Well it’s nearly time for me to head back to Vietnam again. The last couple of weeks have just totally wizzed by. It’s like nearly 3:00am now and I’m thinking like at this time on Saturday morning I’ll be in the air headed for Singapore for a day (of shopping and fun stuff) before hopping on another flight to Saigon on Sunday morning. Isn’t it just like just totally exciting?!!

Anyways, I’ll leave you with a nice quote and picture I was forwarded in an email the other day. The quote was actually part of a longer paragraph about love, life and happiness etc but I thought it was a bit too mushy and shit so I just took out what I thought was the gist of it all.

Every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back.

I was forwarded an interesting email the other day with a PowerPoint attachment. I don’t normally pay much attention to these, just a quick flick through and straight into the trash is what I normally do but this one actually made me stop and think. It basically contained some nice pictures of scenery, some quotes and some background music. It was all put together quite well.

Anyways, a few of the quotes actually touched me a bit so I thought I’d share them so here you go.

• Plan for tomorrow but live for today.
• The one who takes your hand but touches your heart is a true friend.
• We seldom think of what we have, but always think of what we miss.
• Don’t cry because it’s over, laugh and smile because it happened.
• What happens, happens for a reason.
• Don’t try too hard because the best things happen when you least expect them.
• The most difficult lesson to learn is: Which bridge in life to use or which one to break off.
• Everybody sees how you seem, however only some know who you are.
• Love doesn’t require two people to look at each other, but that they look in the same direction.

Some time ago I was really down in the dumps after a messy break up with my girlfriend of 8 years. Yes, I know 8 years is a very long time. Anyways, soon after the break up my ex said something to me that has stuck with me until this day. It was a quote that someone had previously told her.

The quote was, “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react”.

At the time I thought yeah, that’s true but really didn’t look too much into it. As time went on I began to think more about what she had said and the more I thought about it the more sense it made. I realised that life would be so much simpler if I just didn’t take things so seriously and look into things so much.

I had a new life objective, to try and see things for what they really are and not to make any more out of it.

Here’s an example. Say you’re driving to work and a car suddenly cuts in front of you forcing you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. Ok, you could get totally pissed off, drive up to the other car and start cursing your head off. Your rage keeps you totally fired up for several hours affecting your mood for half the day. Now think about it for a moment and ask yourself, was that car cutting in front of you worth ruining your mood for half a day? The short answer is no.

On the other hand, you could have looked at it for what it really was. Probably just some guy in a hurry, saw a gap in the traffic and decided to squeeze in. They probably thought that they could get in without too much fuss anyway. And I’m sure they didn’t do it personally to upset you. So yeah, it wasn’t nice that they cut in front of you but at the end of the day your life isn’t going to change because of it so better to simply write it off as one of those unavoidable things in life.

See? Doesn’t that make more sense? Well, it does for me and thinking that way has certainly done wonders for my life. I hardly ever stress out and rarely waste my time dwelling on those insignificant things. It has given me so much more time to concentrate on the important things in life – Family, friends and having lots of fun!