Month 1 in Sweden
Today on 16 September is exactly a month after I had left Singapore with Mister Pops the cat and arrived in Sweden—in Huskvarna to be exact that is about 1.5 hours’ drive from Gothenburg. It’s wonderful to be reunited with Mister Bear!
Planning the move and executing it from start to finish had been a challenging but great experience. In addition to putting my administration and project management skills to good use (which is my bread and butter!), I have also learned many new things. […]
Will you choose to matter?
Most of us are already successful, but according to Seth Godin that is not the question. The question is, will you choose to matter?
I have a few ideas swimming in my head. And this has to do with a major life event I’m about to embark on in August this year.
Be Present
Rolf Dobelli said: Our brains cope automatically with all three layers of time—past, present and future. The issue is which one we concentrate on.
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What I have learned from Dobelli is that it’s not about avoiding making long-term plans, but once they are in place to focus wholly on the now. Not ruminating about the past, worrying or wondering about the future, but living in the present.
The Little Book Box by NLB
The Little Book Box is a book subscription service by the NLB targeted at young readers aged four to nine, offering a broad range of genres. It’s a carefully curated selection by the librarians suitable for children’s interests aimed at nurturing their love for reading. Read more about it here.
Although targeted at children, I’m very interested in the program and opted to subscribe to support this NLB initiative.
Death
One day—some day—in the future, this will be my home. I’ll be given the role of a corpse. I’ll be lying still under the ground and I’ll have a tombstone with my name engraved on it.
Until then, I’m quite optimistic that I still have approximately 40 years or so of life left in me. How will I use the remaining years of my life? What would I have done? Who would I have become when I am 84?
Keep Creating
I burst into tears when I reached the part in the talk where Elizabeth Gilbert uttered those words in the above quote. I was re-watching some talks on TED and one of them is Gilbert’s Success, failure and the drive to keep creating. I love her book Big Magic (my book notes).
For Gilbert, her home has always been writing. She says:
Your home is whatever in this world you love more than you love yourself. So that might be creativity, it might be family, it might be invention, adventure, faith, service, it might be raising corgis, […]
Jurong Bird Park Singapore
The last time I visited the Jurong Bird Park was about 10 years ago. Last week, I visited it again and this time with my friend and former colleague, Eunis. We spent the whole day exploring the bird park starting at about 10 AM through to around 5 PM. I was knackered by the time I was home but utterly satisfied.
3-day Work Week
Today, on this Friday, I ended the chapter on my conventional work-life. My initial plan was to enter into early retirement to play full-time—to focus on my personal projects and interests. My employer, though, has a better idea and because of that, I will be entering into an interesting phase of redesigned work where I get to do both: play and work.