Love Of Learning

What have we learned? You may be a successful individual, organisation, group or country, you can even be very learned but truly what have we learned? We are never too old to learn and when we stop learning we stop living. There is so much to learn from one another and learn from others, everyday. So many new things to discover and learn. 

The exuberance of youth had been overtaken. The faster sports I used to play has slowed to a trickle to almost none. Lest I forgot how to,  I started running since one and a half years ago and has not stopped. From a real struggle, I learned I could run again. This year I bested my personal best time since I grew to a certain age three times with 15.5 minutes for a 2.4km run two weeks ago. Nothing great I would say and my marathoner and triathlete friends may laugh but I face two challenges every time. Whenever I look at the bed, the sofa and the air-conditioner, I feel silly not to just use my instinct to plonk down and go against my better judgement. Some times especially at an earlier stage, I saw angels beckoning me in front and the angel of death chasing me from behind.

History

The USA has been around for a few hundred years and many countries in Europe too. If you add China's 5,000 year history and some of the world's earliest civilisation like Egypt, etc. you will realise that human civilisation having been around for so long has made tremendous progress and yet we have not really learned a lot, in fact, very little.

Wars after wars, terrorism, economic battles, battles of ideology, people who continue to use religion for their own ends, the politics of life in the office or on an international scale are quite often if not at all times due to selfish reasons. People like power, money, sex, etc. Nothing has changed. Power and money can help to change the world and make it a better place when used correctly while sex if meant as procreation is a gift in making babies but when it becomes a monster when used as recreation. The difference is in the pro and the re of creation.

If you look towards the USA or Europe and Japan and several others, we still end up the same, marginally different and yet largely the end result is the same. You become successful, wealthy, powerful and influential then what? You deal with new problems that success brought. Too much meat in the diet, too little exercise,  consumerism, too much anxiety and stress. We consume more, waste more, work harder to produce and achieve more quite often to do or get things we do not really need. When you yearn for more and want your stuffs faster you are actually jumping on the band wagon of destruction without knowing. Destruction of planet earth and human ethos due to your perceived importance.

People stop getting married, those who do stop having children, those who have stop at one or at most two. Meanwhile, the population is aging. While being so wired and connected globally, we are rapidly losing our connectedness. We tried to be more and more politically correct. Moral decadence sets in faster than one can imagine. There is no right or wrong and grey areas are enlarged. We are quick to jump into slogans "think out of the box" but often we do not even know if there is something inside the box or where is the box. Look around us today, we are still none the wiser. Maybe, we should ask - what box?

Life Is Like A Movie?

Often, people do what please them now or for that moment of need and want but only to regret later, at times much later like a politician who once took drugs or dodged serving the nation or a war or was involved in a sex scandal but now he is going into high office but trouble brews for him as his life unfolds like a movie. Many people did not realise that our current, like our past is our future's past. Don't get it? How about in future, our past is the current present? Okay, never mind, buy me a beer and I'll indoctrinate you. 

The way to live our life is to live it as if it were a movie about you with warts and all. Make it a no-holds-barred "Director's Cut" uncensored version. Every bit of your whole life under scrutiny and the audiences include your family - parents, siblings, in-laws, spouse, children, friends and even strangers. Or at least know that God is watching even when no one does. This way, you will never cheat or hurt others. Not only that, you may turn it into a wonderful awe-inspiring movie that gives others hope. Do you think life will be the same for you? 

We should all be hugging those people who are hurt, kissing those who are broken, be a friend to those who are lost and even spend time and love those who are lonely but do this without featuring this portion in the good movie, because all good deeds should not be used as a show to other man. One and a half years ago, I wrote about this before and to share with you, please find the article link: 
http://gforce-guru.blogspot.sg/2011/02/life-is-like-movie.html

We have to learn simply because life is just too short for you to make all the mistakes on your own. Worst of all are those mistakes that had already happened thousands of times to other people but when others make mistakes you may think they were stupid unlike you that's where danger lurks. You must think that if you can be as clever as anyone, you can also be equally stupid as any all in a moment of folly. The love of learning has no limits, time frame or perimeter. It need not be confined to business and work, that will be totally without finesse. You need hobbies.

Hobbies

Do you have hobbies? Or at least one? Something you are passionate about. A hobby is some kind of interest or activity done in your leisure and mostly undertaken for pleasure. They can be artistic or creative pursuits, tinkering or making of things or sports like cycling, gym workouts, golf, soccer, bowling, badminton, squash or bowling, etc. Engaging in your hobby passionately can lead you to acquire substantial knowledge, skills and offers you a higher experience. 

There have been instances where your hobbies can lead you to more significant achievements and developments in many fields far beyond personal fulfillment. How often do we not find sufficient time for ourselves? Immersing in our daily grind of life's responsibilities and work keep us so busy there is no time for anything else. Some people think that having a hobby is in helping in a pastime. I beg to differ. It should be something you like and find enjoyable, better still passionate about.    

Why do you need a hobby? Some hobbies offer you quiet time alone to reflect and contemplate life. Or you can even do it with family and friends such as fishing or photography. Hobbies allow you time out from an otherwise mundane and stressful life or lifestyle which prevents us from discovering our other talents even hidden talents some of which you never knew you had by trying things you have never tried before.

It will also enable you to meet and get to know new friends who have the same interests. "Where are you?" "Oh, I am at the Gym having a workout". "Gym's pub!" There you go. Hobbies will further enhance our personalities and extends our learning beyond what is needed to be learned. Hobbies offer you the chance to relax, to let go, to break an otherwise monotonous life. It offers an escapade from whatever world you are in to free your mind. This way, one can become a stronger and better person, therefore, giving added meaning and purpose to life.

Hobbies allow us to release our creative energy and for mankind to cultivate ourselves and I believe they help you in managing life's anxieties, negative feelings, even anger and rage. Hobbies provide us pleasure to help unwind as they are often of our own choosing and not forced upon us. It further helps in restoring our balance in our spirit from other areas of life like stress and work. In fact, our hobbies help us to rediscover ourselves and to keep ourselves connected to our own being otherwise, you may never have the time for yourself if you have never scheduled for it.

More fortunate ones have even fashioned a career out of their hobbies. When you love what you do passionately, you will never work a day in your life again! Your hobbies will often give you control how you would spent your time in leisurely pursuits and give you a total sense of freedom in pursuing it. In doing so, it enables you to share your rich experience with others. They are like gifts that you offer to yourself that can be ever so rewarding and enriching especially when sharing with others. You are also reaching out to your fellow men with your indulgence.

Keep your hobbies going. Do not stop. For those who don't, start now. May be by 89, we can going sky diving together!
Keep interested. Keep learning and love it! Even when people are slamming me for my own good!