Think sideways!Edward de Bono
The past weeks saw me visiting Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta. I got to know people better in these three cities, and learned about their cultures and ways of getting things done. Malaysian friends explained me their love for bright colors and appreciation for form and decorum. Singaporean friends showed me how they achieve results through commitment and good relationships. And Indonesian friends demonstrated how each person’s view is taken into account, with care to find solutions together. I enjoyed being immersed in this kaleidoscope of cultures.
I also clocked lots of mileage on my soul journey and wrote page after page on the inner wall of my awareness. Meanwhile, my blog space remained quietly untouched. The direction of my musings was sideways and across my life. And I found that the way forward became clearer as a result.
Sending an SMS to the “wrong” person made me wonder if there is such a thing as a wrong address. We are all connected. Everything I write should be readable to all. And it often is, through myself or others. Every email and SMS is a packet of energy, easily shared with others. Sending positive energy helps us all. As for other energies, there is no need to send it anywhere.
Knowing how this works is to understand life’s biggest secret, which has been revealed in bookshops and television shows across the globe thanks to Rhonda Byrne and her team of empowerment gurus. The big Secret is the law of attraction. You invite into your life what you think and feel.
One of the books I read in the past weeks was Why Men Don’t Have A Clue & Women Always Need More Shoes by Allan and Barbara Pease. Appreciating the differences between women and men is fundamental to communicating and living well. I always try to keep the different perspectives in mind. So what did I learn from this book?
Nagging is a big problem for some, but not for me. I found that partners who are positively engaged in what they love to do have better things to do than nagging.
Women’s Top Secret Point-Scoring System – interesting and useful. Women score each activity separately, and give high scores to little attentions. Well, I knew that, but what is interesting to know is that women give men the same score for most activities (a “1”) regardless of how much work was involved.
I felt sad reading the chapter on retirement. Many men seem to get lost at that phase of their life. It is essential to plan for retirement early, so that “work” continues in a different form, and with it, the “recognition” that is so important to men. Living separately together is a formula for success for many, as many retired people find it hard to live together with their partner 24 x 7, and this is particularly true for women.
Yesterday I read Robin Sharma quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes “A mind once stretched by a new idea can never return to its original dimensions”. How true. Many ideas come to me through books. They are faithful companions on my journey. And they often take me sideways to a new point of view.
Photograph: Sideways in Beauty in Asia at Singapore's Asian Civilizations Museum.
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