Be Healthier, Wealthier, and Happier

Do you know, if you are making more than $30K a year and have a roof over your head, you are no longer surviving?  Do you know over 90% of world population actually make less than $30K U.S. dollars a year?  Do you know that if given a chance, 90% of world population would be willing to switch their life for yours in a heart beat? So what are you still whining about?

To be honest, I didn’t know the above statistics and I whined and woke up everyday dreading the notion of needing to “fight” for my survival another day just like every one of you, until one day a mentor knocked the statistics into my thick skull and woke me up! (Thank god she did that!)

I realized all these time I have been fighting the wrong issue in my life.   I thought I need to do whatever it takes to survive and stay alive, but in fact I have blew past the survival stage long long time ago.  (OK, using the $30K example, I’ll probably say that I past the survival stage 2 years after I got out of school and started working full time).  I realized the problem isn’t whether I’ll survive or not (I already did, I am capable of surviving; it is a well proven fact; proven over and over again everyday), the problem is really the quality of life that I want issue.

It’s amazing that when I re-quantified the problem that I am spending my whole life solving, it gave me a new perspective, a lot of confidence and endless new possibilities.  Whew, the pressure of whether I’ll “survive” financially or not disappeared.  I am beginning to ask myself different questions.  For example:  “hum, so I’m actually already surviving really well, so what kind of quality of life was I really looking for?”  Yeah, I want to live in a mansion, I want to travel around the world,  I want to wear top brand clothing,….  But wait, is my current living that bad now? (Not really, I’m sure 90% of world population would switch their housing situation with me in a heart beat), can I stand traveling all year long and not sleeping in my own bed? (Not really).  Alright those top brand clothing, a few would be nice but actually it would be quite a burden to have to keep up with them just to keep up with the Jones… I see everything that I thought I MUST have for survival is really optional items; some worth my time and money to go after and some really didn’t.  Most importantly, NOTHING is worth pushing me below poverty line over it because they are ALL optional and they have nothing to do with my survival.  Well, I might not live like Paris Hilton or eating fillet migeon every day, hey but I am actually happy and I have many more options than I ever thought I have.  

The truth is that now I can go after what I really want with even more passion because it is no longer about surviving but to stretch myself to reach for my moon.  How cool is that?!

So how about you?  Are you really still surviving?  Maybe it’s time for you to start re-quantify your problem too! It’s amazing that sometimes this is really all it takes to solve a life issue; nothing more.

In this busy and busting world where survival seems like everyday focus, we seem to forget that kindness do exist in this world and there are people out there who wake up and choose to do something nice for anyone and everyone everyday. 

I have no clue how numb I have become to my surrounding until one day I came home and saw an Asian old man sweeping the front of my drive way; it has lot of fallen leaves on it.  I was confused for a moment, trying to remember whether this was the day that my gardener was suppose to show up but he didn’t look like my gardener (who happens to also be an Asian).  Then I realized this was the same gentleman who I saw was sweeping my neighbor (a Caucasian family) across street’s driveway a couple weeks ago.  Since I have been traveling for business in the past couple months, I remembered I thought to myself last time I saw him thinking “wow, I didn’t know my neighbor had sold their house while I was gone!”  But then I thought, “Why is he sweeping my driveway then?”  

Since my driveway was a mess and I was so grateful that he had swept it clean for me, I decided to walk over and thank him anyway.  As I was approaching him, an unknown fear and hesitation came over me, but I stuck to my gun and yelled out for him as he walked back toward his own house.  I greeted him in English but he doesn’t seem to speak English, he started replied to me in Chinese and Taiwanese.  Fortunately, I knew both, so naturally I responded back to him in both Chinese and Taiwanese.  He was surprised, but happy that I can speak his language.  I thanked him profusely with a bit of embarrassment as to how I had let the leaves go in front of my house.  He told me don’t worry about it, he is actually visiting his son and he is seeking opportunity to exercise.  He saw all those fallen leaves and decided that this is his opportunity to get the exercise he want and gather all the fallen leaves together in time for the scheduled lawn pickup for the street.  

I chatted with this sweet happy gentleman for a while.  I found out that his name is Mr. Lee.  His son has been living across from me for over 10 years; they are from a different town in Taiwan where I was born; he and his wife are here visiting the grandkids; it will be a short visit because he can’t get used to American living…  It’s amazing that I have also been in this neighborhood for over 10 years, but yet I have never knew this family; I have not even talk to anyone in this family until now.  I had no clue how indifferent I have become until this gentleman woke me up.  Without his simple kindness, I probably would have live here another 10 years without even thought of reaching my hands out to my neighbors. 

I was very grateful for the lesson Mr. Lee taught me.  I brought some cookies and stopped by Mr. Lee’s house to formally thank him.  He was not home.  I got to visit with his son for the first time and told him his dad’s kindness.  His son was just as amazed at what his dad did as I was.  We got to stop and connect as neighbor for the first time.

Mr. Lee’s amazing kindness just continues to fill my heart. While he is still around, he seems very determined to keep our street cleaned.  The next morning, I found him not only swept the sidewalk in front of my house, he actually swept the leaves out of my whole front yard!  Then the next week, I found him continued working his way down the street; covering and sweeping even more houses.  Now, not only my house, but my neighbor’s house (an Indian family) and my neighbor’s neighbor’ house (a Caucasian family)…  What a loving sweet old man!!!