We should be thankful.
I want to thank my wife for giving me 2 children ( 1 boys 1 girls).
I want to thank my boy and girl that they grow healthily.
I want to thank that I am able to blog.
BY SOO EWE JIN
While many people keep pursuing their dreams at any cost, there are those who have discovered that being wealthy may not necessarily bring a peace of mind.
JACK Ma, the founder and executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba told CNBC recently that he isn’t happy about being the richest man in China.
“Too much pressure. People say, ‘Well, Jack, rich... is good’. Yeah, it is good, but not the richest man in China. It’s a great pain because when you’re (the) richest person in the world, everybody (is) surrounding you for money,” he said.
“Today when I walk on the street, people look at you in a different (way). I want to be myself.”
Life is indeed ironic. Sometimes we spend so much time in pursuit of our dreams, and when we finally get there, we yearn to be back where we were originally.
Ma said he might turn to philanthropy in a bid to end his “great pain” but concedes that even competing with Bill Gates to be the world’s most charitable person might bring him high levels of stress. I wonder if he secretly yearns to go back to being a school teacher.
I know of many people who, like Ma, are materially successful and yet struggling to learn the secret of contentment. A friend shared recently that we must learn to say “enough is enough” because there is actually no limit to what the human heart seeks or desires.
The people who make gadgets and gizmos thrive on our discontentment. They whisper into our ears, “The pictures you take with your smartphone can be of a higher resolution with the latest model.”
Or, “Your 42in TV is too small – go for the 80in model. And the resolution is double what you have now.”
But more sinister than these whispers of consumerism, perhaps, are the voices that urge us to move ahead at the expense of others. And so we have a trail of broken friendships, strained relationships, and good values left by the wayside, the fallout from ambitions driven by discontentment.
Why is contentment so elusive? Perhaps it is because we do not know ourselves well enough.
Our preoccupation with achieving life’s goals can so easily put us out of sync with the true condition of our souls.
Finding contentment often begins with being thankful for the little blessings in life. If we focus only on the big achievements, we might find that the happiness it brings is fleeting, and we are disillusioned when things don’t go our way.
Contentment is not an issue that is restricted to any class of people. It is an issue that affects everyone from the poor to the very rich.
I know a very rich person who is truly contented because he has mastered the art of controlling money, and not letting money control him. Because of that, his life is truly a blessing to many. I believe that when our thankfulness is focused on the little things, the normal parts of our everyday life, then we realise that the small blessings add up, and making do with less actually gives us so much more.
Executive editor Soo Ewe Jin believes an attitude of thankfulness can help us to live simply, walk humbly, love genuinely – and to be truly content.