Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The simplest things are often the most important

Recently, I made a discovery (for me it is) that I might make a good motivational speaker. I can say that I AM, but just to make you guys feel much more comfortable with me, I just say I MIGHT.

Earlier today, I was watching an anime. Yep, an ANIME. If you guys had never heard of the term ANIME before, go to wikipedia.org, and type in the searchbox "anime". And please, read all the articles flung your way by wikipedia. I learned a lot of things that way.

... ... As I re-read the whole paragraph above, I noticed I'm waaaay off-topic. Sheesh. So much of a motivational speaker.

Back to the topic, I was watching an anime, "Fruits Basket" to be exact, and at the same time ask myself what do I learn from watching that anime. I do that a lot. And my parents (especially Dad) said that I'm wasting my time watching such things. You see, "Fruits Basket" talks a lot about self-motivation. About being positive even if the rest of the world is being negative towards you. It talks about the same thing "The Secret", Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", Jack Canfield's "The Success Principles", and many other motivational books are talking about; being thankful about what you have, and use whatever comes for something positive. It also talks about the same thing Zig Ziglar taught around the world; if you help people get what they want, you'll get what you want. A lot of people used those words for their MLM/Network Marketing business for reasons I can never understand.

Back to the topic, again. I stopped at episode 20, since I haven't taken my bath (it was 11 am at that time), then I did some reading on making an affiliate website, got bored, went for a short shut-eye, then went back for another reading on another topic; LUCK. Not a book with that title, but a book about LUCKY PEOPLE. And I found myself reading about myself. Part of it.

The title of the book is actually "Inside the Minds of Winners", written by Charles Burke. I'm not here to talk about the book or the author, so let's skip that. what I'd like to talk about is the content. First off, I'd like to share with you the exact words that caught my eyes; "You'll learn that I - and many successful people - believe that while specific opportunities and circumstances may not be controllable, the trend of those events can be, to a great degree. Does that mean that "bad" stuff doesn't happen to us anymore?

Absolutely not.

What it means is, when so-called "bad" stuffs happens, when a tonne of manure suddenly falls out of the sky on them, lucky people tend to see it not as manure but as fertilizer, and look around for something to plant and grow in it."

Now that, my friend, is something that many of us don't do. To see a positive in a negative. This is what actually Napoleon Hill wrote in his works, that every negative event contains within it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. It's just the matter of which side of the same coin we are looking at. As the author of that book mention, most of us would say, "Come on, if it was THAT simple, there wouldn't be any unlucky person in the whole world". It is THAT simple, I tell you, and the reason why most people don't do it is because it is THAT simple. Simple things are the ones that people often overlook. It applies to almost EVERYTHING; your ideal man/woman, your bestfriend, your fortune, the solution to your problems, etc. It has always been in front of you, you lose sight of it. But yes, I have to agree with you, changing the side of the coin you're looking at is not the only thing you need to do.

Next comes another stupidly simple thing that we often forget to do; being thankful with what we have. Because only what we have can get we to where we want to go, not what we don't have. Well, I can't really way that we are guilty for not being thankful with what we got. The reason being we always see what others have and we don't, rather than what we have and others don't. In "Fruits Basket", Honda Tohru, the protagonist of the story gave the best analogy to this; Umeboshi. umeboshi is "dried plum", used as onigiri stuffing. From what I understood, there are different shapes and kinds of onigiri stuffings. And if an onigiri is to be personified, the umeboshi would be on his/her back. In that case, that person can only see other person's umeboshi, but not his/her own. The same thing with what we have. We don't see it, because it's beyond us. But other people do see it. And it is our job to find out.

Then comes the most unfathomable, yet easy, simple and effective thing to do. It is just a step further from Step 2; Be thankful about the stuffs you have yet to receive. Things that you want. And you have to be thankful about them as if you have already receive them. That's hard, to imagine. Let me tell you a story. I know a person who was born as a single child. Or so he thought he was. For 20 years, he imagined of having siblings, and he loved the idea so much, he was thankful for even thinking about it. He even went a step further by considering some people as his own siblings. Well, I don't know whether the consideration was mutual, but that is not his problem, and obviously not mine. Then his mom broke a shocking news; Son, you actually have an older sister, but she died; a younger sister, but I gave her away; and God Knows how many siblings, thanks to your dad. It's not actually what he's asking for, but it's close enough. The main point is, he did what was needed to be done.

One word of reminder, though; You have to ask, and after that, you have to make yourself worthy of receiving. You know, if you read biographies of great people, you will find that they went through great length to get to where they are. Although most biographies that I've came across empathizes more on the negative or the positive achievement, rather than the process of making that person a great person, which is in my humble opinion the most important part of a biography.

That is to say, in order to have what you want, you have to first BE POSITIVE, then BE THANKFUL OF WHAT YOU HAVE, next BE THANKFUL OF WHAT YOU ARE ASKING, AS IF YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN GRANTED THE WISH. After that, ORGANIZE YOUR DAILY FLOW OF ACTIVITIES WITH ACTIONS THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO WHAT YOU WANT. The last point of action is the hardest to explain, because not many people can comprehend its importance. Let me give you an example; assume that I'm a girl (I like to think so ;p), and I wanted to have a handsome, caring Japanese guy as my boyfriend (think Isihara Hayato from Motorboys 2). If I didn't make myself deserving of that kind of boyfriend, then I shouldn't be frustrated if I never get what I wished for. Who would like to have a snobbish girl as a partner, other than a snobbish guy. Who would like to be paired with a girl who never even cared to take care of her body, other than a guy who is just the same. So the last point is MAKE YOURSELF A PERSON WHO WORTH RECEIVING WHAT YOU ASKED. Simple, yet not that easy.

Okay, so you asked what does the whole thing has to do with me being a talented motivational speaker? Because I'm the one who wrote this, and you're the one reading :p.

No, that's not it. It's because that is what I do best. Think me as a cheerleading squad in one body ^_^.

As a reward for those who bothered to read my blog at all, here's my present: pictures of my "nephew". His name is CHUBBY ^O^.










2 comments:

Mohammad Ihab Ismail said...

Salam Ismat..

Hey I thought u'va already got a new webpage of somesort..
Now which one should I link from my blog??
This one or the other one LOL

Unknown said...

well, this is something new.
Didn't read that much of a motivating stuff myself cause I rarely believe in those things or is it that I'm a positive guy at the begining?

hmmmm, don't think so, cause one of my favorite quotes are :" I hate my life." or " God really hates me"

but i think what you're saying is true as the most simplest things are the most important and are the most easiest to outlook.

By the way, love the "Because I'm the one who wrote this, and you're the one reading :p" part