The Power of Leverage

Motivational quotes are ubiquitous. Whilst I myself am an avid reader of motivational quotes, they may not be sufficient to pull someone back on track, assuming the person has access to it. Many people are not that fortunate. Imagine someone so dreadful of life or fell so deeply in financial debt, waiting for time to pass. No purpose of life whatsoever, time is just ticking before that person drifts into extreme depression and eventually jumps off the window of a city skyline, or one of the cliffs in Zermatt. 

Why such pessimism? People who really need to be heard can't be heard, people who need help can't get one. The sad truth is they may not even have access to such motivational edification as they are engulfed by the horrendous reality of life, day in day out. People around them are too obsessed with themselves and barely able to notice their peculiar behaviour. Perhaps if we could practice a little more empathy, things could have been turned out differently. Lives could have been saved and transformed for the better.

Introspectively I am privileged to have gained easy access to the motivational sources as I am sure many of us do, and whenever someone comes to me with his/her problems faced in life, I will always try my best to listen and encourage. But I am weak myself. My voice is meagre. That’s why I chose to write blog post. Not for myself but to serve others. To encourage others. To brighten up someone’s life a little amidst all the looming negativity. My end goal has always been and will always be to help others, add values into people’s life.

To me, blogging is a form of leverage, but is not the only way. It is just one of many ways I personally embarked on simply because of its convenience. Perhaps you have your personal touch of encouraging others. Be kind to people, even strangers. One thing I realised about kindness is it would naturally be reciprocated to touch more people’s day, just like water ripple effect. Why not give it a try today? Even a simple smile would brighten someone’s life. It is contagious anyway, and people would generally be drawn to the person who smile rather than the one pulling a long face.

What is the form of leverage that can improve our life tremendously? Reading. Most successful people and world leaders, if not all, are avid readers. I dreaded of reading when I was much younger and I never failed to fall asleep if I were to be shoved a book right on my face. I was never able to appreciate the magic this reading habit can do in my life. It changes life! It certainly has changed mine ever since I started picking up a book of my personal interest and delve into the world of author’s dreamland and thoughts, coupled with his/her rich experiences.

I don’t think I would ever regret picking up reading habit. If there was one single thing I am thankful of this year, it is myself having picked up reading as my hobby. It allows myself to detach from callous reality. Not that reality has been harsh on me because everything has been falling in place for me conveniently and I am thankful for that. This is certainly not the case for many people. Reading is probably the one and only reality simulator, providing access to millenniums of events and human history. 

That was probably one of the reasons I enjoyed reading history books even back in high school, when most of my peers loathe reading them but were forced to. There is an adage “History repeats itself”, so if I am able to leverage on the knowledge of past events, I would be able to stand on the shoulder of a giant. History is my giant. I will stand a higher chance of surviving today with a smile, and brace myself for a tougher battle tomorrow.

One of my favourite authors, James Altucher, can’t emphasise enough how reading has impacted his life tremendously. He is probably the staunchest reader I have ever come to know. His reason for such dedication? “I read because it lets me re-live the lives of all of the authors, curated by them into a compact form so I can re-live that life in days instead of decades. Reading has saved my life more than once. It’s taught me to rob banks, it’s taught me to love better. It’s taught me how to be good and competent at things.”

Needless to say, reading is currently my ultimate leveraged weapon. It is one of the best and cheapest avenues for me to equip myself with an arsenal of knowledge I yearn for, be it property, financial, economics, motivational and personal development. Nothing by far even comes close to it. Take away my time off reading and you are taking away my life.