Valorous Halcyon

One full month! It’s been a month since my last post so you might be wondering where I have been. Just before the year 2015 ended, I have made the ONE decision that I never regretted making –booked the flight ticket to Vietnam for my first ever solo trip. I was having so much dilemma whether I should go out of my comfort zone and go for some exciting adventure. After two weeks spending time alone in Vietnam, it’s pretty safe to say there was never a moment I regretted making this bold decision, but rather I was filled with so much gladness and joy. I will leave that for the next post. Stay tuned! I spent my New Year’s Eve and New Year in Sapa (Vietnam), at one of the local farmer’s house. And then I remember making wishful New Year resolutions that most people will forget about after two months entering into the New Year. I don’t think I had written any New Year resolutions for 2014 and 2015, but along the way I still developed myself into a different person in relative to m...

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. Li...

This coming Saturday, my mom is going to this talk to find out more about the job offer she found out recently from God-knows-where. This job offer seems quite promising, attractive and enticing (imagine five figure monthly salary around 40+k by just managing a newly set up company by a local tycoon). The problem is it's too good to be true. Whenever there is an offer you think it is too good to be true, it probably is. RUN THE OTHER WAY, don't walk! The hard truth with this world is this is an extremely realistic world we live in. Everyone tries to take advantage on everyone else, where only the strongest (read: trickiest and most cunning) people thrive with the most greedy blokes being the easiest victims. But my mom would beg to differ. This is weird but for some reasons women are easier to fall prey to unscrupulous conmen with a myriad of cunning yet intricate scams, all for the sake of easy money. She has fallen into a trap before, forcing her to be financially str...

This morning I read about something that saddened me deeply: a recent American horror story on Elisa Lam's death in Cecil Hotel (L.A.) which had spurred multiple conspiracy theories. It began as one of the greatest mysteries because the story was so perplexing with incomplete information. The infamous history of Cecil Hotel definitely made the case worse. You may find the full story here . It eventually turned out to be a doleful tragedy that hit me. She was a young 21 year old Canadian of Chinese descent hailed from Vancouver who suffered from depression, but her depression and fear eventually took over. She was so paranoid and wanted to hide from the callous world, and she had found the perfect place in the hotel: water tank. There you can imagine how the story ended: She was drowned and only to be found naked at the bottom of the water tank after missing for 2 weeks. Elisa's death has many uncanny and eerie similarities with the movie Dark Water, a Japanese horror fi...

Is there anything in life you want to take action, only to find yourself keep procrastinating? Or maybe you really want to do that one thing but has been giving yourself tonnes of excuses? Out of plain laziness or maybe fear and lack of confidence? Maybe you haven't been liking your job for years and you still stuck with the same old boring job? On a lighter note, maybe you have been telling yourself to go exercise but you always get bogged down by last minute "unexpected events". Then the sense of guilt crawls in. The thing is, if we don't start doing it now, we will never start. It's true that the first step is always the hardest, but if only you take the leap of faith and take the first baby step, you will start seeing breakthroughs. The key here is TAKE ACTION ! The change does not have to be significant, in fact many changes have a humble start, aligned with my 1% improvement every day. I have been telling myself to eat more heathily, but I have been...

I hated running. I'm sure you know I was fat and every run was dreadful to me. Ask my younger self to run even 500 metres and I will be complaining. But I was challenged to improve 1% every day, in one area of my liking. I was challenged by myself. So I decided to change a little on my usual routine last Wednesday. Instead of playing badminton in the evening after work (there was a volleyball match going on at the same venue), I decided to do something similar - running. Just like badminton, running is a type of cardio but was deemed as a more boring type of cardio, so I thought. But I was proved wrong later.  What I normally do with my workout session is to run for 10 minutes then proceed to free weight training. Last Wednesday I decided to push myself and try to run my first ever quarter marathon (5km). Big deal, because I don't even do 2km on a usual basis, more like 1.5km. So the first time I touched 5km line, I clocked 33 minutes 45 seconds. I was on top of...

For the past one month or so, I have met five insurance agents to check out the quotes offered by different insurance companies. The first trigger point that caught my attention was the realisation on my need to be covered financially should anything undesirable happens to me in future. We champion the liberty to choose. The more choices we are given, the more freedom we have. But the truth is this: the more choices we are given, the more we are unable to make the best decision. I don't know about you, but I get confused by many choices opened to me. This can applies to everything under the Sun: insurance policies (which in Malaysia are almost identical all credit to strict regulation set by my beloved employer), credit cards, unit trusts etc. You get the point. Then mental block kicks in. I can't choose. All insurance policies offered to me were almost identical. They can't deviate too much from one another, else my employer will start sending letters to warn them...

I am still extremely happy and excited for my favourite team Arsenal who managed to beat Bayern Munich 2-0. I woke up at 2:40am (Malaysia time) just to watch the match and to be honest, I did not know if Gunners will win. They had to win. They were beaten by Dynamo Zagreb and Olympiakos in the first two opening games of Champions League Group Stage F, so if they were to survive at least the Group Stage, by hook or by crook, they must win! I was not confident but given that Arsenal had beaten Watford, Manchester United and Leicester convincingly in the past 3 weeks, I was hopeful. Again, Bayern Munich is one of the best teams in the world right now, if not the best. It was almost a mission impossible. Expectantly Bayern completely dominated the Gunners, but Arsenal kept their cool and defended well. They were patient and they made a few attempts to break the deadlock when the chances came. The closest attempt in the first half was an amazing header by Theo Walcott but the world'...

I was fat (still a little now haha!) but compared to last time, I was a giant! Low stamina, low self-confidence, low metabolic rate. I did not know how to take care of myself. What I meant by taking care of myself is first and foremost taking care of my own body health. I exercised but only occasionally. Being a fatty was not fun, definitely not attractive as well. I got bullied everywhere I went. I got teased in classes. One bad thing led to another. Fat -> Being bullied -> Low self-confidence -> Resentment -> Revenge? Joking! I have forgiven those who bullied me. But the moment came when I finally decided to sign up a one year subscription of Fitness First, the nearest gym to where I was staying -- Casa Subang, at that time in August 2011. I had a personal trainer, Cheryl, who coached me on the proper ways of lifting weights and a few basic steps on free style training. And off I went! The first six months went by without me seeing any tangible result. No weight loss, j...

Yesterday I attended a crash course organised by my church on "The Art Of Hearing God" by Greg Abel. A little Googling told me Greg Abel is the current CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, one of the two most likely successor of Berkhire Hathaway, the next Oracle of Omaha after Warren Buffett. But no, not that Greg Abel. This Greg Abel is a man of God with a big vision and mission to spread what he has learnt over the years, on the Art of Hearing God (I will get to it shortly why is it an Art, not Science). So here is a short summary of my findings through the first part: God wants us to speak to Him, even if He already knew everything in us (our mind and thoughts, our desires, our circumstances).  God demands our attention and the same intimacy that you will give to your spouse. He is also very talkative.  He speaks all the time. If there is one major hindrance that stops us from solving every world problem, it is language. We communicate through the fast growing Intern...

I did not have a good lifestyle, I was in bad shape and it felt horrible. My confidence level slumped to a rock bottom level I thought I would never be able to recover. Financially I was blessed enough to have had received the prestigious scholarship from my current employer, but being blessed with this amount of money doesn't mean I knew how to manage them. Imagine shoving RM470 to an eighteen-year-old kid and let him/her manage the money. But here I am. Having lived my three years of undergraduate study in London and shed off 10kg from my all time high of 85kg, concurrently able to accummulate some savings, here are 10 life hacks that have helped me, and I hope can help you as well to live better physically, mentally and financially. 1) Drink Water when you wake up  I am not going into too much technicality of how drinking water can help you once you wake up, but this is what I have been doing and it felt great! Not only it helps me to regain my consciousness quickly up...

I was a worrier but now I am a warrior. I am almost 100% sure many people can relate to this. We tend to worry too much. I used to worry about everything and anything I can think of. Sometimes I even joke that maybe this was one of my reasons pursuing an actuarial degree. Actuaries tend to ask a lot of "What if"s throughout their career, but that is one of the qualities that makes them worth a few million dollar. Because I was a worrier. Typically a worrier tends to be more risk averse, as compared to someone who is carefree and confident. Do you often find yourself worry about things happening around you? I did! In fact most of the things that we worry about never happen! When we are worrying, we give way to anxiety and obliterate peace in our heart. I was always worrying about things. I got worried about my exams, about what to eat for breakfast, lunch and even dinner, my university selection, my interviews, my career, my future, my financial situation, my presentation...