The world can be a confusing place. Sometimes what you think is true may turn out to be false, even long held beliefs could end up being lies. What we see in the news, what the authorities tell us or what we have been taking for granted probably all worth some reflection and reconsideration. Take the financial markets for example, there is a belief among many savvy investors that whenever public sentiment (usually hyped up by the media) believes in something, it’s usually wiser to go the other direction. That’s where real money is made. This totally goes against the mainstream sentiment. I am not trying to sell fear or tell you that everything you see in the news is false, but I believe it’s absolutely fundamental that we get better informed and make better decisions. If we don’t, we will be at the mercy of various types of ‘crises’ and we don’t want to be in that situation.
The pandemic has really brought home a lot of scrutiny about what we thought of as normal to be the opposite. Normalcy has really changed its face in the span of a few months. From the pandemic to the U.S. presidential election, I am sure many people have felt let down and lost one way or the other. I don’t really want to take a particular view and be absolutely righteous about it as I don’t even believe in that kind of approach. What I think is more important is for us to make better decisions and judgements about everything around us, focusing on things we can control. People focus too much on things we can’t control and that often leads you nowhere if not more frustration. I understand there may be a need to fight for what you believe in and I have nothing against that. You do what you can, you do what you need to do. But I would still like to highlight the importance of taking care of things we have control over. There are three pillars which I think are of the greatest importance. They are health, wealth and the mind. I have separated health from the mind because I think they are two very big subjects that are worthy of discussion in their own right. Needless to say our health is of the utmost importance. Without a healthy body, we simply can’t do the things we want to do in life, simple as that. Unfortunately, a lot of the things we have come to believe to be healthy for us have turned out to be pretty bad for us.
Take grains and dairy for example. I grew up thinking they are the most vital foods you can have so I ate a lot of pasta, bread and cereal growing up. I only found out in recent years that they are actually bad for you. Now, before I go further, I’d like to say that I am not a doctor, nor have I received any medical training so I am not trying to give out medical advice. You should not take anything as absolute truth, it’s vital that you do some research yourself and come to your own conclusions. But on the subject of expert advice, if that’s your cup of tea, then feel free to listen to the experts. If you asked me, I would caution you against the so-called experts. In fact, it’s probably best to stay away from them as much as possible. I am not saying real experts don’t exist, of course they do. We just need to be able to distinguish the good from the bad. This is probably another topic for another day so I will stop here. But I will just pose this question to those people who love and only listen to ‘experts’. By listening to experts’ advice, are you absolutely sure that you’d be better off in five or ten years time from now? If you are absolutely sure that you’d be better off finance-wise, health-wise, and mind-wise then I say good luck to you and I wish you well. But if the answer is that you are unsure, then I think it’s worthwhile to investigate further (in whatever topic you are interested in) and keep an open mind about things. Alright, that was quite a bit a digression, let’s get back to the three pillars. They are actually quite straightforward. Here are some key points which I think could benefit everyone.
Health
- Pay attention to your diet. We are what we eat. It’s extremely important that we pay close attention to what we eat.
- Consume good fat/oil, ditch bad oil.
- Cut down on processed foods.
- Quality over quantity. Don’t try to save money on junk food, it’s a bad idea.
- Cut down on carbs/sugar as much as you can. Good carbs OK to consume in moderation.
- Learn to love ‘disgusting’ foods. I have the ability to eat things that I know are good for me but taste disgusting.
Wealth
The more we learn, the more we earn. This is very true if you want to build wealth. I don’t think I need to go into why wealth is important as most people would probably prefer being rich and prosperous rather than being poor and stagnant. We all want more money one way or another. People may have different definitions on what an acceptable amount is, but in essence, to me it means having freedom. It gives you freedom to live, work and travel to different places the way you wish to. You will no longer be forced to work at one place just because you need to pay your bills. To me, it’s not really about buying nice cars and living luxuriously. There are so many ways to build wealth, but here are the ones I’m focused on personally. These approaches, I believe are relatively easy to do and anyone can start right away. But most importantly, whatever you do you need to spend time to learn first. This is probably the most important thing.
- Investing
- Trading
- Running an online business
I will be writing about these ways in more detail later in other posts.
The Mind
Our happiness is largely based on how we feel. You might be a millionaire already, but if you don’t feel happy, having that kind of amount doesn’t really mean anything. Likewise, you might only be making a modest living, but if you genuinely feel good about your life, then you are a happy and successful person. If you feel good inside, that’s all it really matters. External success only has meaning when we actually feel it inside. This is why it’s extremely important to make sure our mind is at an optimal level as often and as much as possible. In theory, one can achieve success simply by mastering one’s mind without needing to achieve any kind of success defined by society. Of course, in reality this isn’t easy to do which is why having both is more suitable for most people. These are some of the things I do to take care of my mind:
- Read or listen to stories and anecdotes from inspiring people.
- Meditation and yoga
- Religion and spirituality
- Exercise and activities
- Friends and communities
- Not to take things too seriously. Often our imagined situations are worse than they actually are. A lot of it is insecurity and fear.
These things may sound pretty basic to some people, but I still think these are worth our constant attention because we have control over these things, as opposed to trying to control our environment or events out of our control. I am a believer of constant fine-tuning so I don’t provide a one-size-fits-all approach. The important thing is to use these pillars as a guide , as reminders so we can better navigate this complicated world. I have only briefly touched on some points but I will be going over them in more detail in upcoming posts. So stay tuned!