Depends On What You Want In Life

In another words, what is your goal/aim in life?

Didn't know such a random comment to Shannz can have such an impact for her to waste her Monday's blog talking about it. (Yes, she has been blogging very regularly almost everyday, so she has a Monday Blog, a Tuesday Blog, a Wednesday Blog, a Thursday Blog, a Friday Blog, a Saturday Blog, and a Sunday Blog)

Over lunch yesterday, I met up with a former client who was very concerned that I "quit w/o a job". He offered to look out for jobs for me. So, he asked me what kind of job am I looking at. I couldn't answer. In actual fact, I have been taking whatever comes along. Life has been pretty good to me, in that a lot of opportunities have been laid in front of me. I merely picked them up.

He tried to probe further, "What do you want to achieve in life."
Let's just say, it is a very very deep question. Not something you would want to ask someone over a short lunch.

The problem is that the answer can't be as simple as, "I want to be happy!" or "I want to be rich!"
For example, you cannot simply say, "I want to be slim." It doesn't work.
You have to be clear how slim you want to be. Is it :
1. To lose 5kg overall? Just to lower the numbers? If that is the case, it means you will have to do cardio exercise (e.g. swimming and/or jogging) conscientiously to elevate your heart rate. And that means you are not concerned about your body shape. You don't need slimmer calves (for my female readers) or beefier arms (for my male readers). If you are concerned about your body shape, then you are looking at Option 2 below.
2. Is it to lose that big bum? Then cardio exercises probably won't help. You can work your ass off and shave 2 inches off your butts, but because you have shaved 2 inches off your waist too, your bum is still 10 inches larger than your waist. Tough luck, Sistah! Try to combine your cardio with gym machines or the stair climbing machine. Probably will not achieve any inch loss, but somehow firm butts look smaller than a sagging one.
3. To simply look toned and fit. Then it probably has nothing to do with your weight. It's about working the right muscles through exercises like yoga and pilates. Doing a variety of exercises probably helps too. May be a matter of getting a tan, that's all. Pale and Healthy doesn't go together. Tan and Healthy Hot Bod? Yeah Baby!

So, what result you hope to achieve eventually affects the kind of exercise that you engage in. Is it gonna be swimming, jogging, skipping, weight-lifting, stairs climbing, inline skating, surfing, wakeboarding, yoga, pilates, dancing, badminton or tennis? You have to be clear about what you want first. Of course, if you are altruistic health fanatic, any of the above mentioned activities is going to work fine.

Likewise, what you want to achieve in life should influence the kind of career you have. If we extrapolate this, your lifetime goal affects many other things school, job, house, appearance, and ,even the food you eat! To smoke or to quit, to leave or to stay, to hold on or to let go. Issues & problems can be simplified but never totally eliminated. (My Physics teacher in sec sch, Mr Chin, cannot agree more. He used to say during class, errors during expts can be minimised by good practice, but never totally eliminated.)

In conclusion (maciam GP siah...), you will be a much more successful and happier person if you're clear about your goals.
Firstly, others will be able to help you better. Like in this case, if I am able to say, "Oh, I want to do the HR in a multinational pharmaceutical company." Then probably my former client will be able to search through his contacts in the pharmaceutical industry for a suitable opening. And I further streamline the search by saying I want to specialise in HR, not sales, not marketing.
Secondly, if you are clear about your goals, then you are able to reject/accept offers more readily. This will also save unnecessary trouble/heartache to yourself and others. I have taken up a job offer, but because I am not sure about what I want to do as a career, I was hesitating when I was offered the chance to interview for 2 other civil service positions. I put them on hold for a day each to consider my options. I was creating unnecessary work for myself and others. If I had been clear, that I want to climb the corporate ladder, then I would have been able to turn them down there and then. If I had been clear that I want a stable life in the civil service, then I would have been able to tell them right away that I am available for the interview next Monday and settle on the interview time. Either way, I would have been able to save them the trouble of waiting for me to call back, failure of which they would have to remind themselves to call me back.

How do you expect others to know what you want when you yourself don't? Too many of us have a sketchy idea of what we want. Or even if we know what we want in one aspect of life, we have neglected to consider for the other aspects. Sometimes, we may have very clear picture of what we want of a lot of aspects of our life, but someone comes along and screw it up real bad. Other times, the goals are simply unattainable, unrealistic and impossible. But go on, dream about it and work towards it. Aim for the stars, and even if you don't get there, you will land at the moon. (Moon is nearer right???)