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So much have happened during Feb 2008 that I would have to mark it as one of the most defining months in my life.

A look into the past, a glimpse into the future and a remix of what’s going on in the present…

The PAST

I found a photo of me when I was in the Army about 5 years back,

The days when I was out in the fields, in the forest, my mind was hardened from the period of time I spent studying about warfare and braving the unknown with my comrades. I must say that being in the armed forces toughened my character by leaps and bounds. It is hard to explain how, but if you look into my eyes through the photo above, you could find the answer within.

I wasn’t Rambo, and as much as I would like to be, I found out it wasn’t easy to become Rambo. Bullets, Guns and Generates, it was exciting at first to come into contact with them, but as time progresses, they became part of my life. If there was a lesson I found most useful from my army days, I would say one of them would be.

“In this life, lives are cheap and fragile no matter how much value you place on it. It is much easier to be killed or handicapped within a blink of an eye than we imagined. It doesn’t take much to lose everything and for your path in life to change.

In this life, offensive and defensive are equally important, you can’t win if you don’t attack, and you can’t live to win if you can’t defend. But the toughest thing is actually something else, which is to last till that moment. You need a system that works to make it there, to the fields, to last the journey. The journey is the toughest but most easily forgotten. You need a system. You need a system.”

Recently, I picked this lesson up again. I have made the mistake of putting this rule aside recently and progress in life has been really affected by forgoing the system. It’s time to fix the system, to make all difficult things, step by step, easy to do.

I rediscovered this rule of thumb when I went for my overseas trip to Malaysia…

But first….a rewind into a few weeks before the trip…

I found some of my older photos, some as young as 17 years old…

Who was I then ?

It’s sometimes hard to accept the fact that almost 9 years have past since these photos were taken. Am I still the same person as in the photo ? Who was I before, what did I become now? You know, sometimes when you were young, you will think, what big things you want to do when you were older, what big things you want to accomplish when your life is up. Then suddenly, one day, you realised that the time has come, this is the age which you will need to do all the things you wanted to do. You have only two choices, to do it or to give up this dream. Even though that it is now that you are fully equipped mentally to handle all the dreams you wanted to accomplish, it is so much easier to give up your dreams than to chase after it. The journey to accomplish your dreams will be tough and the journey without guarantees. Many times I wanted to give up this dream of mine, however, looking around the familiar faces, I knew that people who gave up their dreams always knew they could do so much more…but didn’t. I didn’t want to be like that. I knew what I didn’t want but chose to do it anyway for some time. It wasn’t until a major event happened that I had this choice to choose again. This time, I grabbed it with both hands and no longer will let my dreams become invisible.

It was also because I knew, when my dreams come true, I will then be the complete person, a person worthy of calling myself , me. Without this person, I am short changing not only myself but everyone else.

I have a strange way of gauging how prepared I am to fulfil my dreams, the 3 methods I have is to :

1) When I stepped into Bookstores and found that I have read, owned and devoured almost every great book on the shelves. And when no idea in any book seemed special to me anymore. I knew I am now knowledge ready. It is true that some say, you don’t know how much you know, that is why you underestimate yourself.

2) When I look at my records and can safely say, I did these and accomplished such great things, I am proud to be myself and not someone else. When I was younger, I sometimes think how great it would be to someone else with all that they achieved. Now, I knew I was the someone else my younger self wanted to be in a position. I am ready.

3) When I am responsible for everything that happens to myself and doesn’t affect anyone else seriously because of my failures but am able to affect everyone else seriously because of my success. This requires some thinking, and ultimately, if you are in a position to be there, as stated, the skies are opened and your wings could spread. Some words are written to be understood, some are written to be felt. To be able to do the latter, is a skill of its own, because you are no longer afraid. Fear is sometimes a very bad thing.

…words aside,

I found some hobbies which I truly enjoy

working out in the gym, eating, tennis…just to name a few…

giving up soccer, turning to Tennis

It’s a sport which requires so much skill, that is why I like it

My injuries doesn’t allow me to play contact sports such as soccer for long, have to give it up as time goes by, there will never be a perfect time to do so, so I rather it be now. Decision made. Gone. Done.

Now…to the trip

The Trip to Malaysia

This is a two part trip, one to Genting (Theme park, hotel and Casino) and the other part was to my friend’s house for a visit to see their 1 year old baby.

The Genting Group of 5 People

Rong, Ming, Eric, CL and Jacky at a restaurant at Genting

Just a summary of what we have done there

We had Roti Canai (Roti Prata) for breakfast (above) (RM$1.50 for each)

Went for some thrill rides, (about RM$35 for the all day entry fee)

GoKart !! The speed is somewhat slow (running would be faster!) though compared to the one I went for in Brisbane (Had lots of bruises that time)

Superman ride RM$10 more for 2 continuous rides if you already have the all day theme park pass ! This is not a photo of us, haven’t scanned it yet. But if you look closely, the two people in the middle are Quan Qifeng (left mid) and Bryant Wong (mid right), local celebrities of Singapore. Just found these two photos near the photo printing store. We thought they had some fireworks in their hands at first but upon closer inspection, lol, the pictures were actually scratched ! Someone recongnized them I supposed. lolz

Pizza for Lunch (very cheap, each person about RM$8)

Went for Archery , haha my new found hobby! I like it! Bow and Arrow, like Rambo!

Jky went rockclimbing ! BRAVO!

Caught a stage performance, Lion Dance and aerobics from China.

Dinner at “Good Friend” Restaurant , lolz what a name

AWESOME TRIP! THANKS GUYS! (First world hotel in the background)

Group Shot with “The World’s Largest Hotel with 6116 Rooms” - JKY

Lolz, so that’s my Genting trip in a nutshell. Really really refreshing trip with my best friends of 10 years

After this trip, I went alone to Kuala Lumpur to visit my friend to visit her family and her baby

—

This trip really given me the answers that I needed. Who I am, what really mattered, what is there to be in the future.

I love my friends…alot… fun and openness, doing things together, joking , laughing.

It is true that I am someone who treasures friendship and cherish the moments we spent together, the support and trust between each other is very important to me as well. It’s rare to have these sort of friendships with other people as we grow older, normally the best friends we have are those who have lived and spent moments with us day in day out for some time.

And as I went to my friend’s house, their family with their baby, this is the future I could see which awaits us. Family life, taking care of the small, the baby is the life of the family , it bonds everyone together. It is a whole new different world, a sweet and responsible world. How your baby will turn out to become in future, the main duty rests with you as the parent. It is a world of beauty. Thank you SY and family, you have taught me alot, and thank you for your hospitality, thank you Auntie, thank you XR, thank you Baby G. *winks* All the best for your future! I will work hard towards the future too.

Looking at the present, I know now that it is a very very important phase of life. Success or failure will decide the rest of my life, how it will become. There is one thing which is clear to me now.

Time is the only factor which will determine everything, I could choose to sell my time now for money to work for others and maybe struggle future in life to cope with the raising demands of lifestyle, or I could choose to invest my time now into building feasible businesses and make important investment decisions to secure a long term future.

I can tell you honestly, it is extremely frightening to give up a steady paycheck monthly working for others. And the pressure is mind benting with the peer pressure and those from close ones. And it is extremely frightening but with not much choice that you have to do everything which no one taught you how personally, but to learn step by step from people who have done it.

There are lots of examples from successful people in books, their written works and videos. The keys are out there, it’s all obvious, there is no secret, the difficult thing to do though, is to fail. Trust me, even proven methods could fail, some things take not only effort, the part with effort is easy enough, you just need more countless nights, the part which is difficult is the effectiveness. No one could tell you how effective you are, you have to gauge it yourself because you are now working for yourself, paving a path for the future. How do you explain to people who care about you but you are facing so many challenges, failures that sometimes are so silly it’s meaningless to explain, mini successes that are so important to you but you know it’s not really good to tell them how and why. It is tough, really tough. Freedom there is, but it comes with a price. Fear. Fear is the price you pay for Freedom at this stage.

There is only one way to counter this fear, this fear of failure, even when success is almost guaranteed.

We will need a systematic way to progress.

And there is even a bigger fear….

the fear that time is not kind on me…

I want some people back in my life…I want things to happen…

and I know without success in the near future, fast…

undesirable things might happen…

But I don’t care about fear now…

I must concentrate on doing the things that matter..

God, please guide me along. I need Godspeed.

thank you…I need all the support I can now