Detours

Detours

Hi all! :)

Been hard finding time to post much recently BUT if you've followed me on Instagram you'll see that there are motivational posts updated there frequently too :)

So for today's post let's just pause for awhile and think: "What have I been doing with my life recently?"

We often get caught up in our busy schedules, so much so that we inculcate a "do or die" mentality. It's every man for himself. If I could do something that benefits me why not do it? And today, in this post, I'm going to say that these thoughts have crossed each and every one of our minds at least once. Be it when you compete for something, or wanting to reach the next level in a game, or get a promotion, or take an exam...most of these activities require you to compete with other people. How often do we take time to stop and help those we are 'competing against'?

In fact, as I was planning today's post, I realized that the idea of helping your 'competitors', does sound really ABSURD. Each and everyone of us wants to achieve and be the best that we can be. And there's nothing wrong with that. Set a goal. Work hard. Fail. Learn. Improve. Work harder. Achieve your goal. That's usually the process we try to go through. (Note: there could be multiple failures) There is no "Look out for those around you" or "stop and consider helping the guy next to you up". No. When we set a goal, we are usually forward thinking. One goal, one aim, work directly towards it with no detours.

And I agree with the no detours part.

However, today I'm going to tell you that helping others or lifting someone up in this 'rat race' society is not a detour. In fact, it should be part of your straight, forward thinking goal.

If you're a frequent reader, you'll probably know by now that this blog aims to help uplift you and those around you. However, if you've been reading carefully, you'd notice that it also speaks alot about achieving success at the same time. Success and helping others should not be 2 separate entities. In fact, they should be along the same path, in the same direction of our individual growth.

But how often does that happen?

How many times have you actually thought about helping those around you as you drive yourself towards success? How many times have you bothered asking your friends if they need help? or helping a friend when they turn to you for help?

As you continue with this new week, take the opportunity to lift someone up, while still achieving success. Work as a team with people and look out for one another. Final year exams are coming for most students and it is understandable that we often get caught up with the stress and the heavy workload. Let us try, no not try. Let us DO something good for someone this week, add "Lift someone higher" to the process of achieving success. And I can tell you, helping someone along the way to success, will make the taste of your success all the more sweeter.

Always Lifting you higher! :)

Twitter: @toranseth
Instagram: @sethtoran

It's been awhile

It's been awhile...

But kindness and good deeds carry on.

Hi readers!
yes I haven't posted for almost a month now and I'm really sorry about that. At first, I considered finding another admin to write posts for me but then wouldn't this blog become just like other commercial blogs out there? But we'll see how it goes yeah! haha always have the best in mind for everyone.

Anyways, to the main post:

We have all entered the second half of the year and for most people this will be a really taxing time. For IB students in year 5, there are already important deadlines to meet. For students preparing for their final year examinations, it seems that the world is coming to an end. (especially those taking like their last exam of their schooling life) youth athletes in Asia there's the AYG. Employees out there have to improve profits from the first half of the year...basically STRESS for almost everyone.

While I was typing one of my soon-to-be-due essays a while ago, I stared out of the window (no not one of those inspirational moments, it was a rather dull action actually). As I stared out of the window trying to figure out where my fingers were supposed to move on my computer keyboard, a thought came to mind. "How much have I learnt from the first half of the year?"

Obviously I wasted the next 15 minutes recollecting the different events that have happened so far this year. For me, it has been a productive year so far. No big regrets. But how about everyone else? Have you stopped to think about how you're going to improve for the rest of this year?

Waiting for a new year to make a new resolution is too long. All you need is a new day. If that's too short then a new week. All you need is a Monday. No more "Monday blues", Monday will now be "New Monday". You are going to be fresh, New Monday, new you. Start working on how you're going to make yourself a better person. Find an aspect of your life that troubles you and work on it. Work to be the best at it. There's no such thing as too late to try.

I have a neighbour in the next block whom I visited yesterday. He's probably nearly 60 years old. He told me he started learning how to play the guitar and the keyboard around 5 years ago. He started learning something new when he was in his 50s. For most of my readers, I believe you haven't reached that age yet. We still have a long way to go. So why not? Try improving something this week. You never know, you may become great at it.

Turn your weaknesses into your Strengths!
Always Lifting You Higher

Twitter: @sethtoran
Instagram: @toranseth

Kind Gestures in Milk

Milk

Right, so I'm doing a morning post and being the good growing boy I am, I was drinking a glass of milk while thinking of what to type for the blog. Then it hit me! (not the milk, an idea hit me) I heard a story once, about kindness and milk, and I hope today's post will help empower you to do that extra bit of kindness this weekend and the weeks ahead! :)

There was a boy who went door to door to sell goods. He was poor, and he sold these goods to help himself barely get by each day and to get through school. Times were hard and he had little faith in anything or anyone. One day, when he was going from door to door, he realized he had run out of money and had only a dime left. So being the street wise kid that he was, he decided to ask for a small meal at the next house. 

But a boy will always be a boy, he loss his nerve when a beautiful young lady opened the door. So instead of asking for the much needed meal, he ended up asking for a glass of water. 

However, as in all motivational stories, the lady was able to see that the boy was hungry and instead brought him a glass of milk. The boy drank it slowly, enjoying every sip of the milk. Then he asked the lady how much he owed her. The lady replied "nothing at all. Mother taught us never to accept pay for kindness". In return, the boy thanked her wholeheartedly. But that was not all, the boy went away from that house feeling re-energized and his faith in God and humanity was restored.    

That's not the end of the story.

Several years later, Dr. Howard Kelly received a phone call that informed him of a middle aged lady who had been struck by a rare illness. Being one of the best doctors around he went down to see the patient. on his way there he looked through the patient's records and documents, when he saw where she was from he immediately rushed into the hospital room. When he saw the lady he told the nurse that he'll be giving special attention to this case.

After a long battle with the illness, the lady survived and was completely cured. 

Then came the bill...

Moments before the bill arrived, Dr Howard Kelly had written something on the bill outside. the lady feared that the price of the bill would be so great that she would've needed to spend her entire life repaying the bill. 

She opened the bill.

And on the bottom corner of the bill where the signature was supposed to be, there was a hand-written note saying:

"Paid in full with one glass of milk"

-Signed Dr Howard Kelly

I hope you guys liked the story! :) Just for those younger readers, Dr Howard Kelly is the poor boy all grown up and the middle aged lady was the beautiful young lady at the door. Also, it is true that a small act of kindness and humanity that you do today, may have an  impact on your life years later without you even realizing! 

So take a moment to perform an act of kindness on someone today! Make it a habit and life will definitely be more enjoyable! :)

Always Lifting You Higher!

Twitter: @toranseth

Instagram: @sethtoran

Leave a comment or message me (FB, email, tweet, DM, comment) if you have any requests or feedback! :)

Self Esteem

Self Esteem

A lot of people often speak about self esteem in a very general manner. 

"It's good to have self esteem" 

"have more self esteem" 

"why do you lack self esteem" 

and so on...

But honestly, how does being confident or having self esteem actually benefit you in your life?

We are what we think ourselves to be. It took me awhile to really understand this phrase at first. Does this mean I can think that i'm superman and literally fly? I wish. This phrase applies to our inner self. How we believe in our own abilities. 

Do you have high or low self esteem? When you look at yourself in the mirror every morning what do you think? If you can laugh at yourself or be happy about being you, you most likely have a higher self esteem. If you're upset or depressed about your own image, maybe the later part of this post will be able to help you.

I'm not saying it's bad to have low self esteem, there is nothing negative about it. (except maybe your outlook towards life and yourself) But having a certain level of self belief and self esteem is really helpful and serves as a "boost" as we go through or daily lives.

So how do we improve on our self esteem? For some of us it may come rather naturally and may have more of a problem with over confidence (which i will talk about next time) but for a good number of us, self esteem really is an issue. 

Here are some tips:

1) Dress well 

A lot of people undermine the importance of dressing well. When I was in lower secondary, I had a teacher who thought me the importance of personal grooming. This teacher wasn't your ordinary guy, he was already a millionaire and I figured he taught because it was his passion to. Anyways, he himself had a high level of self esteem and he passed that on to his students. During one of his lessons he taught us the importance of dressing up well, shaving (if we needed to) and some other grooming stuff. It's surprising to note that in the workforce, statistics show that fellow employees find it harder to trust those with unkempt facial hair. Also, dressing well raises your own esteem level. It's like how some people feel smarter wearing glasses. A psychological thing. Here's an example, when you wear baggy jeans and a singlet as compared to wearing a suit and tie, which one is going to portray an image of someone slick and confident? You yourself will be able to feel an internal boost by liking the way you look.

2) Looking up

Over my years in shooting and captaining I've seen some kids walk through the door, go through one entire training and leave with their head facing the ground the whole time. I mean, isn't that tiring? LOOK UP! The world is a lot more beautiful then just the square tiles or the cement on the floor. When you speak to someone, look at them (unless you find them repulsive, then that'll be a matter of tolerance). I went to this place once and the speaker happened to go off topic awhile and started speaking on communication. He shared that a lot of us really do not know where to look when talking to a person face to face. We don't know where to focus. If we maintain too much eye contact, well staring is bad. If we give too little eye contact, that's a sign of disinterest. So where do we look? The speaker that day recommended the spot between the person's eyes, you know the T zone area? yeah. It works pretty well too cos you get to observe the person's non-verbal language and signals too. So, we can see how looking up serves more benefits than looking down. So why not? If you are someone who tends to admire the floor more than the world around you, take some time and look up, look at people. Slowly but surely, you will feel a confidence boost to face the world.

3) Think positive

Most people will put this as the most important and first way of boosting one's confidence. I personally will put it at the end because despite it being easy to say that every action begins with a thought, it must be noted that if you are having a self esteem issue and you are reading this now, you've probably been thinking negatively towards tons of things your entire life. Am i right? And I know by saying "Be confident" it isn't going to change much. But what I can do and have done is by giving you the first 2 steps. 2 physical steps. Dressing up well and looking up. 2 physical steps to  work from the outside in. Only when you've managed the first two, then try this 3rd step. 

Thinking positive is harder then it sounds, even for people with a high self esteem. As humans, we complain, whine and get depressed at times. When you've just had a bad day, you really just want to shut yourself out from the world and you should. Negativity, just like positivity, is infectious. One persons mindset can easily influence his/her surrounding people. Start small, start slowly, that's what I recommend. Practice by waking up everyday and telling yourself "I can". Then for the rest of the day, use this "I can" phrase when you feel the world is getting down on you. Let's say you just got verbally abused. Tell yourself: "I can control myself" If they said you suck, Tell yourself "I rock". Do you realize that I use "I rock" instead of "I don't suck"? The moment you place a "don't" or a "not" in your positive belief phrase, it isn't positive anymore. So try it. use positive belief phrases bit by bit day by day. Practice becomes a habit, so START PRACTICING POSITIVITY. 

Be confident everyone! If you have a self esteem problem or you need help, you can always DM me on twitter end me a private message on facebook or even an email :) 

Always Lifting You higher!

Twitter: @toranseth

Instagram: @sethtoran  

Friends

Friends

Hi Readers! Hope you guys have been having a great week! :)

Personally, last week really thought me alot of things about friendship and cherishing those around me. Today I'll be using this post to share some of the things I learnt and hopefully you too will be encouraged to make more lifelong friendships! :)

I'm gonna do a really casual post today and probably next week, I'll get back to the serious motivational and inspirational stuff! :) This is a blog afterall! and sometimes I need to just plainly share my thoughts about the week~

So last week was quite a busy one for me, I went out with several groups of friends (going to meet more this week) and if any of you are reading this I just want you to know that I really cherish our friendship and I hope we can do a lot more awesome things together! 

During the week, I met up with some of my school shooters for one of our teacher's farewell party. Most people perceive farewells as a rather sad and depressing thing but hey, farewells can be a happy thing too! Not that you're happy to get rid of the person, but you're happy that your friend has found something new to move on to! So the farewell party was a pretty happy occasion, the teacher is heading overseas with a husband so all the best to them! Something I'll remember about this teacher is that she always treated students in a rather strict yet humorous way. There was something about the way she did things that made her a great mentor to be under while I was chairman of the team. 

I'm gonna skip all the other boring stuff and move on to....the weekend! :)

Over to the weekend, I MET MY NYT SHOOTING PEEPS ^^ Ok it was just 5 of us but we haven't seen each other in ages so it was really great having dinner and shopping (yeah shopping cos there were more girls than guys..) with them! :) 

Meeting up with friends who you haven't seen in ages often gives you that funny feeling inside. Like when you depart, you're all "OMGOSH When will I see them again :O " But then something inside you reminds you that friendships are more than just the physical meetings. They are about the experiences and the moments that can be cherished for a lifetime :) (ok I must admit that what I just said was pretty deep stuff, even for me.)

I always feel blessed to have such great friends by my side and over the next few days I'll be meeting up with some church and school friends (all great people to be with ;) ), definitely going to be a great week! 

So to all my readers: Cherish your current friends and also make new ones :) Friends do not need to be of the same age as you, young and old. Have friends of all age groups :) Remember what I said in one of my previous posts! "LIVE LIFE" :)

Thanks readers! Have a great week ahead! I'll be studying for my mid years but if you do have any requests just drop me a message somewhere! (email, twitter, facebook, instagram)

Always Lifting You Higher

Any feedback? Leave a comment below :)

Twitter: @toranseth

Instagram: @sethtoran 

Appreciate

Appreciate

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I last posted, been busy and studies and stuff (as usual). So over the past week, I celebrated my birthday! Yeah! It was ok I guess~ First time I had to go to school on my birthday and tuition too! I mean who studies on their birthday?!......me 

But I guess that's what life has become for a lot of us right? A busy rat race where we all work hard for the future and hope that all the hard work pays off... Kinda sucks though doesn't it? I mentioned before that working towards your goals and having aims are very important for success. And yes, by all means, do work towards success. But most of us, including myself sometimes, work towards success forgetting to enjoy and appreciate the many experiences and moments we have on route to success.

There was this really sad story I once heard of a man who worked hard all his life, but always worried about things (especially money) and could not bring himself to enjoy the moment. (Sounds a bit like Mr Scrooge) In the end, life is short as we know it, he never got to enjoy his hard work.

Here's a question: "How long do you want to suffer before you let yourself enjoy?" 

Most of us see suffering and enjoyment as two very separate things. (and you're not wrong) However, have you ever thought of liking what you do? The more you enjoy what you do, the happier you'll be (duh), and liking what you do will probably lead you to doing well in it. Making you a more motivated and inspired person in general. That's what we all want isn't it? To be the best we can be, to achieve success. Sometimes though, we just have to accept that success can come naturally without us realizing it and most often, we get this form of success when we are enjoying what we do! 

So appreciate what life throws at you today (and everyday)! because every moment should be enjoyed and lived to the fullest! :) Thanks for reading! :)

Always Lifting you Higher

Any feedback? Leave a comment below :)

You can also follow me on twitter: @sethtoran

On Instagram: @toranseth

Live Life

Live Life

This week was quite an emotional one. Have you ever had those kind of moments where you are forced to just stop and think about what you're doing with your life? are we really doing something worthwhile with our lives?

I'm turning 17 years old in a couple of days, I'd only expect to attend a friend's wake maybe in about 50 years time? but no. On Thursday, I attended a wake of my ex-classmate, Darren. He too was 17.

When you think about being 17, you have your entire life ahead of you...there's 18 to look forward to, there's people who you've yet to meet and work you've yet to do. 17, the age where you're too young to be considered an adult but too old to be considered a kid either. And death doesn't even come to mind. 

But there he was, as I walked pass the coffin where he lay.. 

I must admit, that I wasn't close to him, in fact I didn't know a lot about him. I did get his personality right though. A nice guy, truly humble, never caused anyone trouble. As I listened to all the tributes, that's what I heard. 

I heard from a friend that he used to throw parties. People would just come for the parties. It was just like an open invitation for the whole school. Some people will come and not even know that it was his party or his birthday. And what will he do about that? Absolutely nothing. The party just goes on.

It is rare to find such a gracious host in this 'power hungry and fame-driven' world of ours. But here he was, a 17 year old, showing true graciousness and humility.

So here's the big question, what are we doing with our lives? Think about it, did you live today to the fullest? Do you regret doing something or wish to make something better?
I know I do.
Don't wait till you're forced to think about what you're doing with your life. Stop and think now, put in the effort to make your life better.

"what are we doing with our lives?"

So let's all make it a point, to Live Life. Cos life is short. There's not a moment to waste. Live Life to the Fullest.

Thanks for reading! Pray for Darren's family.

Always Lifting You Higher

Any comments or queries? Leave a comment below.
You can also follow me on twitter: @toranseth (I follow back)
Instagram: @sethtoran