Buffet faith

When dealing with religion issues, one has to be very careful not to say anything remotely offensive. So before reading past this paragraph, please be aware that I am referencing to certain religions and it might offend you. Do not read this blog entry if you get easily offended.

Now to the rest of you brave and adventuress individuals out there, let me begin this rambling of what I call buffet faith.

It really does not matter what religion you practice or are affiliated to, all religions have their rules and boundaries. The structure and regulations is what makes them unique from one another, or are they unique. I believe that religion should not tie you down and define who you are.

I will give two examples from two mainstream religions.

The first one is an example from the Islamic faith. You all might have heard stories about the countless women who was prosecuted because she was caught driving a car, or women that got raped and was sentenced for committing adultery. Some women are not even allowed to sit next to their husbands in a restaurant without a sheet dividing them. These examples are extreme but they do happen quite often in the Arabic countries. There are many examples in the Holy Quran where women are told to cover themselves in order for men not to be lead into temptation. Women in the western worlds wear short skirts, sleeveless tops, but yet they won’t eat pork. How can you do the one thing but not the other?

The second one is Christianity. Although it is more relaxed than the latter religion, people still get quite staunch when it comes to following the Holy Bible.  Since Christmas is a big event in the Christian calendar let me try an appropriate example relating to it. Most Christians go out and put up a tree, they tell stories of Santa clause to their children and buy gifts for each other, but beware, you are not allowed to watch harry potter, because he is evil. Once again I have to point out the double standards here. Isn’t Santa clause also riding on something like harry potter does. What keeps the reindeer in the air? Magic just like harry potter, in fact it is the Christmas spirit that keeps Santa alive. Isn’t this contradicting to what Christmas is all about? They teach their children about flying reindeer, a magic fat man and creatures called elf’s (who looks similar to some creatures in harry potter), but it is acceptable. 

People are fast to judge to what they themselves perceive to be the truth whilst compromising on the religion. I call this buffet faith. They select from the table only what they like and the rest gets ignored. Simply put as double standards.

If you really look closely, you will find that all religions are riddled with these double standards. I detest people that practices buffet faith. It is a shame that they themselves do not realise just how detrimental their actions are towards their own religions. This is another classic example of people that do not think outside the box. Lateral thinking is a myth within most religions and it breeds generations of blunt people.

Money makes the world go round

None the wiser word have ever been spoken than this. Money makes the world go round. Think about it, now nod your head up and down in agreement. Without money, you cannot survive. It is a commodity that we all need just like air. Just to prove my theory I would like you to think back at the countless beggars asking for money. So with that in mind, even people that have no overheads and that is living on the street, needs money.

This anomaly that we created made us all dependant on itself. We basically exchanged a perfectly working model of trading goods for goods into a corrupt and sometimes immoral system of trading goods for paper. I think the idea of money is novel but in reality we actually have flawed with this one. I suspect that if we had not created it, then we would have been living in a total different world, granted that technologically we would not have evolved half as much as we are at the present moment.

Money causes allot of problems. Let me correct myself...the wrong application of money causes allot of problems. I think that amongst all the great evils that stems from money abuse is corruption. Corruption of the system and corruption of good entities seems to be the result at the end of the day. It leads us to steal from the poor, vulnerable and enrich the rich. We all have experienced the evils that come with money.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it can put a smile on my face, food in my tummy, a roof over my head, a car to drive in and peace of mind. It is true that we are slaves to the system but what about breaking that bond and free the impoveraged. Charities depend on people handing them money and empowering them to uplift those without money. We all owe it to society to pay back to those who have to go without. All of us have benefitted from their demise in some way or another either directly or indirectly, regardless of colour or creed.

Do not let the pursuit of money make you greedy. Do not hold your hands closed towards fellow man. If someone asks you for food, then feed them. Greed is a viscous cycle and it is unfortunately one of the unavoidable evils of money. It changes people. This is where your character plays an important role. If you had to win a multi-million dollar lottery, how would you change? You will eventually be affected by money. You as a person need to establish how money is affecting you. Whether you are poor or rich, it affects us all. Do not let money be your guide to forming who you are but rather measure yourself worth against your moral standing and tolerance for one another.

I think that if you can conquer the influence that money have over yourself then you have achieved what many people will never achieve.

Hubris

Sitting on his throne denying all guilt, he reacts with a hubris notion that cause hate to grow inside the hearts of his victims. This might sound melodramatic but let me simplify this and clarify my statement.

Pride was many a man’s downfall. The simple denial of factual proof laid down at his feet proving him wrong.  A wise man will acknowledge when he made a mistake or when he is defeated. The denial of the latter simply spells arrogance and pride. To be to proud to admit your downfalls is foolish and will lead to your demise. These actions are the negative side of pride. We can accelerate pride and not only deny your demise but shift the blame unto some one else. We can rather pour our humiliation and anger unto anther and thus act hubris towards another. This I deem to be one of the most selfish things anyone can do towards another human being.

It is however not always a bad thing to be proud. Pride in your work and in who you are is a cornerstone to success. You have to tie your pride into what you do to enhance your success rate. Be proud of what you have achieved and who you are. Don’t let another person’s hubris acts defecate your self pride. The most important thing to remember is that a positive act of pride trumps a hubris act of a selfish individual.

Either way we can look at pride as a determining factor of who you endeavour to be. Just be careful not to commit suicide, because if you swallow your pride too late it might just choke you.

The 6th sense

1 + 1 = 2                 

I tend to think that this sense is a special gift to certain individuals. I do not want to discriminate against any person. Sometimes I think that intelligence is linked to this sense.  I fail to describe this but let me attempt to try again.

Perhaps I should start by stating the name of the sixth sense. It is mostly known as common sense.  Despite its descriptive name it is actually very misleading since it is not as common as most people might want to think it is. Simple things like indicating before changing lanes, or simple logic that would instinctively follow after an action performed.

It is almost like reminding some one to breathe every now and then or else they will die. I do not understand how the human race can be so ignorant at times.  People tend to forget about the basics in life and these basics are potentially the things that could just swing a situation into a positive or negative result. I am sure you know what I am talking about when I am talking about common sense.  The lack of this all important survival skill is even more prevalent as you go up the corporate ladder.

I am absolutely amazed at the incompetence of managers just because they do not have common sense. It is an essential tool in order to breed logic thinking. To me it seems like the percentage favouring individuals engaging their 6^th sense is dismal. I fear that it is getting worse, or perhaps Im only starting to realise this because of requiring competent people to work with me in my social life as well as my professional career path.

We have managers, CEO’s, directors, governmental bodies and all kinds of high paying leadership positions that are just utterly and astonishingly missing this basic skill.

It is not something we can teach another person. It is a pity that people that lack the skill, does not even know that it exists. I tend to assume that those people do not even phantom the meaning of common sense. They do stupid things and get surprised when it all goes horribly wrong.

I like to hammer on the driver not indicating because we all can relate to this. If you want to change lanes because you need to catch a turn off, you need to indicate so that people may grant you an opportunity to get in front of them in order to be in that lane. But some people get upset when cars swoosh past them and they miss the turn off, whilst failing to indicate. Now all of a sudden it becomes the fault of all the cars that drove past him. He calls them selfish and idiots, but in essence they were oblivious to the guy’s intention to change lanes.

Life is intimately tied to common sense. We just have to embrace and accept that it is a requirement. I get unbelievably frustrated with people that do not have this. I simply cannot accept that people do dumb things and gets amazed that they are in the situations that they are in, because of the repercussions of doing stupid things.

If i stepped on a few toes, then perhaps just think hard and engage some common sense. It is truly an essential tool for survival and achieving greater heights.

Tongue in cheek I will bid you farewell till the next post.

All work and no play...

It is that time of the year where people go to year end functions and get to celebrate a whole year’s hard work with laughter, good food and friendly company. This is all good and fun and presents a much needed token of appreciation from the directors to the workers.

I do not wish to put a damper on anyone’s holiday season cheerfulness but I do somehow think that too much play can also end up in disaster. The keyword here is moderation. Few people actually practices moderation.

I love to sit and stare at the people at functions like these. Its almost like they evolve. Some people are uptight and get a bit merrier and talkative and might meet new people and then go home. That is all good moderation. I am mainly focussing on the party animals. Yes the creature that walks in all dressed up and walking the walk. I would like to think that some people have the intelligence and common sense to act accordingly. People start consuming alcohol and within a blink of an eye jokes go from witty to dumb stupid actions performed in front of a drunken crowd.

I have never found it very amusing when someone dances like they act in footloose or scratching like a chicken in its own back yard.  The most amazing act that i will never understand is the drunken person’s lack of judgement in front of the colleges they have to work with every day. They brake glasses and dance on stages. They laugh at who is the stupidest. This does not make sense to me at all.

What I do find the worst is when people compare their drunken state with each other the next day. It is almost like comparing who was the utter most useless person alive. They complain the whole day about their hangovers and headaches, wishing every fifteen minutes that they can go home.

They say stupid phrases like “never again” and “I hate alcohol”. They seem to want pity and when you do not give it to them they accuse you of being grumpy or even comparing you with them by assuming you were drunk as well, but of course when you are drunk, everyone seems a bit tipsy.

I might sound a bit judgemental and snobbish but I do believe that you should behave responsible when you are dealing with something as important as your career. If you plan to get drunk at a function, then please re consider. It might be advantageous to you to rather do some networking than drinking and talking to the toilet.

Do not iron on print

I do not iron my clothes. Yes it is true, I confess to this bad behaviour. My approach regarding this task is why should I? It is a waste of time, money and energy. Valuable resources that could have been applied better, but instead we waste it. I know I am not preaching to the choir because almost all of us iron our clothes or care to look acceptable. I often end up at crossroads like this one. Why would I want to look presentable to people?

This is where I require your full attention. Let us take an example. You are an architect that created stunning designs and produced amazing buildings. Your portfolio speaks for itself. You are waiting to pitch your ideas in order to seal the deal. Because of time constraints and certain Monday morning blues you did not get to iron your clothes and comb your hair. Your competition has just emerged from the board room and with his flashy new jacket and well styled hair he smiles as he walks past you. Now it’s your turn to dazzle them with your design and brilliance. You pitch the best design of your career yet. They look at you funny from the start. That afternoon you get informed that you lost the deal. The opposition (a newly qualified student) clinched the deal. The building goes up but costs the company double the amount because the architect lack the experience to spot the bugs hiding behind inexperienced mistakes.

Now from above example you may already have gathered what I am aiming towards? Your appearance should never become who you are. People judge you on your looks, and I absolutely hate that notion. As true as it is I must break that faulty trend. Since when does an ironed shirt make you the right man for the job? Your appearance should be the last thing on a professionals mind when evaluating whether they should hire or not.

I would like to encourage everyone to start seeing people for who they are and not how they appear. There are millionaires walking in torn clothes, just because they do not care about the standard set by people. We all can behave so shallow at times and I cannot help but think that we are still stuck in the stone ages. Who are we to judge a book by its cover?

We created a multimillion dollar industry just to look acceptable to other people. Imagine how much energy and money we would save on a simple thing as not ironing your clothes... This might sound trivial to you but it is actually a much deeper thought. How many things can we apply to this logic? If you are confident about yourself, then why do you care what other people think? Live your own life and not someone else’s.

I dare you... do not iron your clothes.