Busyness revisited & stress

Hmmm, where shall I start...?

Yesterday was a weird day. Weird in the sense that I've never quite encountered anything like it before.

The day started out pretty ordinary, apart from the fact that I was "up" even without having my customary cup of coffee.

As I zoomed through the day - fully aware that I was in a zippidee-doodah kinda mood - I realised that although there were piles of work on my table and on the floor (in my Dilbert-like cubicle), I was unfazed by how hectic the day was.

Indeed, I had the "coolness" to SMS my better half and ask how her day has been so far.

Then, in the evening, I had to face a matter that I've sort of been avoiding all day. Despite the fact that it was just one single matter, it bugged the hell out of me. It took hours of agony to "resolve" the matter, and I still had to do some work on it this morning.

This morning, feeling a bit better after a relatively good night's sleep, I realised something else. Something that deserves an eureka!

Actually, I realised a few things:

(1) Busyness does not bother me; ie. being loaded with lots of work does not stress me out.

(2) What stresses me out is when I feel like I've lost control of the situation - when I don't know what I'm supposed to do in any given situation.

(3) The best solution for stress is to avoid getting myself into stressful situations in the first place.

(4) And if I find myself in a stressful situation, whether I like it or not, I should weather it because it's only a temporary situation (this point was shared with me by a good friend).

(5) Last but not least, to handle a stressful situation, I should try to get more time to do whatever I'm supposed to do and/or seek help from someone who can handle the situation (also my good friend's advice, which I forgot last night).

Nothing monumental, but definitely a step towards better self-understanding.

Thou shall not hold hands in public places

That's the title of the cover article of Focus in New Sunday Times, 23 May 2004. You can still read this article online at http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Features/20040523084535/Article/indexb_html

I don't think I really need to add anymore to my previous blog to make a similar point on this issue.

Are Malaysians really so mindless and immoral that we need to police even how they court? Oddly, several people interviewed for the article made the argument that one thing leads to another, therefore, holding hands or kissing in public ought to be made an offence.

Hmmm, if that is a valid argument for creating an offence, then I reckon we should ban politicians making money or getting power, lest they become corrupt.

As I'm sure you intelligent folk out there can appreciate the silliness - and mindlessness - of this whole issue, I think I'll leave it here...

One last thing though... I do wonder what our country will be like in the year 2020. Developed? Maybe. Intelligent? I dare not say... (Yes, a country can be developed - especially economically - without real intelligence. On the other hand, for real development, we'll need a lot more than just intelligence.)

Mindless idea (I'm sure there are lots more to come)

I couldn't resist the temptation to check the dictionary. In the Collins Concise Dictionary Plus, "mindless" means: 1. stupid or careless; 2. requiring little or no intellectual effort.

Well, on both counts, I think the idea to have an orientation course for employers to curb maid abuse must be one of the most mindless things I've heard about in recent days. (Check out this news article: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/5/24/nation/8049914&sec=nation)

Before anyone gets me wrong, I do agree that maid abuse is a horrible thing to do, and I also believe that the people who abuse their maids have some crazy and/or bad attitude towards their maids (especially foreign ones).

However, that doesn't mean an orientation course will solve the problem at hand.

This mindless idea is objectionable on so many levels. Whether we look at it from a practical angle or an intellectual one, it's unfeasible and not very wise.

First of all, I wonder how would one implement this idea. And even if we could, is the time, effort and cost really worth it? Moreover, how sure are we that this orientation course will actually achieve whatever it is that the people behind this idea is trying to do?

With the track record of the National Service in Malaysia, I suspect it wouldn't turn out very well. Whether we believe it or not, we cannot make abusive people nice and decent by sending them to an orientation course - just as we can't create responsible and patriotic adults out of the youth that attend some three-month course.

On a more philosophical level, I reckon that the bad idea is a good reflection of how depraved we have become as a society.

If I am not mistaken, and if Plato was reporting accurately, Socrates once asked Phaedrus, "And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things?"

Now, do we need people to tell us that it is bad and unacceptable to abuse maids, or anyone for that matter? Do we need others to point out to us that foreign workers are also human beings just like us, wishing to make a decent living and support their family?

If you think about it, the fact that we need to create all sorts of laws and rules to keep people away from their own children, their friends, their colleagues and/or their maids, really shows how morally bankrupt we are.

This leads me to the my next blog...

The path of self discovery is the path to success

Ain't that the truth?

Cool shopping centre (definitely not mindless)

I'm happy and proud to say that not everything in Malaysia is mindless.

I was at Ikano Power Centre last night, and I noticed how they pay attention to details. More importantly, they obviously have their customers in mind when they designed the centre.

As I was walking towards the elevators, I noticed a sign with a paw on it. At first I thought it read "NO PETS ALLOWED", so I started to shake my head in disgust. However, as I got closer I noticed that it says "PETS ALLOWED".

"Wow!" I thought to myself, "Ikano is probably the first, if not the only, shopping centre that allows pets."

I then noticed in the elevator that they had braille panels next to the lift buttons. "Another plus point", I noted.

Then, as I was leaving, I noticed that there are specially designed parking bays for families with young children as well disabled people. And that's probably another first.

After all those positive notes, I hasten to add a caveat: These things will only work if and when we Malaysians take advantage of them responsibly and not abuse facilities for our own selfish convenience.

Anyway, kudos to Ikano Power Centre, and I certainly recommend you shopping there...

Mindless abuse

Have you seen the front page of today's Star newspaper? Check out the online report at http://thestar.com.my/news/nastory.asp?file=/2004/5/20/nation/8016283&sec=nation

It definitely rates as the most "mindless" thing for today.

I wonder what was in the mind of the abusive woman when she actually did those things to her maid.

And can you imagine what the poor girl went through? And what will she tell her family and friends about Malaysia, I wonder...

Good people are always busy

Someone said this to me yesterday: "We need good people to do [important things], but good people are always very busy."

An interesting observation, but I wonder if it is always true.

Incompetence, success & moving on

With all the incompetence that we encounter everyday, I reckon it would be highly probable that even the marginally competent would be successful in whatever they are doing. Successful in the sense that they would stand out from the sea of incompetence.

Then again, this doesn't mean that they would necessarily get rewarded, promoted or even recognised for their competence. More likely than not, such competence would be "rewarded" with more work and more responsibilities...

Moving on... I had a thought about this yesterday.

I reckon this is a pretty good rule of thumb to decide whether we stay or move on from whatever organisation we're involved in: When we're no longer learning anything new from the organisation, and when we're also not making any meaningful contribution to it, then it's time to move on.

However, that is not to say we should shirk our responsibility of trying our best. That is, when at first we fail, we should try again - but with a different strategy. Only when we've exhausted all possibilities, and we know we've done our best, we should be moving on...

Inaugural Entry

Whoa, if only doing things in Malaysia were as easy as setting up a blog...