brave

Invitation to be Brave

Without realizing it, I had slowly become a coward.  This week, God invited me to step out of that hiding place and really live again.

Ever since I burned out at the end of 2007, I somewhat unconsciously swung from go-with-a-gusto approach to life to self-protection mode. (Visit here for my blog dedicated to my burnout experience.)  I think it’s natural and understandable that I reacted to feeling utterly depleted and spent from life by being careful with how I used my time and energy.  But I was gently shown this week that the pendulum had swung to the other extreme.  I had, in a way, over-corrected.
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Permission to be yourself

You Hereby Have Permission to Be Yourself

In my conversations with people, one of the recurring unspoken sentiments I hear is a request for permission to be themselves.  No one actually says it in quite those words, of course, but under the surface, the question often is, “Am I ok (especially if I’m not like others)?”
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6 Reasons why You should become a Mentor

Mentoring has become a buzz word these past few years. I’ve read countless articles about why you should find a mentor. I’m convinced. And I’m pretty sure most people are convinced. Having a mentor is a great idea. But this blog post is not about why you should get a mentor. This blog post is about why it’s a great idea for you to BECOME a mentor (If you are wondering how to find a mentor, here’s a blog post I wrote about how to do that).
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prank-Pasukaru76

The 7 Best Pranks I’ve Seen

With April Fool’s Day being only a month away, it’s time to start scheming about pranks to play on your loved ones for April 1st. As I start planning what prank I’m going to pull on Olive this year (I’m just joking Olive, I would never dare play a prank on you… neeeever), I reminisce about that best pranks I’ve seen (or been involved in).
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10 Reasons Jeremy Lin’s Story is so Appealing

Somehow Jeremy Lin has captured the imagination of the sports world these two weeks. I see stories about him everywhere. My friends are posting about him on Facebook. The people I follow (like @jack_welch) are tweeting about him on Twitter. He is on the front page of ESPN, TSN, and newspapers (especially Asian ones). My friends went to watch him play live in Toronto on Tuesday. My dad forwarded me an email about him. A reporter from the Vancouver Sun called me yesterday to ask me why I had Linsanity (it was very timely, because I had just finished writing this article when he called). I even dreamed about him the other night.
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Olive in Casablanca

Finding My Voice: Travel While Single

[Finding My Voice is a series of blog posts on key decisions I made in my 20s.]

Defining decision: Travel while I was single

I heard it said once that the decade of one’s 20s was for personal and career exploration, one’s 30s for development, one’s 40s for establishment, one’s 50s as the prime years and one’s 60s and beyond were for passing on the wisdom to those who were younger. This made sense to me, so in my 20s, I took what opportunities I could to explore more of who I was. Part of this exploration included travelling.
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