Happiness

I don't know whether I am a creative person or not. I cannot think of a better title than this.

Okay. I am writing this because I was inspired by an event that I experienced just now. One of my university friends introduced me to a person who gave me a presentation about his multi-level marketing (MLM) company.

The main point that I got from it is that you can get much money from if you join the company. Hundreds of thousands dollars probably. I'm not quite sure, but certainly it is "a lot".

Then came two other friends of his who have also joined the company. Just say they are A (not Apatosaurus!) and B (not Brontosaurus of course!). A's motivation of doing that business is he wants to buy (an) expensive car(s), and, probably, other prestigious things. And, B's motivation is simple. He wants to make his parents happy by accompanying them traveling to the U.S.A.

This leads me to a question: Will I be happy only if I have a super car? Will I be happy only if I have an excursion with my parents in other countries? (Oops, sorry, two questions :p)

And my answer to both the questions is: No.

I am happy in front of my laptop right now. I am happy writing this article. I don't feel I lack anything. It doesn't matter to me to have only an ordinary car or to go with my parents to Bandung. Note: Bandung is the capital city of West Java. It is quite near to Jakarta.

Anyway, that's my answer. It's possible that you have a different answer than mine, and that's fine.

From my perspective, happiness is defined by you yourself. You cannot compare one's happiness to others' happiness. You cannot force someone to do something and say, "You will be happy after you do this."

I am infatuated by my dinosaur book collection, though you might put them in the corner of your room and abandon them, or burn them down because you think they only take up a lot of space in your room. You may love your K-Pop CDs and DVDs, while I will sell them and use the money to buy Jay Chou's concert CDs or DVDs (really, I haven't got them!). You might want to buy an original Lionel Messi jersey or watch a movie every weekend but I prefer to go on a trip to a city or go camping. I'd rather blog or browse on the Internet for one hour than spend an hour playing Left 4 Dead, DotA or Counter Strike. And many more...

Please notice that I am not saying that the business is deceitful. Maybe it works, maybe not. I don't know. But, for sure, happiness is something that you determine, not others. You measure it, not others. What do you think? Continue reading..

You Are (Part of) The World

"I'm not worthy."
"My life has no meaning."
"It's better for me to die, to vanish, to disappear."
"Everybody does not need me."

Those poor statements lie in the soul of some people on Earth. And, poor is poor.

Firstly, we have to realize that we live because of God's grace. It's a FREE gift. So, is there any reason not to be grateful for our life?

You might say, "I have many problems," or, "Everything goes bad," or "No happiness in my life."

Life is full of challenges, full of troubles, full of obstacles. Life is always full of something that we must overcome. And, yep, we can't deny that! (Who can?) We face them continually.

God wants us to "conquer" the world. He wants us, His children, to make the world a more convenient place to live in. We are here to spread God's love. We are here to bring peace to humankind. To make it a better place. It is our job. A noble job. This God's task for us is the next thing we should realize.

I AM here. You ARE there. We ARE on the EARTH. We ARE in the WORLD. We EXIST. We DO EXIST.

Yeah, and in accordance with the six sentences above, we DO have influence. This is what I want to emphasize through this article. We are a "piece" of the world. We make up a "tiny part" of this world. Although we are that small, we DO have influence and, depending on what you do, what you make, what you create, that influence can be big or small, and good or bad.

Whether you are a couch potato or a bad apple, you have influence. Whether you are a peasant or a president, you have influence. Whether you are a paleontologist or a priest, you have influence. Whether you always smile or frown, you have influence. Whether you are a do-gooder or as crooked as a dog's hind leg, you have influence. And that influence determines the destiny of our world. It draws the next scene of our life.

To end this article, here is a very good excerpt from George Eliot. Continue reading..

Conscious

A simple word, yet powerful. And, as a matter of fact, this nine-letter word is essential for our life.

Let's start from a simple question: What are you doing?
The answer: Reading this article. (indeed)

Next question: What is your purpose of reading this article?

The answer: ____.

I don't mind what your answer is. What matters is: can you answer this? If you can answer this, congratulations! You know what your goal, target, or objective is, what you want to achieve, what makes you "move". A person like you is called a conscious man. A person who's aware of why they do something. And, this kind of person has the meaning of life. That's why the world needs (only) this sort of person.

Sometimes, including me, people do something and they don't know why they do that!

They study at university hard but they don't know what they will do after graduating. They read books but they don't know what they will use the information for. They are in a relationship with someone but before sleeping they think "Why did I become his girlfriend/her boyfriend?" They marry but at night they think, "Why did I marry him/her?"

Being conscious is everything. Man in the world without a purpose is like a boat at sea without a sailor. It lets itself be controlled by winds. Will it arrive at the destination? You can imagine.

In my opinion, it's wise to ask ourselves some purpose questions from time to time:
Why am I calling you? Why am I listening to this music? Why do I play this game? Why do I work for this company? Why do I buy discounted items? Why am I studying math? Why am I here? Why, why, and why.

Hopefully, we can be a real person, a person that deserves the world, a conscious man. Continue reading..