What will happen next has not yet been written...

"Now does matter. What happened before no longer exists. What will happen next has not yet been written. We have only now. That is our greatest advantage. What we do now here in this moment has the power to determine the future... We will find a way. All of history can change with our next move."

Lieutenant Spock
(Star Trek Discovery - S2, E 11)

ikigai - Living Your Life's Purpose

The Japanese concept of Ikigai (‘ee key guy’), from the island of Okinawa, is about finding the reason for one’s being. It is about attaining happiness in doing what you love and living a long, happy and purposeful life.

Certainly, it is not that simple to achieve. For example, the combination of what you are good at and what you can be paid for usually becomes your profession. However, if you do not like your job, there will be a feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction. Ikigai is accomplished when one is able to fuse the four following requirements:

Do what you love

Do what you’re good at

Do what you can be rewarded for

Do what the world needs

According to Tim Tamashiro, the author of “How to Ikigai: Lessons for Finding Happiness and Living Your Life's Purpose”, this can be achieved by starting small and doing it part-time. Keep doing your regular job, but also invest time in learning and doing things that fulfill the above essentials. This will give you an opportunity to convert that part-time ikigai to a full-time one down the road.

Image compilation: Bing Creative Commons

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? It would be a blank canvas. No color. No inspiration. I dream of painting and then I paint my dream."

 (Vincent van Gogh)

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Tomorrowland

"In every moment, there is a possibility of a better future. But you people won't believe it and because you won't believe it, you won't do what is necessary to make it a reality."

(Tomorrowland -2015)

Image by Alizee

No man is a failure...

“Remember no man is a failure who has friends”

Written on a book given to George Bailey as a Christmas gift by Clarence, ASC (Angel Second Class).

[From the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” – 1946]

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

William Henley is known to many people by means of this single poem. He wrote it in 1875, when his foot was amputated following a tuberculosis infection. This short poem has inspired a number of leaders over the years. It was Nelson Mandela’s favorite poem due to its strong message of defiance and determination. It is said that he often recited it to his fellow prisoners at Robben Island during his 18 years of imprisonment there. Among other things, this poem played a significant part in enabling him to go through the years and years of detention. It is amazing to think that how written word can influence people and shape history in decades and centuries to come, usually beyond the wildest imaginations of its original authors. Would the history of South Africa be any different, if this poem was not written more than a hundred years ago?

Image Credit: Alizee

Rainbows are not limited to the skies

Double rainbow with reflection in the water, Lappland Sweden by Jerry Magnum Porsbjer

     Charlie Chaplin once famously said, “You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down”. It is supposed to be a motivational quote, but then a friend of mine quipped that one can also find rainbow reflection in water while looking down. That was certainly a clever observation and a kind of improvement to the original quote. In fact, a full rainbow circle can only be viewed from a plane or some other aerial vehicle while looking down towards the earth. Rainbows can also be seen in prism light, the mist of waterfalls and spray of fountains. Even iridescent surface of a transient soap bubble exhibit something similar.

Mist rainbow at Takakkaw Falls, Canada by Michael Rogers

Rainbow as seen from the Helicopter by Brocken Inaglory

A soap bubble rainbow by Brocken Inaglory

     
     Rainbows represent hope. It is a promise that gloomy clouds are receding. Hope gives us the courage to face grim odds and like rainbows, one can find it in unexpected situations.

  

So I would like to offer a corollary to Charlie’s quote.

“Rainbows are not limited to the skies. You can find these at many different places. Just keep looking and never give up.”

Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons

Spring and hope

     Spring rains are here. Cool rain water continues to seep through soil to nurture the roots of plants. Deciduous trees and bushes have woken up from their deep winter slumber. New sprouts and flowers are adorning the countryside. There is a look of clean washed atmosphere and surroundings that suggests as if world is being created anew. Every spring gives us a message that nature has not abounded us. Hope still resides behind the clouds.

Image credit: Subhani, Dania

Happiness is contagious

It is said that some people have a natural gift of making pleasant or valuable discoveries just by accident. There is a special word for such ability and it is called serendipity. Well, I don’t have that talent, but yesterday I came across an article about happiness while searching for something entirely different. You might say this is a natural course of events if someone is not focused while surfing on the net. I won’t argue about that but the findings are certainly worth sharing. 

According to this research article, thousands of people were studies for more than twenty years to assess the spread of happiness within social groups. The participants were asked to evaluate their level of happiness on the following four item scale.

How often during the past week:

1. I enjoyed life.

2. I was happy.

3. I felt hopeful about the future.

4. I felt that I was as good as other people.

The results, on the hindsight, seem quite obvious. People’s happiness depends on the people they live or connect with. Clusters of happy and unhappy people were visible on the network. Apparently, happiness can spread from person to person like an infectious disease. So, if you want to be happy, just hang around someone euphoric and try to avoid the company of gloomy ones. I would recommend checking the level of happiness on the above four item scale once in a while if not every week. After all, happiness and unhappiness both are contagious.

Image credit: www.gagdonkey.com