Life's a journey

 "But this is not a good one,...."
 
Taking the public transport in the UK can be quite an experience. Today I will be travelling to Birmingham for the "British Accounting and Finance" conference for 2 days. The journey is about 1 hour 10 minutes which include 15 minutes connection at Derby. I left my flat around 9 am to catch the 9.45 am train. Upon reaching the train station, I quickly pass the entry gate, but was told my train will be delayed because someone was hit by the train somewhere on the way to Loughborough. We cannot complain this as it is an accident, so I took a copy of metro and pluck my earphone and stand aside to read the paper and listen to the music from my ipod.

After a while, I began to see people rushing passed me all going in one direction to the other side of the platform, and then I realised, after delaying for about 15 minutes now, an alternative route to Birmingham, via Leicester is now arranged, so I quickly follow the crowd, dragging my luggage behind me. I got myself up the train, obviously a relatively crowded one and I can only got a seat near to the door, and I sat down. Then a man with his bike board the train and stood near to me. After the train start, the conductor comes around to check our ticket. That man with the bike asked him, "so can I get the train connecting in Leicester to London, or do I have to ride the bike straight to London". That was quite funny the way he said it, a bit of a helplessness in his tone and the conductor said to him, "it should be fine, but there might be delay, just check the departure screen".

It took me longer than usual to reach Leicester, as it stops a few stations, which I believe is to pick up passengers affected by the accident. When I reached the Leicester station, I look up the screen for departure to Birmingham, which it says 10.49 am, possible delay at 11.07 am. I looked at my watch, it was 10.30 am. This means I have to wait for another 50 minutes to get connected! I went to the waiting room, sat there and took out a book to read, and it was freezing cold! You began to hear people not happy and complaining among themselves and finally when it is about 11.07 am, I went out to the platform, only to see that it will be expected at 11.12 am!! I cannot believe this and finally, the train arrives! In the end, I was one hour late for my journey. Ah well, Life's a journey, but this is not a good one, be as less as possible, please! Fingers crossed!

disruption is not so bad

"If you know the difference between thought and feeling...."

After writing yesterday's post about "De-cluttering", I began to see the rationale for having a "to do" list everyday. I think this is just so that you don't pile up things too much to the extent they become your clutters. I remember I also talked about procrastination when facing a "to do" list before.  What if you had disruptions in the midst of doing your stuff. And yes it happened today. Unexpected popped up during the day and disrupt my "to do" list!

1) Disruption 1(D1) : Saw J-Lu in the kitchen encouraged her to go the away day next Monday and told her not necessarily to present the research, which I later found out not to be the case.

2) Disruption 2(D2) : Discuss my pension with RW and had a bit of thinking, which was not planned before hand.

D1 is silly and stupid all out of my instant "feeling". Told J-Lu about it and then later checked with LF, and found that she wanted all PhD students to present, so it is a no no, she HAS to present the research. I emailed back to J-Lu and told her about it, silly as I felt I was, apologize for the confusion and she replied to say she won't want to attend this time.

D2 is not as bad, except that as it is money matter concern, I thought I need some second opinion. I was very close to decide upon an AVC and/or MP AVC with prudential. As RW recently took out his MP AVC, since he is reaching about 55 year old soon, he is often happy to share with me his experience, which is all fine. It is just me needing some time to "sort" things out and clearly first before I decide to participate in either the AVC or MP AVC scheme or both. Still, it was unplanned and took some time away.

If "to-do" list helped one de-clutter, and enforcing focus, then Disruption challenges one to distinguish between thought and feeling. I find that  Richard Carlson's "you can be happy no matter what" is a good source to help you with that. It explains in details the difference among feeling, thought and emotion. More to come on this one, but I just highlight that, page 75 of his book, which he wrote "Understanding where our feelings come from allows us to use them as directional guide they were meant to be. If our internal experience of life isn't pleasant, we know we are creating our own misery via our own thought system." is helpful to me with regard to D1, as I was feeling silly about myself on that one. Yes, we only have ourselves to blame if we create our own misery. In addition, keeping oneself calm helps promote good thought system, which also cultivate good common sense. As Russ Harris's book suggests, breathing is good way to help to create calmness. All well, ends well, and the life will end well :D

De-cluttering

".... but what purpose does that serves?"

It seems that cluttering is one of the main hindrance for a minimalist's lifestyle. Cluttering stops you for having a very "clear" life, it's too crowded. We talked about this the other day, claiming that it might begin from your mindset. Your perception is the key, what gone through your mind feedback on your perception and affect your impression on things. A straightforward way to deal with this, is to be honest with how you feel, tracing on your feeling as to where it starts affect you, could help you to get down to the main problem. Often, and especially if you are the sensitive type person, you might not even be aware what actually affected you and your thinking.

What we see from our eyes affect our thinking, despite our level of intelligence, across the board, it affects everyone the same. Today, I thought I tried my hand at some "de-cluttering". Though I carelessly deleted 8 of my blog posts, I did cut down on the number of labels I have on my blog, that way the theme becomes more consolidated and I did felt "neater" after that, as I also updated some layouts of my blog, making it look a bit refreshing. I did find I experience some changes in my thinking after writing blog for a about a year. Therefore, these changes made reflected and represented me in a more realistic light.

What is the after effect of de-cluttering then? I think the purpose of de-cluttering as much as it might be an advocate from the minimalist's perspective, it is also a pre-condition for staying focus. I am slowly adapting some of the techniques I found in the books I read (by the way, I find it more productive reading a few books of a similar topic areas all at one time. It is a bit of a marginal reading. This means you read a bit of one book tonight, and then a few bits of another the following night, and so on. You find interesting similarities among them, and building together you can custom made a simple model for "self-help" for your own purpose). I am thinking, observing the breathing process is perhaps a good exercise to train your mind to stay focus. Russ Harris in his "The Happiness Trap" page 115, wrote this "Slow, deep breathing is important because it lower the level of tension in your body. It won't get rid of your feeling (either good or bad), but it will provide a center of calm within you....." For me, this center of calm helps you to say concentrated and focused on anything you want to get on.

There is a time for the mind to wander about and there is time for it to stay focus and work. De-cluttering helps create conditions for "focus" to take place, However, there is only a place and a time for one thing. Your thought should only be allocated to things one at a time. Unfortunately, I was not quite successful in this department today. I was thinking about work, while what I seemed to be doing was designing my blog, playing bubble, and then going out to the shop. I should really decide what is best and just go for it. Being indecisive on what to do and have the thought lingering about the mind is quite tiring and unproductive. I should really make full use of my time, make it better next time round.

Never Wrestle with a Pig

"... I can already relate to the title as I already identified a couple of "pigs" in my workplace."

This is a new book I bought today. The title, Never Wrestle with a Pig, is cool and I just only found out what it meant. Well, never fight with a pig because even if he won't win, he gets dirty, he is happy, but you would not. As they all say, we all have something new to learn everyday and I just had mine today. One might think where else would one apply such an idea? actually it's everyday life. This quote actually refers to certain type of people who never want to move on, refused to see the big picture and are just plain stubborn. This could be very hard-headed parents or strict headmaster. It's an addiction to them holding on to their thinking as they refuse to change. The truth is that they will extinct in no time, even if they don't they will increasingly become miserable.

Okay, so what is this book about? It's about your workplace. Have you ever come across people in the workplace who like to argue even on the slightest unimportant things? They just dragged you on and on, drained you down and down. So this is a book about how to behave so that every step is in the right direction to build your career or business

The tips from the book includes the following
* End your day on time
* People who say they can keep a secret usually can't
* It pays to overestimate your competition
* The best ideas cannot be stolen
* Know when to say "It's none of your business"
* Get paid for thinking rather than doing
* Time in front of the customer is the best time of all
* Be wary of unanimous agreement
* Not every budget deserves your respect
* Learn the art of picking up the check

Obviously it is up to the readers to interpret the message the author tries to convey in this book. I just had a chance to read two of the chapters. "Friends don't ask the impossible of their friends" and "Develop Genius for Friendship". These two chapters talk about friends in business/professional contact, what's the expectation and what's the consequences of outcome and how to deal with it. It also talks about how to build friendship, and what it means when "giving people favor".

I can already relate to the title as I already identified a couple of "pigs" in my workplace. WF told me dealing with those "pigs", one can only be as polite as possible, and hope that they get pass you as soon as possible.  Those "pigs" are not very active in research, but more in teaching and administration. They like argument in this sort of similar areas to prove and show their sheer importance and existence, but they are just not very value added. So I am sure this is the book that I will enjoy reading and finding it very useful. I will come back again in the future should there be interesting stuff to share. I can already see a chapter on "time management", a topic thousands talk about and with thousand ways to deal with. I am curious about the perspective of this author. Surely his style and his perceptions will make all the difference.

P/S: Oh I forget to tell you. This book costs me only £0.10, and which I got it from a Charity shop this afternoon, even cheaper than the £0.20 "happiness" book, all of good value and of course, good bargains. :D

The challenge of a Minimalist

"hmmm..... perhaps start from your mindset...". 

Minimalist is not the topic that I first mention. I had discussed this before. Indeed, a lots of other bloggers are mentioning this too. Thanks to my Dashboard, I have been able to keep updated about latest blogs written by other bloggers and read them and enjoying them. Interestingly, the other day I came across a blog entry about minimalism quotes. It just amazes me how the sort of thinking exists in the olden days, and in all forms. I especially like the quotes from Wu-Men, “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, then this is the best season of your life.”

This quote immediately put a smile on my face when I see the word "clouded". This was what I told my counsellor when I went to see one in my late teens. When he asked me why I went to see him and what I wanted to get out of the session. I told him, my mind was too crowded and it needed some spaces. I often try to rationalize and make sense out of what I told him and why I told him that at that time. One of the explanation was that I guess I want to keep things tidy and neat and therefore I also want my thought to be arrange in the same way. But, is there a relation to being a minimalist? I am actually beginning to see some similarities.

If one regard being a minimalist as getting rid of life's unnecessary baggage. If that begins with getting rid of unwanted stuff in your residence, for example, then it should all begin in the mind. Some thoughts are unwanted thoughts you can throw them away or simply put it in a safe place and not touch it. Interestingly, you can only do so by speaking about it or writing about it. And strange enough, writing blog has that effect on me sometimes. I begin to wonder if meditation, which supposedly is to help people to move away from thinking and focus more on observation, also help one to develop a less crowded (clouded) mind and moving closer to become a minimalist, based on my own theory as outline above. Interesting topic to worth further investigation!