Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|
Back to Blog
FALLING INTO PLACE9/4/2023 Remember a time when you walked into a room and you sensed belonged or met a complete stranger and felt that you clicked. You didn't figure out what happened but you knew something happened that made it work. For some people, they call it a magical moment, a cosmic reaction, or chemistry. But for me, this was a situation of ease where what happened was not a product of your hard work but your non-work. Lately, these days, they would say, ' trust the process.' You can't trust the process if you don't know what process you're at. So many people are caught up in the hustle of life and business that they forget what actually makes them feel truly alive and well. That goes to show, that much of what we are programmed to do does not mean it's good in the long run. Today's mantra is 'you can do everything and be somebody' but in reality, we can only do something that we're really good at (to get paid at it) and not more. Based on the latest poll, students these days wanted to be social media influencers and YouTube creators than planning on entering a profession and spending a few years honing their craft. They'd rather be millionaires now (as promised to them by those marketers) than complete degrees, certifications, apprentice work, and more work. Being at ease is not just being comfortable. It's being comfortable despite the uncertainty and what goes into surrendering with that process. Eventually, it is being yourself and understanding that whatever comes, will come eventually. It is of the belief that your life is full of abundance and not of scarcity and lack. That your life is a not a series of boom and bust but a cycle of renewal and dissolution. Chance and luck happens to all of us. Adversities happen to everyone. It's up to you to be in the situation of ease even when things are not falling into place.
0 Comments
Read More
Back to Blog
EMPTYING OUT8/14/2023 With a summer pause on my business and with one part-time on the side, I had a more relaxed pace than ever. One of the best things of doing only one thing is that the mind is emptied out to think in a relax way. There are no distractions, fear, deadlines, and pressures. The other day I was talking about what you can do that is within your control and what you can't to a group of students worried about their grades and how it will look to their parents, their future plans, etc. Much of their worries are based on fear that everything will go completely wrong. A grade can screw up your life or it may not, actually. The range of your control including how you react to failing to meet your goals or expectations is part of your remit. Taking control over what goes in to our lives and what we allow versus what we have to rid off to allow for better things to come is our individual exercise. When we refuse to take the drama and politics of others and we ruthlessly carve out our own sense of wellness in our time and activities, we are being on top of our game. The summer pause is exhilarating and a real time out from the time out. I recommend this to a lot of busy executives who are taking much more than they can possibly digest and enjoy. There are wannabe projects that are failing right before our eyes. It's better to bow out and cut losses because it will not shift in any positive way unless the culture changes. Turns out, emptying out should be regular.
Back to Blog
SHOW MONEY3/17/2023 When I immigrated to Canada on 13 July 2010, I had two suitcases and a big Balikbayan box (used to send goods home for families who stayed behind). At the immigration desk, I was asked about my show money- a money you guarantee that you have with you at the time of landing that you will survive in the next few days or weeks, or maybe if you have a lot, a few months to stave away destitution. Where is your show money? To prove you can survive in Canada on a shoe-string budget and still feel happy with your decision to uproot yourself, your career, and your life for no apparent life-threatening reason but to improve your chances of greater success- whatever that is, a house mortgage, better education, fresher air and food, elevated status-The Great Canadian Dream. Us, immigrants we all had it. The grim determination that we will no matter what it takes, overcome and will get that coveted Canadian passport, identity, language, and social ties under our belts at last. The folks back home will be super proud of what we have done and will say, better in Canada struggling than back home. As I eased into the new Canadian living, the show money transformed in a different way. Where is your Canadian experience? It's like saying that you will never make it here as a landed immigrant if you don't have the Canadian experience which is synonymous to "killing the immigrants softly." How exactly will you get the Canadian experience if nobody will take the risk of hiring you? In order to survive, they have to take survival jobs which is like a penance of choosing Canada as their home. In my last successful job interview, I told them, " I am fresh off the boat and with no Canadian work experience at all yet but I have travelled the world-world-weary and worldly enough to be flexible and adaptable." I got the job! They sure can't believe that I have just arrived and now competing against 500 work applicants in that city. The rest is history. The next show money question is different. It is all about in their heads, "what are your credentials that will allow us to respect you and believe that you can help?" This one is tough to crack. But, there's always a way around it. Of all these questions, one thing is for sure, not all will be pleased and will accept who you are and what you're here for in this country, this city, this small town, and neighborhood. There will also be people like that. But as immigrants who discovered a new home, a new identity that could fuse with the old, and new relations on top of the discarded ones, suggest that we can completely write our own stories with ourselves as the main protagonists, despite the odds. I guess, striving to win every time. |