What's your Goal in Life?

I’ve been reading a book which says that we must have specific personal goals in our lives. It goes on to say that the tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for.

Without a goal we are like a ship bobbing on the open sea without any direction, going where the currents take us.

Having goals gives us purpose and direction and our lives take on meaning as we reach to achieve our goals We have to know where we want to go or we will never make it anywhere.

All of us are on our life journey which began the moment we were born. We are heading towards one common end, i.e. the grave. Meanwhile, we have to have goals and map out the direction we want to take before the final destination.

All of us have to make a living in order to support ourselves and our families but we mustn’t forget to make a life in the process of making a living. Or life will be meaningless and a sense of emptiness is all that’s left at the end of the day.

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Are we recycled? Do we go through the cycle of birth, death and re-birth?

We are energy and energy that is programmed to take physical form as a human on earth, live out the time allotted and exit from our human cocoon, released into energy form once more. After a period of time out ( I guess ) it’s back to re-cycling.

I read somewhere that during this “time-out” we reflect on what we have learned during our time on earth and should we not have completed the learning process, we return to continue, until we achieve our goals. To me, this sounds plausible as there have been cases of research done in the field of “regression” where a person, under a skilful hypnotist is able to regress into past lives and provide information that enables a better understanding of the circumstances of his current life.

The new-age books are fascinating and provide hours of reflection. However I’m out-station at the moment and am unable to provide the titles of some books which are very readable. I would like to share my poem with you. It was penned a few years ago.

The Journey

You cannot leave before your time,
No matter how much you want to,
For it has been ordained;
The time you became, the time you cease to be.
A struggle to be, a struggle to cease to be,
You go through it alone, by yourself.
No one can help you.
Some slide out with ease,
Others struggle and get sucked out,
The journey thus begun.

Programmed each a different blueprint,
Some a blank sheet,
Some to grow, to flower,
Others cut before their prime;
Many garner achievements, accoutrements,
Others, blights of failure, despair;
Then, at the appointed time,
Nothing matters but the release.
It can take time, it can be split seconds;
It can be peaceful, it can be painful,

But a struggle all the same,
This is but a circle.
Long or short, the journey
A return to the beginning
Join the queue for recycling.

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Empathy

The third E is Empathy. It is the ability to put yourself in someone’s shoes and feel what that person is experiencing. For example, if your friend is grieving for a recently demised pet, you can feel her pain, as if you have lost a pet too. You are able to understand her feelings and able to console her and comfort her.

Good books enable us to empathise with the characters so if the story is a sad one, it is not surprising that those of us who are able to empathise, find ourselves with wet eyes.

I often cry when reading books. Silly me, I guess, to cry over the character’s misfortune but there it goes. It’s the author’s skill in being able to create the situation whereby a reader can empathise with the character, in using words that touch your heart.

To have empathy for others, I think, is a good trait to possess. It makes us humane, able to identify with the other party’s situation and to feel for that person.

Unfortunately there are people who are unable to empathise and they often come across as unfeeling and unsympathetic. Maybe the situation did not strike a chord in them and they were thus unable to feel any sympathy.

If you have empathy and are able to sympathise with others, good for you. Do unto others what you would others do unto you. In times of trouble or stress, if there is someone who can share the burden, even just by lending a sympathetic ear, it makes a difference. You can also show your understanding through touch. Just a hand on the shoulder, a hug, or even a look and a nod can show the person you care and understand.

If we can empathise more, I believe there will be better understanding among people in a community.

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The second E is Enthusiasm. What is enthusiasm?

It is associated with feelings of excitement, eagerness and zeal. To live with enthusiasm would be to approach each day with a positive outlook, to look at things positively.

If there are challenges facing you, look at them as opportunities to learn and seek them actively. When you are tasked with doing something, do it with enthusiasm. Your eagerness and excitement will rub off on those around you and everyone will be influenced by your positive attitude.

You will be a winner!

Greet someone you know with enthusiasm. Show how happy you are to see him or her. This may make his/her day especially if he/she is feeling out of sorts that day.

Remember, enthusiasm wins the day! Such feelings buoy you up and enthusiasm is catching! Smile and the world smiles with you. Cry and you cry alone because people steer clear of those who are like raindrops, dampening the environment. Even when you have problems, smile and you will find that those problems aren’t so bad after all.

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The First E

I would like to share this tip which I received from an email.

This tip says that we should live with the 3 E’s.

Today I would like to share about the first E which stands for Energy.

Have you wondered where we came from and what we are made of? I’m sure one answer will be: from the union of papa’s seed and mama’s egg and we are made of flesh and blood. Yes, this is the physical substance of us. The other is energy. We are energy cocooned in a physical body which we divest when we leave this world and return to the Source of energy from whence we came. Thus as energy we move on to the next stage. What it is, I don’t know although there are the New Age books that have very definite ideas about it.

On another level, to live with the first E which is energy can be interpreted as living life to the full, looking at things in a positive way. This would be energy well spent, rather than to dwell on the negative, which will be a waste of vibrant energy.

Being positive would attract people to us, especially those who also are positive for people with similar interests tend to group together.

There is so much that we can do if all positive energy can be harnessed into doing good, into making a difference to people's lives. This in turn would create more positive energy in us, having felt the satisfaction of having contributed to something worthwhile.

It would be in our interests to distance ourselves from those who are negative in their outlook lest we be drawn into their pessimism for negativity can be contagious.

So here’s to being positive! Cheers!

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Is it Love?

What is it with us that we can love to distraction?

When parents see a new-born, love swells in their bosoms for the new being, product of their love and union. It is with great pride that they show off the new addition to their family to relatives and friends. Grandparents almost swoon over their first grandchild too.


Ah! To hold once more, a baby in your arms….. the emotions are hard to describe.

When boy meets girl or vice versa, sparks fly and the chemistry sends hearts a-thumping and nothing matters but THE person. Everything else pales in comparison. Remember the feeling that you had to see that special person everyday or something is missing in life?
Ever experienced telepathy where concentrated focus on that person brings him to your doorstep?


No, this is not obsession. It’s simply being in love, as the young people would put it.
Even adults have experienced this situation where a loved on is the center of one’s life, his North, South, East and West. If this results in marriage, well and good, the happy-ever-after ending of every fairy tale.


However, to some, this is not the ending but a beginning, the beginning of a new chapter, in the book of their life. Subsequent chapters will be written in as per their journey together. There will be happy moments with cherished memories and there will be bitter-sweet ones too, when things do not go well. Such is life, with its ups and downs.

At the end of it all, in your twilight days, if you have survived so far, you can turn over the pages of your book of life and reminisce, living once again those moments. However, these can be colored, depending on the passage of time. Details can be added or subtracted, depending on one’s memory which can play tricks on one, as age progresses.


It’s good to start scrap-booking, to preserve the memories that have been captured in photographs. This is especially so as you can later on present to your child the scrap book that features the different stages of his life, from infancy to the present. Or you can do a scrap book of your own life, to leave behind as a legacy to your family so that the young ones can learn a bit of history, get to know what life was like in the past, when there were no computers, no handphones, no iPads.

This can be in tangible form, a hard copy or it can be put into digital form and saved in a CD. A pity that I do not have photographs of the different stages of my life. What a story they would have told!

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Life is like a rollercoaster. It goes round, up and down but unlike the rollercoaster which people ride for the thrill, for the adrenaline rush when you go down the steep troughs and screaming in company with the rest of the passengers, life can be humdrum, with days of mundane routine.

Sometimes it is punctuated with moments of excitement like seeing your baby take his first steps, your son or daughter graduating with honours, or seeing your first grandchild, a much-anticipated bundle of joy.

At other times you wonder what your purpose in life is, when you feel that life has lost its momentum, when the children have grown up and gone off to build their own homes and raise their families. Each day is more of the same, doing the same things, going through the motions until night comes and you retire, only to greet the next day and go through the same cycle again.

If you are very wealthy, your wealth offers you more options. You can travel to different countries and enjoy what each has to offer. If you enjoy good health, that is a great bonus.

Unfortunately for many people as they age, their health goes downhill too, leaving them with age-related diseases. This reduces the quality of their lives and one can see many elderly people in the hospital pharmacy, waiting to collect their medication after seeing their doctors.

Whatever situation we find ourselves in, we must be thankful that we have all our limbs intact, a functioning brain and the ability to decide what we want to do with our lives. It is up to us whether we want to languish in limbo or decide that we can be more proactive and do something worthwhile. It doesn’t have to be more of the same each day. It is up to us to make a difference.

Think of the less fortunate, the handicapped, the marginalized in our society and do something positive to make a difference in their lives.

Here I would like to share this video snippet of a young man who struggled against all odds and emerged triumphant, he who was born without limbs and yet celebrates his life.

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