we say, “but look I did better then etc etc.” and on the other hand when I would mention that my friend has this toy or this fancy gadget, they would go the other way and say look a the kids on the street. So yea, how happy you are will definitely depend on what your outlook on life is.

Pick good reference points to drive you to the life you want to have, they don’t have to be people like Mandela, they can be the people in by our life, your mum, your dad, your aunt, your boss. This reference points will help keep you focused on what you want in life, where your want to go and how you want to live. What type of person you want to become. It will shape your look on how your life is, how good it is or how bad it is, it all depends on the reference points you pick.

If you are going through a tough time, read about Lance and maybe he will help you find the strength you need, if you don’t think you’ll be able to achieve your dreams, read about Branson and maybe he will help you clarify your vision and ignite your spirit and self belief. When you find that your little cousin is annoying you, think about your parents and the patience they had raising you.

Reference points are so damn important. And whether you know it or not, have already have them, no it’s whether you are happy with your current reference points. These will set the standards that you will live by. The person you will strive to be, the principles you will live by, the things you will do and most importantly, it will determine your happiness.

Straight From The Heart

Saturday “Should Have Been Morning” Reflections

Good evening everyone,

How’s everyone doing? Today has been really good. I’m in PD right now with some great friends, it’s been great so far 🙂 the drive down was great, I had really fun time driving down. Had some great food at this place in Seremban. The pics should be on Twitter.

So as for reflections, this week has been better, Monday to Wednesday was awesome, Thursday not so awesome and Friday and today have been great. Been getting back to my “good routines”, expect for the swimming in the mornings. Life is looking good, I’ve learnt to let go of things that I can’t control, I’ll do my best and leave the rest to life. That’s all that I can do. All you can do in life is your best. This somehow reminds me of this line

The price of discipline is always better than the pain of regret.

Keep that in mind, it is a very powerful thought.

This week has been filled with the right steps going forward, yes it wasn’t perfect, but the good definitely outweighed the bad. One of my most precious friendships, that was in some trouble, has turned around and it is looking really good. My good friend graduated from Pre-U. I got back to work. Ivy is on the way (3 weeks).

Looking back, I’ve learnt more about friendship, it’s not always easy, and it takes two to tango. There are always two sides to a story. Respect the people around you the same you would want people to respect you. Don’t dish out what you can’t handle and there are things in life that matter and others that don’t. Make sure you know the difference. Please pardon my language but there are things in life that you just got to look and say, “Fuggitt”. You know who and what’s important to you, and that’s all that matters.

Straight From The Heart

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