Planting A Garden of Dreams

Once I have overcome my fear of dreaming, I found that having and pursuing my dreams are definitely scary and yet so exciting. Since starting my blog in 2019 then publishing my journals in 2022 and then in Amazon Kindle in 2023 – they have given me the confidence to pursue even more dreams.

I imagine it as a Garden of Dreams – I start with putting little pebbles to make the pavement, then plant different flowers and trees. The little things build up to make my Garden of Dreams. So the most important thing to do is putting the first pebble in , then planting the first flower or tree, and continue to let them grow and make them beautiful.

As in any endeavours, planting a Garden of Dreams takes a time and effort. It takes time to plant and grow the trees and flower for the garden, but the journey is definitely worth it.

One thing I realise is that: we have to believe in ourselves to start this garden. We believe in who we are, and more importantly, who God says we are. Our divine dreams come from God. He uses our dream to bless us abundantly and to grant us exponential growth. In the pursuit of it, we can find our new higher-level identify, and grow in confidence in who we are and what we are capable of, through the power of God working in our lives.

The pursuit of our dreams also influence and inspire others too. I went to Singapore last weekend, and shared with a friend about pursuing dreams. I pray that she too will be inspired to pursue her dreams. That both of us can leave a legacy of Garden of Dreams for our daughters. I have decided that I will describe myself as a 50s Dreamer, because it is never too late to dream and to start my Garden of Dreams!

The Privilege of Treating Myself

In Gretchen Rubin’s book, Better than Before, she talked about treats:

If I give more to myself, I can ask more from myself.

In the world of fairness, that sounds absolutely fair!!! Haha!! The idea that I can give more, ask more and eventually, be more and have more – it is such an awesome idea!

When we don’t get any treats, we feel depleted, resentful, and angry, and justified in self-indulgence. We start to crave comfort – and we’ll grab that comfort wherever we can, even if it means breaking good habits.

So the opposite is true – when we constantly deprive ourselves, we end up rebelling and doing things that we know are not good for us. The little kid in us wants to throw a tantrum and get what we want, regardless of its consequences. And we eventually give up our good habits.

But it’s important for obligers to have treats. They’re susceptible to burnout, self-deprivation, or too much work for benefit of others, may lead them to feel resentful, neglected or deprived

As an obliger, this is so true for me. I am in the habit of always thinking of ways to make others happy – that I would do whatever I can to make it happen, within my power to do so. And sometimes, I end up feeling depleted. By giving myself a treat, I feel I am “deserving” and hence, will be more willing to continue my habit of meeting expectations, mine and others. The privilege of treating myself gives me the license to ask more from me. It is such a win-win situation – I get a treat and I get to be more!

Here’s a short list of my treats: a nice cuppa Earl Grey tea or hot chocolate at a fancy cafe, reading Agatha Christie’s book, eating beef steak and dark chocolate (maybe not together), walking at a beach, watching the rain fall, explore and travel, etc.

So. What’s your list of treats? Go treat yourself today!

We Don’t Always Know the Impact of Our Actions

Last Saturday, I attended a World Vision event to promote the “1000 Girls – She Matters” event. I was very touched by Yaru from Cambodia who courageously and eloquently shared her story of how her life changed through joining World Vision. And not just her life, but her community in Cambodia as well.

When I donate to charity organizations and churches, I seldom see the direct impact of my donations. Yaru’s story gave me an insight of a charitable organization’s impact to the community that they are committed to serve.

I realize that: a small single action can have rippling effects to larger communities. I decided to pledge my donation of RM65 per month to sponsor a child in World Vision – it is a personal and effective way to empower a child and her family as well as the community – and to break the chain of abuse, ignorance, oppression and poverty.

My bigger realization is that – we don’t always know the impact of our actions – that our impact to people around us are more significant that we think or assume. In our families, our actions and decisions model for our children our values and hopes for them. At work, our actions affect our company’s performance. In our social circle, our interactions with our friends reveal our care and concern for them. In our social media, our comments and likes make another person’s day. In a strange place, our warm smile brightens another person’s mood. Anywhere and anytime, a kind word or action always brings hope and joy to another person. Whenever there is an opportunity to say something nice to another person, say it sincerely with a smile. Whenever there is an opportunity to help another person or to show kindness, don’t ponder about it – just do it.

One thing we know: all our actions do impact others and we can effect a positive change to make the world a better place to live in.

Side Note: The event was hosted by Freda Liu, who has been an advocate for World Vision for many years. I’ve often heard her voice on the radio ages ago, and I was so thrilled to meet her in real life. She is so lovely!!!

Always Seek to be Better Than Before

I am currently reading Gretchen Rubin’s book called ‘Better Than Before – Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives’. In the book, she started with knowing yourself by your tendency, which she identified below:

1. UPHOLDERS respond readily to both outer and inner expectations
2. QUESTIONERS question all expectations, and will meet an expectation only if they believe it's justified
3. OBLIGERS respond readily to outer expectations but struggle to meet inner expectations
4. REBELS resist all expectations, outer and inner

Wow! I realize I am an Obliger – I am habitually doing things for people and what I believe they expect from me, and more. But I lack the same conviction to keep the promises I made to myself.

Obligers often dislike their tendency. They’re vexed by the fact that they can meet others’ expectations, but not their expectations for themselves

I was screaming in my head, YES! This is so true! I am totally frustrated when I fail to meet my own expectations.

The happiest and most successful people are those who have figured out ways to exploit their tendency to their benefit and just as important, found ways to counterbalance its limitations

This is what I have learnt and my actions taken so far:

  • I need external expectation to push me – that’s why I had publicly announced in my blog that I would post every Monday – and this has worked well starting this year 2024
  • I need an accountability partner – and I found one who keeps me accountable for my weekly blog posts and even give me great feedback on my posts
  • I need to do scheduling – I have setup an paid app called NotePlan and I am starting to do time blocking for my projects and daily tasks
  • I need to abstain from social media on my phone – after many failed attempts to curb my social media scrolling, I finally deleted both Facebook and Instagram apps on my phone last week (I can still access them through their websites but not so convenient)

Finding out my Obliger tendency has opened my eyes to understand why I fail badly without external expectations and how I can overcome it. I am glad that I am working toward becoming ‘Better Than Before’. Do check out the book and find out which tendency you are!

To Be A Star In My Movie

I have just finished Ali Abdaal’s first book, ‘Feel-Good Productivity’. I enjoyed reading it and learning the importance of “feeling good” to motivate me to do what matters most to me.

I realise that trying to motivate myself by pushing myself, and feeling guilt ridden when I failed to do what I promised myself – all these negative feelings did not bring the desired result of getting what I want done. The book’s Part 1 was about using play, power and people to energise us to do what we want to do. And one of the ways was to choose a character to make it fun and having daily quest to achieve your goal. Later in the book, he mentioned how Beyonce has a persona called Sasha Fierce that she could channel on stage to become more confident, more powerful and free from inhibitions.

I really like this idea of a persona as I am an introvert, and usually don’t like too much attention. But with a “persona”, I can be free from my shyness, be daring and bold. In fact, I CAN BE A STAR!!! If you’re laughing, that’s great, as I am laughing my head off too!!!

Let’s have a little fun imagining ourselves as a “STAR”. Perhaps you don’t see yourself as a star yet – I certainly did not – but just let your imagination run wild for a minute! Picture yourself as a star – in a star-studded event, or walking on the red carpet, or on a bright stage with a spotlight on you, or on a podium – and immerse yourself in the thrill of being a star..!!!

The truth is: we are the star in the movie of our lives. Sometimes, we direct our lives, but more often than not, our lives are directed by others (in our family or work/business). However, we play the leading role in our movie, so let us shine brightly as a STAR!

Emotions are like children in the car

I watched an interesting Instagram reel by mightypursuit where they sit down with Dr Arianna Brandolini on the topic of emotions:

Emotions are like children. You don’t want them driving the car because they will crash it. You don’t want to shove them in the trunk because they might die. You want them in the back seat where they can be seen and heard and attended to but they are not in control of anything.

As a child, I was confused about my emotions and I tend to hid them. I had the belief that being emotional is a sign of weakness, and if not controlled, emotions can cause havoc . So I learnt to be analytical and logical, as they are based on facts.

And to me, processing emotions is literally just allowing yourself to feel them. And if you look at research, emotions don’t last very long. Emotions are like waves, if you let them happen, they will move through you. … it’s allowing the emotions to happen without suppressing it, without trying to change it, without trying to ignore it, and maybe without trying to indulge it too much.

For a long time, I suppressed my emotions, until they burst out in rage. I could barely recognise myself in those times. I found out that I can’t suppressed just the bad emotions without becoming cold and unfeeling to other positive emotions. It was only in later years that I understood God made emotions for us to feel them. It is what makes us human.

I let myself cry when I am upset or heartbroken. I let myself go through the range of negative emotions of sadness, grief, disappointments, rejection, shame, guilt, anger, embarrassment, betrayal, etc. The emotions, like waves, will move through and move on, sometimes quickly, but oftentimes, much longer than I cared for.

I find out that going through the dark valley of emotions, heightens the big and small peaks of positive emotions like love and joy, hope and peace, enjoyment and optimism, inspiration and motivation, and most of all, gratitude.

All these emotions give meaning to our lives. Even in the darkest hours – when our emotions overwhelm us – we know that we can overcome them to become stronger and then, we learn to be more compassionate.

It’s better to disappoint others than to disappoint yourself

In my last week’s post, I talked about keeping promises to myself. Connected to this topic, is the concept of not letting myself down.

Excellence is more than meeting other people’s expectations. It’s also about living up to your own standards. After all, it’s impossible to please everyone. The question is whether you’re letting down the right people. It’s better to disappoint others than to disappoint yourself – Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

When I was young, I studied hard in school to please my parents, who believed that getting good grades + obtaining a degree was the ticket to getting a good job. I grew up as a “good girl”, even to the point of being a nerd in school, which many of my friends now find it hard to believe.

I realise it is truly impossible to please everyone. I found out that the sacrifices I make trying to please everyone eventually stripped me of my identify, my dreams and my hopes. So I decided I will stop letting myself down, but to allow myself to grow in strength and courage, beauty and grace, hope and love. To become the best version of myself as I journey through my path of self-discovery, and always reaching for my higher self.

In life, we will always let some people down, even though we tend to try our best not to let anyone down. We must decide who are the ones we will let down in different circumstances. Nevertheless, let us be more intentional in not letting ourselves down but to value ourselves more. And to set a higher standard for ourselves and what we want from our lives, so that we can soar higher in the sky!

Keeping Promises to Yourself to Boost Your Self-Confidence

One of the ways we can grow in our self-confidence is by keeping promises we make to ourselves. However, we tend to break our promises! We tell ourselves we want to go to the gym or go for a walk tomorrow, but we become lazy or tired the next morning. We tell ourselves we want to spend less and save more, but we can’t resist the online special offer. We tell ourselves we want to start eating healthy but we end up having too many cheat days. I am so guilty of them!

When it comes to our own promises, we tend to justify breaking or ignoring them. Why? Because it is so easy to get away with it, especially if you don’t tell anyone about it. Or we just procrastinate and make new promises to do it tomorrow…!

What we don’t realise is that we start losing confidence in ourselves when we keep on breaking our promises. Subconsciously, we know that we can’t trust ourselves to keep our promises. This will subsequently erode our self-confidence.

Two years ago in 2022, I decided that my Word of the Year was Integrity. Personally, that meant that I would do what said I would do. Hence, I decided to write my book, which I had said I wanted to do for many years. I not only wrote my first journal book on Nehemiah, but published it in 52 days (as Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days)! Keeping that promise to myself really boosted my self-confidence in what I am capable of doing, and what miracle God can do in my life when I trust in Him.

What are the many promises you make to yourself? What are the excuses or justifications you make when you fail to keep those promises? Please realise the impact it has on your self-confidence. My challenge to you is to make a list of the promises you have been making to yourself, and schedule to work on them every month.

As you keep your promises, you will boost your self-confidence and have a sense of integrity for keeping your word. As a parent, you can be a good role model for your children to always keep their promises too.

The Opposite of Addiction is Connection

I was intrigued by this idea by Johann Hari, in his TED Talk, ‘Everything you think you know about addiction’.

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety.

The opposite of addiction is connection.

  • Johann Hari, TED Global London, June 2015

He talked about the experiment done on rats in empty cages, with two bottles of water, one plain water and the other drug water. The rat always chose the drug water and eventually died. A Professor Alexander changed the environment to a Rat Park, where the rats were well fed and played with other rats. They almost never touched the drug water, and lived happily ever after. And he asked the question: What if addiction is an adaptation to your environment?

Another professor wanted to call it bonding instead of addiction. We are created to bond with each other. If we’re unable to bond with people, due to trauma or other issues, we might bond with things like drugs, pornography, gambling, social media, etc.

Social media feels like connection, right? Maybe some of us connected to childhood friends through Facebook. We feel connected to our friends as we watch what’s happening in their lives through social media. Yet, I’ve read that our current society is more lonely than ever before! Social media can never replace the real connection of meeting face-to-face with conversations and laughter (or tears) over a meal. Social media can’t replace the deep connection which is fostered as we see our friends weather through the storms in their lives.

We’ve got bonds and connections that you want to be present for. You’ve got work you love. You’ve got people you love. You’ve got healthy relationships. And a core part of addiction, I came to think, and I believe the evidence suggests, is about not being able to bear to be present in your life.

  • Johann Hari, TED Global London, June 2015

The connection we long for – in whatever we are addicted to, be it social media or drugs – is the connection of love and acceptance. We seek that connection of one human being with another, in a safe and loving relationship. Let us create a world of real connection and deep bonding of caring and loving unconditionally, and of supporting each other in our struggles.

What A Weekend Down With Flu Taught Me

I was down with flu last weekend – running and blocked nose, throbbing headache, and coughing. It was enough to bring me down – weak and lying in bed – cancelling all my weekend activities.

When I was young, I shuddered at the thought of how one’s life can change in a split second, for example, how Christopher Reeve was paralysed from the neck down due to a horse-riding accident. A famous celebrity who played Superman was not immune to life-shattering accidents? This really struck me!

Reading about Christopher Reeve, he became an inspiration through his research, advancement and building a foundation to help quadriplegics. He even had a directing debut and returned to the screen for a short time. He became a different “Superman” for us.

It is my faith in God that brings meaning to the sufferings in this world, as Jesus had come to suffer an excruciating death to die for our sins. Sin, death and suffering came through the original sin of Adam and Eve, but Jesus came to redeem us and grant us fullness of life. I do not understand many of the sufferings of the world, especially diseases and wars, and I don’t think I ever will. I do know suffering has its purpose of gaining a different perspective, and helping us to be more compassionate. And I know that God is with me through the trials and storms in my life. He longs for me to turn to Him for safely and protection, comfort and consolation, guidance and leadership, hope and inspiration, and mostly importantly, love and grace.

What I realise is that life is fragile. Do not take for granted what we have today – especially our loved ones and our health – they are the ones that we tend to ignore most of the time. Treasure our loved ones and take good care of our health. Before it is too late.

Chasing Who I Am in 10 Years

Recently, I heard Matthew McConaughey speech:

They are three things to my account that I need each day. One of them is something I look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.

Someone To Look Up To

The something he looks up to is GOD. He thanked God for his blessings – how amazing that is! I too believe that God is someone I look up to and give thanks to everyday. I am who I am today because of God’s amazing love and grace.

Someone To Look Forward To

The something he looks forward to is his family – how wonderful that is! To always look forward to his loving family is such a blessing. We must never take granted our family and friends, who have supported and love us.

Someone To Chase

The person to chase? That’s him in 10 years time! He is constantly chasing the person he will be 10 years away. He knows he is not going to attain that, and it’s fine with him because it keeps him with somebody to keep on chasing.

I love this concept of imagining my future self and chasing after my own hero. I get to envision the best version of myself in 10 years time, and keep on chasing after my awesome Future Self. It is a moving target of chasing the best version of who I can be in the future. I can play my own hero in my story, writing the adventures of my life!

I want more from my life because I know I can be more – that I can contribute more to the world. There is a purpose of who I am – to do something that I was meant to do, that only I can contribute to in this world. It is the unique contribution of my Future Self that I am pursuing – whether it is in one year or ten years’ time!

Overcome Feelings of Being Stuck

After starting a project, we sometimes go through a phase of feeling stuck, where we don’t feel like we are making much progress, or not making progress fast enough. What I would call: an annoying plateau.

One of the ways of overcoming this feeling of being stuck is to have a sense of progress, however small the progress. Maybe write one sentence for your book, or one line of code for your program, or one small social media post to say ‘Hi World’, a 3-minute exercise, or reading or researching on your topic, or making connection with someone who might be related to your project.

Just do anything – the smallest action – to gain a sense of progress, especially when you don’t feel like it. Make the action so small that you can’t not do it.

The strongest known force in daily motivation is a sense of progress – Hidden Potential by Adam Grant

I believe what is most important is not to get stuck for too long, as the longer we are stuck, the harder it is to get unstuck! I like the idea that I read somewhere – not to miss your daily action task for two or three consecutive days. Quickly get back on track as soon as possible, even with a small action to get that sense of progress. For example, if your project to lose weight requires you to exercise 20 minutes a day, just do a 3-minute exercise to keep the momentum and have a sense of progress, instead of having a total loss of one day. I always tell myself: 3 minutes is still better than 0 minute.

The secret to overcome the feeling of being stuck is by having a sense of progress, however small the progress is. A progress is still a progress, however small or big.

Start, even if you are not ready

We have a tendency to analyse and research when we want to start a personal project – Google search, ChatGPT, seeking expert opinion and friends’ advice, do research – all to make sure our little project that we have been dreaming of is fail-safe..!

The problem with all these checking and analysing is that we end up not starting at all – the curse of “analysis paralysis”. Furthermore, all the preparations might not prevent us from failure, as many things are not under our control.

So when do we start? NOW.

How do we start? Whatever first steps we can take. We don’t need to figure out all the steps to start our project. Along the way, we will figure things out, as we get more feedback and can improve on our initial action plans.

God always puts in our heart the desire to dream and make it happen. He will be the one to show us the way, but He will only show us a few steps at a time. Just so we trust Him. He will remove the obstacles in our way, and bring the connections and resources that we need. Sometimes, it is harder or longer than we expected, as we prefer to have things fast and easy. God wants to grow our character and it takes time. Humans and plants do not grow overnight – it takes time and seasons. Caterpillar takes time to turn into a beautiful butterfly.

We don’t see the finish line of a race when we are at the starting line. God sees the finish line and our victory. We journey together on this adventure, but we need to be at the starting line to start the race.

Trust in God’s timing.

Trust in the process of growth.

Just START.

Whether you feel ready or not.

Especially when you don’t feel ready!

The Amazing Power of Whisper

Recently, I watched an Instagram reel of a father called happy.human.life using the power of whisper to calm his young child and speak to her in a whisper. She had to stop screaming and yelling, get close enough to hear what her father was saying, and did exactly what he asked her to do.

Next time if you are in a heated anger or having a meltdown, STOP. Switch your raging anger from shouting or yelling or screaming – to calm down to speak in a soft whisper, if possible. See if this works to diffuse the heated situation – but my guess is that it will take some practice…

In the story of Elijah, God showed Himself in a gentle whisper – after the strong wind, after the earthquake, and after the fire:

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. – 1 Kings 19:11-13

God had shown His mighty strength and power in many instances – the ten horrible plagues against the Egyptians, parting of the Red Sea, crashing down the walls of Jericho, etc. However, God speaks to us through the soft prompting of the Holy Spirit, in a gentle whisper, so that we must draw close to hear Him. We also need to have a peace and quiet mind to discern His voice and understand what He is saying.

This is the Amazing Power of Whisper.

Steal Your Future, Kill Your Dreams and Destroy Your Confidence – NOT

I recently heard this from instagram posts by liveoutloudbrooke, where she explained about the famous verse from John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy – she confessed that this verse used to scare her, until someone explained to her the steal, kill and destroy part:

The enemy is coming to Steal Your Future, Kill Your Dreams and Destroy Your Confidence.

Have we not realised how our enemy is constantly defeating us – by stealing our hope in the future, burying all our long-forgotten dreams, and making us lose our confidence, not only in ourselves but also in our God?

This is a reminder to the second part of this same verse in John 10:10:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Yes! Jesus is our Redeemer and Saviour! He has redeemed us from our hopelessness, despair, and shame to grant us:

  • An Abundant Life
  • Dreaming Bold, Audacious Dreams and
  • Having full confidence in who God is, and who we are in God.

Instead of allowing the lies of the enemy to steal, kill and destroy us – believe in our God who has come to give us an abundant life. We are meant for MORE, MUCH MORE. God always instil in our hearts His divine dream and calling for us, and we will always be restless until we heed His calling to do His divine will. And after that, He still wants to bless us MORE and MORE!

That’s how I have started this blog in 2019. I felt I have much to share, and I wanted to gift it for my 50th birthday in 2020. Then I slacked for a few years, losing my momentum and my motivation. This year 2024, I have a renewed “push” by the Holy Spirit to do this for God’s glory, and He has blessed me with divine inspiration every week (Monday). I pray that my readers will be inspired to seek their divine calling and thirst for more of God’s blessings in their lives.

Are You Asking Big Enough?

I watched this video by Terri Saville Foy – God told her that she is not asking big enough. God told her to ‘ASK BIG and BELIEVE’.

Whether you believe in God: What do you ask for your life? Do you believe you are worthy of great things in life, or do you feel you are not worthy?

Basically, whether you are asking big enough – begs the question before this – What are you asking of your life? What do you want in your life? Then you can decide – is it BIG ENOUGH – and let the fun and excitement begins!!!

Why don’t people ask for the sky? Children have no limits and just ask for whatever they want, including the sky and the ocean! As we “grow up”, we become more realistic and practical, leaving behind the crazy idea of asking without limits.

God is telling Terri, and the rest of us who believe, that you can ASK BIG and BELIEVE. We put God within our human realm of ability, and figure He can’t do more than that, because that’s how far our limiting belief could imagine or what we feel we deserve. However, God is not constrained, not even by our wildest imagination.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us – Ephesians 3:20

I believe God is inviting us to dare to ask Him – Big Time!!! Next, align our hearts to His heart and BELIEVE. Like a child who asks her father excitedly for something she wants and waits expectantly knowing that her father will fulfil her wish. That’s the way to go!

Don’t ask me what I’m asking for – as I want you to stick around and find out for yourself! What I’m asking for – is something impossible for me – but not impossible for God. On this eve of my birthday, I am certainly ASKING BIG!

Invitation to an Empty Tomb

We just celebrated Easter Sunday yesterday. In the Bible, there is the story of the women who went to the tomb early in the morning to look for Jesus to embalm His body. They were told by the angel that Jesus has risen, just as He had said, then the angel invited the women to come and see the empty tomb (Matthew 28:6).

In the homily by the priest, he reminded us that the stone was rolled away from the tomb – not for Jesus to leave – but for people to enter and check the tomb. That really struck me – that it was for the women and the disciples to enter the tomb – to see for themselves that it was empty. I am sure they were totally confused to find an empty tomb. Jesus had taken upon Himself the sin and shame of the world, and overcame them. The celebration of Easter is the victory of the Son of God over sin and death. That’s the significance of the empty tomb!

Do we sometimes find ourselves going back to our dark hidden secrets that are buried deep within us, in our “tomb”? The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection is that He has overcome sin and death, to give us Eternal Life. The tomb is empty now – no more sin and death, no more shame and sorrow. They are gone. We are free – our freedom purchased graciously by the Son of God.

As we celebrate Easter, let us be reminded that:

  • The tomb is empty because Jesus has died for our sins and His resurrection has overcome death once and for all.
  • The tomb is empty because we are freed from our past shame and sorrow, not hidden nor buried, but vanished.
  • The tomb is empty because we have a new HOPE in God and His Almighty Power to overcome death.
  • The tomb is empty because we have a God that is powerful and sovereign and love us unconditionally.

As we look up at our Risen Jesus on Easter, let us remember the significance of the empty tomb as well.

YOLO Win Just Once

Recently, I watched the Chinese movie YOLO – where a woman was jobless for 10 years and living with her parents. Many times, she was betrayed by those closest to her. Despite the pain of betrayal, she still helped them out and didn’t seek to take revenge on them.

There came a turning point in her life that she decided she wanted to win just once. She was tired of being a loser. However, she didn’t obsessed about proving anything to anyone, except herself. She transformed her life drastically by registering for a boxing competition. She had to attempt a few times just to qualify – and it was sheer sweat, tears, determination, perseverance, resilience and grit . On her first match, she was determined not to quit but to complete all the rounds, whereas I was indignant how they could pitch a beginner against a pro boxer! She defined what was a WIN for her, not conforming to society’s definition of success. And because of that, she also define who is a WINNER.

As I was watching the movie, my initial assumption was that they got a slim actress and put on the “cosmetic weight” for her for the beginning of the movie. How wrong I was! At the end of the movie, they showed the real actual progress of the actress losing the weight from beginning to end of 2023! I was super awed!!! It blew my mind when I found out she was also the movie director!!! Unbelievable!! Absolutely INSPIRING!!!

Her story reminds me of Joseph in the Bible – how he was betrayed by so many, yet he triumphed in the end as God brought him up to great heights. God always use our dire circumstances to transform us. God has created the human spirit to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. It exist deep within us, that sometimes only the biggest challenges in our lives can reach inside and grab hold of it.

Never lose sight of what is IN YOU:

Your Awesomeness.

Your Beauty.

Your Courage.

Your Determination.

Your Energy.

Your Fighting Spirit.

Your Greatness.

YOU ARE A WINNER!!