Find your Strongest Life

Find your Strongest Life- What the happiest and most successful women do differently by Marcus Buckingham.

I saw this book at DuYi bookstore and I felt the urge to get it and see if I can learn how to build a better life. At age 24, I am clueless about what I should do in my life. Happiness has always ranked high in my priority but I was feeling disappointed and hopeless. Through this book, I gained some great insights as to how to manage my life.

The book starts with 10 common myths about the lives of women in which people believed them to be true. One of them states that 'women are good at multitasking, and it helps them to get everything done'. I couldn't agree more that this is untrue for me after this job experience because I just cannot concentrate on doing anything well. Our brain is not designed to multitask, it will slow us down, increase our stress level and eventually we become worn out. 

The book illustrates some real life experiences of great successful women through interviews with them. How do they live their lives feeling fulfilled, happy and accomplished. What exactly is the purpose in life? Many of us are stuck in a situation in our lives whereby we are not satisfied. This book will help you to identify your strengths and use these strengths to transform your lives.

Women's lives did improved over the years with better education and more decision making power. However, it is also because of the endless possible choices that causes us to have so much stress as to which option would be the best. I have a degree but I never really knew what I wanted, what I am good at and which direction should I go. Therefore, I am confused as to which is my correct path. This book has helped me with some guidelines to make certain decisions. There are 4 emotional signs stated in this book that shows if you have a strong life. You need to feel successful, looking forward to a new day, eager to grow and learn and have your needs fulfilled. 

Everybody is different and unique in their own way, so you can never copy another person's way of finding their strongest life.  You need to identify your own strong moments. "Strong moments are certain moments in your life that creates strongly positive emotions in you." Not all moments are equal because some time you feel nothing with certain moments and sometimes you will feel negative when you do something else. And because I have always been a more emotional person, I am really glad to know that I can rely on my emotions to guide me.

Weak moments are like those activities that makes you feel weak. If it is boring you, draining you and causing you to lose concentration, then it is a weakness. Instead of trying to improve these so called weaknesses, focus on building up your strength. And this is also something I am aiming for in my career path, to be an expert in something, which you might already be good at also. This would probably work better then juggling and trying to be good in all aspects. Similarly, as a student,  all my grades were average and I felt a little sad with no strong subject. 

There is a link provided in the book to determine what kind of lead role you were born to play. My main role is a creator and my secondary role is an advisor. I find that I really fit into the description [very true] of the book. You can try taking the test here! But the description online is a shorter version, so do get the book if you wish to find out more.

After you get an idea of who you may be, you can work your way to achieve a fuller life. Purposely tilt your life and create strong moments that will empower you. Rather than finding a balance in our hectic life, aim for fullness in our life. So start thinking about the moments that you feel very positive and strong. For example in my case, although I super hate this job, I feel that I'm strong when I manage to exceed the satisfaction of the customers. I feel positive drawing on the greeting card for a customer and it makes me happy.

I really like this book and will continue to use the knowledge I have gotten to strive to live a greater life. Remember that the more you dwell on a weakness, the bigger it may seem to be. So just ponder about who you really are and focus on building your strength.

Bedok South Indian Rojak

I wanted to write out this post to really express how much I enjoyed my experience with this stall. Indian Rojak is kind of unhealthy so I don't eat it very often but Bf had this craving so we decided to try it. Before that, we have seen a few groups of people eating the rojak, one of them was even taking a photo of the stall front. It must either be for a complaint or a recommendation.

So we need to choose our items in our plate right but because all of them look quite similar, bf asked the stall owner what all the items are. The owner, who is a really nice Indian man, explained to us row by row what ingredients are each food item comprised of. He even gave us small pieces of food sample to try before we order. I love the small shrimp dough, it is very fragrant and delicious. While we were debating whether to get the vegetable fried dough and wondering what vegetables is used, he gave us another small piece to try. Although I kindly rejected it since we already decided to get one to try anyway, he still persuaded us to take the piece, nice then buy he say. It is really very rare to find a food stall owner who has the patience to explain what he is selling and even provide us with free food samples. I overheard him telling another customer that there is no minimum order too! If you just want like 1 piece, I think he will still be very glad to serve you. 

After our chosen items were heated up with the fryer, he warned us to be careful as it is very hot. He guided us to where the utensils are and tell me that I can take more gravy if we don't have enough. Honestly, we ordered only 5 pieces and had two gravy bowls which is more than enough. He is generous. Since we sat near his stall, I could hear how he communicated with all the other customers. He feels like a jovial and very approachable uncle. I think one of the customers asked him about the beginnings of Indian Rojak and he said that this is Singapore Rojak. He has not seen or heard of any rojak in India hahaha. This is an interesting point. 

Of course the taste of the food must still be good la. I haven't eaten much Indian Rojak to do comparisons but generally since the food is heated up, it taste good and crispy :). The small shrimp dough is a must try because I love it so much! Other than that, it is mostly flour [carbohydrates!]  which can be gelat if you eat too much. And super unhealthy. 

But because the Indian uncle is such a nice seller, we would definitely patronize the stall again. Sometimes, making the effort to build good relationships will bring you further. 

Bedok South Road Block 16 Market & Food Centre. #01-07.