"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Theresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein" ~ H Jackson Brown Jr, from Life's Little Instruction Book

So I'm sitting here thinking what to put for this morning/afternoon...its been a rather empty day so far, I hadn't done very much aside from go to lecture, watch some videos and cook some instant mee, which I'm eating right now. I had been thinking, that there really was nothing to do except work, and I definitely didn't feel like working. Then it struck me to perhaps do a quote about Time.

Because this is such an immensely long excerpt from a book, I figure I won't retype it out, but instead will just jump straight to the 'interpreting'. Speaking for myself, I say I definitely pay attention to this quote mainly because it talks about something which I find myself thinking more and more about - the fact I feel that I have no time.

"-you have exactly the same number of hours-" This particular sentence struck me. My first reaction to this sentence was 'Yes, but times were different back then. I'm studying for one, and society as a whole has mostly changed to one where the average workday is considered 9 to 5, something that wasn't really there for most of the illustrious people mentioned in the excerpt. Also Mother Theresa (or is it Teresa?) more or less dedicated her life towards a single purpose, something that I'm not exactly doing."

But after a few moments of deep thought, I realised that all these were merely excuses of sorts. I realised I DO spend a lot of time doing things that are unecessary, and do not really serve to further my self-development or academics...or anything for that matter. And while I did think earlier that there was nothing to do except work, it was in perfect contrast to my feeling that I had no time. In truth, I have a lot of time. In fact, this semester is considered by far to be the easiest semester ever. 

This excerpt is indirectly saying to us that we have an abundance of time which we do not really see. I'd wager there are plenty of people in the world thinking the same thing as me, that we have no time when in truth there is a lot of time that we just simply aren't using well. When we think there's nothing to do, there's actually plenty that can be done...we just have to put some effort into finding out what to do. The times have changed, but this quote isn't just telling us off because we're complaining, its telling us to get off our behinds, and go do something instead of complaining.

So after this meal, I might just do a bit more studying again. Or maybe I'll sort out my bed, or clean my room, anything that'll benefit me in the long run. Entertainment does have its place, but too much of it sucks up too much time that could otherwise be used for something productive.

On a side note, I figured maybe today was a good time to post one of my favourite uplifting tunes. So here is the Youtube link to "Its Your Day' by Yiruma! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JRlr2BNh4A) It isn't a vocal song, its just piano, and Yiruma is a very good South Korean pianist. So do have a listen, and once again, for anybody who does read this in the future, it'd be good to hear what YOU think about anything on this blog. 

~


Note: The Song is actually only 3 minutes, 30 seconds long or so, but the youtube link is 9 minutes long. So when it ends, you can close it, the remaning 5 minutes and 30 seconds is just pure silence.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall" ~ Confucius

I think I just failed a test today. A pretty important one too, worth about 10% of the final grade of one of my subjects. Just spent the last hour or so detoxing on Starcraft 2 with a friend, trying to get myself out that deep hole of depression...and so here I am, with this here quote, which I feel is quite fitting considering my circumstances today. Also, I figured maybe I'll try a different font today (Trebuchet), just to see how it turns out. 

To anyone who doesn't know who Confucius is, he was quite the big name in Chinese Philosophy who lived some thousand plus years or so ago and founding a system of philosophy known as Confucianism, which essentially stresses self-improvement. Of course, the real depth of Confucianism is not known to me, cause I'm not a Confucianist, so if anyone happens to be a Confucianist (I hope its the correct way to refer to one) do enlighten us at any point.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall". This saying is also, one of my favourites. In fact, almost all of the quotes I probably put here are my favourites. But I digress. What does this quote mean?

To me, this quote is quite straightforward. Mainly, Confucius here touches on the subject of persistance. Its easy to see, that by 'falling' he means 'failure', and that by 'rising' he means not giving into failure. But this is something, I feel, which eludes the majority of us nowadays. How many times have we started something, only to not continue it because we felt it was not worth any more time spent on it?

This quote ties into the second ever quote I did, ""If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of'" Mainly, 'Don't waste time'. Too many of us today start something, perhaps an exercise programme, perhaps learning how to speak another language, or perhaps learning how to invest in the stock market, anything, only to stop because we run into a failure. And too many of us, when we run into failure decide 'This isn't worth it anymore, I don't want to do it'. And at that point, all our effort and time go down the drain. 

Perhaps you think 'Well, I persisted, but it was just hopeless. I was getting nowhere'. And that I feel, is truly what this quote is referring to. That when we run into that wall of failure, when every action we take is just wrong, and when everything we do just doesn't seem to work out, it is so easy to give up and take the pain. But the truth is, there is nothing good that comes out of giving up. But when we accomplish something, so much good comes out of it, even if it was a little thing. And when we consider that we mostly give up when we're so close to our goals, its such a shame that we gave up all that incoming goodness just so that we didn't have to deal with the failure anymore. 

A lot of people think that in order to be 'good' at something, you have to be flawless. And so a tiny failure becomes a monument to their inadequacy, showing how worthless they are. But thats not how to become good. The greatest successes encountered failure many times, but instead of seeing them as failures, they are seen as lessons. Lessons in what not to do, lessons in how to improve. They embrace failure, seeing it as a way to improve. And they don't give up. That is persistance personified. And that is their 'greatest glory'.

I realise I'm not really interpreting these quotes. I'm instead, sharing my views on them...not actively decoding them. But hey, anything helps I suppose. And to anyone who reads this in the future...it'd be nice to hear about your views, and what you think about these quotes. 

~

Font Testing

This is just me testing different fonts.


This is just me testing different fonts


This is just me testing different fonts


This is just me testing different fonts


This is just me testing different fonts


This is just me testing different fonts


This is just me testing different fonts

"Your worth consists in what you are, and not in what you have" ~ Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, most famously (I think) known as the inventor of the lightbulb, amongst his other inventions. It reportedly took him roughly 10,000 failed attempts, to which when asked about said 'I haven't failed. I've found 10,000 ways that don't work'. Now that is a positive attitude. I originally found this quote of his from the Personal Excellence Blog. In fact, almost all of my quotes come from that one document Celestine Chua has compiled, I strongly recommend everyone to go and download it as soon as possible.

So, 'Your worth consists in what you are, and not in what you have'. This quote was originally placed under a Quotes on Personal Power. To some extent, I suppose that is true. To me though, this quote touches more on the notion of integrity rather than personal power, though what exactly Personal Power is defined as by Celestine I do not know.

"Your worth consists in what you are". These days, the word integrity is used a lot. It is mentioned in almost every self-help book out there, speaking about the utmost importance of integrity. Integrity, or the 'Adherence to moral and ethical principles' is one of the most sought after traits in people. This is true in both business and life. Employers would most likely rather employ someone who can show that their integrity is solid, that they are not unscrupulous or untrustworthy. People like people who mean what they say, who do what they say they will do and do not misplace or betray that trust.

There are several self-help notions out there, one of them being 'Do whatever it takes to to accomplish the goal'. A lot however fail to add 'Within ethical and legal boundaries' to that statement. Yes, to truly do what one dreams to do, sometimes we have to go all in. However, if we crosss that line when it is morally wrong to do something, we will have lost our integrity. And once that reputation for having no integrity, having no honour becomes cemented in society, it is very hard to get back.

I once knew someone, who upon hearing about a deal that was very dirty and not ethical at all (I will not go into specifics), stated 'Excellent. That is the right way to do business' while I looked at him, horrified. We even had a miniature argument, me arguing about how immoral said deal was and the importance of integrity and veracity, while he argued back about how my opinion was fundamentally flawed, that in the business world, dirty is the only way to go, that you had to do 'whatever it takes'. He did later recant that opinion, but it came a bit too late, by that time the image I had of him was irreversibly tainted. But the truly scary thing is, that many people think this way. That in order to be successful, you have to 'Do whatever it takes', no matter how immortal, dirty or just fundamentally wrong it is.

"- not in what you have". Here this quote, I think, stresses the lack of importance of material wealth when it comes to integrity. These days, a lot of emphasis is placed upon wealth, on being rich, on having a lot of money. But the point here is, no matter how much money you have, it does not change who you are as a person. I once read a book, I think "Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires" by Adam Khoo. In it, a very, very powerful concept came across to me, which was first, money is not the root of all evil. The lack money of is. But more importantly, money is only a personality magnifier. If you were a good person before you had money, then when you have an abundance of wealth that will not change. If you were a bad person before you became wealthy, then having a lot of money will not change that either.

Which goes back to the overall quote. Many people want to be rich, I know I certainly do. But many also believe that by becoming rich, the money buys respect, integrity and honour. It does not. Character/Integrity is what earns respect, not material wealth. And that, I think is what this quote means.

Once again, anybody who reads this either now, or in the future, feel free to say anything about what you think.

~

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of" ~ Bruce Lee

I had never actually known that Bruce Lee, aside from being the most famous martial artist man has ever known, was actually a philosopher. Tragically, this quote of his has its importance personified in his premature death at the young age of 32 years old.

So "If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of'" What could this mean? I'm sure some people would say 'No, life is made up of the people you live it with' or 'Life is not just made out of time, it is made out of the experiences we live through' and so on. All of these are true. But we must remember that these quotes and sayings are not locked in stone. They are not facts. They are opinions. And through these opinions, we learn to see the world through the speakers eyes, and perceive the truths that they believe in. And these opinions are true, to whoever believes in them.

The quote tells us to not waste time, as 'Time is what life is made up of'' Taken literally, it is absolutely true. We humans live only for a finite lifespan, there is no immortal man (at least, not yet). So, Bruce Lee is telling us not to squander the time we have. Many of us, in fact all of us at some point waste time by procrastinating, not doing the things we know will be good for us, but putting it off because we don't feel like doing it. Staring mindlessly at a wall also wastes time but somehow I don't think Bruce Lee was referring to something like that.

But more importantly, the quote carries a deeper meaning of discipline, dreams and courage. 'Don't waste time'. How many people in the world never accomplish what they've always wanted to do, solely because they never started. How many people have said they would like to do things, like go to the gym, learn how to cook or some other goal that they don't ever accomplish? That would be wasting time...lingering on thoughts, dreaming and fantasizing instead of going through the process of doing whatever is necessary to accomplish one's goals. Several articles here and there saying that the reason most people never start doing something, is because they are afraid of doing it. Afraid that their efforts will be in vain, afraid that they will fail, afraid that it was pointless to do so. If we examine the quote...and try to extrapolate a bit...

Don't Waste time = Don't be Afraid


Whatever we choose to do is pointless, only if it loses what it is worth to ourselves. Going to the gym is pointless, if afterwards we decide the pain of working out isn't worth the better health we gain (the muscles help too). Learning to cook is pointless, if we decide that we can get our wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, or anybody else to cook for us. If however, we take the view that whatever we want to accomplish, is worthwhile something that we must accomplish...then why let fear hold us back from doing it?

This post is getting quite long, and I suppose I should be going. There is so much more I feel like saying, so much more I think that I need to explain, to clarify. But I suppose I'll leave that for another post, and I'll let whoever reads this decide the meaning of this quote to themselves. I know what it means to me, to whoever reads this - let us know what it means to you by commenting. No matter how late.

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn" ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I originally found this quote in an article from the Dumb Little Man website, an excellent self-help website  (http://www.dumblittleman.com), regarding some motivational quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson. How fitting that my first ever real, serious post be about starting small.

So "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn". What does this mean? There is first, the obvious...anything awe-inspiring, majestic, great...any amazing achievement, any amazing person...starts off from somewhere, and starts off small. Granted eveything starts from somewhere, but that is beside the point. The point is, that anything that is great...usually had a humble beginning. 


Beyond that, there is also the underlying motivational message which is: If ever you want to achieve something, you first have to start somewhere, do something. This ties into another one of my favourite quotes, from another blog - 'The Personal Excellent Blog' (www.celestinechua.com) which is 'If you try, you may get exactly what you want. If you don't, you don't.' ~ Unknown. This quote naturally hasn't been interpreted, because its as blunt as it gets.

Finally, there is the indirect message of...even the smallest things can grow to be great. Some business I'm sure, start off small as one man operations...then two...then maybe a few more...and slowly grow, or die. Some splurge everything, and start off with a bang. They also either grow, or die. But they all start off small, relative to what they can become. And some truly become great.

That is pretty much all I can think of for now...perhaps, when people start viewing this blog...and looking through the archives they'll see this post and comment. But for now...I suppose I will talk to anyone who listens...if there is anything else, any perspective I may have missed, any nuance or interpretation I may not have perceived...do comment, and share. No matter how late.

~

A Change in Direction?

I suppose I should have seen this coming. This blog...was originally started not because I felt like really explaining and documenting my journey, but because I thought it was a good idea to do so. Now I know the folly...but recent experiences have brought me back, this time for a better reason, one which I feel will benefit both myself, and anybody who reads it.

Hence, the change in name...from the dental journey blog, to the Interpretation blog. This blog, will share my views and how I interpret various inspirational, motivational and otherwise good and helpful quotes, of which everybody knows there are plenty. And through typing it out and writing it...I pray that I will be able to probe the deeper recesses of my mind, achieve some kind of...fleeting wisdom...and hopefully help me for the better. And anybody else who reads it.

So good luck to myself!