Are you proactive or reactive?

It's true that we often justify our lifes..."I am what other people have made of me. I am what my past has made of me. I am what's happening to me from around today...." And then not to take responsibility.
How about we be proactive and create our own future? "Life is a product of your values (decisions) not your feelings (emotions and surroundings)
- from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This is your life (typographic)

Holstee Manifesto Poster by Holstee - found on HOLSTEE

Gajamay - For Good

As teenages we idolised uniqueness, everything has to be cool and wicked. Growing up in a boarding school meant we had to learn quickly, master interpersonal skills early and treasure each other's company. We made up secret languages, turned some insignificant streets into regular hang outs, made up code names and abbreviations. One day, someone said that "gajamay" is a word used in Africa for "we are friends", of course we adopted it straightaway, only close friends had the honour to be greeted with gajamay. I never found out the truth about the word but ten years on, when these close friends are now all scattered around the world. Keeping gajamay helps to remind me of this closeness we once had.

Wicked - For Good

I'm limited

Just look at me - I'm limited

And just look at you

You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda

So now it's up to you

For both of us - now it's up to you...

I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you...

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring

By a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a skybird

In a distant wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

Because I knew you

I have been changed for good

And just to clear the air

I ask forgiveness

For the things I've done you blame me for

But then, I guess we know

There's blame to share

And none of it seems to matter anymore

Like a comet pulled from orbit (Like a ship blown from its mooring)

As it passes a sun (By a wind off the sea)

Like a stream that meets a boulder (Like a seed dropped by a skybird)

Halfway through the wood (In a distant wood)

Who can say if I've been

Changed for the better?

I do believe I have been

Changed for the better

And because I knew you...

Because I knew you...

Because I knew you...

I have been changed for good...

When we were orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

An extract from the last page of the book was what drew me into taking it out at the library:

...My feeling is that she is thinking of herself as much as of me when she talks of a sense of mission, and the futility of attempting to evade it. Perhaps there are those who are able to go about their lives unfettered by such concerns. But for those like us, our fate is to face the world as orphans, chasing through long years the shadows of vanished parents. There is nothing for it but to try and see through our missions to the end, as best we can, for until we do so, we will be permitted no calm...

...drifting through my days here in London, I believe I can indeed own up to a certain contentment. I enjoy my walks in the parks, I visit the galleries...This city, in other words, has come to be my home, and I should not mind if I had to live out the rest of my days here. Nevertheless, there are those times when a sort of emptiness fills my hours.... 

"The barefoot investor"

I picked up a copy of The Barefoot Investor from a local library.

If you are looking for in depth investment strategies, this is not your book. But it is a really good book for finance 101 in layman's language. It covers the fundamentals like, financial goals, inflation, debts, compound interest, asset classes...etc. In my opinion, all schools should include financial education. I always think it's ironic that schools are suppose to prepare you for life - University, getting a job, ultimately becoming "rich"...but they don't think to educate kids about money and what to do with it. The book might not have taught me anything new about money but it raises a few good questions, time for a reality check!

- My financial goal is to earn as much as possible. But why?
- Does a big pay check means that you are wealthy?
- Are millionaires the happiest people on earth?
...etc.

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very very pissed off."

- Tyler Durden from Flight Club (played by Brad Pitt)