The Bushy Path

“Render help unto others.” This is one of the most popular statements we listen to every day. It’s worth its weight in gold and it’s a statement that everyone has to take to heart. But is everybody eligible to help others? Yes.

If there is one problem common to most people, it is how to get the most out of our time. If there is one habit common to all successful people, it's that they manage their time like a boss. They take charge of their time and get the best out of it. They understand how the usage of time dictates the level of their success.

In the summer of 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps had gone through his usual routine before his swimming event. He had done his 25-meter sprint in the pool to raise his heartbeat. After that, he put on his headset for his songs playlist before a race. He was getting ready for the 200-meter butterfly race. Minutes later, the athletes were beside the pool, ready for the event. Moments later, the gun went off and each swimmer plunged into the swimming pool for the chance at winning the ultimate medal: Olympic gold.

Ego can be a cause of downfall for anybody. When you have succeeded in a task or in your career, it is easy to think that you are the best. It is easy to think that you achieved success because you were flawless. Ego can blind you to things that people around you try to warn you about. It is even easy to think that those people are unqualified to offer advice to you because they have achieved much less than you have.

Sometimes, you think about your disadvantaged background. It becomes a source of discouragement to you. You believe that this could be a problem to the achievement of your lofty goals. You think people who have more privileged backgrounds would have it easier to fulfill their dreams and become successful.

After spending 20 years working at your job, you have a level of confidence that comes with solving many problems in your field and helping many people out. You believe you have seen it all. But wait a bit. What if that is just your perception rather than the reality. Experience is good in any job but if careless, it can lure you into a pit of overconfidence. And one way to be realistic is to admit that it is almost impossible for anybody to see it all no matter what they do. You may have even gotten a lot of praise from your co-workers or your employers but you must always be careful and vigilant. You must always know that experience in itself is not what solves problem.

Close to the top of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is the self-esteem needs. This is usually the fulfilment needs we have as a result of our career or many achievements. Few people are able to meet this need and it seems those are the lucky ones who happen to stumble upon worthwhile achievements. But are they just lucky? What if their actions made meeting these needs inevitable? In life, some people wait for things to happen to them. They hope and pray for good things. Some of them even know what to do to make extraordinary achievements. But they always fail at the action. Because some of these things are difficult to do and guarantee nothing. These people are pushed around by the wind of life to wherever the wind blows. To these people, things are always too difficult. They even point at several people around them who had failed, and some of them woefully. They use this as evidence that things are generally hard and the world is unfair.