Time flies! Another 3 weeks have just gone by since my last post.  It is evident that developing the discipline to write daily is proving to be more challenging than sticking to a diet or exercise routine.  This experiment is giving me good insights into understanding the gap between ‘commitment’ and ‘action.’

I once wrote about ‘commitment‘ being likened to making a gear shift that sets a car into motion.  Another critical ingredient that sustain the motion is FUEL.  In other words, we need constant replenishment of ENERGY.  The truth is, I was pretty much drained over the past few weeks with my more-than-usual travel.  Having delivered 5 workshops in 4 cities (Hong Kong, Bangkok, Dhaka and Singapore) over 4 weeks in Feb (and responding to hundreds of email between dinner and bedtime), I didn’t really feel much like touching the keyboard.  A walk in the nature would be good for the soul.  And that reminds me of some fond memories from almost a decade ago.

March 2002 is a significant turning point in my life.  It was the first time that I took a one-month vacation after working for about 7 years in an intense, demanding, and  fast-pace world of management consulting.  I remember vividly, how blissful I was, when I watched you boys jumping and rolling on the beds in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.  I wondered: “How come I never experienced this at home?”

The answer was simple. I wasn’t fully present.  Being too occupied with my work, I hardly paid attention to you.  When I read you bedtime stories, I would often either speed-read or skipped a few pages. You were probably too young and innocent to notice, and we had a good laugh anyway.  The epiphany at the hotel room (which I think occurred around 4th or 5th of March, 2002) got me curious about what would I do, if I were to live in a manner that is consistent with my values.  In other words, how would I design my life differently if I were to start with putting the things that matter most to me in the centre, i.e. family, personal development, meaning, adventure, creativity, and freedom.

Eventually, that inquiry led me to forgo the comfort of employment, in pursuit of my passion and dreams, resulting in a rich, colourful, and interesting experiences life had given me over the past 10 years.  In short, I followed my bliss, and experienced what Henry D. Thoreau discovered during his solitude in Walden, as he wrote:

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.  He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.”

I hope someday, you too, will find the courage to follow your bliss.

Love,

Your Blissful Dad