Good Thing I Had a Little Brother

During one of volunteering journeys with Kindergarten students, something spectacular happened. There was a boy. I took him to the washroom. He goes inside the stalls to do his business. Then he opens the door and looks at me with tears in his eyes. I did not know what was wrong. Maybe he wet his pants? Maybe the toilet is scaring him? I analyzed the stall, and soon came to realize that he took a number two, but didn't know how to use the toilet paper to wipe himself afterwards. 

So, I guess I had to help wipe him. Fortunately, I had helped my youngest brother do the same thing. Thank goodness for my brother. Who knows what I would have done if I had not experience this toilet horror story before.

The Darkness of a Superhero Part 2

Continuing on from last week's discussion of superheroes.

Let us consider another scenario. You are part of an organization where everyone works together. You have an awesome leader, who is an awesome superhero. She makes everything run smoothly. Now, imagine if she retires or decides to leave the organization. Who will be the next leader?

It could be you. It could be a senior manager. It could be another superhero of yours. Unless there was some sort of selection process occurring, how else do you think the next leader will be decided? I can't say what would happen. All I will say is that a new leader will be picked, but he or she may not be picked in the most peaceful and fair way. Understand that people are kind to others, but when some sort of trigger is pulled, those kind people turn into things we may not recognize.

The Darkness of a Superhero Part 1

No, this is not a post about Marvel or DC superheroes, so if that's what you were looking for, this is not the place.

The superheroes I want to discuss are those that inspire and watch over us, whether it be our managers or a mentor. Most of them are great people. However, they will always be a few rotten beasts hiding somewhere. They are the ones I want to discuss.

To make my writing easier to understand, whenever I say the word superhero, I am referring to role models, mentors, and other people that have influenced your lives.

Imagine yourself an intern at a company. You will be working for a high ranking official in that company. He is to watch over you, supervise you, and give you tips as to how to best solve problems. Sounds great? In most cases, yes, it is great. Consider this: he is not just supervising you. There's a catch to all of this. What he's doing is training you in a way so that you can one day replace him.

Does he want that? Of course not. So watch for him. He'll do everything possible to get rid of you. Now, on the bright side, if he gets promoted at the same time you do, then there's no need for him to harm you. This may not be the case when he's about to get fired and he knows it.

Alone? Not a Problem

So, you’re all alone? No one to help you practice a new language? No one to spar with you? No one to practice a duet with you? Not a problem, here is a list of simple ways to work with yourself and improve:

1) Talk to yourself.

This is especially good when you’re learning a new language. Sometimes, what you can do, is pick a random topic, and just talk about it. Think of it as an impromptu speech, except you’re speaking in a different language other than English. This method forces you to think of new vocabulary you’ve learned and their pronunciation.

2) Smart phones.

This is a really easy method that not many people utilize. Film yourself doing something. Then re-watch yourself afterwards. The benefit of this method is that you can watch and re-watch yourself. You can analyze every bit of detail and understand yourself to a different level.

3) YouTube

I can’t speak for other disciplines, but for martial arts, I have found some videos where somebody simulates padwork drills. Even when I’m alone, I can watch this video and do padwork with the person in the video. Even though this is not as effective as having a real person with you, it nonetheless is still better than not doing padwork.

What other ways do you use to improve yourself when you’re alone?

Musical Theory

The type of music you listen to and when you listen to it dictates a lot of things. Why does a certain song sound so amazing one day, but sound terrible the next? Sometimes, your mood and emotions play a critical role in how much you like a song.

When I felt depressed, listening to slow songs did not help. In fact, what helped me was listening to loud music. This created a sense of power within me. It resonated so strongly that it gave me strength. Fast forward to a week later when I felt awesome because I performed great on an exam. I listened to that loud music again, but I did not feel all that powerful. I simply skipped it on my playlist and listened to something else.

So, the next time you listen to music, consider what type of music might make your day extra special.

The Truth behind Happiness

I cry. I cry a lot. When I failed an exam, I cried. When I did something stupid, I cried. When a fight happens, I cry.

Over time, I realized why I cried. It was because I was scared of all the bad things that happened around me. I couldn’t control when they were going to happen. I was afraid that I would have to awkwardly observe these bad things happen.

Then I realized something. These bad things happen for a reason. They may be out of my control, but that doesn’t mean I have to cry. I can instead stare at the situation and observe. Observe what happened. Observe how it happened. Observe why it happened. Maybe I can learn something about it. Maybe the bad things occur because they are trying to teach me something.

Maybe, all these negative situations surround me because they are an obstacle to true happiness.

Frustrations of Learning a Language

Learning a language can go one of three ways: you work hard and learn the language well, you work on it once in a while and know the language to a limited extent, or you completely forget how to say hello in that language.

I found that the best way to learn a language was to ask myself: “Why do I want to learn this language?” To impress others? To improve business or political relationships? A hobby or passion? Just like anything else in life, we must find a passion to learn something. I believe that we should not just learn a language, but rather learn it well. Once we reach that point, not only do we acquire a new skill, we can look back and feel satisfied at all the heart and determination it took to accomplish this daunting task.

A few years ago, I was trying to learn Mandarin. For those who have tried to learn Mandarin, you must understand the difficult in trying to listen to all those tones. I could not distinguish a second tone from a first tone. When someone says something to me in Mandarin, I shake nervously because I could not understand a single sound they made. You know what kept me going? It was my hatred for those tones that kept me going. I was not going to stop until I could hear those tones. I would rather die trying to learn those tones than to give up.