While getting through my reader this weekend, I came across this awesome post … thought I’d share it with all of you Standing just around the corner from turning 27, I think I can relate to a lot of these… I have starred the ones which I have yet to learn or come across.

1. Being an adult can be fun when you are acting like a child.
2. Love has nothing to do with looks, but everything to do with time, trust, and interest.
3. Laughing, crying, joy and anger… All are a vital.  All make us human.
4. The greatest truths in life are uncovered with simple, steady awareness.
5. Greed will bury even the lucky eventually.
6. Bad things do happen to good people.
7. *Paving your own road is intelligent only if nobody has gone exactly where you are going.
8. Uncertainty is caused by a lack of knowledge.  Hesitation is the product of fear.
9. Time heals all wounds… regardless of how you feel right now.
10. Most of the time what you are looking for is right in front of you.
11. *Your health is your life.
12. Chance is a gift, so act on chance when given the opportunity.
13. Kindness and hard work will take you further than intelligence.
14. People deserve a second chance, but not a third.
15. *Marry your best friend. [update (01 Nov 2009): I've met my best friend, and I will marry her soon!]
16. Take lots of pictures.  Someday you’ll be really glad you did.
17. *Money makes life easier only when the money is yours free and clear.
18. Carelessness is the root of failure
19. Your actions now create memories you will reminisce and talk about in your elder years.
20. Stepping outside of your comfort zone will put things into perspective from an angle you can’t grasp now.
21. Motivation comes in short bursts.  Act while it’s hot.
22. Purposely ignoring the obvious is like walking backwards toward the enemy.
23. Taking ownership of failure builds the foundation for success.
24. First impressions are completely worthless 50% of the time.
25. Personal glory lasts forever.
26. If you never act, you will never know for sure.

I look at this list and I smile… I’ve come across most of these in the last 26 years… yet, there is one which comes out and dances in front of me almost everyday -

If you never act, you will never know for sure.

Atleast the memories of the last 5 years act as my witness – sensible actions have made me learn the answers to the questions who when where why and how.

THIS will never go away from me.

op⋅por⋅tu⋅ni⋅ty

-noun, plural -ties.

From time to time, I go through phases where I question certain topics a great deal. Opportunity is one of those “subjects” which I constantly talk about. I question opportunities available to everyone, and how people can, do and don’t capitalise what is available to them. There are a lot of issues which I think about at the moment, and they somehow seem to link themself to opportunity.

I was thinking about one of my earliest memories recently. My junior school was located miles into the desert. My daily journey started at 0630 am, when I was the first person to board the bus. It was late 1988, I had turned 6, and I couldn’t miss the school bus in the morning. There was no alternative transportation, so it’s fair to say – there was no pressure on me to sort myself out everyday morning to get to school, a journey which took almost an hour and a half each way. Did I mention that it gets hot in the desert? So when I had the opportunity in 1994 to join a school within the city limits, I grabbed that opportunity. I was 12, and as much as I loved my friends, I had that instinctive desire to change my current situation; one which I obviously didn’t enjoy. Somehow, I’d like to think that I grabbed my opportunity at that young age; ofcourse my parents made some decisions, but I was actually given a choice of where I wanted to go. I think I chose wisely.

Fast forward a few years, I had graduated from university, and I had 2 job offers on the table. One was from a Japanese-German IT vendor, and the other was from a small Swiss-Pakistani bank. I chose the smaller company because the opportunity to learn and establish myself was far greater here; I knew I could somehow learn more, and since moving on from there, I know that it was an opportunity well utilised.

Those are 2 examples, from my life, of opportunities which I was presented with, and how I took them. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about in this post. I want to talk about the opportunites which affect others. Opportunities which affect my friends, and some which affect people who I work with. Why?…. Well, I believe in sharing the love, sharing experience, learning from others, and try and help others learn from what I have been through myself. It’s my way of contributing to life.

So where do I start? Well, how about with someone who was very close to me. The question I always asked you was why did you fight against opportunities which would help broaden your horizon, help you achieve your dreams, improve your lifestyle to how you always wanted it to be?

I wonder if the current ceasefire in Gaza is an opportunity for everyone worldwide to put in that little effort in helping raise awareness of the conflict in the region, and to try and help people on both sides to accept each other and try and live in peace.

With the current global financial crisis, can we do something simple like help people all around the world have access to clean water? We have the opportunity to help those in need, and anything we do – small or large, is a great enough contribution.

Sometimes, we wish for opportunities, dream about these, but they seem so hard to come by. Such is the situation of a friend of mine. As hard as she is working, hoping, and improving herself, the lack of a single and simple opportunity is holding her back from achieving a dream.

But then there are others who have the opportunities but just do not want to recognise it… as clearly as you stick it in front of their face.

In the company where I currently work, I have an idea of what it takes to move up the ladder; it’s something which I have done effectively, and would love it if I could help others achieve as well.There are a couple of guys at work who show promise from time to time; this was recognised early by the people who can influence or make decisions. However, the one thing lacking at work is the guidance or motivation on how you can jump up a level; sometimes this is required for people of my age.

The issue with these people isn’t the fact that there isn’t anyone trying to push them, a bunch of us actually want them to step up to the plate and raise their game, perform confidently and consistently above their comfort level, essentially prove to the company that they can consistently bring their “A-game” to the show and seize that opportunity to climb up a level. But it seems that they “don’t want to”; that they are “happy” with what they have. I know its a strong statement to make, but there is no other way of explaining their behaviour. A number of you readers work, some of you in large organizations, and others in not so big ones; so I guess you will understand essence of grabbing the opportunity when you ae presented with it in a work environment. Is it fair to complain about your job if you don’t want to step out of your comfort zone?

Forget about a job, is it fair to complain or object to anything in life if you don’t want to cross a barrier based on your own decisions? How do you move forward in life without taking the next step?

I don’t know about others, but I believe that when you are younger, you have a greater opportunity to do things, to achieve things compared to later on in life. I hope it isn’t a naive view, but as a 26 year old I feel that I have a reasonably mature view of how life turned out over the last 10 years, and how it could go in the next 10. Stepping up to the plate to face the music if not what everyone is cut out to do. Every person paces their life differently, and achievements come at different stages in each ones life. But one thing which will constantly appear in life is opportunity. It wont appear only once…. opportunities will knock your door on a daily basis…..

What is important to know is – will you see an opportunity when it comes, and then will you have the strength to grab it with both hands?

This post is dedicated to each end everyone of you – especially the younger readers….

It has been quite a week on this blog! For anyone who hasn’t been up to speed with the happenings, let me tell you what 14 other bloggers and myself have been upto!

In January 2009, this blog began it’s participation in NaBloPoMo. NaBloPoMo is an innitiative as such, to get bloggers to post on a daily basis. The idea is also to try and blog on a particular theme, but it is not mandatory. The theme for January 2009 was “Change”. It was a subtle theme to begin the year with because January is normally about change, about resolutions, about improving yourself; but January 2009 will also stand out in history as the period in which this world witnessed a truly historic political change which affects almost everyone.

As part of my daily blogging routine, I wanted to gauge how “change” was going to affect the people who read this blog, and more importantly, what is their view of change as they see it in their life. To measure this (using no particular scale as such), the 7 posts in 7 Days (7Pi7D) project was born. The scale of the initial project had to be altered, but the concept remained. This blog was opened to fellow bloggers and non-bloggers to air their views, opinions, and thoughts on this subject of change.

The result of this was amazing, and far exceeded my expectations. The quality of posts which each of these 14 bloggers put together was pretty outstanding. Moreover, I think we can clearly identify that the daily battles which most of us face may be unique to each one of us, but is something that each one of us can definitely relate to. I love the fact that new blogging friendships were forged during this project, and hopefully each one of these guys will see and benefit because of the newly formed alliances.

Another aspect of the 7Pi7D project was a prize for the 500th comment; the prize would go to the 500th commenter ofcourse, and the blogger on whose post the comment appeared. The winners are AnonymouslyMe (blogger) and Digital Niqabi (commenter). An Amazon voucher, and a charity donation are on their way!

As for this blog, well, NaBloPoMo in January was very enjoyable! Saying that, I don’t think I will participate in NaBloPoMo for a while. A major part of my blogging experience is to actually read other blogs, and relate to them from my personal experiences. Unfortunately, during January, I have hardly had time to read and comment on the blogs which I love and follow. I miss this big time, and want to get back to this ASAP. My studies have also taken a fair bit of a hit because of the marathon blogging and the time which it took last month; I want to pick that up again too.

Saying that, I am not one to sit down and continue with a fixed routine! I want to definitely give the blog a facelift, and this is top of a priority list over the next two months. I am also looking at collaborative blogging, and need to further thrash some ideas out in that area. What I do know is that I am reading more blogs outside of my comfort zone, and these are helping me identify challenging areas as a blogger. A little bit of work on the ideas, and we can have something interesting going, not only here but also on other blogs.

I will begin February 2009 by going “shush” for sometime. Work is a little hectic at the moment, and I am begining my month out of London for most of the coming week. I should be alive on twitter, and hopefully back to my blogging best by the end of the week!

The last week of January 2009 was great fun! I want to thank everyone big time for participating. Each of you is in my reader already, an hopefully I will catch up with reading and commenting in the coming days.

I will leave you with 14 of the best! They are linked below in the order of their appearance:

Antonella

Pipi

AnonymouslyMe

Mars

MaliZOMG

Sarah Elizabeth

Falak

HFM

HanniePants

Ms Outcast

Digital Niqabi

Katherine

Dallas Diaries

Lili

MY *updated* – One more for good measure!

Have a good February everyone!

It’s been a long week, even though I was at work for only 3 days; no, not long weekend, flu.

I spent my Friday, for the second week in a row, training some of the newer member of staff on my team. I must say that I am enjoying their company, and more often than not they are challenging me and helping me raise my game to a new level. Over the last 2 training session, I kind of get and understand the satisfaction that people have in the teaching profession. Saying that, I don’t think I could teach all week!

I am also enjoying connecting with my noobies on a social and philosophical level. I have always been one to forge connections with a lot of people; the majority of whome are older than me. My noobies are no different, and there is some level of calm and ease when I am in their company. We spent our short breaks talking and discussing things like you would between friends, and not necessarily work colleagues. This feeling though has only kicked in off recently. When the 3 of them joined the company (over the last 4 months), I felt a level of intimidation towards the 3 of them, and I don’t know why? I guess I am a slow starter with people, and like to get into my comfort zone before I go crazy; I guess it’s the same with them too.

I had a fun Friday, and I hope I get a chance to have more productive sessions with them soon! My next training sessions, with other noobies are 2 weeks from today…. let’s see how it goes!
How has your week been?

*Quick shout out* to Legend of G, who is another colleague of mine, and has finally posted a comment on his birthday (on the 16th of Jan). G was the second or third person to know about my blog, and I appreciate his ‘effort’ of keeping shush about what I write in the office space. Although he does pass “subtle” comments… Here’s to your crazy dry sarcasm and the hope of many more comments from you in the future!