What If The Moon Fell On Earth

Someone just post an intriguing post on Facebook entitled "What if the moon fell on earth?" The post was equipped with vivid video of the possible scenario. Needless to say when something the size of the moon crashes on earth it will be like two aircraft carriers collide into each other. 

The result will no doubt be devastating. But what is interesting is not what will happen when the moon does crash on earth; but why we should even ponder such 1 in a trillionth scenario and start worry about it. Life is simply too short to worry about something that may not even happen.

Such is the modern lives that most people live with. Life somehow has lost its meaning and we are constantly searching for extraordinary events to excite our boring lives. That explains why movies such as The Avengers and Lord of the Rings are so popular throughout the world. Apparently our lives are too mundane and lack of colours.

It is also why depression is so common nowadays especially among the city dwellers. Life has become too complicated. We simply have too much stuff on our plate that we are likely to loose control at any time. Life is so challenging and demanding that we resorted to escape into the virtual world of movies; games and some people unfortunately choose drugs.

To overcome this modern day spiritual disease, we need to continuously feed our mind with useful information that can help rebuild our crumbled lives. We should stop reading news that don't help with our learning and growth but will add to our worries and suffering. We should read more motivational books or autobiographies of successful people. We should exercise more (at least 3 times a week and one hour each time). We should establish relationship with people with positive inner values and stop hang around with people who just want to kill time. We should go to the church or temple more often. We should read the Bible or other religious texts at least half an hour a day.

The mind is our sacred garden, if it stays idle for too long guess what will happen? Weed will start to grow in our sacred garden. Those who have done gardening before will know that if you leave the weed to grow for months, soon you will have hard time trying to get rid of it because it has grow roots deep and wide throughout your garden. The easiest way to get rid of the weed is to constantly pull them out and plant your garden with productive plants, flowers that you enjoy or fruit trees. And it is a continuous process that you must always keep an eye for some new weed that will crop up every now and then. 

The same theory applies to our mind. We must feed our mind daily with constructive and positive information that will help it grow. We must exercise our mind by thinking logically instead of worrying about stuff that may never happen. So will the moon crashes on earth one day? May be but so what. Are we going to start worry about it today knowing that we have absolutely no control whatsoever when it happens? Why not think about what if the moon does not crash on earth instead? Will our lives be better off? You bet!

Asking The Right Questions

We make decision everyday in our lives. Some are trivial stuff like what to eat for breakfast in the morning; which gym membership to join; which movie to watch etc. While there are some major decisions we also have to make at some point in our lives such as where to buy a house; when to get serious in relationship; right time to have kids; career change; which country to migrate to etc.

Every decision we make has impact on our lives. If we make decision emotionally without making sure that it aligns with our core values; we may find ourselves regret eventually. For example, if your belief is that everyone must have equal opportunity but you live in a country where people are treated differently based on the colours of their skin; and you are in no position to change the situation because you are not in politics; so you said to yourself what if you migrate to another country. The idea sounds great to you initially when you imagine the new life that you are going to have; the greener pasture overseas; the better schools and infrastructure; better pay and so on. You started to feel excited. 

But migrate to a foreign land is a big decision after all. And all sorts of emotion crops up in you. You are fearful of leaving behind the life you are used to; you are sad to leave behind your friends and relative; you are unsure whether you can get a job in your new adopted country. In the end, we may decided to stay put at where you are. This is a decision made emotionally which contradicts to your core value. You continue to build up resentment by living in an unfair society that you feel uncomfortable with and life goes on.  

It's true that migrating to a whole new world is a huge risk. But it is also a risk that brings new opportunity at the same time. Chinese words always manifest great wisdom considering that they are the only civilization that still survive today for 5,000 years! The word 危機 (wei ji) means crisis. But it does not mean doom and gloom solely. The first word 危 means danger while the second word 機; guess what it means........it means opportunity. In every danger situation there is always an opportunity.

Take the stock market for example. Many people buy stock when they see that it is rising in value. But it is exactly this mistake that causes so many people lose money. Because whatever goes up has to come down. The best time to buy stock is when the stock prices of good companies reach rock bottom because it is like they are on sale! But people don't buy it. Why? Because they fear that the prices may get even lower.

So you see how we constantly make decisions emotionally instead of thinking it through by analyzing the situation rationally.

To ensure that we don't continue to make choices in our lives emotionally which will cause us suffering down the track; we have to start asking the right questions.

Take the common decisions most people have to make; changing a job. Most people will ask the following question:

• What if people are not as nice to me in the new company compare to the current one?
• What if I cannot handle the new responsibilities?
• What if the new company is not stable?

Do you see what the above three questions do to your mind? They have one thing in common; they are all assumptions which does not based on any facts whatsoever. In fact they are merely assumptions that people come up with when they are lack of confidence and fearful.

One thing is for sure, the fact that people consider to change job is because they are not happy nor satisfy with their current work place; it is a fact; not an assumptions. So the right questions to ask will be:

• Will I acquire new skills at the new place?
• Is there opportunity to step into bigger role?
• Will my salary increase?
• Will I feel more fulfilled career wise?
• Will it help in my career path down the track? 

These are far more constructive questions that will get your mind working to come up with a better decision for you. We all want to feel like we are growing. The worst situation anyone can be is to stay still in the same place for long period of time. 

Emotions cloud our mind. We must maintain a clear thinking process when comes to making big decisions in our lives. We have to ask ourselves correct questions that can help us get there. Constantly searching for solutions to our problems and start taking control over our lives. May GOD bless you.

Compassionate Pragmatist

Every decision we made comes from our value system within us. If we are a compassionate person, we often find ourselves making decision emotionally. On the other hand if we are a pragmatic individual, every decision that we make must have been carefully thought through in terms of the potential benefits in return.

The question is what type of person are you when it comes to consider a job change. If you are a pragmatist, you will immediately accept a job offer if it promises you a 20% raise in salary. But if you are the compassionate one, then the decision process becomes not that simple. You would perhaps feel sorry for your current employer because he has trained you up to a certain level and you ditch him. You could potentially even turn down an increase of 20% offer. 

An idealist would like to believe that this is a world full of love and compassion. That if we are loyal to our employer, we will get rewarded eventually. Maybe you are the lucky one who has employer like that. But we have to constantly remind ourselves that we are living in a very commercialize world especially if you are working in the private sector. All the employers concern about is the profit margin at the end of the day.

So to come back to that question, if you are the compassionate one, how should you decide. I guess the answer really depends on the circumstances. If you are the longest serving employee in the company, the boss is really nice to you but you haven't got a salary review for more than a year. In the mean time, other employees who just joined the company got promoted and have pay rise. Do you think you still want to feel bad for your boss? No doubt he is really nice to you, but if he really appreciate your loyalty and effort; then your review shouldn't be deferred.

We live in a very materialistic world where sincere human relationship is a rarity. The world we live in is filled with people who are concern more on personal gain than to help each other for better good of the whole. I've even seen people who proclaim themselves to be devoted religious person; but their behaviour clearly shows that they are selfish and do not care for others.

The sad truth is sometimes we are forced to bit just a little bit pragmatic when it comes to decisions made in a commercialize world. Because if we don't, we will just be an outcast to that society. The only way to survive in this world without compromising our conscience and inner value is to try our best not to hurt others in our quest for a decent living. 

Modern society has taught us to focus on ourselves. That we are smart, we can conquer nature, we can step on the moon so on and so forth. We have magnify ourselves and forgot that we are as tiny as a grain of sand in the great universe. We are not great and therefore we ought to be humble and remind ourselves that there is greater being out there watching us. Regardless of which religion you belong to, we all believe that there is GOD watching us irrespective of whatever names that we wish to call it. 

At the end of the day, whatever happen to us is insignificant in the context of the entire world. Even the greatest leaders came and gone. We won't be here forever. It is therefore important that we live life fully in this limited time that we have. 

So why think so much for your boss if you have a better offer. At the end of the day, you are just one of the chess pieces on the board game. Nobody is indispensable. You will not get an award for being loyal. Soon you will be forgotten. The most important thing is that you have contributed during your time in the company and that is enough. You have sacrificed valuable time to work in the office; you have traded your time for money. So don't feel as if you have committed a crime by hopping to another company. This is just business. Everybody has a price and they will go where the right price is.

So are you the compassionate one or a pragmatist? I think the answer is obvious.