Path to Financial Freedom

Achieving financial freedom, defined as the freedom from having to work for survival, shall be one of my life goals. I hope to achieve it no later than when I reach age 60.

That does not mean that I will head straight into retirement. It just means that I can choose to work purely out of passion and love for my career. By taking the element of ‘working for survival’ out of the picture, I am certain that my job satisfaction will be much higher and my stress level will be at a more desirable level.

 

Furthermore, such freedom provides the best security for the future. I shall not have to worry about my finances for the remaining years of my life, and I do not have to burden anyone else financially.

But to achieve financial freedom is not easy. It takes a lot of determination, planning, hard work and education. That being said, I regard this as an important and long-term priority, and I am willing to put in the effort and time to work towards the fulfilment of this goal.

 

To be a Better Person

The best listener is often the best communicator around. If you want to be heard, first listen to what others have to say.

7 Keys to Better Listening

1. Listening is NOT a passive activity!
2. Listen for unspoken fears, concerns, moods, and aspirations.
3. Good listening requires great wisdom.
4. Listen to others with respect and validation.
5. Listen without thinking about how you're going to respond.
6. Listen for tell-tale signs of impending trouble.
7. Listen with positive regard for people's strengths & abilities.

Source: http://www.stresscure.com/relation/7keys.html

什么是烦恼？

人的烦恼就12个字：放不下，想不开，看不透，忘不了。

——《悦读书房》

Placebo Effect

James Lind (1716-1794), first to perform a clinical trial.

An important lesson in physic is here to be learnt, viz., the wonderful and powerful influence of the passions of the mind on the state and disorders of the body. This is too often overlooked in the cure of diseases.

In the clinical trial, he sought to prove that a diet lacking citrus fruits was the cause of scurvy.

While he spoke of the possibility of the mind influencing the body’s state, it was John Haygarth (1740 – 1827) who first demonstrated the true existence of the placebo effect.

Haygarth's experiment

诺亚方舟

CHP

CHP is over! I must say that I have learnt a lot from the project, mainly by getting myself involved in the various stages of the project. A lot was gained merely by observation. All those data analysis skills will also be useful for any future project that I wish to embark on.

I really cherished the opportunity to learn and to work with so many colleagues on this project. It was really an enjoyable and fruitful experience.

A quote from a book I’ve been reading recently:

学会让感情跟随你的思想，而不要让思想跟着你的感情。

——《富爸爸，穷爸爸》

涵养 理性 慈悲

一个人的涵养，不在心平气和时，而是心浮气燥时；一个人的理性，不在风平浪静时，而是众声喧哗时；一个人的慈悲，不在居高临下时，而是人微言轻时；情侣间的尊重，不是闲情逸致时，而是观点相左时；夫妻间的恩爱，不在花前月下时，而是大难临头时。

——《悦读书房》

New Template

New template design! (=

Spent almost the entire yesterday re-designing my blog. Decided to stick with simplicity – looks less cluttered and healthier for the eyes. Youtube videos also no longer seem to cause any scrolling lag - an irritating problem with my previous template, which was one of the primary reasons behind this template change. The other main reason is of course, it’s time for my blog to sport a new look and feel.

This template was built from the basic Simplicity template provided by Blogger. Added some tweaks to the original version, such as the post dates in calendar format, as well as author and time stamp appearing under the post title instead of next to the comments and tags. As I am a rookie when it comes to webpage designing and in general, IT stuff, it took me quite a while to figure out how to achieve those effects. A lot of time was wasted trying to understand the codes making up the blog. After much trial and error I finally got them to work exactly the way I wanted. Thankfully all the effort paid off as I felt quite satisfied with the new design and everything seems to be working smoothly so far!

!!!

最先道歉的人最勇敢；最先原谅的人最坚强；最先释怀的人最幸福。

——《悦读书房》

3 'E's

If a person truly learns from a mistake, his or her life changes forever, and what that person gains instead of experience is 'wisdom'.

1. Education

2. Experience

3. Excessive cash

I have zero of (2) and negative of (3), so the only thing I can do now is to accumulate (1). Anyway, the only capitals I have now are time and interest (interest in knowing more about financial literacy).

How I wished they taught us anything about financial literacy in school.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Seize the day. Live in day-tight compartments.

The best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today's work superbly today.

1) What is the worst that can possibly happen if I can't solve my problem?

2) Prepare mentally to accept the worst

3) Calmly try to improve upon the worst