I stumbled upon a quote which I felt has a very timely message and I would like to share it to all of you today. It is originally in Latin and is by a famous Roman Stoic philosopher named Lucius Annaeus Seneca or simply known as Seneca. It says,

Quam bene vivas refert non quam diu.

When translated in English, it means...

It is how well you live that matters, not how long.

This one really resonated hard with me. Over the past years, I saw people passed on—young and old, rich and poor, healthy and sick. I slowly understood how our journey here on earth ends at various timelines and this is something we can't control. We might live long to see our grandchildren or might not even make it. Who knows? Nobody can really tell.

Yet, you know the only thing we can control? It's how well we live this life that we are fortunate to have and how we make the most of our time here.

Dear friends, I hope this truth is enough reminder for us to live a life that matters—a life that we can be proud of when we look back into it one day. Every new day is a privilege for us to do something worthwhile and a chance for us to make a difference in ourselves and in the lives of the people around us.

It doesn't have to be one daily grand gesture but doing little things like being kind to someone you meet on the street or telling your family how much you love them or spending quiet time with yourself—the list is endless but these little things can collectively make an impact.

I know things will not always be perfect, we won't always make the best decisions every time and we would probably mess up once in a while and that's okay. We're humans after all. But while we still wake up each morning, I hope we find the courage to start over and try again. I hope that we find the acceptance to let go of the things that are not meant for us. I hope we find the motivation and the right mindset to only pursue the things that really matter.

And when our journey here comes to an end and we get to see the preview of our lives right before our very eyes, I hope each of us can tell ourselves you did well. :)

2019:Grit

*Dear self, I hope you write more this year. Please bring life back to this once happy place.*

Hi everyone! I am back after spending the last few months trying to get myself together. You may know from my last post how I fell into depression due to work reasons and how I was able to get back up again through my personal faith. With God's grace, I am about to start a new job in a few weeks - an exciting new chapter in my career.

Anyhow, belated happy new year friends!!! Well it's the first day of Lunar New Year here in Hong Kong so technically, I am still on time, right? ;) Today, let's talk about the word that I aim my 2019 to sum up to: GRIT.

Grit in reference to behaviour is generally defined as firmness of character. This positive trait is a product of perseverance and passion to achieve a long term goal. It is also closely related to resilience which is one's ability to quickly get up after a crisis. If we pay more attention to build our grit, we will be able to to follow through our goals, no matter how daunting and at times, impossible it may seem.

Going back to 2019 and grit, well, to be honest, I don't think I am the most persevering person in terms of long term goals. I have always been the go-with-the-flow type. But this year, I am hoping to change that. It is high time to work on those long-term goals with a gritty attitude if we want to fully succeed. With success comes hardships; if we falter upon the very first road block then we will probably be stuck there forever. Who wants that? I sure don't!

image source

Friends, the concept of grit is also fairly new to me. I am still trying to learn it myself. If like me, you are interested to know more, there are lots of resources online that teaches how we can develop our grit. This year, let's aim to be (more) gritty! For sure, our future selves will thank us.

That's it for me today. I wish you all fruitful and happy 2019! See you on my next ramble! :)