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There may not be snow or gifts from Santa in the Christmas sock to wake up to but there’s always family, friends and rest.
Filed under: Inspiration, personal | Tags: 2010, christmas, dreams, happiness, Inspiration, life, new year, personal, resolution
Visa’s GO Campaign which captures the essence of my New Year resolutions for 2010!
2009 has been one hell of a year. Yes, pun intended on the word “hell”. Both meanings apply – hell as in hellish and hell as in eventful and memorable!
It’s interesting how many people I speak to roll their eyes when talking about the past year. Nobody liked 2009. Poor 2009 is so unpopular. Anyway, we all welcome new beginnings. It’s human nature after all to delight in novelty, fresh opportunities and positive change!
But, I’ve also realized that experiences are meaningless, unless you make sense of them, either by internalizing the lessons or by purposefully scaling greater heights.
So, before I get caught up with the Christmas and New Year flurry, here are my top 5 new year resolutions for 2010, based on lessons I’ve learnt in 2009:
*drum rolls*
Top resolution of the year: Love my job
OMG, that sounds like such a workaholic freak! But don’t get me wrong – it doesn’t mean I’ll be obsessed with it. What I mean is that I want to be loving what I do! That entails choosing my first post-graduation workplace very carefully. Top things I’ll be looking out for: exposure & learning opportunities, a culture that “clicks” with me, and colleagues and bosses I can envision being friends with (I think this is a good indicator of whether the chemistry is there). We’re young only once and I believe the first few years are the most critical years in building strong foundations if you want to pursue expertise in any given field.
First runner-up resolution of the year: Go out there and play
No, I’m not schizophrenic such that I want to love my job and yet go out there and play when both sound like they are polar opposites of each other. I think it’s possible to love your job such that you will go the extra mile for it and yet go out there to play and experience the world. It’s just about managing your time effectively and creatively finding ways to strike that critical balance. By going out there to play, I mean that I’ll be purposefully seeking out new experiences by moving out of my comfort zone to meet new people and to experience new things everyday! Because I want to be a bigger person and human being.
Second runner up resolution of the year: Love my body
The past six months haven’t been the best of times for me and I’ve neglected my health and body. It’s not the stress or workload but I was very disillusioned and disappointed so I took everything out on my body by stopping my exercise regime and binging. Not good at all. That has got to change. So it’s time to start loving my body because without good health, I won’t be able to fulfill my top 2 resolutions either. Although my top 2 resolutions are more “important” to me, this third resolution is a “support” resolution because the success of the top 2 resolutions hinges on this third resolution! The good news is that I’ve been gyming every alternate day so the next step is to start watching what I eat.
Third runner up resolution of the year: Be happy
You’re probably wondering why this is resolution number 4, not the first. After all loving your job and playing are essentially about being happy too. Call me a masochist if you will but while I am convicted that being happy is highly important, I also believe that we can’t be happy all the time if we want to grow. In other words, sometimes we need to suffer and to bite the bullet a bit when the going gets rough if we want to become bigger people and to grow. Pain is the fastest way to grow sometimes so if we’re not going to take some suffering at least, how will we ever grow and get better in what we do? 
Still, if there are no moments of joy and if we’re depressed and disgruntled all the time, it’s a warning sign that something is very wrong. Time to do a quick check whether we’re on the right track. So happiness is important but sometimes, realistically speaking, pain is necessary to grow.
Last but not least: Re-pick up my guitar
My poor guitar has been sitting in my room on my guitar stand like a decorative piece. Somehow, in the past six months, I couldn’t bring myself to play it. Don’t ask me why because I can’t explain it! I just know that I couldn’t bring myself to play it – Perhaps my soul died a little in the past few months and I was simply too tired to delight in music. Whatever the reason was, it’s okay because it’s going to change. Most of all, playing the guitar was my way of communicating with God and the many times I used to strum my guitar, sing and pray were ecstatic. I’d really love to experience them again.
So there, these are my new year resolutions. What are yours? If you haven’t got any yet, maybe it’s time to start cracking “to get out there and play, to get out there and do, to get out there and experience all the things life has to offer”!
Filed under: Arts, personal | Tags: art, Creativity, eunice woo, imagination, jason wee, life, national heritage board, oh! open house, wilkie edge
Just last Sunday (6th December 2009), the best friend and I hit Wilkie Edge for the OH! Open House.
I really admire people like the people who started OH! Without any clue if OH! would be supported, this group of people invested money and time firstly because they loved art of course and secondly because they believed that art could make a difference in society through spreading ideas and causes. Today, they are supported by the National Heritage Board and the Deustche Bank but when they had started, all they had was their own passion, conviction and desire to make a difference. I admire people like that because they have courage and conviction.
Back to the Open House, it was basically about 15 artists channeling their creative juices into decorating 8 conserved shophouses with artworks and ideas. The amazing thing is that the owners of these 8 conserved shophouses were not paid a penny but had volunteered to open their homes for this cause! Wow. I love the spirit! In appreciation of these owners’ generosity, the artists went the extra mile to ascertain the tastes of these owners and to decorate their homes in a way that would also appeal to them.
In addition to the decorated shophouses, there was also an exhibition in Wilkie Edge itself with artworks by some of the artists involved.
The best friend and I were somewhat low on cash – I’m leaving my current job in January and he has spent too much partying *tsk tsk* so we had to forgo visiting the shophouses (which cost 12SD) but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the exhibition nonetheless! Admission to the exhibition was FOC.
Some of the artworks we enjoyed:
The signboard to tell us we were OH! at the right place!
Everybody who paid the 12SD to tour the houses each got one glass of Asahi beer free at the Asahi Lounge!
The first piece of art right next to the signboard was Jason Wee’s piece put together with bottle caps (the kinds you click open) and you may not be able to see from this picture but just using bottle caps alone, he was able to depict a man’s smiling face!
I can’t recall who this piece was by but it entailed three different projections of the same scene (a boy waking up in the middle of the woods) but the lighting for each projection was varied so that the same scene was portrayed differently!
Entitled “Shall We Dance” by Eunice Woo, this piece of work depicts the feet of a baby girl dancing with a baby boy – Nothing spectacular, right? Wait till you realize that the feet are somebody’s fingers with shoes slipped onto them! It’s amazing how the artist could use her fingers to mimic the way legs move!
What impressed me about this piece of work was that it was printed using a wooden block. In other words, the artist had to carve everything (human expressions and all) onto the wooden block with different textures and shades! Apologies that I didn’t manage to take down this artist’s name!
“Michigan Skies” just brings back memories of my 2ish years in Michigan, USA
Wow – look at how every muscle in the human body is detailed so intricately in this piece of work. From afar, I thought it was a photograph only to realize upon closer examination that it was a charcoal portrait!
This piece of work comprised of aluminium foils each with a house number plate imprinted on it. Clearly, the artist had placed the aluminium foils on the number plate and had pressed the foils onto the plate to capture the house number. Each aluminium foil imprinted with the number represented one year of memories in the house (probably demolished by now). I took a photo of the one representing 1984, the year in which I was born!
I loved this painting of kids (clearly not wealthy) enjoying the simple joys in life like dancing in the rain – a reminder to us that happiness in the smallest of things and that we can be happy no matter what our circumstances.
Titled “Neighbor”, here is a comical representation of someone we probably wouldn’t want as our neighbor!
Another interesting aspect of the exhibition was watching the visitors – there were many kinds of people from various walks of life. All had one thing in common, though, I noticed. Curiosity. As I walked through the exhibition hall, I listened fleetingly in on conversations debating about what the artist was probably trying to represent. More than once, too, I caught some of the visitors staring at the art pieces for ages, appreciating and deciphering them.
Although I’m not an artist myself, I really enjoy attending such exhibitions or plays because they remind me that there is more to life than the industry or business. Most of all, they fuel my curiosity and imagination. Curiosity and imagination are very important, in my opinion at least, because they keep our souls alive.
For more on OH!, you can join the OH! Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ohopenhouse. Or, alternatively, you can visit the OH! Open House website at http://www.ohopenhouse.com/.
When oh when will I find my Emerald City? Where I can love every minute of what I am doing (okay maybe not every minute because there will be down times for sure) and where I can experience the peace from knowing I am doing what I was always meant to do? Where I can work and play so hard that my intense nature is satisfied? Where I can just be me and be celebrated for that. I really need to know. Show me my yellow brick road.
Filed under: Arts, Branding, personal | Tags: Health Promotion Board, HPB, Public Awareness, public service, Supperclub, World Aids Day. Jack and Rai, Your Life Your Canvas, Youth
“Your Life, your Canvas”… That’s the theme for World Aids Day 2009! The central idea is that our lives are like canvases for us to paint our own beautiful stories.
See? I’m wearing the wrist band both in support of World Aids Day and the inspiring idea of painting our own lives!
Last Saturday, too, Eevon, had an extra VIP ticket to the World Aids Day 2009 event at Supperclub, so she asked me to be her date! And of course I gladly obliged.
I loveee the soft and welcoming King sized beds with plush cushions at Supperclub! Instead of chairs or sofas, Supperclub has beds for its patrons to enjoy drinks and good company as if they were in their own bedrooms!
The bloggers had a special area with food, bedssssss and a TV to watch the action on stage. So Kelvin, Ben, Claudia, Eevon and I just lounged around in bed and chit chatted, along with all their respective other halves. I didn’t have an other half to bring along but it’s okay – Eevon and I had each other! Hahas.
After watching Jack & Rai’s live performance that night, I was mesmerized by the duo! Wow -who ever said Singapore had no talent? Introducing Jack & Rai’s “The Fa La La Song” *applause*…
As part of the World Aids Day 2009 drive, the Health Promotion Board and a team of youths also produced a short film, “August 29″ about a young girl dying from Aids spending her last few days with her ex lover.
My thoughts on the World Aids Day 2009 campaign in Singapore? In terms of spreading awareness, it was certainly very successful. But, while many of us know about the World Aids Day 2009 campaign and the line up of events, in my opinion at least, the key messages were not very strong. Also, the next step will probably be to incorporate calls for action in the campaign such that it moves beyond awareness to advocacy and action.
Nonetheless, every cause has to start with awareness and the World Aids Day 2009 campaign in Singapore had a very good head start!
HPB sure knew how to engage key influencers in the blogosphere to spread awareness about the campaign in the digital sphere, the perfect space to interact with youths in.
Keep up the good work HPB!
For more on the global World Aids Day movement, visit the global site at http://www.worldaidsday.org/
I guess the roots for any form of prejudice often lie in fear and a lack of understanding. This lack of understanding about Aids, for instance, has made many people afraid of Aids contractors because they fear catching the disease, little realizing that it is almost impossible for Aids to be transmitted through superficial contact. At the same time, this lack of knowledge has caused many to stereotype Aids patients as promiscuous, not realizing that Aids is contracted not just through promiscuous sexual activity!
I’m glad for awareness movements like World Aids Day 2009 which are attacking prejudice at its roots – a lack of awareness and understanding.
And it is my dream and hope that one day, I will be able to give back to society with my expertise and experience in communications by driving such campaigns!
Filed under: Inspiration, Movies, personal | Tags: Inspiration, life, personal, philosophy, grey's anatomy, meredith, burke, patrick dempsey, ellen pompeo
So recently I’ve taken to watching “Grey’s Anatomy”. And yes I know I’m slow given that it’s already into its 6th season but hey, better late than never!
For those of you who have no clue what “Grey’s Anatomy” is about, essentially, it’s a story of surgical interns and residents taking on life, love and heartbreak while training to become brilliant surgeons at Seattle Grace Hospital.
As of Season 1, though, I relate so much with Meredith – screwed up, confused, often in her own world, but at the end of the day, she’s there not to beat the other interns but to save lives (even if it means breaking boundaries at times) and to be a damn good surgeon.
The problem with many of us is that we get so caught up in competition that we forget what really matters. At the end of the day, after we’ve beaten everybody, what next?
Just tonight, too, I was having a chat with my mum and I was sharing with her that as I’m watching my own granddad deteriorate mentally and physically day by day, I’ve realized that money and status can never ever make a man.
So what if my granddad was a top man in Japan’s largest newspaper, now with my uncle following in his foot steps? At 85, other than his family, he’s so alone.
In direct contrast, a close family friend of ours was a teacher and later a principal for most of her life. She may not have been as prominent as my granddad but during her 40 years in teaching, she had impacted so many lives. Today, as she battles cancer in her old age, she’s surrounded with former students (many of whom are now highly successfully individuals) showering her with love and gratitude.
Most of all, she had reached out to these former students not when they were having everything going for them but when they had been lost, confused and hopeless in the eyes of many.
As many of these former students assumed key positions in society, they never forgot this one teacher who had believed in them when the rest of the world hadn’t.
And just as the hospital chief in “Grey’s Anatomy” was telling Dr. Burke, a driven doctor determined to be the next hospital chief, perhaps – sometimes, it’s not just about doing a smashing job, but about caring enough to go the extra mile even in the smallest of things.
Much as I love my granddad, I don’t ever want to be like him.
I know I can be emotional and downright screwed up at times, but at the end of the day, I think I’d rather be this way than to stop caring altogether. Most of all, I pray I’ll always remember that our lives can never be a sum of our status and achievements.
Rather, our lives are measured by the number of lives we impact and the legacy we leave behind - as human beings.
Filed under: Inspiration, Movies, personal | Tags: Dream, Human, Inspiration, Invictus, leadership, life, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, movie, Nelson Mandela
I can’t wait for “Invictus” to hit the theatres in Singapore! When when? So, what’s this awesome movie about? Let me capture the synopsis for you:
The true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar, to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.
As I watched the trailer for this movie, Nelson Mandela’s words echoed in my head over and over again. “I am the master of my fate… I am the captain of my soul.” “How do we inspire ourselves to greatness where nothing less will do… How do we inspire those around us?”
Sometimes, I question if I’m a freak because while many of my friends around me are either getting married or dating, somehow, I don’t have that interest at all. I don’t yearn for it even.
All I want is to be great… Not in the sense of being a CEO or a figure of authority – not at all. Somehow, power and authority never tantalized me. For that very same reason, I’m not afraid of people in power and positions of authority.
But, I want to be great in the sense that I want to inspire and to make a difference.
Once, at a Planetshakers conference, we were all asked, “What would you want written on your tombstone when you die?” Because that is precisely what you should be fighting for. I remember scribbling down on my paper… “She inspired and she loved”.
That’s probably why this movie, “Invictus” strikes a chord.
I admire the way Nelson Mandela never backed down when told that what he was doing was either insane or not in line. If all we want to do with our lives is to follow convention or to do what’s safe, how will we ever “inspire ourselves to greatness where nothing less will do” and “how will we inspire those around us”.
By the way, “Invictus” is Latin for “unconquered”. Don’t believe me? Go Google it!
Also, I love the scene where Nelson’s wife was telling him that he was making a political calculation but Nelson replied, “No… it’s a human calculation”. At the end of the day, we’re all human. CEO, manager or janiter… we’re all human, with feelings, thoughts, opinions, and the capacity to love and be loved.
“I am the master of my fate… I am the captain of my soul.” So what would you want written on your tombstone? Because that’s precisely what you should be fighting for. Everything else is a distraction.
Filed under: Branding, Inspiration, management | Tags: Believe, book, Branding, Disney, Disneyland, Dream, Hope, Magic, management, The Disney Way, Walt Disney
I was just reading The Disney Way and I was absolutely blown away by the way Walt Disney intuitively knew how to bring out the best in his people. No need for an MBA or a “Managing Corporate Creativity” class. He already knew how to engage his people to create magic and dreams for children and adults alike all around the world.
Dream
“A dream is a wish your heart makes.” Jimmy Cricket
No matter what race or religion, a large part of the human experience is about dreams and hope. People can die for their dreams and visions. That’s how powerful a dream can be. For that very reason, Walt Disney had insisted that the Disney castle be built first during Disneyland’s early days because he knew that this castle would play an integral part in rallying his people around the vision of Disneyland. He also encouraged his people (from janitors to artists to management) to share any ideas they had openly and many of Disney’s best ideas came from various people throughout the organization. Most of all, he reminded his people of their higher purpose to spread happiness, joy and magic to everybody who visited Disneyland in search of hope and comfort. Essentially, he reminded his people to never stop dreaming.
Believe
Another thing that amazed me about Walt Disney was his farsightedness in building a strong culture that only recently, corporations are starting to see the merits of – a positive “I can” attitude, an unwavering dedication to customer satisfaction, the power of teamwork and industry partnerships.
Dare
After Pinocchio had already been completed halfway, Disney decided that the cricket was too much like a cricket and too unlike a human being. In other words, it needed to be more human-like and endearing. Although canning the project halfway would entail huge costs, Walt Disney was so convicted that the cricket needed to be more endearing that he took the bold step to demand that the project be revamped. You can call him a madman or a relentless perfectionist, but at the end of the day, it’s impossible to deny the fact that Walt Disney was courageous in the name of creativity.
Do
It’s one thing to have all the exceptional ideas and another thing to actually realize these ideas. Many ideators are not very good executors but Walt Disney was a genius in both conceptualizing and executing.
A detail- oriented person, he also cared so much about ensuring that visitors to Disneyland experienced magic and joy that he often went down to Disneyland to experience the place as a visitor, and to look for opportunities to make Disneyland more magical for every visitor.
He also believed strongly in equipping, developing and training his people. That’s how the Disney University came about - to train everybody in Disney from janitors to directors in customer service and the Disney culture. In fact, when a young boy hired to play Tom Sawyer had behaved rudely towards some visitors, instead of reprimanding the boy, Walt Disney chided himself for not training the boy sufficiently. After the incident, he ensured that the boy received further training and eventually, the boy went on to be an outstanding Disney employee.
That’s the magic behind Disney, an amazing vision that continues to enthrall the hearts of everybody worldwide : Dream Dare Believe Do. If only the managements of all companies today are as enlightened as Walt Disney and if only we are able to practise this mantra in our lives, we’d probably have witnessed a lot more magic in the world around us.
Filed under: Inspiration, management, personal, relationships | Tags: Conversations, Creativity, Inspiration, leadership, life, Passion, people, philosophy
In the past week, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some very interesting leaders with whom I’ve had conversations that I’ll remember for life.
Don’t we all have such conversations? Conversations we simply can’t forget because they etch important truths on our hearts.
At a point of time in my life when I was starting to question if I should have just made do with whatever I had, these people reminded me to keep fighting for my place in this universe.
“Remember Mariko – if you’re not passionate about it, it’s not worth doing.”
“No job is perfect of course. But there must be something in your job that excites you, through it all. Even after all these years, I still love the creative side of my job a lot. You would have to pay me millions of dollars to pull me away from my job.”
“We all need to fight for something. So don’t say your dream is silly. Just keep fighting for it.”
“Never underestimate the power of storytelling, Mariko, in spreading ideas and in connecting people.”
“It’s not enough to pursue something just because you’ve done it before. You have to be passionate about it. You have to really want it.”
“Creativity starts with the courage to be different and a respect for creativity.”
After speaking with these people, I made a promise to myself to never settle, even if it’s tempting sometimes. No, it’s not enough to do something just because it’s what’s at hand.
God made each and every one of us differently to fulfill unique purposes and we have to keep seeking to fulfill that purpose or we’ll never experience the peace. Hasn’t every “great” person at least once in their lives made a bold decision to fight for what they believed in?
Yet, in that fight, it’s important to never forget the people who have at some point of time in our lives, made a difference and most of all, believed in us.
And, it’s also important to remember always to be a servant leader – someone who cares about his or her people and tries to reach out to them, no matter how busy. I was fortunate enough, too, to meet one such leader.
It’s been one interesting and enlightening week I won’t forget.
