Violin - A story on Belief and Faith

Violin - A story on Belief and Faith

Hi everyone! :) I know I said I'll write about my Indonesia Trip today on my previous post but it's soooo long and there are so many things to write about! So I decided to add bits and pieces of the experience in the next few posts! Don't worry! 

Anyways, today I want to tell a story! and you've probably guessed it by now that it's about a violin. Now even I'm not musically inclined so if you're not good at music or don't play an instrument, DON'T WORRY! This post can still motivate you to be a better person :)

There was this old musician who recently passed away and his instruments were being auctioned of at am auction house for charity. This musician was well accomplished and his instruments were all well taken care off. So without much trouble, the instruments were auctioned off one by one at reasonably high prices. However, among these instruments was a dusty and old violin. 

When the auctioner (sorry i don't know the actual word for the person who auctions things--if you do know please DM me on twitter! Thanks :)) ok BACK TO THE STORY...When the auctioner picked up the violin, he knew this piece was going to be hard to auction off. He had hoped that it was still well tuned but to his dismay when he played a note, the sound came off so horrible to the ear that there was an audible groan from the audience. 

"starting price $100"

*no buyers*

"$50?"

*no buyers*

This went on till the auctioner finally said "50 cents, A violin for 50 cents"

By now you would've thought people would sympathize and buy the violin...at this moment, an elderly gentleman stood up and walked onto stage. He quietly cleaned off the dust and dirt from the violin, and slowly but surely tuned each string on the violin. He then went on to play a piece which most people would've heard before and this time, it sounded wonderful. Everyone was so touched by the piece that the response for the violin became intense, to say the least.

"$100"

"$200"

"$500"

"750"

...

This went on till the violin finally sold for $1000! 

Amazing ain't it? How something that nobody wanted for 50 cents can suddenly be worth $1000!

So what can we learn from this story?

If it weren't for that bit of faith that man had in the violin, it would've never have sold for such a high price. In fact if you think about it, in that entire room, only that one man had faith that the violin could become something great.

Nobody is worthless or useless. Everyone just needs that little bit of faith. Have that faith, have that belief in the people around you. Invest in the people around you (I learnt this recently). 

Personally, I believe that a lot of people (more than I actually deserve) have that belief in me. They believe that when I do something, it'll probably turn out well. And that's a good feeling to have, having someone trust you, believe in you, put their faith in you. 

Of course there are people who don't believe but that topic i'll leave to another day :)

So have faith in those around you. Believe in them. Because you never know, someone in a slump today may become someone great tomorrow! 

AND REMEMBER if you are the person in the slump, have faith in yourself! because YOU are your biggest supporter, your biggest fan, so stay POSITIVE and push on! :)

Always Lifting You Higher

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Charity Shoot

Charity Shoot

A shooters for shooter effort

HI EVERYONE! It's been quite awhile since I posted! Just got back from building walls in Indonesia, and my skin is like super dark now compared to before I went. Anyways, I'll talk more about that learning journey in my NEXT POST. But for today, I'd like to talk about something which really gave the perfect end to my week.

So what was this Charity Shoot about? Basically, Aishah is an ex-national shooter who was suddenly struck with a severe form of bacterial infection in July 2012. This caused toxic shock and led to multiple organ failure. Gangrene set in her limbs and she fought for her life in hospital, and all four limbs had to be amputated. Despite this, she has stayed a positive fighter and a true sportsman. She hopes to get a pair of prosthetic hands so that she can coach again. The charity shoot was to raise money for her.

I went to the range with the intention of just donating and going home. However, if you'd seen the range on the day of the charity shoot, it was PACKED. I mean even after almost 5 years of going to the range, I've never seen it this packed before. This in itself was heartwarming as it showed how people cared and that there's still kindness and humanity in the world we live in. In the end I helped out for the last couple of hours and I can say despite all the homework piling up back home, if I could turn back time and decide again, I wouldn't change a thing. Helping out at the Charity shoot was definitely a must. 

Other than the crowd I was also proud to see the commitment of all the helpers and I'll like to just say GOOD JOB EVERYONE! :) An example of their commitment was when I helped Jasmine with her lane for about 10mins. At first I thought she needed a toilet break, it turned out she went for lunch. I was shocked, it was already almost 4 o'clock and she hadn't eaten lunch! That just shows the commitment to keep coaching and helping out at the shoot. And this was probably the same for the other helpers, all carrying the same positive attitude and smile as they guided each family or member of public in shooting. Once again I think all the helpers over the 2 days deserve a big THANK YOU :)

I managed to get a picture with Aishah and in that short moment of interaction I saw that positive attitude in her. She really is an inspiration. Still smiling, still joking, enjoying the moment and the interactions with those around her. Aishah's positive attitude and perseverance is truly an inspiration. We should all have this attitude towards life :)

Here's a link on channel news asia of how things went:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/charity-event-raises-s-130-000-for-forme/680430.html 

In short, we managed to raise $130 000 and I'm sure this money will definitely go a long way in helping Aishah :) Thank you to all those who came down!

Thanks for reading! :)

Always Lifting You Higher

Have an inspiring life story to share? You can leave a comment below! or email me privately!

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Kindness

Kindness

Well guys and girls, I'll be off to BATAM for a week~ Going there to give back to the overseas community and do my little part in making this world better ^^ Basically my classmates and I will be teaching kids elementary English and helping the villages to construct stuff. The only downside is that there'll be NO INTERNET for 1 week!! So no tweets, insta pics of motivation or posts from me~ But hopefully all the previous posts can help you solve or answer any questions or problems! :) If they don't, drop m a message! and I'll definitely reply it when I get back :) (as always)

So, for today's post, I'll be sharing on a story of kindness I came across recently! In fact, come to think of it, I've been hearing alot of kindness related stories recently! Maybe the world is becoming a better place? :)

There's this girl, in the UK, her name is Zoe Green. Now Zoe decided that her personal life's mission is to try to bring some unexpected cheer to her neighbours. (Great job Zoe!) So what did she do?

One day in April, in the early morning darkness, "Happy Street Day" begun. Zoe woke up and began DECORATING HER ENTIRE STREET at 5am! She hung balloons at bus shelters, telephone booths and post boxes, she stuck Post-Its with encouraging messages. Some left encouragements, some just a simple greeting of "Good Morning!" This little step of trying to inspire people definitely brightened up at least 1 life that day. I know it has brightened mine just by reading her story.

It's not how big a step we take to making this world a better place. It's the little things that we do, the tiny snippets of inspiration we leave behind for people to take that can leave a lasting impact.

YOU can inspire someone today. yes YOU. Lift someone Higher today. Maybe start with your family members, then your friends, then your community, keep expanding keep helping keep inspiring :) Because you'll never know how you may have just changed someone's day in a positive way! :) 

So what are you waiting for! Start NOW! Mother's day is around the corner! It's definitely a great opportunity to start being the positive source of motivation to your love ones!

I really hope that more people can be like Zoe Green and inspire those around them!

Now, just a little 'food for thought' I read on the article before I sign off for another week:

"If you left your house one morning and walked down a street to find it filled with lovely signs of encouragement, won't you feel that nothing can get you down?"

Thanks Readers!
Always Lifting You Higher

Also, the blog of Zoe Green is: http://peagreengirl.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/happy-street-day.html

Any comments or feedback? Feel free to let me know! :)
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Restart

Restart

It's usually a psychological problem...

Have you ever failed once? (Of course)

and being a good reader of this blog, you've followed what was advised and you worked harder and in a better way.

and you try at it again.

and you failed, a second time.

and this process keeps repeating: you try. you fail you change. you try again. you fail again. you change again.

I personally have faced this problem. After getting a medal in my first inter school competition when I was 13. I thought that this winning business was easy. Just go to a competition, do what I do during training, go home with a medal. Simple. 

Well it didn't work out that way.

My past three national inter-school competitions have ended horribly. What makes it worse, is that if I had reproduced the same score that I did the month before each of those competitions, I would have went home with at least a silver! So what's the problem here? Why couldn't I restart...

Most of us have a reason for trying to achieve things, be it self satisfaction, doing your country/school/team proud or maybe in some cases impressing that girl or guy ;) , there is always a reason. These "reasons" are usually our sources of motivation. But sometimes, they may turn into our biggest distractions. That small form of encouragement, may turn into that little extra pressure, that gives you that bit of nervousness which snowballs eventually to the lack of success. The worst part is, repeated setbacks over the same thing may eventually cause us to give up entirely on it. Demotivated? 

"That small form of encouragement, may turn into that little extra pressure, that gives you that bit of nervousness which snowballs eventually to the lack of success."

I'm not saying that having a reason for achieving something is bad. Please, reasons, goals, aims, they're all good. It's how you manage it. Things pop into our minds suddenly even with very little stimulation or reason to do so. When this happens. Failure to control them usually leads to a loss in concentration of the present. You Lose Focus. And what does that give you?

Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. (For most of us...and I really mean most, like almost EVERYONE) Even those "multi-taskers" When you multitask, you're basically just shifting your main focus really quickly from one thing to another and back. But at any point of time, you're only focusing on ONE thing. So taking this fact. We should use it to our benefit right? See it in a positive light. If I can only focus on one thing at a time. If I focus on the right thing...then I can't focus on the distractions. Which means you'll stay focused on your goals! 

"When you multitask, you're basically just shifting your main focus really quickly from one thing to another and back. But at any point of time, you're only focusing on ONE thing. " 

So the next time your mind wanders during an important situation (especially when you're retrying something which you failed before), Start thinking about what you're supposed to be doing! Focus on that. Just keep thinking about the process which you should be doing. and nothing else.

"Start thinking about what you're supposed to be doing! Focus on that. Just keep thinking about the process which you should be doing."

With that, I'm sure your next attempt at success should be....a success! :) All the best to you! 

Always Lifting You Higher!

Leave a comment or feedback below! :)

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