Author: Ted Tsai

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A Message To My 11 Month Old Niece

Do you know what it’s like to live a life of privilege? There’s nothing wrong with living life on a fast lane if you go out of your way to earn it. You work hard, play hard, day in, day out, sure you deserve it 100%. Self-righteous or not, privilege isn’t necessarily a dirty word. I’m a firm believer that privilege is something we earn, not something we own. But what if privilege is given to us without us doing the work?

My niece was born on Valentine’s Day 2018. For that reason, I call her little cupid. She’s now a healthy, active 11-month-old baby girl. The first time I saw her, she was only 2-day old and still at the hospital. From that moment on, I decided that I want to be a different type of uncle. An uncle like no others. I’ll be her friend, playmate, soulmate, coach and guidance. One day when she’s old enough to learn about this wild wild world we live in, I’ll be there to tell her the stories about our family – how we came to Australia and how we flourished in The Lucky Country. Oh man, so many things I want to pass down and instill in her but the one that sticks out from all others is the idea of taking nothing for granted. It’s a good virtue for anyone to have. Don’t you think?

Look around, there’s a sense of entitlement embedded in many of us these days which we often take for granted, be it the right to vote, to marry, to speak freely or to move into a new city or a different country etc. These so called human rights we were born with or grew up with did not come of their own accord but because a group of brave women and men before us, before our times, who had fought long and hard or risked their freedom or even lives to achieve equality and justice we now enjoy and regard as the norm. Over a year ago, I was fortunate enough to be part of the history – having a say in Australian Marriage Law. I’m proud of being one of the Yes voters in the postal survey conducted by ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics). When the results were announced, the majority of Australians were overjoyed by an overwhelming, wide spread public support for marriage equality across all states and territories. What it led to was on the 7th of December 2017, Marriage Act was officially amended to include same sex couples. Right when the motion was passed in the federal parliament, Australia went to join the ranks of the other 25 nations to become the 26th country in the world to recognise same sex marriage. On that day, my niece wasn’t even born yet. This is just one of many examples. Things like Freedom of Information Act, multiculturalism, to name just a few. My niece like other babies around her age will grow up knowing her human rights are protected by law, largely thanks to those unsung heroes for their relentless work to fight against the old, unfair laws. Some taboos that were once thought to be sensitive, untouchable or even impossible, are now a way of life. Of course, there’re still more jobs to be done in all areas where discrimination may still be present. We can change the law but we can’t change people’s attitude overnight.

My little cupid, remember, you belong to nobody but yourself. Some day you’ll work your way up to discover a unique trait in yourself like no other, that’s your gift to the world. Give as if it’s a privilege but don’t ever allow anyone to take your goodness for granted. Somehow, I realize this is a message to uncle Ted, too…

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A Reflection On My One Year Blogging Journey

I meant to write something else but as 2018 is about to come to an end, I thought I’d just “cheat” a bit by writing about a reflection on my one year blogging journey. It’s like a year end review that kind of thing. I can’t find a better way to farewell 2018 and welcome 2019 than this.

This is how I see it, when people read my blog posts, whether it’s one or many, whether they spend only five minutes on it or longer, I’m actually taking them through a part of my journey that I hold dearly. Isn’t it wonderful when readers go venturing into the material you’ve written, then decide to give you a like or even follow you? It’s a big honour. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate it. That’s why it’s ultra important for me to produce quality writing whenever I can. One year on, it still gives me the chills and I’m still like the new kid on the block. I keep reminding myself, stay grounded, don’t take anything for granted.

What can I say? It’s been amazing and daunting at the same time. Just like a roller coaster ride, ups and downs, ups and down, some days I thought my blog posts had done good deeds and added value to readers, some other days I thought not quite there yet, there were still many holes in my writing.

All in all, I’m here for the long-run. Not to dismiss the fact that at one stage I did quit. But two weeks later, I came back and re-launched a new website as you see now. I’ve been managing my blog like a small boutique store on a quiet corner – quality over quantity. We’re all here to “sell” something. So, what do I sell? To put it boldly: I’m here to sell the concept of “personal experiences”. Do I care about the stats? Of course I do. Traffic or readership can go both ways, either encouraging or discouraging. But I try not to get too hung up by that. They say you rather have 1 quality reader than 1000 non-quality ones. That’s so true. Even if my blog posts resonate with only one quality reader, that’d still be awesome and like someone giving me a pat on the back… Very rewarding!

Juggling between a full time job and my blogging “business” along with other commitments has been a challenge. I admit blogging isn’t a top priority in my life at the moment. After all, I have a day job that I enjoy. It helps pay my bills so I need to give it my 100% when I’m there. But outside that, the creative process begins in my head everywhere I go – when I’m out and about, catching a bus, doing house chores, walking my dog, taking a lunch break or having some me time in the evening etc. By the time I sit down and write, though tired and exhausted from all other activities, I still get a pretty good vibe about what I want to share with readers. As much as I’d love to finish writing in one go, the reality is it always takes more than one session to complete one blog post. It’s also not uncommon for me to go back and refine my writing even after I’ve published it.

2019, it’s only one more day or two more sleeps to go here in the southern hemisphere. How time has flown by so quickly this year. I won’t bore you with my New Year resolution in fact I haven’t got one. But now looking at the drafts box on my website, it shows 27 (including this one) blog posts waiting to be published. A light-bulb moment! I think I see the sign. I’ll make them my 2019 New Year resolution. Happy New Year!

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Mental Health Is An Issue That Won’t Go Out Of Print

We all know what number to call for emergencies. It’s 000 in Australia. In US it’s 911. In this day and age even when personal data security is everything, our mobile/cell phones are still designed to let us make emergency calls without needing a password. It goes to show how important it is to have quick access to assistance during a crisis. On that front, where can you go to if yourself or someone you care about is battling with mental health problems? Can you name at least three places on top of your head? Do you know their phone numbers by heart?

In Australia, there’re charities like Lifeline, Reach Out and Beyond Blue. They all have done a wonderful job on educating the public about the mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression which affect 20% of the population. To that effect, we can never say we’ve done enough as long as the stigma of mental illness is alive and well in all corners of our society. It’s true we’ve come a long way to raise public awareness and put the mental health topic on the table for discussion. The opportunities are all there, the challenge is to encourage more people to step up and speak freely about it.

Right now it’s December, a festive season, the happiness is in the air everywhere you go. What on earth am I bringing up the issue of mental health again? I don’t mean to drag you down. But here’s how it came about: Over a month ago, I bumped into a friend while taking a bus to work. He looked like he’d lost a big chunk of weight, just not the same person I used to know. I couldn’t help but ask him what had happened and if things were OK. In brief, he told me he’d gone through a tough time in his personal life. He was made redundant late last year as a result of the workforce restructuring. Thereafter, a series of unfortunate events such as not being able to find another job caused a whirlwind of emotions. It was hard to take. By his own admission, he suffered from depression – a condition he only kept to himself. Why so? He didn’t feel like bothering anyone especially his family in overseas. It was understandable but what stunned me most was when he talked about his suicidal thoughts. That was a real shock. On the surface and on paper, he was someone of a high calibre, who seemed to have his life figured out. As a young millennial, he already had amazing credentials under his belt – a certified chartered accountant, a master degree, have worked for one of the big four accounting firms in the world and other prominent employers alike. However, none of these achievements guaranteed a success he desperately needed. When people are out of job not by choice, life can be a brutal place and that’s exactly what happened to him. Being unemployed for too long is like being an outsider sitting on the sidelines, not participating in the game and just watching the days go by. His confidence was eroded, his mind played a dirty trick on him. He began to wonder: Is that it? Is that all what life is about? They say: All good things come to an end. Sure, so do bad things. At last, it took him a total of ten months to land a current job – even though it was only a fixed term six month contract with no possibility for extension. For now, life is back on track as he said but the uncertainty over what would happen after six months worried him. He feared that he’d relapse into old depression again. I took a deep breath, paused for a few seconds before asking him this question: When you were coping with those stresses, were you all alone by yourself? He replied with a straight yes. I wasn’t surprised by his answer. That’s the thing, behind a closed door, there can be a depressed person we never know existed.

I came up with this catchy headline “Mental Health Is An Issue That Won’t Go Out Of Print“, while drafting this post in my head. I’m a firm believer that you and I have the ability to write or re-write the next chapter and the next etc.. We can do so in a way that sees mental health as normal part of our lives and treats it with ultimate openness. It’s important to note that the stigma of mental illness wasn’t born out of nowhere. It was something we created right under our noses and passed it down year after year. So, what are we going to do about it? It’s all in the attitude – how do we act towards people (including ourselves) with the mental health conditions. In my friend’s case, what he said to me that day hasn’t changed a thing about how I see him as a person. If anything, it’s only more of him, not less of him…

Take care!

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Harness The Power Of Money

Money talks but does money walk? I don’t think there’s such a phrase in English but you get what I mean. We’ve seen money as a good motivator for some people. Let’s face it, when money is good, it’s hard to resist it, isn’t it? So, will you jump at an opportunity or an offer purely based on the money factor? What role does money play in your life?

A month ago, I went to a family dinner party that I was invited to by a friend whom I had just met. It was my first time to see the host family and their guests so I didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately, everyone was so welcoming and charitable, I began to mingle with them and make small talk very quickly. Among many topics, one that stood out a lot was career. I guess talking about ourselves especially what we do for a living is often deemed as a good ice breaker.

The host mother, a teacher and her teenage son, a recent high school graduate seemed to be very interested in what I had to say about my jobs, past and present. I could tell she wanted to hear my perspectives and apply to her son’s situation if any of my words was useful. I loved their curiosity. It really fired me up and made me want to share the practicality, the nuts and bolts of how I landed my jobs. For me, reviewing my career trajectory, all the ups and downs I went through and mistakes I made along the way, serves as a good reminder of how I got where I am today. It’s like taking a refresher course again. When I looked back on it, what I learned most was money was a wrong reason for leaving a current job or accepting a new job. Why? At one point, I went to take a job that looked more money and a nicer title on the outside but a few months down the track I discovered it didn’t bring me more fulfillment or happiness. In fact, I ended up working longer hours and even some weekends. Interestingly, when I saw it from an hourly rate point of view, I began to realize I wasn’t at all better off compared to the job I had before.

What do we get when we break things down into hourly rate pieces? Try this analogy: When walking through the aisles of major supermarkets here in Australia or perhaps your country too, you’ll see unit prices on almost all grocery items you come across. A unit price is a piece of information that tells shoppers exactly what they pay for per unit such as per item or per kilo. In turn, it helps shoppers see the real value of the goods they’re buying. An hourly rate works in the same way. I’m convinced that knowing how much we’re charged or paid for every hour worked, it’ll help us:

  • Rethink if the task at hand is worth paying attention to
  • Use our time more wisely and selectively when it comes to work-life balance
  • Say No more often to time-wasters (imagine how much it’ll cost us if we waste an hour on this)
  • Walk away from situations that no longer serve us

For what it’s worth, money is like a coin that has two sides, each with a distinctive character on its own. Together, money has the power to make or break our career, relationships and many more. Do you let money limit you or stretch you? To show who’s boss and make money work for you, why not start off by “charging” an hourly rate and see if money pay dividends in no time…

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Feel The Pain, Heal The Pain

Pain, no one likes it, we all try to avoid it. It’s only natural. We’re all humans. But is pain that bad? Does pain hurt us so much that it deserves no place in our lives? When we feel the pain, what is it trying to tell us? Is there anything else other than the discomfort that it inflicts on us?

Last week I finally surrendered to my thumping headache. After 2 days of enduring pain, I decided enough is enough. So, I dragged myself to the local supermarket and buy a mini pack of Panadol (paracetamol). It was the first time in many years (possibly more than 15 years) that I went to buy an over the counter (OTC) medicine to treat a pain related symptom. Judging by my poor track record, I don’t think any pharmaceutical companies would like me as a consumer. Why wouldn’t they? I’m just not one of those guys who would reach for a painkiller as soon as I experience some physical pain. It may sound strange or weird but I’d like to test out my tolerance level for pain and give my body a chance to fight and respond before I resort to the medicine option. Of course, provided the pain is not serious, urgent or life-threatening. Luckily, I haven’t been in a situation where I needed to seek an immediate medical attention. Just for the record, I’m not against medicine but I’m a firm believer that my body needs time to settle the pain, understand why it’s hurting, then go into a right channel of healing.

In my recent case, taking medication was certainly a wise decision to make. I started to function like my normal self very quickly. Going through a work day not affected by my headache was a bless. Thanks to the magical power of paracetamol. However, deep down I knew it’d only be temporary. 6 to 8 hours passed, the effect began to wane, the pain came back in no time. It was as clear as it started. A pain medicine is never intended for long term use anyway. If we read the label carefully, it says: provide fast, effective temporary relief of pain. So, after having popped a total of 6 pills into my system in a matter of 2 days, I thought it was time to confront my pain head on, literally. It wasn’t hard to see why my headache was only a symptom. The real cause lied in my weakening immune system due to a lack of sleep. All it took was one wild chilly wind blow, then bingo! I caught a nasty cold.

To treat the cause rather than the symptom, I consciously made time throughout the day to allow myself to rest and slow things down a bit. It was amazing how fast my body recovered from it. I woke up feeling rejuvenated. The headache was gone by itself without drugs. Right there and then, I knew I’d treated my body right.

None of us is a machine. We do need to recharge our batteries every once a while. Walking away from the rat race for a few hours or even for a day for a health-benefit reason won’t set us back both in the short and long runs. If it does, we’ll have to question if it’s all worth it. When we put a highest priority on health, we’re in front in a game. Other less important things can wait. When our bodies start to send a signal to our brains that something is up in the form of pain, it’s a red flag. My experience has taught me that an effective coping mechanism for pain is fundamentally about giving what the body needs, not wants – it may be painstaking but is worth taking…

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Are Rules To Be Followed Or Broken?

Are you someone who does almost everything by the book? Is there a rulebook in your life that you’ve been following but never questioned if it’s still serving you? Is that rulebook written by yourself or someone else? Do you believe in rules are to be followed or broken? 

The world-famous Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming once said in one of rare TV interviews a few years back: If you look around nature, things come in all shapes and sizes, but nothing in perfectly square. It was such a profound statement. I literally sat in front of my laptop re-playing it in my head and trying to digest every word that came out of it. So powerful that it’s stuck with me ever since. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. I guess I can call it a light bulb moment. In case you don’t know who Ju Ming is, of course you can Google him and find more information about his life on Wikipedia or his website. The reason why I reference him here is because it gives me a good starting point to argue that rules aren’t born out of nature, they are predominately man-made, crafted and created by individuals for specific purposes – like law and order.

Of course in our society, there’re regulations to be obeyed to, protocol to be followed though. No exceptions. All people are expected to be law-abiding citizens in all circumstances or they’ll face the consequences. Anything that is still unfair, unjust, unequal, it takes laws to change laws. We know the process can take years and in many cases, failures, setbacks, frustrations are not uncommon. It can be a whole new set of topic to discuss but for now, to a much smaller scale, I want to talk about what do we do about those rules in our personal lives. Are they helpful? Are they stretching you or limiting you? Ju Ming said, as a beginner you can acquire as many skills as you like when you’re learning. But in a creation process, you need to unlearn, stop thinking, throw away all the things you’ve been taught by others, do nothing but simply executing the work.

Researching on the topic has been a rewarding experience for me. I’m absolutely captivated by Jun Ming’s artworks and his philosophy of life. Even though you don’t consider yourself as an arty type of person, will find his artworks full of life and engaging to watch. I first heard of him when I was only a child but who would’ve thought two to three decades later I’d write a post inspired by him. So, back to the question of: Are rules to be followed or broken? Before I started to write this post, I thought I had a “right” answer based on my own presumption but after I’ve done more study of this subject, I’m going to surprise myself and say: I think it’s both.

If you’re an artist or someone who wants to pursue a mastery in your field, rules are to be followed when you first learn the basic techniques. Over time they will help you lay a solid foundation before you take your skillset to the next level. As you progress, rules are to be bent so they adapt to your unique personal style unlike and unmatched by others. Finally, when you execute your work, rules are to be broken or let go, so you aren’t bound by any preset concepts, thoughts or ideas, that’s when you produce something, a masterpiece truly your own. Sounds like an art? I think it is…

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Wanted. Desperately Seeking Attention

Believe it or not, the moment you open your eyes, get out of the bed in the morning, get ready for a new day, you are already a wanted person, even though you don’t feel like it. Guess which part of you is the most sought after by the world? Your attention that is – the invisible but super highly valuable asset you’ve ever had. Look around, it’s not hard to understand why. You step out the door, go to places, watch for the traffic lights, the road signs, the cars. When driving or crossing the streets, your close attention on the traffic conditions keeps you safe and sound. Meanwhile, there’re tons of distractions from all corners of the world are also fighting for your attention. Somehow, within your conscious mind, you decide to block them all and only focus on one thing that matters most – the road safety. However, as soon as you arrive at your destination, you check your phone or other mobile devices, read your Facebook feeds or new emails, before you know it, another round of battle for your attention has already begun. Day in and day out, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even when you sleep. The world wants your attention badly. If your attention isn’t your most important asset, then what is?

To conceptualize the idea of attention, a good way to start is looking at its closest cousins – thoughts. Much has been said about our thoughts and how important it is to watch what we’re thinking in our heads as it can lead to how we speak to ourselves and others, how we act and react to circumstances we are in. Ever wondering how many thoughts do we have a day? Let’s Google it and see. And? What are the numbers? Thousands! I’m amazed by just how those neuroscientists or researchers came to their conclusions. Assuming those numbers they came up with are right, it goes to show how complicated and thoughtful creatures we as human beings really are. To me, thoughts alone aren’t enough to make or break our days. It’s thoughts that we pay attention to make or break our days. Furthermore, since we can only hold one thought at one time, then the quality of our output all depend on choices we make consciously and subconsciously.

Like it or not, the world is a biased place. It has favuoritism towards positivity. Our attention can go through the roof, work their way to sabotage us if we spend too much time dwelling on negativity. I don’t think negative thinking is that big deal but it’ll become one if we give more weight than it deserves and let it expand out of control. Take my recent experience as an example, the other day I found myself getting more passive aggressive at work. The trigger? I didn’t feel appreciated. It sounds like a silly reason, doesn’t it? I’m sure no one likes to feel underappreciated or underrated especially when someone fails to show appreciation in a way we expected. The question is: Should we be the ones pay the price for it? In my case, I kept hanging on the same thought- not feeling appreciated and the moment I captured myself falling into the deep trap, I started asking myself: Why am I still paying attention to something that clearly doesn’t serve me? How should I stop it? Paradoxically, the harder I tried to stop it, the more emphasis I placed on it, the more attention it got from me and the deeper I got stuck in it.

Later that day when I got home, I no longer got hung up by my earlier thought as there were more important things in my place for me to focus on. I realized: to shift our attention, it’s not about getting an old thought out of our heads or de-focusing. It’s about letting a new thought into our heads and re-focusing. Do you agree? If you’ve read this post up to this point, I thank you for your attention…

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Say Bye Bye to Mortgage Years Earlier

If I can do it, you can do it, too – Sounds easy but is it really? Don’t you love to hate this line? Let’s not kid ourselves. Things like losing that spare tire on your body or becoming a guru or master in your chosen field are never quick and easy. They require a long-term commitment, relentless efforts and possibly lots of swearing (physically and verbally) before you can cross that finishing line. What about paying off a mortgage? It’s even more painful! Don’t despair yet, there’s a way even for a non-risk taker, an average income earner like myself. It’s hard but achievable.

I won’t bore you with too many numbers here. Basically, I took out a 30-year standard variable home loan back in 2006. It’s been 12 years since but fingers crossed this time next year, I’ll have saved up enough funds to pay off my mortgage – 17 years faster than the loan term. OK, I admit it’s only a prediction so anything can happen in the next 12 months. Who knows if the world market will be hit by another Global Financial Crisis (GFC) like the one in 2008 which led to a severe economic downturn, bankruptcies and unemployment everywhere. Been there, done that and survived the financial storm. If GFC in 2008 was the worst thing that has ever happened to us in the last decade, what’s to fear in the future? Here I’m in 2018, 10 years down the road, I’m well ahead on the mortgage repayments and moving closer to clearing the final hurdle. Sounds like a sweet victory in waiting but if anyone asks me what does it take to get there? I’ll say it without hesitation: Sacrifice and lots of it. Wait! Don’t get turned off by it and throw in the towel that quickly. Things do get better.

What are the key measures that I’ve taken (or sacrifices that I’ve made) to help pay off my mortgage faster?

  • Eat two meals instead of three per day every day. Have breakfast, dinner only and no lunch in between. Initially, I did this out of pure laziness as I couldn’t be bothered preparing all the lunches at home. Changing my daily meal routine to such a way wasn’t something I had to adjust or get used to, it just fit my lifestyle perfectly. So, overall it wasn’t a hard thing to do. Also, I avoid buying take-away foods or eating out. Over time the cost can add up very quickly.
  • Take public transport to work. From the start, I chose to catch train (as opposed to bus) because it was the most economical. In recent years, I’ve switched to bus as it’s more timesaving.
  • Holidays at home. Over the years I’ve spent my downtime discovering some hidden gems in the city (Sydney) I live in and all of them are within an hour drive from home. Cheap and cheerful I would say.

Life is full of uncertainties and surprises. Despite the fact I was made redundant twice, out of job for 12 months since the start of my mortgage, as a single person with one single income, I still came out OK, managed to pay private health insurance, all household and car bills on time and stay on top of my mortgage repayments. So, allow me to say this: If I can do it, you can do it, too (but only if you want to)…

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Bring A Blind Spot To Light

They say we are our own worst enemy. 100%! When it comes to giving advice to others, we act and sound like experts. But when it comes to following our own advice, we become paralysed and lose our way very quickly. At times, we even sabotage ourselves for that matter. It’s like everything we’ve learned about how to tackle life issues, big, small or ugly, all goes out of the window in a flash. But why is it the case?

In the first five month of my blogging experience, I talked about many great lessons and inspirations that came to my life. When I wrote, I often had this thing in mind: I want to walk readers through my journey and give them the leverage to deal with their own challenges in similar situations. Yes, on paper, I did just that. But then one day when I ran into a bump in the road, The irony? I found myself not coping well. The positive stuff I’d been advocating all went down the drain. I felt like a fraud. At that point I decided to cancel my website altogether. It may sound a bit over the top or too dramatic in my reaction but my then-sentiment was that if I can’t be a testament to the things I pitch about, then it’ll probably be useless and meaningless for me to keep on doing this. So, I went ahead and shut down my first website completely and permanently.

Surprised and not surprised, I came back a few weeks later, launched a new website and started blogging again.

Strangely, in the last few days, I kept going back to the idea of “blind spot”. We know in the context of driving a car, there’s an area we can’t see. Therefore, checking our blind spot is essential if we want to stay safe on the road. Using this as an analogy, it’s fair to say that in life we also have a blind spot somewhere – an area for improvement we can’t see ourselves. Now as I look back on those times why I failed to put knowledge into action, in part if not all might’ve had something to do my blind spot. To that effect, it may well explain the reason why it’s harder to take our own advice when a blind spot gets in a way.

So, where can we start to reduce our blind spot and make way for action taking? Perhaps it’s a matter of:

  • Learning to give advice to yourself like you do to others
  • Learning to see the subject from a third party’s standpoint
  • Learning to view things from a different angle or corner
  • Learning to appreciate the whole reflection in the mirror

The list can go on and on if I dive in deeper and deeper. That’s the beauty of taking a personal development journey – there’s often something new and profound to explore and expand. For now though I’ll just take one step at a time, look before I change to the fast lane…

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Waste A Day, Waste A Week

When it comes to prioritizing, do you do what’s urgent or what’s important or whatever is in front of you? Do you spend your time firefighting rather than making any progress? What are the time wasters in your life that get in the way?

Time management. Some experts have argued that there’s no such a thing. I get that. Time constantly flows by and never stands still, it really can not be captured by any humankind in any given moment. Looking at its own unique character and a particular role it plays in our lives, time has been and will always be the most irresistible and irreplaceable resource in the planet. No matter where we come from or what our status is, everyone gets a fair share. Fair enough! But think about it, no one has time forever. How do we see the value of time? In my case, a reality check was what I needed to go back to basics and re-examine my time-poor lifestyle. Here’s the story.

My recent wake up to reality was like a slap in the face moment. Where it happened was quite interesting. A veterinary clinic! Early this year I took my dog to a vet for an annual vaccination and a routine health check-up. While we were in a surgical room waiting for the vet, I thought I’d kill a few minutes reading some pet care information on the walls. Immediately, a poster containing a dog year chart caught my attention. Out of curiosity, I went over to check which age group my dog would belong to. And? In human years, my dog was around 65, categorized as an old dog near the tip of the chart. Standing there, my heart started to sink. It was an awakening moment I needed. In retrospect, often I got so caught up in day-to-day things, petty stuff in life, that many more important things ended up slipping out of my mind. So, right there and then, I came to the realization that it could only be a few more years left for my dog’s time on Earth. It sucked. Big time! Of course it was hard to take, but when I took a step back and thought it through again, it really opened me up and served a big purpose for me to live by – seize the day before it’s too late. Imagine, every time a person wastes one day of his life, that one day is the equivalent of a week in a dog’s life. Reality bites. You bet!

To draw a close to this post, an old saying comes straight to my mind: Time and tide wait for no man. But it feels like something is missing. So I think I’ll extend it to: time and tide wait for no man and no dog…