Sometimes, I feel that writing all of these entries that relate to my personal experiences, and use them as something that can potentially create self-awareness and personal development to myself, and to readers out there. This has made me realize that, by just writing these down is not good enough. By all means, actions speak louder than words, and I feel that it is time to put all of these writing into actions step by step. So are you with me? If there are few posts on here that you like, don’t just read what I type, but put them into actions with me. That way we can really “mean what we write/read, and write/read what we mean.”

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Yesterday was the last day of my crazy spending habit, hehe….. Let’s just say that is my spending Mardi Gras, meaning I will quit spending too much money on unnecessary items.

I set a goal for myself that starting this month, I will be really careful about my finance. But I am very excited about this goal because I am very much curious about my persistence and determination. By all means, it does NOT mean I will become a stingy man at all. I will spend on items that I think it is necessary or it is worth to spend on. The whole point of this goal is about keeping track of my spending. I want to know which part that actually seems tiny stuff but consumes more money.

How about you? Do you think you might have crazy spending habit as well? If you like, we can start this goal together ;). Ciaos!

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Lately, I know that I am having a bad spending habit. I did not really realize that until I am trying to sign a new contract with Sprint and upgrade my plan to a new plan that costs double than what I am having now. But the more I spend, the more I am thankful for my abilities to work and ultimately – my job.

I am a type of guy that does NOT do his finance, except for tax return of course. I have not looked at my spending report or created any sorts of saving plans for years. Today, I just came to a realization to see how much exactly I have been spending. To my surprise, I have been spending more than I should have. But what is done is done. I let it go and I am still thankful for being able to afford those things and still live comfortably.

However, it is something that I should start paying attention to now. I don’t like money, in fact, I hate it. But the society does not allow me to hate it and not care about it. I am 23 now, but I need to figure out somehow to be able to save up when I am getting older. As I previously blogged, living a life to the fullest is not just enjoying in the moment, but also having goals – something to look forward to. Therefore, I just created myself a financial goal, which makes me very excited about it because it is a goal that I have not had before, and I am very curious to see what the result will be. More importantly, it will be a challenge to see how dedicated I am towards cutting down expenses. It sounds hard due to the habit, but it is so much fun to see when my persistence guides me to see my goal. Wish me luck ;-) 

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You know being dedicated to do something is not an easy task. It involves a lot of self-motivating actions and more importantly, determinations. There are plenty of things that we do in life, but turns out we select a few to be our hobbies or at least we enjoy doing some but not all. To be dedicated to do something, you have to like doing it too. Without enjoyment, you will get bored quickly.

I don’t consider myself a very dedicated person to do something, but when I put my mind into doing something, I have to motivate myself a lot. What keeps me survived from my dedication is my passion, my enthusiasm in doing it, and especially my goals. I like people who are goal oriented mind because I am a strong believer that having goals in life is what motivates us to live in a beautiful dream that will eventually become true.

So instead of asking why you are not so dedicated, why don’t you ask yourself, am I self-motivated enough? Am I happy doing thing(s)? And last but not least, do I have goal(s)? 

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Do you have a goal in life? Are you a planner? Where do you want to go two or three months from now, or even in the future? This might seem to go against living a life in the moment, but in fact, it is an “opposite” element that makes living in the moment more enticing.

Someone used to say to me that “It’s good to have something to look forward to.” Now, I have become a strong believer of that sentence. As much as I try to enjoy living in the moment, I also enjoy looking forward to what will bring me in the future, or where will I go to for a vacation, or where will I end up at, or who I am going to meet. I feel that it is this “looking forward to” that brings the hope to the present - something that is definitely a turn on, mystery, and adventure.

Therefore, living in the moment does NOT specifically mean that you don’t care about your future anymore, or you have nothing to look forward to but simply live and live in the moment. So do you have something to look forward to in your life? If not, you better create one. It’s a fun way to live a life, I promise!

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As 2009 is approaching, all of my inspirations about writing seem to focus on about the New Year and plans.

I was thinking about two options that we, as human being, can choose, the other day. What would you choose to do? Upgrade yourself or downgrade yourself? I am sure no one would like to downgrade him/herself, but just because you “want” to upgrade yourself is not enough, take actions!

Why do I go to gym? Because I want to upgrade my physiques and my health.

Why do I often challenge myself at work by taking any tasks to do? Because I want to upgrade my experiences and knowledge of learning different things at work place.

Why do I create and write this blog? Because my primary purpose of this blog is to upgrade myself emotionally by sharing my experiences with the readers, and at the same time learning from those experiences. More information about this blog Click here.

Why do I like to try new things or go to new places although to some people, it’s just another city or state? Well because I want to upgrade my adventures and things that I like to do or places I like to go to. Doing same old stuff is kind of boring to me.

Why did I get a new apartment or car? Obviously, because I want to upgrade my living style since I now got a full time job compared to before that I was just a student. Plus, I want to upgrade my appreciation and gratitude about my work and life in general.

There are quite a few more things in my life that I never cease to improve or upgrade. I feel that life is like stairs, I walk up to my goal, but in life once in a while, I walk down , and that’s okay sometimes I am just tired or sometimes it’s just not meant to be for me.

If you want to upgrade yourself, starting 2009, just do it! No more “imaginary” wants, but instead take actions! I will see you up there! 

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January 1st, 2009 will be here soon, what's on your list to do for 2008? What was your resolution for 2008? What kinds of things that you want to do before 2009 is here? Where did you say you want to go visit in 2008? Etc. 

Do it now. Time is money. Make a good memory of 2008. 

Posted picture is my 2008 wish list. I am pretty satisfied with the result.

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I can’t believe that Thanksgiving holiday is already gone. I went shopping on the Black Friday, and it was really busy at the mall, as well as the traffic considering it is Boise. But December is here pretty soon, and it just reminds me of one goal that I had for myself before 2009 is here. The goal is about saving money before 2009. Hehe… you know where I am going to now. Yes, I have spent too much money lately, haha… first, it was my new apartment’s decoration, and now it is about upgrading myself, hehe… I have never done anything good for myself this much before. To that, the one thing that I want to be thankful for is first my degree that allows me to get a job, and then obviously it’s my job that provides me the funds to be able to afford these good things that I can treat myself well.

Although there’s one more month left, and I don’t think I am going to meet that goal because Christmas is coming here and I am going to be my own Santa, haha… that means I am going to spend money again, I still don’t get disappointed about not meeting the goal. Instead, I feel that the more I spend, the more I am thankful for my decent paying job, and nothing goes wrong with one’s gratitude attitude. So look around yourself, what one thing you are thankful for? When you find it out, you will know what kind of gratitude feeling that I am talking about. It is a great way of self-appreciation and surrounding-embrace.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day. In case you wonder what I bought:

• Two Hoodies on American Eagles website (Buy 1 get second one 50% off for all Tops, and additional 25% off entire order plus free shipping)
• Two pairs of Nike shoes from Famous Footwear (Buy 1 get second one 50% off)
• Two Hoodies at American Eagles store (Buy 1 get second one 50% off for all Tops, and additional 25% off entire order for Early Birds - Yes, I went there at around 10 a.m)
• Two T-shirts and one fleece pant at Old Navy (on sale)
• One T-shirt at American Eagles store (Split the cost with a friend - Buy 1 get second one 50% off for all Tops, and additional 15% off entire order on Saturday)
• Two graphic T-shirts at Anchor Blue (on sale, 5 bucks each)
• 6 pairs of Puma socks at Ross store today :)

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I remember the time that I was back home and wanted to come to the US really bad. I also remember the time that I was so envious with one of my Chinese friends who studied on a scholarship, got an Internship at a local company, and got his working visa afterwards. In addition, I also remember the time that I wanted to have a better running car, a nicer apartment, and a faster laptop.

All in all, those dreams have become true for me. However, I never cease to dream more and bigger. Life is like a stage, you finish with one stage then you go for another one. Although I have attained those dreams, I failed to be thankful for those opportunities from time to time. I guess it is just human nature that we always “move forward.” Things that we wanted so bad in the past, we have them, then we move on to want another thing. Ideally, this actually is an acceptable behavior because we move as the time goes, and never quit dreaming is the best way to live a life. Have you ever heard of an old saying: If you dream, dream bigger? But in order to attain the dreams, they have to be realistic, specific, and attainable, and of course, it is either your luck or you hard work that is put into getting them attained.

But one thing we have to realize is that, while we are dreaming bigger, we are not forgetting the past dreams that we have achieved. Take a moment and think about how frustrated and yearning you were to get those past dreams. During that process, it involves worries, jealousy, needy, possessive, happy and unhappy, all sorts of subtle and mixed feelings. They are all part of our life, and the most important thing is to show our gratitude toward those achievements and how lucky we are. There are millions and millions of people out there that are longing for those same things that we are having, and I am positively sure that some might be optimistic about getting them, some might be in the same boat as we were emotionally, and some might be just even worse than how we were.

All I can say to my fortunate is “I am thankful for what I have accomplished thus far.”

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Tonight, when I was taking my contact lens off, I realize that I have been taking my whole body from toes to head for granted the whole time. I over looked the fact that they are all healthy and failed to appreciate that fact.

How many times in our life we don’t like this and don’t like that about our body. Some conduct a surgery, some get their noses done, and some even try to change their skin colors (Michael Jackson, for instance.) I would like to give a few more examples, why would you want to read in the dark or stare at the computer all the time by hurting your eyes? Why would you smoke to release stress but destroy your health and worsen your teeth? Why would you go to bed so late knowing that your body’s function is no long as good as it used to be? Why would you want to be in an abusive relationship? Why would you over work out just to get a good body but break your muscles? Etc.

I feel that, I need to start focusing more on how to stay healthy and take care of every part of my body well. Compared to others that do not have the whole package that I have or you have, we should feel appreciative about this given life and not taking it for granted. No matter how much you don’t like some parts of your body, you would have to live with it, and it’s what you have. You can upgrade it but not degrade it. Knowing that each part of our body functions for a particular task, imagine that you lose one part of the body, what would you do? And what would it be like? Of course with the advanced technology these days, they keep producing things that make life convenient for so called “disabled” people, but it will never be the same as original born and provided part. How many times I hate to wear contact lens everywhere I go to, but I realize that it’s time for me to take good care of my body’s parts moving on, and for all of you out there, if you have been doing that, then that’s great, if not, then join me with this staying healthy goal.

Sleep well………. 

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I am always afraid that time can fly away pretty quick. My age will go away according to the time, and what’s left for me will be just life time experiences. I have to confess that I am trying to live my life too hard. The whole reason behind that is because I am afraid of losing the time. I am afraid that once time slips away and I do not do anything that does not make me regret afterwards, I will be.. well, regretful.

This weekend has been a long weekend for me. I have been thinking about many things in life in general. The fact that I have to deal with the issues that I am facing now, and my personal life, I am totally restless emotionally. But, it is time for a “reset.”

I here affirm myself that “I am ready to let go the past.” Besides the issues that I have to deal with, I am not going to worry or afraid of losing time anymore. I realize that by living a life in fear is tremendously difficult. Every steps and moves, you have to be so careful and most of the time, the more careful I get, the worse things go. In the end, I still live in fear and regret about things that go and don’t meet my expectations.

Sometimes, it takes a person very long to realize that what kind of life he or she wants. Some people want to change, but they only think in their heads instead of putting those thoughts in actions. A change is always good, but you have to really mean it. I am resetting my perspective about life and time to a particular starting point, and if any of you out there that wants to have a change as well, do not hesitate to commit to it. Think about your life, do you like it or not? If you resist to change, think about it, you have been living that kind of life that you don’t enjoy for so long and yet you are still not happy with it, why do you still want to be unhappy? 

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Just a blink, August 2008 is here. We’re just another four months away from 2009. The Olympics game has started, another school year is about to begin, and have you ever thought about things that you have and have not accomplished so far? Do you remember the resolution that you made for the New Year 2008? How much far and close are you to your goal this year? How many items that you have and have not marked off your year 2008’s wish list? ………

The questions can go on and on, but it will be just about how you make the best of your life this year. We still have four more months before the end of this year, but I would like to encourage you to re-visit your resolution, goal, and wish list that you made for this year 2008. Some of you might have noticed that, I put my 2008 Wish List menu on the right hand side. If you scroll down, you will eventually see it. Those items are the ones that I want to accomplish this year. I have completed two main items, already started an item, and still no progress with another two items. But I have not given up yet because I still have four more months to complete, or at least to start.

Making resolution is easy. Creating list is also just a piece of cake. However, trying to accomplish them in one year, we start to realize that there are certain constraints that apply. Sometimes, they are situational, and sometimes it is just simple that we give them up. But don’t beat yourself up just yet because we have given it a try, and that means something. We just need more determination and motivation. The good news is we still have four more months to go. These four months can go by really fast, but it actually is ample to make a difference in ourselves, life, goal, and resolution. Nothing is worse than quitting. We might not be able to complete it this year, but we at least start the process. But if you are tired of making the same resolution each year, well then get yourself to work and complete your last year’s resolution this year and make a fresh new one for next year. How fun is that by making each year accomplished with something that we want and hope for! Good luck.

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Are you a worrier? Sometimes, when we want or need something that we think it’s hard to get, we become worried. We tell ourselves to go step by step; however, when the first step is done, we start to worry about the second step. This actually is acceptable according to the definition of “step by step.” By not thinking over our head, we learn how to go through life one step at a time. The bad thing about doing this is that, we tend to worry in each step that we take.

Sometimes, things can get out of our controls. We might think that the first step is not even that reachable, but once we reach it, we start to think about the second step and apply the same unreachable fear’s concept to it. But no body is going to be able to tell what the future or the next step is going to be like. Simply “iffing” about what’s next goes against the idea of living life to the fullest that we should enjoy the moment that we are in, and leave the worries aside.

Time is money. I encourage you to adjust your mood and take some time to think about what bothers your mind, your priorities in life, what worries you the most, your life goals, etc. Jot them down and take another time to think about what you can do about them. Sometimes, it helps to clear our mind when we focus on realistic things in our life verses illusional ones. It also helps to lessen our worries. And by putting those into actions, we definitely are making progress here. So, lessen worries and more actions! They can do it, so can you. Good luck!

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I was driving to work this morning, and while I stopped at the stop light, I thought about breaking and keeping habits. It is not an easy task to keep our habit compared to breaking one. There’s a saying that learning good is hard but learning bad is easy. It applies the same to our habits. In order to keep a good habit, we have to push ourselves every time and it requires a lot of motivations. On the other hand, keeping a bad habit is as easy as 123.

For the past month, I tried to do sit ups every morning after I get up and every night before I go to bed. Lately, I have been skipping this activity. This has started since Monday this week. I remember that night, I told myself that it’s okay to skip just for the night, and in the morning I can do it instead. I did on Tuesday morning. Then there came the Tuesday night, and again I told myself the same thing, but I have never done the sit up since that Tuesday night.

Keeping a good habit is very hard. We have to put a lot of time and effort into it. It’s okay to be lazy sometime, but it is that “OK” laziness that possibly kills all the motivations moving on. It took only one night to lessen my self-motivated activity. It takes only one excuse that we make for ourselves to break a good habit. While it isn’t too late, I am going back to the routine and hoping to find the motivation that I had in the first place. Break your approach of “It’s okay to be this and that today,” for once you do that, there will be more coming.

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I am honestly getting tired of listening to complains from some friends. I love to be there for them, and would do anything to help them. However, when it comes to motivation, I am still an outsider. That’s being said, if they are not willing to help themselves first, how am I going to be able to help them? I have been told all the time from friends about being fat and wanting to lose weight, but said without action is totally useless. I can be all ears when they complain about it, but after months and months, they still complain the same. I find that kind of irritating because every time I have to repeat to them about what to do in order to stay back in shape. Do they listen? Yes, they do and even nod their heads. But do they act on it? Apparently not!

I understand that each individual is very unique in his or her own way and image. I can’t force someone to be self-motivated like I am. I can’t tell someone to do what they don’t like to do. But complain is not really a healthy thing to live with. Years down the road, you might still see yourself complain again over the same things. If you wisely use those years to work on the problems that you complained about in the first place, you might see the change of the result by now. I encourage friends to work on things that make them feel good about themselves, but it is still up to them to make things work for themselves. This takes commitment and self-motivation, as well as the ambition to succeed.

Another factor is about giving up half way. This action is even worse than not started at all in the first place. Why? If you can ever imagine the efforts that you put in doing something, and suddenly you decide to quit and go back to the routine for convenience or whatever reason I can’t do it. It is that one minute’s misconception that makes you deny all the efforts that you have worked so hard. It requires a lot of time and steps to work on things that you think it needs work in the first place and along the way, but it takes only quick moment and single step to ruin everything. Of course, you can start over again and there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you stay determined, your goal might be attained by now.

I am not a very spiritual person, but one of my favorite quotes is “Help yourself and God will help you.”

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Some of you might know that I used to mention that I have been waiting for the “result” before on some of my posts. I also said that if this result turns out good, I will reveal it here. Right after I came back from my trip, I saw the official document of my approved working visa sat on my office desk. I was too excited to work that day. My approved working visa is the result that I referred to.

Lately, I have been working and looking for a new apartment. I am so happy that I am able to stay in the state for three more years, and thus, it’s time for an apartment change. I don’t like my current apartment because when it’s summer, it gets very hot, and when it’s winter, it gets very cold. Especially, it’s very “buggy.” From looking for the apartment, I learned one thing tonight. See, I have this list for what I am looking for in an apartment: dish washer, central air conditioning, heat, location, price, laundry facility, neighborhood, and covered/garage parking space. These are the major requirements that I am looking for. The price range I have in mind is between 400 to 500 dollars a month for the rent, but it’s very hard to find an apartment in that price range and meet all my requirements that I listed above. In the end, I had to decide to let go some requirements, for instances, covered/garage parking lot and central air conditioning.

From that, it got me to think about relationship wise. Some people think that they know what they are looking for, but I find that hard to believe. To me, life should not be too rigid but rather have some exceptions. We set standards for what we look for in a relationship and criteria about what we want in a partner or a lover. We start to list this and that, and wait for the right one who meets those specific requirements to show up. The boundary that we set here is too limited to me. Instead of discovering the dating world, we create limitations and make ourselves become more rigid and picky. Yet, we still wonder why I am still single? It is good to realize that we know what we want and what we are after, as well as the fact that we do have standards. We do not want to seem too easy or too desperate because that does not make us sexy after all. However, sometimes life has to be created with some exceptions. Just like my example of looking for the apartment, if I have to be stubborn and have to stick with all my requirements, I will not find an apartment with that price range. I had to decide to be flexible. In order to get a garage parking and nice central air, I have to be willing to pay more. If I do not want to pay more, I have to forgo those nice features. This applies the same to when we are looking for a boyfriend or a girlfriend. You will never find a perfect match, but one that is so close to perfect and good enough for you. We have to be more flexible in the relationship world and be ready to compromise in differences between humans. In other words, set realistic and flexible standards, and leave the unattainable ones to fantasy and illusion.

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You might have noticed that the first thing that most people go to the gym is for fun, health, and shape. You also might have noticed that the first thing that usually those people keep their eyes on is the other people’s bodies. Inside of our mind, we tend to compare what we look like to other people’s looks. Comparison always, I repeat, always creates envy. When it comes to envy, things do not look good at all. Especially, for low self-confident and low self-esteem people, they tend to see themselves not good enough. They see other people’s body, become envious, and even desire to have that kind of body too. But life will be tough that way when we “want” instead of “enjoy” what we have.

It is absolutely normal to feel wanting something, after all, we want good health and body, and hence we go to the gym for. But when we become obsessed with what other people have, we create a path to self-destruction. We kind of overlook the uniqueness and diversity of each individual, and more importantly than that, our only look that we have. Instead of saying “I want his or her body,” we can substitute this saying with “Now, how am I going to get that body?” When we think like that, it creates a question that sends to the thoughtful mind, and the mind will search for answers to respond us. This way instead of a closed-ended statement, it becomes an open-ended question that leads to answers, inspiration, and goal setting. The rule of thumb is, it is the only look we have, but we can enhance and improve it. I believe the effort of doing something about it than doing nothing about it. Simply wallowing yourself in envy without any actions, it’s a dangerous place you situate yourself in. Try to love yourself, I am sure if you get a hold of yourself deeper, you will find out the other good physical parts of your body that the other person does not have. Life is fair, but it depends on how you create and run it.

Staying positive is not an easy task, but what matters the most is that I never stop trying. Accomplishing any goals that have become one’s habit is never easy. I keep telling myself that if I give it up now, later on I will want to come back to it, and then I have to start over again. It’s like going to the gym. In the past, it was on and off when it comes to me working out. Just about a year ago, I started to join the gym again and had to start over again. I could tell by feeling my sore muscles. There are times that I become lazy and want to quit working out "again", but I remind myself what has happened in the past, and I definitely don’t want to start from scratch again. After all, time is money.

Part of never give up involves practice too. From self-learning piano I can tell that practice really helps a lot. The saying goes practice makes perfect, and it indeed does. I think giving up things that you are forced to do or have no interest in doing them at all in the first place is OK, but giving up things that you enjoy or try to attain is never OK, and it can result in regret and a waste of time, and not to mention energy, money and possibly more.

So I stick to my goals, and hope you do too to yours.