enjoyment

Apr

2021

Pied Piper

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Do you know of the tale of the Pied Piper? The Pied Piper is a fairy tale about a village in Hamelin, Germany. There was a rat infestation in the village. To drive away the rats, they hired the Pied Piper to play his magical flute. But after successfully driving away the rats through his music, the villagers refused to pay the piper. This angered the piper and as a revenge; the piper entranced the children of the village through his music. Just like the rats, the children disappeared from the village forever.

When, lo! As they reached the mountain-side, A wondrous portal opened wide, As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; And the Piper advanced and the children followed, And when all were in to the very last, the door in the mountain-side shut fast.
– Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin

A Delusive Enticement

The story of the Pied Piper may be fictional but the lesson imparts by the story is something deeper. In fact, the word pied piper is now defined by the Merriam-Webster as “one that offers strong but delusive enticement”. Delusive means something misleading, deceptive, false or unreal. Enticement on the other hand is something that lures, tempts or attracts us.

There are many temptations in life. In the Bible, John the Evangelist in his Epistle classified them into three:

Lust of Eyes (Materialism)
Lust of the Body (Hedonism)
Pride of Life (Egoism)

If we are not careful, just like the children, we might fall into the spell of the Pied Piper. Just like fishing, Someone who is fishing will use bait to lure the fish. The fishes then unknowingly take the bait and this will ultimately lead to their demise.

Learn When To Stop

What do we do then? Life will not be as exciting if we will indulge ourselves in some form of guilty pleasure. Well, it is okay to indulge in the little things as long as you don’t overdo it. Remember that too much of anything is bad. You can eat chocolates, sweets, fatty foods and junk foods once in a while but to make it as part of your daily diet is detrimental to your health. It is okay to splurge and reward yourself with some little things every now and then but to do it on a consistent basis despite the fact that it is ruining your budget can lead to unnecessary debt. Cellphones and the internet are invented for our convenience but to make your life revolve around will already affect your relationships with the people around you. The key is learn when to stop before it harms you.

The song Pied Piper by BTS said it all. The song gives a message to the Army, their fans, to become more self-aware about how much they indulge in BTS. It is okay to idolize them however, if it becomes too much to the point that it will affect their daily responsibilities in life, then fans need to learn to stop and control themselves.

Stop. Now stop watching and study for your test. Your parents and boss hate me. Video clips, pictures, tweets, V app, Bon Voyage. I know you can’t help what you like but stop. Interpret the music later. You have so many pictures of me in your room anyway. It’s not just one hour, but it’s a whole year that will disappear.
– RM of BTS, Pied Piper

Learn when to stop before it ruins your life.

Feature Photo by Jonathan Petersson from Pexels

Jul

2020

Passion is Your Key to Success

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Have you noticed that a lot of people are selling online right now? It seems that a great deal of people turned to online selling as a way to survive this economic crisis. Whether it is simply just a craze or it is something that is going to be part of the new normal, one thing is for sure, only a few will emerge successful after some time. If you are an online seller, do you want to know what your key to success is? Passion is your key to success.

What Not To Pursue

A craze is something that became extremely popular but for a limited period of time. The common mistake of people is that everybody wants to join the craze. They want to make it big, and they think that joining the bandwagon is the answer. However, just because your friend was successful in pursuing the craze, it does not mean you will too. Don’t just follow what everyone else is doing.

What To Pursue

While dreams, discipline, hard work, intelligence, luck and persistence may be factors to success; they are not the key ingredient. The most important factor to success is passion. Do you want to be successful in your career or your business? Find your passion. Do you want to be successful as an online seller? Then, sell something that is related to your passion. For example, if you enjoy baking, then sell baked products.

What is Passion

Passion is a strong feeling of enthusiasm for something. Several studies suggest that rich people became rich because they follow their passion. According to Thomas C. Corley, best-selling author of the book Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals:

96% of the poor or average people don’t like what they are doing while
86% of the rich like what they are doing.

The point is if you love what you are doing, you will spend more time doing it. Enthusiasm is very powerful. Even if you encounter lots of obstacles ahead of you, you will still continue doing it because you love doing it. The more you do it, the more you will be better at it. The better you are at your work, the better you will get paid for it.

Malcolm Gladwell on his book Outliers: The Story of Success states that highly successful individuals spent at least 10,000 hours honing their craft. Imagine spending 10,000 hours doing something that you don’t like? That will be very difficult if not impossible. It is a totally different story if it is your passion.

In the Forbes list of billionaires, majority of them got to where they are right now by doing what they love.

Bill Gates loved computer programming since the age of 13. He excelled in Math and Science. Although he enrolled in Harvard University, he had a hard time keeping up with school work because he spend most of his time in his computer than in class. He eventually dropped out of school, pursued his passion and ended up building the world’s largest software business, Microsoft.

Elon Musk is so passionate about rockets and space exploration. He became an engineer, an industrial designer and technology entrepreneur. He is now working to revolutionize transportation both here on earth and space through his companies, Tesla and SpaceX.

Warren Buffet started investing in the stock market at a very young age. When asked in a recent interview what is the secret to his success, he answered, “I found what I love to do very early…when I was seven or eight years old I knew that his particular game really, really intrigued me.” He pursued his love for investment from then on which lead him to where he is today.

Amancio Ortega started his life in poverty. He left school to work as delivery boy at a shirt maker in their town at the age of 14. He then worked his way up to become an assistant to the tailor then later a designer. Mr. Ortega pursued his passion until he was able to buy his own factory. Today, his high street clothes Zara is world famous.

Do something you are very passionate about and don’t try to chase what is kind of the hot passion for the day.
– Jeff Bezos

The road to success is never easy. Having dreams alone is not enough. You will fail many times over before you can get it right. To make it easier, your goals should always be in line with your passion.

If your dream is to become rich for example, you will never become rich just by dreaming alone. Little steps are needed to lead you closer to your dream one step at a time. Just because a person became successful in a specific field does not necessarily mean you will also become successful in the same path. Always remember that your key to success if your passion. Do something that you love. Your passion or interests will keep you going and ultimately will lead you to your dream.

Updated version. First published in Pinoy Smart Living on 04.12.2019

Feature Image by Gloria Williams from Pixabay Images.

May

2020

Do You Take Life Too Seriously?

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Life is supposed to be fun and easy but it doesn’t seem to feel that way. For most people, fun and easy experiences can be said to be few and far in between. At an early age, we were taught that life is a constant struggle to achieve our goals. Once we have achieved our goals, then we can enjoy more fun and easy days ahead.

There are a lucky few for whom having fun comes easy. Then there are other people who have the ability to make anything look fun while juggling life’s responsibilities. While the rest of us are struggling, why is it that some people are able to live their days less stressfully?

An obvious answer would be that these people are just not taking life too seriously. How can we do the same?

How Seriously Do You Take Life?

First, let us check how seriously do you take life? If you answer YES to half or more of these questions, then you are indeed taking everything way too seriously.

Are you afraid of embarrassing yourself or looking silly?
Are you unable to make jokes about yourself?
Do you easily get offended by other people’s remarks or behavior towards you?
Are you terrified of making a mistake?
Are you overly self-conscious of how other people see you as?
Do you always feel frustrated and stressed when things don’t go as you expected?
Are you constantly worrying about the smallest things?
Are you always thinking of what could go wrong in a given situation?
Have you often been told that you “can’t take a joke” or that you “take things too personally”?
Are you always thinking of a Plan B or C, etc., to combat uncertainty?

If you are taking things way too seriously, here are some reasons why you don’t have to do that.

Why You Shouldn’t Take Life Too Seriously

Life is Stranger Than Fiction

It just is. We all know this for a fact. Have you experienced coincidences, good or bad, which you can’t explain? Even scientists admit that there are so many things in the world that remain unexplainable or are yet to be explained.

There are so many coincidences between fiction novels and real life. Sometimes it is hard to say whether life is imitating art or art is imitating life.

The Rich Aren’t Always the Happiest

This is one fact of life we all cannot deny. The rich may look like they are capable of enjoying themselves to their heart’s content. But if you ask, most rich people would tell you that this is not so. It takes a lot of hard work to create and keep wealth. They may even have to work harder than their employees.

How many divorce lawsuits and scandals have you seen in the news lately? Which rich celebrities and public figures who everyone thought lived a fairytale story are struggling right now?

Worrying Is Not Productive

We know that we have limited time on this planet. We already spend a good amount of that time sleeping so why spend most of our waking time worrying? Have you ever got anything done just by worrying? Do you notice that worrying does not make you feel any better afterwards than when you started the process?

There are other reasons why you shouldn’t take life too seriously, but you get the drift. Consider this as a bad habit that you need to change. So now, what should you do so you can start taking everything less seriously?

You need to figure out what you’re being so serious for and why. Here are some questions you should ask every time you notice yourself start worrying and thinking about things too seriously.

Why So Serious?

What exactly is worrying/irritating me right now?
Is this worth getting upset over?
Is this really so important right now?
Will this even matter tomorrow?
Will this significantly impact my life or is this just a minor inconvenience?
Am I simply blowing things out of proportion?
Is this even my problem at all?
What’s a better and more productive way to respond to this situation?

The last question is an important one. It helps you react to the situation in a different way than you usually would. A change in perspective and a change in your reaction can result in a different scenario. Things could actually turn out be fun and easy instead of difficult and stressful.

How To Take Life Less Seriously

If you seriously want to be less anxious and stressed, start putting more fun into your life.

Laugh at your self.

Confront your fear of being embarrassed by doing it intentionally. If you know how to laugh at yourself, you lessen the chances of getting offended by other people. It doesn’t matter how ‘personal’ their joke gets.

You only become afraid of being the butt of other people’s jokes when you are unable to laugh at yourself. Practice being able to laugh at your own silliness. If you do something wrong, apologize sincerely but learn to laugh at yourself with others too.

Let things happen.

We take everything too seriously because we want to be able to control everything that happens to us. Perfectionists are always stressed out because of this reason. There will always be some things in life that just don’t go according to plan. When this happens, let it unfold and observe the results, then react accordingly.

Think of it as a learning opportunity instead of a threat to your plans. These situations will also show you that one mistake won’t kill you; but can help you do better the next time instead.

Add more humor into your life.

If laughing at yourself with other people seems a far-fetched concept for now; start by injecting more humor into your own life. You can start watching stand-up comedians and learn how they are able to make fun of themselves and situations.

Find something funny in different situations in your everyday experience. Recall something silly you did in the past. It may have embarrassed you at the time, but it might actually be funny now.

The longest study on happiness shows that good relationships are important to enjoying life. Get together with a funny friend and talk with them more. Get a feel of how their attitude is different to yours and learn from them.

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.”
— Elbert Hubbard

Life is short and taking it too seriously may make your life span even shorter. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Learn to have fun and look at the bright side of things. When you learn to do this, then you can count yourself among the lucky ones. The truly blessed ones are those who are able to have fun and enjoyment every day while still working hard to achieve their goals.

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Feature Image: Original Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Mar

2020

10 Movies to Watch At Home With the Kids

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Here are 10 movies you can watch at home with the kids to sta r ve off boredom and increase your quality time together. These are listed from oldest to newest. Just select one that you think the kids will like, or let the kids decide. Some of these movies are quite old but they should be easily accessible via online sources.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Rated G
If you want to go far, far away, let an imaginary tornado take you away. Dorothy dreams of a more exciting life somewhere over the rainbow. She gets her wish when a tornado takes her and her little dog Toto. They were taken from their farm in Kansas to a wonderland. There, she begins her magical adventures with new friends to find the Wizard of Oz.

The Sound of Music (1965)

Rated G
So many songs in this movie will stay with you long after the movie ends. This movie explores many themes such as family dynamics, different parenting methods, love in time of war and the love of music that binds the whole family together. The sceneries are also beautiful everyone sings quite well in this movie so feel free to sing along.

The Muppet Movie (1979)

Rated G
Kermit the Frog and company are beloved characters by folks aged 5 to 95. In this movie, they not only entertain with musical numbers while avoiding danger, they even have a moment where they check the movie script for what happens next. If you want to teach your kids how to sing “The Rainbow Connection”, this is a good movie to watch together.

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

Rated PG
This simple movie of a boy befriending an alien who needs to go back home has its teary moments but it does drive home a poignant lesson about friendship and understanding. The story telling is also quite magical and the scene of E.T. and Elliott biking past the moon is something to inspire everyone’s sense of awe.

Home Alone (1990)

Rated PG
It may not be Christmas yet but everyone can use a feel-good adventure movie. Kevin McCallister shows you how to be a hero, even as he was left alone at home while his family is vacationing in Florida. He reunites with his family but not before he gives a couple of thieves a wacky lesson in mayhem.

Jumanji (1995)

Rated PG
Robin Williams always makes kid-friendly movies not only an enjoyable ride but also drives home important life lessons. This movie starts out with 2 siblings who discover an old game where the boy Alan (Williams) was sucked into 26 years ago. He guides the kids through the game as they overcome obstacles together in order to go back home.

You may also want to check out the more modern version with Dwayne Johnson which has a different set of characters but still promises the same humor, fun and adventure.

Up (2009)

Rated PG
This movie has its teary-eyed moments but still manages to take the viewer on a cute and fun journey. When salesman Carl Fredricksen’s wife dies, he decides to tie balloons to his house and lift off to South America – a destination that he and his adventure-loving wife had always wanted to go. On the way, he realizes that he has an enthusiastic Boy Scout traveling with him. They also meet interesting characters and exciting adventures along the way.

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Rated PG
Dragons can be both magical and terrifying. In this movie, we get some doses of both but a lot of fun and cuteness as well. The friendship of Hiccup and Toothless is a fun watch but the family dynamics among members of the Viking clan also provides a rich source of important relationship lessons. That’s not the only thing that makes this movie fun however, and you and the kids will surely enjoy the whole ride.

You may want to watch all 3 movies of the franchise just to get more of the 2 main characters’ cute and funny interactions and to learn more about the world of dragons and world beyond Hiccup’s Viking clan.

Despicable Me (2010)

Rated PG
If you and your kids love the Minions, then it’s time to rewatch this movie and the next ones too. Supervillain Gru and his hordes of Minions change their villainous goals when they adopt 3 orphans who melt Gru’s cold heart and turns him to work for good instead.

Coco (2017)

Rated PG
Some family traditions need to be kept and some need to be let go if they are for the wrong reasons. Here, Miguel’s family doesn’t allow him to listen to music or play his guitar so he must learn in secret. He gets the opportunity to meet his ancestors and uncover the real reason why his family discourages him from appreciating music. Pursuing one’s dream, honoring traditions and forgiveness are real life lessons that are magically tackled in this movie.

There are many more popular movies that are not mentioned here such as the Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Toy Story and Frozen movies because these would obviously be on your movie list. Try out the movies listed above to experience and reminisce the charm of these oldies but goodies and stave off boredom and anxiety while spending quality, family time. Be sure to have snacks around to complete the full movie experience.

Having a movie date with the whole family is a good way to spend time with kids while staying at home. You will learn more about your kid’s personalities and also help them expand their insights and learn important life lessons. You may be reminded of these life lessons yourself.

Original image from The Telegraph.