Crafting the Novel of a Fulfilling Life

To lead a fulfilling life, living in the present moment is one of the key elements. As a means of illustrating this point, I would like to provide the following figurative example. Imagine we are novelists creating a rich life story for a main character, casting our own shadows onto the pages of a novel. In this context, living in the present moment means fully portraying the main character's psychological aspects, physical actions, and the outcomes of their encounters with various daily events on every page of the novel. Throughout a series of life events, the main character learns valuable lessons by gaining diverse experiences. These experiences enable the main character to lead a fulfilling life, leaving a lasting impression on the novel's readers. However, if the main character constantly dwells on the past, living in the past due to various reasons depicted on every page of the novel, the story cannot progress. This means that the main character will find it challenging to seize good opportunities to learn valuable life lessons.

Popular posts from this blog

Rediscovering Purpose in Retirement

Image
  The other day, I received a message from one of my social media friends saying, “I have just retired, and to be honest, I do sometimes feel a lack of purpose.” Immediately after reading these words, I felt sympathy for his despondent mood because I have been through a period of experiencing a sort of burnout syndrome, even though I eventually found relief from heavy work stress. During that time, I learned from another social media friend that it is very helpful to ask oneself three questions to create a bucket list for post-retirement life. These questions are as follows: 1.     What have you enjoyed doing the most? 2.     What have you been doing that made you shine the brightest? 3.     What things have you left behind so far? Surely, asking these three questions worked effectively and enabled me to discover new reasons for living in the rest of my life.
Read more

The Power of Mind Mapping

Image
When I used to receive an oral briefing on something unfamiliar or entirely new from someone, I made it a habit to create my own-style mind map instead of simply taking traditional verbal notes. This allowed me to quickly grasp the overall concept. To be honest, it took me several years to develop the skill of creating practical mind maps through hands-on work experience. However, once I acquired this skill, it significantly improved my abilities in explanatory presentations, fact gathering, problem-solving, and strategic project planning and execution. This is because visual representations, such as diagrams, matrices and graphs, provide strong reinforcement for verbal and numerical information.
Read more

The Wisdom of Japanese Proverbs: Leading by Example in Parenting and the Workplace:

Image
There is a Japanese quote, “Ko wa oya no senaka wo mite sodatsu,” which can be literally translated into English as “Children grow as they look at the back of their parents.” This suggests that parents should lead by example, both in their words and actions, when raising their children at home. In this context, reflecting on my experiences at work from the perspective of my personal growth, I believe I have learned much more from observing my bosses' actions and attitudes than from their verbal advice. Returning to the Japanese quote, from my own interpretation, the reason it uses “the back of their parents” rather than simply “their parents” is to emphasize the importance of actions over words. In this sense, I am now pondering whether I can serve as a good role model to my younger colleagues by setting an example through my own actions.
Read more