Inspired by Chris Guillebeau’s Guide to World Domination manifesto from his Art of Non-Conformity blog, I decided to try writing my own. Been thinking about it for a couple of months since I read his manifesto, it is still in the midst of refinement.
In Chris’ manifesto, he asked 2 questions: “What do I really want?” and “What can I really offer?” This is somewhat similar to a segment of Daren Hardy’s Design the Best 10 Years of Your Life.
My personal mission statement is “To appreciate and enjoy the quality of life by having an abundance of love, happiness and wisdom”. And my vision in life is “To bring love and happiness to the people around me”. That’s pretty much “What I really want”.
When I was around 16, I came up with this mantra/quote: “Today is the best day in my entire life, For I live only in the present. My past ended when I fell asleep last night, My future will start when I wake up tomorrow.” And my days, weeks and years are always getting better and better.
Now, “What can I really offer?” is a more complex question. As women, we have so many roles to play daily. It requires a conscious effort to focus on myself sometimes, can be simply remembering to have regular meals, sufficient sleep and going for facials.
Our bigger purpose in life is to make the world a better place coz we came by, not just to our immediate family and friends, but include strangers whom we might never meet. When we fulfil the purpose we are on earth for, that makes our lives worth living.
My intention is to make a positive difference to women and girls, so every woman/girl can pay itforward to the next generation of women/girls. Currently, there are several good causes that are doing it; one of them that I am following more closely is Girl Up.
Currently, I am still developing my ‘how’. We need to start somewhere, so I started by mentoring two 7-year-old girls under Singapore Children Society. I aim for a consistent 1-2 hour session/week,and never skip it for more than 3 weeks.
Sometimes, I go after a day of work, but just seeing the lively girls, I know the time spent with them is truly worth it. Both of them have great potential to be contributing members to our future society, making a difference to the world. One of them wants to be a doctor and the other wants to work with animals. As of yesterday, both wanted to be teachers!
If I need to answer “What can I really offer?” today, my answer will be “to inspire people by my way of living”. How else I can better inspire people other than leading by example? One of my ‘manifesto’ for this year is my 30 before 30 list. It was inspired by some friends, but by keeping to these goals, I achieved so much more via this journey than I ever expected. And it is not even June!
I am not perfect, but I am constantly trying to improve myself, bit by bit. After all, we are actually “work in progress” all our lives. We just keep learning, growing, developing, adapting and changing. We are either moving forward or backward in life, never staying stationary. And that’s why life is such an exciting journey!
