Are You Doing What You Love?

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. -Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)

We are busier than we have ever been, working long hours and feeling under more and more pressure. How do you spend your days? For many people work and pleasure are seen as separate, with work being a chore that has to be done to pay the bills. It doesn’t always have to be like that. Although we don’t have to love everything we do, we do need to gain some enjoyment from most of what we do. Take a moment to see if it is time to start afresh and do something you love, something that adds the pleasure factor back into your working life?

Think about what matters to you and why you do the things you do. For each person that means something different. What aspects of a job are important to you? List them. Think about your dream job. Does it motivate and inspire you? If not, think again. It has to mean something to you; otherwise you will not be prepared to put in the effort to achieve what you want. Ask: ‘What am I prepared to give up to make this happen?’ ‘What would I love to try?’ ‘What options do I have?’ ‘What are my talents, skills and qualities?’ ‘How can I utilize them in my ideal job?’ How can you take an idea and turn it into reality? Get creative and think through how you could make money doing what you enjoy.

Starting anew requires courage, confidence and commitment. Hold on to your sense of purpose. Believe in yourself. Ignore the critics, for there are bound to be some, and face your fears (there will many of those too!). Ask for help from those people who can assist you and get supporters to keep you motivated. Research things that interest you and, if necessary, go back to basics and learn new skills. Develop a clear vision of where you’d like to be in 10 years’ time – and why. Write it down. Be specific. This will provide you with something to focus on. Think creatively. This may not happen all of a sudden, but if you work at it gradually, day by day, it can happen.

And if starting something new is not for you, how can you love the job you already have? You can’t always control your situation, but you can always choose how you react to it. Your attitude colors how you face every day and has an influence on the people around you. Choose to be positive. Are there areas of your job that you can improve on? Who can you discuss this with? Is a change to a new role in the same company an option? Examine the possibilities. Your job does not define you, but how you do it does.

And why bother? Doing what you love gives you a good reason to get up every morning. Your life will be challenging, certainly, exciting, definitely. Doing things you enjoy which give you personal fulfillment and satisfaction has been shown to contribute to good health and longevity. Don’t wait for perfect circumstances to start. Begin now!

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Reading Business Trends in Gold and Oil

I am no financial market savvy, however I always try my best to learn the basics in stock trading. So, even if I don’t understand most of the terms used in the stock market, I read updates anyway.

In my mind, there are at least two fundamental shakers in the market, the price of gold and the price of oil. Our currency worth hinges on how much we have stockpile gold in our reserves. Oil on the other hand, being a fundamental commodity, it dictates inflation rates. I closely watch how these two performs on the trading floor daily. Two updates a few hours ago that is worth your while:

The latest from the FinancialTimes.com:

The price of gold continues to trade at fresh highs, so the fact that a quarter of global fund managers say it is overvalued should come as no surprise... “The continuing spike in the gold price leaves investors increasingly uneasy,” says BoA Merrill Lynch. But that has not stopped people piling in. At the time of writing, the spot price of gold had finally broken the $1,200 per ounce mark, almost 40 per cent higher than it was 12 months ago.

From AP:

CAIRO — Saudi Arabia’s oil minister says the current global oil price is “perfect” and the market is stable… Naimi told reporters “the price is perfect” and that the global crude market is stable. Benchmark crude futures settled on Friday at around $75 per barrel.

Perhaps the average Joe will not appreciate any of this news. For most of us however, we know that the high and lows of these two commodities can greatly affect how we do business and go about our daily grind. Okay, there is nothing here to hint that you start investing on oil or gold coins (which is rather more practical and you might want to check out GoldCoinsGain.com and find some interesting gold coin collection there)-far from it. What I meant is, it much better to watch how the prices of these items behave because it greatly affect us in more ways than we think.

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The Pursuit of a Stress-Free Life

Stress-free life is as elusive as any other ideals. Ironically, it is also stressful to pursue it. In fact if you have considered living alone like a hermit, you will realize that it is more stressful than having people you hate around you. If you have watched Tom Hanks in his movie flick, "CASTAWAY" you will immediately nod in agreement with me there. Spending alone from time to time is good, but living alone in an isolated hideaway is stressful than you can imagine.

How does one live a stress-free life? You will see, that many offer a plethora of solutions. I will not add to that.

However, there is one advice worth noting though – acceptance. This means, looking at your own realities as objectively as possible, and accept the facts at hand. On the other hand, this does not necessarily mean surrendering yourself to the circumstance/s. It simply means that problems exist; bad things happen to good people, and some things are beyond your control. Acceptance of these realities allows you to find solutions, create possibilities, and hope for something better.

A stress-free life is always concern about the present, the now. It looks at situations with an objective eye, accepts that particular reality, and does something to change it –now. There is no dilly-dallying. You face life head on.

It's not easy, I know. However, acceptance is always the best step to take if you want to live a stress-free life.

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Quick Money – Here now, Gone tomorrow

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich—something for nothing. ~George Bernard Shaw

We live in the era of ‘INSTANTS’. From instant coffee to instant noodles, from instant internet connection to instant celebrity status, from instant millionaire to instant wife, and on and on –name it, you’ll have it in an instant. Yeah! ‘Instant mentality’ pervades in our way of life, that we no longer value hard work and patience. More so, it is no wonder that many are lured into instant or quick money schemes. Some are even hoping that a single winning lottery ticket or a huge jackpot from one of the best casinos online is their sure way out of poverty. I can’t blame them. Quick and easy money is desirable. However, what they don’t realize, quick money here and now is also quickly gone tomorrow.

There is no sweeter fruit than the fruit of hard work and patience.

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Delays and Waiting – What can we learn from them?

“Lord, give me patience. I need it NOW!”

Have you prayed the same? I bet you did. Probably not in the same token or we have not actually verbalized it.

We hate waiting. We hate delays. We hate being late. Yet, we go through life with all of these in tow. Unknowingly, these things take a piggyback ride on our daily affairs. They exasperate us and more often may ruin our day when left unmanaged.

However, have you ever thought or consider that sometimes delays were meant to teach us something? I know there are delays that cannot be justified, and oftentimes, senseless. Besides that, there are good lessons you can learn from them.

For one, and probably the most important, delays teach us patience.

We’ve heard it, patience is a virtue. It means patience is a good quality or trait worth developing. But it doesn’t grow overnight. It is a garden needed nurturing on a daily basis, a flame needed panning from time to time, and a muscle needed weightlifting to develop. But when patience is rooted well in our soul, in our character, it pays well in crunch times.

One way of effectively nurturing patience is via delays and waiting periods. The more we are exposed to them, the better our character becomes. As we make allowances for delays and waiting time, we will get to enjoy life more. Our day becomes pleasant and bearable, and we become better people in the process.

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The Game Called Life – How far can you raise your stakes?

Life is a gamble where
Where you search and you ramble
And you try for the high that will help to see you through
Life is a gamble and so if you can handle
The uncertainty of tomorrow with me, Today I'll bet on you ~from “Life is a Gamble” words and music by Bobby Cochran and Harry Garfield

I do not gamble because of two reasons: one, I hate losing on things of which I have no control of, and two, because gambling is a game of chance. I tried online once, a couple of years ago at the urging of a friend and the lure of online casino bonuses for grab…and I lose. I never played since; although I love watching poker games live. I love the tension heaping when the stakes are higher, and how the players try to read each other’s hands and expression. Then one by one, the players starts conceding until only a pair left. This is the climax. This is where silence grips the room until the last card was drawn –win or lose but winner takes all.

Life can be like that if we take it as a game of chance. Yeah, there are decisions where you take risks, gamble, and let fate. But on a day to day basis, life should be lived with a purpose, not by chance. When your future is at stake, you don’t just gamble it away. You plan, prepare, and take calculated steps to win until the end. You don’t relegate it to chance.

Alright, enough of the allegory and the reflection.

On the side:

Should you have the opportunity to try any online casino games, take these two-nugget advice before you throw your money away (or your life savings away):

1. Play only on legitimate online casinos. However, if you are a novice like me, how can you tell between the real mackoy and scams? If you want an assurance that you will be entering a legitimate den, consult Online Casino Gold List. This site provide the essential information you need about legitimate online casinos, games, software, and bookings. The information you glean from them were meant to protect you from illegal gambling scams proliferating on the net. So in effect, what you get is an assurance that you will be playing with a certified host and a guarantee that your needs and concerns will be properly addressed.

2. Play only those recommended games. The first was ensuring that you join the legit. Here, you want ensure that you play on those games recommended by other players like you. In this case, ProudlyCasino.com would be a good resource. What they actually do is sip through a plethora of available online games, and create a list of those sites which players have rated, so that you are assured of a fun and worthwhile playing experience. More, they also do background investigation so that you will be guaranteed of a legit host.

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Ramblings: On Politics, Culture, and Religion

I must admit, the first page I turn to whenever I read a broad sheet (yeah, I still read the morning paper) is the editorial cartoon. I appreciate how these artists capture the important or big events of the day in simple caricature –indeed; a picture speaks a thousand words. More often, I care more what they want to mean in those drawings than what the editorial is. Why? Because they unabashedly convey truth in those few strokes.

Philip Yancey, one of my favorite evangelical journalists, in his book entitled: Finding God in Unexpected Places, opined that cartoons reveal a lot about the general drift of culture. I agree. He shared some of his collection and remarked:

• The New Yorker Magazine pictures a waiter in an expensive restaurant explaining the menu to a patron: “The ones with asterisks are those recommended by the religious right.”


• A nationally syndicated political cartoonist drew a church building with a “Christian Coalition” sign on the front. From inside comes the voice, “Reverend Falwell, Reverend Robertson, there’s a gentleman waiting outside to see you. He says he’s not a republican.” Their reply: “Tell him to get lost!” Outside the church stands Jesus.


• Yet another political cartoon depicted a classic American church building with the sign out front, “First Church of Anti Clinton”

The culture wars have been heating up on both sides. Even as Christians feel like an embattled minority with their values under constant attack, the surrounding secular culture sees Christians as a growing threat.

This issue is as old as the church but still is an ongoing debate. Politics, civil actions, environmental concerns, and other issues have always divided us. Much more, religiosity somehow always managed to pull a cape of hypocrisy in the guise of dignified righteousness. When we address morality and corruptions in the government, we could not even raise a finger to do something about it except preach against it.

Obviously, we shield ourselves on the pretext of separating church and state. I see this inconsistent. In matters of managing the affairs of the state, yes, let religion be separated. However, in matters involving morality, culture, values and other concerns, religion should be on the forefront. We cannot allow morality to be dictated by those who govern us. Although, it is incumbent of them to exemplify it.

I cannot help but go back to the ideals of Martin Luther King. Again, for without his staunch stand against apartheid, which led to his martyrdom, we will not be enjoying freedom and equality today.

Election is fast approaching, for whom do we raise our banners? Where do we stand for? Good governance over questionable morality or bad governance over above reproach morality?

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