I’ve lived in KL for the past 7 and a half years. Hailing from Penang, I still miss my life on the island much more than in the big city. If it wasn’t for my commitments here in the city, I would have moved back a long time ago.
During my time here I can proudly say that I have managed to achieve what most young people who move to the big city from every small town and village in Malaysia have achieved and more. You may call it the Malaysian dream if you like. Frankly I’d like to see it as the Malaysian dream as well, a house, a car, a stable relationship and a promising career.
However in the past 2 years I have come to challenge my beliefs about what this all meant in the long run. Will we be truly happy with what we have achieved so far and is it able to sustain us in the long run?
Recently the government announced that the poverty line for Malaysians living in KL is RM3,000 per month. I am no statistician but I assume that not less than 70% of the 4 million or so KL residents fall within this category with no certainty that their fate will be much brighter as the days go by. Coupled with inflation, the rising prices of goods, the uncertainty in the world economy and million other considerations, what is there not to challenge about our social beliefs? But yet many of us still go thru life on auto pilot everyday working harder and putting longer hours in their jobs hoping that one day, maybe one day something unexpected happens and their lives would be changed forever.
Today I read in the newspaper that a man who has been buying 4D numbers for the past 20 years hit the jackpot of RM9million. I’m both envious and really happy for him but how many of us will ever be as lucky as him? It’s a one in 26 million chance ratio! For the rest of us, it’s back to work at 9am tomorrow morning or our bosses are more than happy to show us the door.
I believe that most of us are in the situations we are in because we are not aware enough of the world which is revolving around us. Yes, I meant what I said. Even I am guilty of that. We are too engrossed in ourselves that we fail to hit the ‘pause’ button and look around and feel our surroundings. Hear the sounds, see the sights, smell the air, feel the reality of being in the present. No, I am not Deepak Chopra or talking about the ‘Secret’. Rather, the order of nature is what goes around comes around and we need to constantly circulate around what we want to receive eventually.
Let me explain what I mean by this. I am just like any other person on the face of this earth, someone who has to constantly look out for number one and find every way to survive each day just to see the next and put food on the table but I find that the harder I try to chase something, wealth, health, career, relationships the further I find myself away from it. After a while, I, like any of you start to question whether all of this is worthwhile. I start to question my methods and the way I think and act and came to this conclusion. When I stop thinking about me and start to think of things bigger than myself, everything I have been worrying and stressed up about start to take care of itself in a way.
I started to really embrace the way of life where in order to receive, first I have to give. Years ago I attended a seminar and the speaker talked about HAVE, DO, BE and BE, DO, HAVE. To many, including myself, the mindset is, when I have the time or the money or whatever then I will do the things which I want to do, be it a business, social work, charity, chase dreams, go on a holiday and so on and thus, I will be happy or rich or whatever emotions or gratification we normally attach to achieving what we set out to do.
What about the other way round? Have we ever given a thought to that? To be, charitable, or satisfied with what we already have or happy then do the things that those emotions or state of mind allows us to do and have the rewards that comes with it at the end as a result of it. This is the most powerful 3 words that if embraced right, are able to determine the outcome of our lives but first, we need to really appreciate the meaning of it and get it in the right order.
Not many people are able to put their lives at a total halt and take a timeout to check the map and see if we are going in the right direction or chart a new course and follow it if the destination we are heading towards isn’t the one we want to follow but changing the way we think with the guidance of the 3 little words Be, Do and Have can make a profound difference in a person’s life. I call it synchronizing our beliefs to our actions and following through while checking our progress each step of the way.
Will the outcome be what we want it to be? Then it boils down to our principles and what we stand up for or what we see ourselves to be. Will we have more money, more time, more satisfaction, more love, more happiness, more health to do the things we want to do?
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