Monday, 25 August 2014

Cooking Soup: Analogy of Living Our Life

I'm always drawn to philosophies of life since young, taking them as motivating factor to drive myself in living my own life. Different philosophies give different interpretations & understandings to each individual leading them to be confused on understanding life terminologies such as fate, destiny etc. Looking out for ways of living our own life, is so special that it has interconnecting relationship with everything we do in our daily chores. Giving out an analogy of living our own lives is like cooking our own soup. These are the usual steps we usually do:-

1) When cooking soup, we choose our own ingredients & not let others choose for us.
2) Of course, before cooking, we need to know what soup we are cooking. Otherwise, we will not know what are we preparing the ingredients for.
3) We decide the taste of our soup by using the right ingredients. If we want it to be more sweet, we put more sugar If we want it to be less salty, we put less salt.
4) If the taste turned out right, then we congratulate ourselves & strives to do it on consistent basis. If the taste of the soup turned out not to our liking, we don't blame the ingredients, the small kitchen or the cooker. One question to be asked is who put in the ingredients at the first place? Which is why we need to monitor to check on the taste during cooking process. If it still fails, no point procrastinate & blame ourselves.
5) Fix the problem first. To "repair" the taste, either we put in more of counter-taste ingredients such as more water to cover the too-sweet taste OR we throw it away & cook it all over again. What is the best way, will depends on many other factors like "severity" of the taste problem, time, availabilities of ingredients etc.
6) Sometimes, there's no choice but to learn the past mistakes & to start all over again to cook the a brand new soup. That too, the taste will not be guaranteed. If we need to start again, then there's no choice. We need to keep on trying to get the right taste. No one knows how many times we need to try.
7) No one said we need to cook the soup alone. We mustn't be stubborn & it's not wrong to ask for others help & guidance to get the right taste. Of course, there's easy way out to get others to cook for us instead but which way is more meaningful? To drink others' soup or own cooked soup?


Putting the steps above in explaining in aspect of living our own lives
1) We live our own lives & not living a life's that others want us to be
2) We need to have goals / objectives in life, be it in career, studies, family or relationship. Without having goals / objectives, we will not know our directions & not know what are we doing
3) We decide on our own life directions with our hands. If we want our life to be exciting, we make efforts to turn it into an exciting one. On the other hand, if we want a sad life, then it's going to be a sad one.
4) If life is indeed good & go according to plan, then cherish it. Be grateful for the greatness & beauty of live bestowed to us & make efforts to ensure it maintains as what it is. However, if challenges arises & we have bad times, we don't blame anything else but ourselves. Check point no 3 above & which is why we must not be complacent and must keep making efforts to ensure our life is in order
5) When a challenge arises, fix it & try to minimize the damages. Look into different approaches to fix the problem. The best way will depends on each situation & looking at the cause of it.
6) Sometimes, the problem may turn out to be beyond "repair". We need to persevere & do not be afraid of failure & having the willpower to start all over again. We need to keep trying to get the desired results. Rome is not built in a day. Thomas Edison does not create light bulb with one try.
7) Improving our life need not to be done alone. We must not be stubborn & must be willing to accept our own shortcomings to get help from others. Seeking others help is one thing but not to extent of depending on others all the time for help. It is more meaningful to do it ourselves while seeking guidance from others

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