17-Sep-2020

In life as in most things, inevitably we don’t achieve what we wanted.  Whether it is our fault or the fault of others, that is debatable but the bottom line is, we have ‘failed’ at this particular point in time.

We as humans, whom we think of ourselves as wise and smart, leading to defining ourselves as rational beings and so using our intellect, we assign logical reasons and meanings even, to why we failed.  However, often or not, there are no valid reasons as to why and so we are left with emotions to deal with.    

So, it is the emotions resulting from the failure that dominates our thoughts.  Seeing our dreams so cruelly taken away at an instant, really hurts our feelings and egos.  Most importantly, even as we are actually living day to day, we can sense our future self and future life being robbed right in front of us and that sense of outrage, of being denied what is ours to have, is what probably what hurts the most.  In short, it feels as if our lives are over.

In truth, the universe does not care for your own or Yours Truly’s feelings.  Nor does it care for what we did yesterday or today, or what happens tomorrow.  The sun will rise again next day and whatever problems we have is essentially our own problems (to solve).  In fact, the universe probably didn’t think there is a problem in the first place, like so what if we did something and it didn’t work out.  

Obviously, it would be nice if the universe is sympathetic to our plight, listened to our fears and somehow mysteriously made everything all right.  Maybe it will and maybe it won’t, where probably only the most fervent believers can actually sit and relax for the universe to (eventually) right the wrongs of our lives.  That said, if you are somewhat sceptical of the universe and don’t feel you are particularly special and lucky enough for the universe to shine a light on you, is there anything else that can be done?

Already, we have seen that the universe probably doesn’t care too much, otherwise how else can you explain our failures, despite trying our hardest.  Well, that’s assuming we did try our hardest.  Should that not be the case, here’s our answer, we must try harder.  Well, what if we can actually put our hands on heart to swear that we did try our hardest and utmost, then what?  Well, the answer might surprise, it is to try yet again and maybe try something a little bit different, i.e. try harder still!

That’s right, the truth is incredibly hard to hear but the reason we failed is because we haven’t tried hard enough or long enough or tried different things enough.  There is no magic bullet to success but those who have found it, either tried and tried throughout their life, where some got lucky right at the start and others at the end.  Which really leaves the rest of us, somewhere in the middle of the field still searching. 

By all means sulk and cry, throw a tantrum, complain why the world is so unfair and blame others, other forces even.  However, at the end of the day, once we’ve gotten over our feelings, we’d realised nothing has changed and nothing’s going to change.  So, it’s time to own up, either to be a baby and at mercy of others, or to be an adult and face life’s challenges head on, where success is not guaranteed and failure is part of life’s package.  

Life is a harsh reality for the have nots, there is no denying this truth.  The only thing that is within our power is to decide how we approach life, to turn our disappointments and setbacks into motivation, to remind us that if at first we don’t succeed, we can sure as hell try again and again till we do.  The questions we have to ask ourselves are, are we tough enough?  And have what it takes?  (Sadly, the answer is, most of the time we lack the conviction and so our failure is almost inevitable and thus a continuation of our menial existence). 

Failures are merely a test of our toughness and resolve.  To overcome failure is to stand resolute against all odds, no matter the how many times we’ve been knocked down and battered to a pulp.  As long as we held fast to our will to succeed, to keep the flame of our dreams burning alive, to remain hopeful and teamed with actions, then one day the universe might feel that we are finally worthy and let us have our fleeting glory.  

16-Jul-2020

Each day, we all have 24 hours, it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, it is still 24 hours.  How those hours are being used is what sets us apart.  Say you’ve done well in your life and you could well be relaxing on your yacht and cruising the Mediterranean right this moment.  Or you could be on your break in a sweat shop, trying to use those few scarce minutes to catch a glimpse of what’s happening with the world.  Still, the seconds keep on ticking relentlessly, time moves on and before you know it, it’s the end of day, time for bed and for another 24 hours cycle to begin.  

Time has some interesting dimensions, it’s both infinite and finite.  It’s infinite because since the big bang some billions of years ago, the universe is still expanding and time marches on.  All one has to do to capture some part of this magic is to breath and live.  That is, as long as you wake up each day, you are practically guaranteed another 24 hours.  It’s almost like the universe is saying, here’s another 24 hours, off you go, do something and keep things ticking along.    

Yet time is finite because as humans, we age and only have a limited time on this earth.  Also, once time has passed, we don’t get it back and it’s gone from us forever.  Herein lies the real dilemma, we are constantly given time but as soon as we get it, it’s also taken away.  Time represents a certain cruel irony.  

The lesson is of course, what can we do to capture this fleeting and wonderful resource called time?  For the vast majority of us, we think time should be used for enjoyment, after all, if time is finite then it makes sense to make every second enjoyable.  Whilst not all of us have the money to be on a yacht, we do other fun things within our financial means, like shopping or hanging out.  Yes, even poor people have their own versions of fun, it’s all relative.  That said, most of us feel we are not getting enough fun because we neither have the time and money to do so.  In turn, this fuels our insatiable desire to be rich and dreaming of the day where we can have endless fun, forever.

For the have nots i.e. the 99%, the day generally goes like this, get to work, make a few bucks, pay bills and any spare change & time are then allocated to fun.  Because you might have worked 10 hours a day and have only been able to sit down and relax for 1 hour, so it is perfectly understandable that you might rile at the unfairness of the world, dream of striking the lotto and hope for things to change for the better.  Yet inevitably, when the next 24 hours comes along, it feels like groundhog day and you lived the same way over and over.   In short, the story and essence of your life’s struggle is the yearning to break free for more fun.

Look, there are plenty of people, both rich and poor, who are satisfied with their lives, having a great time and have achieved their version of success.  Kudos.  However, the vast other majority do feel they are somewhat deprived in their lives and want more.  It is not wrong to want more but it is certainly wrong to believe that more fun comes free of charge.  In fact, it might come as a shock to you that there is a high price to pay for more fun. 

Take Johnny Depp, the Hollywood movie star who makes double digit millions per movie and he’s made quite a few.  Now we know a bit about his personal life because he’s being dragged through the courts for various proceedings.  The bottom line is, the court documents had revealed to us that the man has heaps of fun, expensive fun at that, so much so that he needs to constantly work (make movies) to pay for his fun.  Essentially, he’s just like your average worker bee but with more zeros in his pay cheque.  Money still comes in one hand through work and goes out the other in the pursuit of fun.  Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it? 

The story of Johnny and that of ourselves reveals a fundamental flaw in our fun strategy.  That is, by choosing fun with the very little spare time we have left after work, we are effectively chasing our tails and going around in circles.  If you are after that little bit of fun at the end of each work day or the weekends, well yes you deserve it and yes you’ve got it.  Make no mistake though, just like Johnny, the work each day only enabled you to maintain your current level of fun, it’s all squared off.  So, if you want more fun, then chances are you will need to work more.  

The problem is of course, we don’t want to work more for our fun.  Johnny old chap, even with all the drugs he’s taken, still have the sense to understand that he needs to work.  Now this is in spite of nearing his 60s and having made a reported 650 million.  It can be said, that at least he’s aware of the ‘laws of fun’ and it goes something like this.   

There are basically 4 equations in the laws of fun.  Firstly, a) 0 fun = 0 work, b) more fun = more work, c) less fun & more work now = more fun & less work later and lastly, d) heaps of fun now & little work = more and more work + interest later.  It is all about trade offs and what you choose for your life.  

For Johnny, it’s clear he’s chosen choice #b, he works hard, plays hard and continues to do so.  Nothing wrong with that but maybe we could imagine had he picked law #c, been a bit more frugal with his fun allotment, saved some of the movie millions and invest it properly, he might have gotten away with working less and still enjoy the good life.  Yet, it is clear that’s not how he lives his life.  So for lesser mortals like us, to have more fun means you either keep working perpetually like Johnny, or work in advance & apply delay gratification.  

Let’s say you are about to take a camping trip.  It sounds fun but there is a lot of work involved up front, especially in planning and preparing.  You’ve got to pack the tent, get all the fishing gear and so forth.  The fun technically doesn’t start until you have left the door.  That said, people who do it because they have weighted up the fun part vs the work part and thinks it’s a good deal.   However, there would be others who might not be a big fan of camping and thinks this is all too much work for nothing exciting.  It is all about how you value your inputs and outputs and knowing the trade off relationship.  

The concept of trade off is probably what’s missing in our understanding of fun.  You see, fun is not given freely, it is only obtainable because you have worked at some levels.  (Or it can be that said that some other people have worked and you are lucky enough to reap the rewards like inheritance or investments).  Say you worked 10 hours today, well you’ve earned that 1 hour screen time.  The ratio sounds terrible but that’s the going rate.  Of course there are some exceptional people who can work 1 hour and earn enough to watch TV for the rest of the day, but unfortunately we are not there yet.  

In order to have more quantity and quality of fun and without working long hours, you are going to have to move further up the ladder – up front.  With only 24 hours in a day, you are going to have to make a hard trade, where your 1 hour of screen time will have to be traded and put to better use like learning new skills, so that you can earn more money and then later on, you will be able to trade more work time for fun time.  On paper it sounds terrible to work and work but that’s the price for getting ahead.  

The simple truth is, the more fun you need, the more work you need.  By working harder and put in more effort now, the more fun you are able to have later in life, as that’s like a payment in advance.  Conversely, if you have an overdraft of fun now, your future repayment will come in the form of extra hard work plus interest.  In fact, a lot of us are already living on borrowed time, having wasted our youth in the pursuit of fun and thus paying for it now.  Yes life should not be this hard but it is, mainly because we have wasted opportunities prior and now reaping what we have (not) sowed.  It’s not too late now as you are finally aware of the consequence of your actions and inactions.  So what’s left is to decide is what price you are willing to pay vs the rewards you are going to get.  By choosing to pay though advancement in work and thus making sure every day count for something, means you have invested in yourself and guaranteeing your future self will collect the rewards.

The key take away is, here’s another 24 hours, boom, what are you going to do, boom?  The answer that should be – I’m going to do more, I’m going to do better this very minute, every day.  Boom, boom!  The fun of your dreams is waiting patiently for you to finish the work you are (or need to be) doing, so you better get a move on.    

29-Jun-2020

Young Miss Struggle was home early due to band being cancelled.  So, she mucked about for an hour or two.  Then, it was time to collect young Struggle Jr and Miss Struggle wanted to tag along so that she can see her friends again at school.  Even though she has already seen her friends earlier during the school day and she will see them again the next day at school.  Plus, there are no other compelling reason why she needed to but she just does.  

To illustrate this fallacy and to make the 11 year old understand, Yours Truly took the time and explained to her, that there are not enough hours in the remaining day to do A, B, C, D, E, F, G and also take that 30 mins trip to school again, which is completely unnecessary for her as she has seen her friends already and will see them tomorrow.  However, rather than to impose and thus never letting young Miss learn about the value of time and decisions, she was given a choice to choose between making that trip and to give up something, or don’t make the trip and carry on as normal. Anyway, she elected to give up some ipad time before dinner in order to take the trip.

On the way to school, it was further explained to her that her choice was very unwise.   Had she spent that time more wisely, like practicing her instrument, she’d be 30 mins ahead of the next student who hadn’t practice, that she could become a better player.  Of course, like most kids, when do they ever listen.  (Even as adults, we probably don’t listen either!)

So, we got to school, Miss Struggle caught up with her friends for a few minutes and on our way back home, proceeded to tell Yours Truly defiantly that she was right, that the catching up with friends was in her exact words ‘worth it and I am happy’.  So, I retorted back along the lines of how does this make you better off.  Of which the response was I get to see my friends, I’m happy and that’s all it mattered. 

Thinking about it and trying to work out ways to reach out to her that time is valuable and all she is doing is hurting her future self, Yours Truly came to a sad and profound realisation that our 21, 31, 41, 51, etc year old selves are not that much different.  When presented with the choice of doing something to help our future selves, we chose not to.  We don’t seem to know our priorities and we often choose short term fun that is largely irrelevant in the grand scheme.  Yes, friendships are important, having a bit of fun is good for the well being but is it a requirement to see and communicate with your friends every waking hours of the day?  We are not talking about a ban here, what we are talking about are reasonable limits, which for most of us, is somewhat lacking.  As adults, we can and therefore we do.  This kind of behaviour is evident in other aspects of our lives, like the time on devices, watching tv, our hobbies, our shopping, drinking to excess and etc.  It really does seem like we are living in our 11 year old shell and never grew up.

It is time to recognise and acknowledge, then as now, we have not been making the smartest of choices.  Over time, these choices add up, to finally reveal to us the failures we have accumulated, like why the constant struggle and why our vision of success is still so far way.  Yes we would have done some work but the sad reality is, we probably strived for too much fun instead and the price we pay currently is not reaching our goals.  You see, fun detracts us and ironically that’s why we chose it because inherently we don’t want to do any work in the first place and fun is just the convenient excuse.  Like how many times have you heard or convinced yourself that you’ve just got to have some fun.  

So before making future decisions on whether you need to have more fun, you really have to ask yourself this important question – how is this ‘fun’ activity going to help me now and into the future?  You really have to be equally brave to say and admit, I either don’t have what it takes and therefore give up permanently, or I am going to do what it takes.  There is no other way to put it, you have to stop sabotaging yourself.  You ultimately have the power to make your future better and all it takes is by stop being lazy and stop focusing only on fun.  It’s not hard, you just have to make that choice on what is more important to you, fun now & misery later or work now & success later.  

Yes, you might say, there are plenty of people who has worked hard all their life and did not amount to greatness.  However, at least they gave themselves a shot, a chance.  Also, on the same side of the coin, you really don’t want to go through life and at some point, thinking back with regret that you should have taken that chance to do more, to achieve more and If only you had worked a little bit harder.  In short, don’t condemn your future self by making silly choices today, even seemly innocent fun can have ramifications when you are older.  Your future is bright, if only you choose to climb up the stairs and do some work to remove the clouds.

7-June-2020

Many of you are learners of success and probably have looked into the habits of successful people like CEOs, billionaires and multi-millionaires.  No doubt you’ll have come across articles written on people who wake up early (like 4/4:30 am) and then achieved greatness.  Whilst it obviously worked for those people, there are other considerations to consider.  

You see, yes there are plenty of top successful people who are early birds – the early risers.  Conversely, there are also plenty of others who are night owls and are equally as successful.  In another words, successful people are made up of folks who either woke up early or woke up late.  That said, there appears to be more early birds than night owls in the list, i.e. it’s not 50/50 split.  So, it is really hard to make meaningful inference from the statistics as there might be more early birds than night owls in the general population anyway and so the ratio of successful people simply follows that trend, who knows.  

Anyway, if you are of the belief that to be successful, you need to wake up early, then you have missed the point a little.  You see, it’s not about the time you wake up, it is about how committed you are.  Most successful people who got to where they are because they are committed.  It means they either commit themselves to wake up early to get stuff done or work well into the night.  It’s about saying, I want to be successful and I’m going to commit to the idea and put in the effort, day or night & day after day, year after year, until the goal is reached.  Now ask yourself, are you as committed?  Have you put in the effort?

Now there is some science and rationale to suggest that waking up early is beneficial.  As your mind is fresh in the morning and there are less distractions at 4 am.  So yes, you can get a lot done early in the morning, which in itself is a plus and it frees you the rest of the day to do other things.  That said, if you are equally as focused, you can do whatever you need to do at any other hours of the day and probably get the same results. 

The point is, the people who wake up early has the mental discipline and this act is merely a display of their determination, their commitment.  After all, to wake up early continuously, when it’s cold and dark, takes a fair dose of will power.  Additionally, it probably means you had to sleep earlier than normal too, like giving up night time TV or other so call relaxing activities like drinking alcohol and partying into the wee hours.  That again, is another sign of discipline and commitment, which if we are truthful is something most of us lacks.  

Sure, most of us live busy lives and when we get to the end of the day, we want to relax and wind down.  Often, we over indulge and keep going with our nightly pleasures, like watching another episode of streaming, which in turns make us sleep even later than required and therefore waking up late or waking up tired.  Yes, we would have to cut short our sleep to be able to get to work on time but otherwise we showed no other commitment.    In short, we’ve sabotaged ourselves by being tired, which makes our day less productive.  With energy level near zero by the end of the day, we feel lethargic and so had to sit down some more and unwind.  It’s a vicious cycle and no wonder we never actually get anything done.  

The point of all this is, if you want to be the next billionaire, you need to start with commitment and follow through.  That means at least setting up yourself right and give up on being comfortable and lazy.  The question you have to ask yourself is, do you want your goal enough and sadly for most, including Yours Truly, as demonstrated by the lack of actions, is not really.  Sad to point out the obvious – sitting on the couch watching TV isn’t going make you the next billionaire, even if you did wish very very hard.  

Now that you have understood your point of failure, you can now move forward because you also have the cure – that is to commit and do.  The success of your goals is ultimately up to you and you need to be honest with yourself to say yay or nay.  Going to sleep early and waking up early is just a lifestyle hack which allows you to do stuff, to move forward in life.  The core of the argument is not about the tools but about your mindset, about how truly committed you are and that’s the determination you need to show to start succeeding.      

For more info on commitment see this great article published by Ladders. https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/want-success-then-take-extreme-ownership-of-this-1-thing

27-May-2020

By now, your life experiences would have led you to realise, to be successful, you’d need a bit of luck or hard work, sometimes, a LOT of both luck and hard work.  However, that’s not to say, if you had both in spades, that you’d automatically be successful.   There is simply no straight forward formula where you did ‘a’ and you get ‘b’.  

Though, because we are all inherently lazy and want things to happen instantly, we buy into this notion that anyone can strike millions easily.  Just look at all those successful people on social media, with their nice cars, nice holidays and just flaunting their wealth.  So, if these people can do it and for all appearances, they aren’t that special, then why can’t we?  

There is no doubt that many of us has tried and emulated our ‘heroes’ and to be like them.  We did exactly the same things and for whatever reason, still came up short.  Even identical twins born and raised in the same family, who did the same things all the time do end up with different outcomes.  That’s to say, even if two people did do exactly the same, that results can still be different for both of them.  Perhaps that goes in some way to explain why someone else is successful and you aren’t. 

Given you’ve tried all sorts of things and still have not yet succeeded, is there anything else besides giving up and resigned to fate?  Or perhaps just sit on the couch and hope for lady luck to smile upon you.  The thing is, try and you might still fail (& wasted all the efforts) but if you don’t try, you have guaranteed you will gain nothing and lose nothing.  (Arguably, if you stay still – you are falling behind as everyone moves forward.)  Then, for someone else, they don’t even need to try and millions land on their lap, it is all terribly unfair.  

This terrible dilemma is what Yours Truly termed asymmetry of efforts and rewards.  You see, our brains are wired in understanding linearity and causality.  For example, our distant ancestors would have climbed a tree (effort) and get to pick the fruit (reward).  So, the more trees our ancestors climbed, the more fruit they picked.  Life was far simpler back then.  However, in modern context, you don’t know what you are actually climbing and even if you did reach the top, there might not be any fruit left.  Or in some extreme cases, become the next billionaire because you were the first to market.  Another irony is of course, some monkey serendipitously waited at the bottom of the tree and the fruit just miraculously landed next to its feet.   

This all or nothing outcome, preceded by doing either all or nothing, has certain appeal but it is not suitable for everyone.  After all, not everyone is a gambler and our risk profiles are different.  What we want in our lives are dictated by our personal circumstances and personality.  So, as a result we make vastly different choices but those tend to be within the comfort zone and of little risk, which also equates to little rewards.  Which in turn goes in a long way to explain why you haven’t yet succeeded on the scale you wanted.  However, on the same token, you are relative comfortable (in proportion to the effort you’ve expanded) and the only issue is, you wanted more.  

In short, the game of chance and life is very obscure, the rules are not easily understood and then the rules change.  On top, there are legacies to consider, from your inherited advantages and disadvantages.  In another words, your chance of success is either stacked for you or against you.  Sadly, for the masses, as you already have experienced, the game is largely stacked against you just much like the casino.  Therefore, the question you have to ask is, how can you possibly win?  Or at least, improve your odds, so that you at least have a shot.  

The answer is probably best put forward by Napoleon Hill – author of ‘Think and Grow Rich’, that is, if you are not successful, that’s because you haven’t found it.  Well duh you say but if you turn that concept around, then the answer is obvious, to keep looking and trying.  Which means that you need to be doing more things.  

So, to elaborate on this abstract thought and to put it into a practical context, Yours Truly proposes that you start by doing work that that you can clearly see the relationship between effort and reward.  As this is a very straight forward way to clear any inertia – because you can see/project the results easily and so it should motivate you.  Also, it satisfies our psyche of instantaneous gratification.  Do note, this is somewhat different to Napoleon Hill’s thinking, where you just do more, even if the benefits are not initially apparent and somehow success will eventually come.  

Take an example of cooking a meal.  You put in the prep work and cook – effort, as a result, you have meal to eat and you are now not hungry – result.  Now maybe, if you did this a million times and you could become a very good cook, then you might end up as a chef or land success in some unexpected way, say your cooking inspired you to open up a chain of restaurants.  This is what Napoleon Hill is saying in his message but the problem is we don’t know how life is going to turn out and we don’t want to take the risk either, as you can cook a million meals and life can still be the same, just ask the average house keeper.  Again, it is the same old argument of whether you are prepared to take a chance. 

To overcome this risk aversion, we need to break it down and to look at it from a different angle.  You’d cook because you had to (due to hunger) and your reward is a full belly.  Very straight forward!  Should there are any other additional benefits, then consider them unexpected bonuses/gifts.  Where you have gone wrong before is expecting big results by putting in very little effort, whereas this is about putting in constant effort over time for the little results.  The magical idea is, like compound interest, eventually these little actions and results will add up over time to become much bigger results.  

This is the fundamental truth of many people’s success stories.  Sure, by all means aim for the stars but it must be followed by simple actions and then you just keep going and going.  Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, as this is merely the beginning of your success journey, for it is a long and arduous road to success.  Even if you don’t end up with billions at the end, regardless, your life is still a lot better than before.  Is success guaranteed?  Of course not.  However, at least you still have those countless little result to show for and that’s nothing to scoff off at.  

Now that you have understood the fundamentals, jump start by doing 3 things a day.  3 extra things on top of your normal routine or things you have put off for far too long – i.e. anything that isn’t done normally.  For example, eating breakfast does not count as you have to eat anyway.  However, eating an ultra healthy meal compared to the normal bacon and eggs does.  The reward for your taste bud’s suffering might well be that your body gets a break from the daily fatty deposits.  In itself it isn’t going to change your life but again, if you combine it with other actions, over a period of time, it will make a difference.   

Doing 3 things is a nice stretch goal, as 1 is far too easy and you need some multiplier effect to speed things up, otherwise it will be too slow and you end up forever chasing your tail.   I.e. you’d long given up after seeing very little results.  Now, all you need to do is, at night before you sleep, write down 3 things you wanted to do the next day.  Then during sleep, your subconscious will think it over and when you wake up the next day, it will be imprinted in your mind and there is a greater probability of doing it.  Think of that imprint as a nag inside your head and it becomes a feeling you can’t get rid of until it’s done.  At least for Yours Truly, it’s been very effective, more effective than will power and motivation.

Yes, there will be days you won’t succeed in doing 3 things, as you might be too tired, too busy, etc.  However, the very act of thinking about things to do and the process of trying, will formulate a new habit and eventually it will become automatic.  Just imagine yourself being the car that is now on the freeway, heading towards your destination of success.  Sometimes there is traffic and you go slower but you know for a fact that you will get there eventually and you are well on your way.  That’s the sort of mindset you’ll need for success, so the question is, what are you waiting for?

18-May-2020

Fact – no one likes chores, it is generally not fun and can be unpleasant to the ego.  Chores are essentially work and no one is compelled to do them unless we have to, or is motivated by some other necessity or condition.  In short, if you are given a choice between having fun or to do chores, most people would choose fun.  

One way out of the chores vs fun dilemma is by having money, then someone else can do your chores for you whilst you have fun.  You can be skiing in Aspen whilst someone waters your lawn.  In fact, a lot of the service industry is essentially devoted to doing other people’s chores.  Mowing, cleaning, child care, tax returns, deliveries to name a few.  If you look a little bit deeper, it can be argued that, in your work place, you are doing someone else’s chores.  Say your boss didn’t want to do a spreadsheet, guess what, it’s been delegated to you.  Fact is, your employment is based on a very simple principle, you are instructed to some shite that other people don’t want to do (or couldn’t do) and you get paid.  Even as a CEO, your chore is to manage and run a company on behalf of the shareholders (and get paid heaps).   In real terms, this is what the economy is all about.  You do some other people’s chores (or so call needs & wants) and thereby earn money, so that you can pay other people to do your own chores.  The game is about shuffling money and see how much money you are left with after each turn.  

So, if you didn’t have enough money in the first place to pay others to do your chores and you also don’t want to do your own chores, then what?  Well, that’s the problem – chores are not done and eventually turns into a bigger problem, which is the story of our lives!  From not doing chores at all, to not doing the chores on time and not at the right frequency/occurrence, we’ve been finding all sort of excuses.  Sometimes we get away with it because as adults, we are in charge of our lives and we make judgement calls.  Like if the sink is full of unwashed dishes – as an adult, you can say, so what.  

Another dimensional challenge is, as an adult, you are supposed to take responsibility.  However, responsibility means different things to different people and some of us might not have yet learn what responsibilities really means.  When you are young, your parents and teachers tell you what to do, because you are under their care.  As an adult, you are supposed to take care for yourself, so no one dares to tell you how you live your life any more, or if they did, you can certainly ignore them and hurl insults.  Of course, life isn’t without boundaries, as partners can nag you and might even leave you if they had enough but ultimately can’t make you do chores.  Judges can impose court orders but you might elect to pay the fine or even do jail time instead.  So, it really comes down to a choice of what you fear or value more, doing chores or the other thing.    

Perhaps due to this freedom of choice, lack of immediate consequences and teamed with a very lax understanding of responsibility, not surprisingly, most of us has chosen to prioritise fun first and then chores last.  Then, after a while, we’ve came to realise those earlier judgement calls may not be for the best as our lives descend into disharmony and disarray – i.e. it finally has hit the fan.  Most of us think we are smart, so then why do we demonstrated the complete opposite, by acting stupid, by making our lives more difficult in the long run.  Save an hour today, only to spend 3 hours next week.  The answer is really simple, we just don’t want to do the chores and we take the lowest path of resistance – i.e. the minimum amount of effort!  We focus too much on the short term and disregarded the long term.  

Take lawn mowing, a typical chore in suburbia.  If you didn’t mow at all, the grass would get long and you’d likely to attract a complain and get a fine.  If you didn’t mow every so often, the grass gets too long and then it becomes a lot more difficult to mow.  Whilst you may have saved some time by the initial lack of effort, your future payment will be a lot more work/pain and/or a big contractor’s bill.  

Yes, part of the problem is because we are lazy.  Fundamentally, it’s really due to our lack of understanding of life in totality.  In life, there is good and bad, so living means you enjoy the good times like having fun but as well as doing the unfun things like chores.  There is no escape, it’s integral and fundamental.  Having a nice house in suburbia means you need to mow the lawn.  Having a nice cooked meal means there is going to be wash up.  For some of the very rich, this concept is distorted because they are able to outsource all the unfun things but it too comes at a price, as their lives are distorted to a point where they reside in a bubble.  For the poor, whilst seemingly you can’t afford to outsource but this is in no way better off, as we don’t tend to make the right decisions either. 

Either way for rich or poor alike, the message is simple, don’t compartmentalise and focus only on the nice bits and forget the rest!  Plan the fun parts as well as the boring parts, both are essential in your lives, to give you a true balance and perspective.  So instead of just planning on your next holiday or dreaming of your next purchase, put some time into planning chores, then allocate time and take action to do them.  By doing so, you make your life whole and avoid longer term pain/problems – the very essence of things holding you back from success right now.  In another words, lighten your baggage – of thinking incorrectly and hanging onto stuffs holding you back.    

12-May-2020

Schadenfreude is a German word, essentially meaning you get a dose of pleasure from seeing another’s misery or misfortune. (Literal translation is harm-joy.)  As long as it is not us, as long as it happens to someone else whom we don’t like and whom we think are deserving of their fate, then it is sort of ‘ok’.  Obviously in the very PC (politically correct) world of today, most people who celebrate schadenfreude do so in quite company.  However, from time to time, when the object of scorn is so great, then it is very hard to contain such pleasure.  

Take for example, the guy who was foolish enough to take on the coronavirus challenge by licking a toilet and subsequently caught the virus. You’d have to think, what would possess someone to lick a toilet willingly?  Like hello it’s yuk and unhygienic.  Then there is the other element, that it is probably not a good idea to tempt fate, as the saying goes, you play with fire, you get burnt.  Let just say the many judge, jury and executioner of the vast social media world did not display much sympathy toward this young lad.  

Now we cannot be certain that he caught the virus by licking the toilet or by some other means.  Nonetheless, the fact that he has got it seems to indicate some sort of karma, i.e. he got his just deserves for displaying such stupidity.  In short, he asked for it and the universe responded.  However, that is just us rationalising some series of events to feel better about ourselves and for us to feel that the world can be just, fair and equitable.  

Sadly, as you know by now, the world is far from just, fair and equitable.  How do you explain the front line health workers who put their life on the line to help others, where some would ended up being infected and then with a few dying from it.  Or someone you know, who happened to be the nicest people on the planet, an exemplary example of the humanity at its best, yet the disease didn’t spare them.  Then on top, we have those obnoxious people who carry on with zero regards for others and their ignorance is rewarded with good health and thus being able to carry on causing more grief for others.  Such logic defies explanation.  

By now, if you have some life experiences and have witnessed such observations over and over, you’d come to the inescapable conclusion – ‘shite happens’.  Just as good things can happen to good people, so too can good things happen to bad people.  Like wise with bad things, it can happen to anyone – it really is random.  Yes, there are some ways to skew the odds/probability, like buying more lotto tickets will increase your odds of winning but still it doesn’t mean you will win.  Even if you did win millions, it doesn’t guarantee a happy ever after either.  In fact, most lotto stories published are about people who had squandered their fortune and back to where they started – which coincidentally appeals to the schadenfreude within us.  

So the million dollar question is, how do you make sense of this seemingly chaotic world, where idiots reign supreme and schadenfreude is our coping mechanism?  The answer might surprise you, it is actually (through) compassion.  

The thing is we don’t know people’s full story, what they have gone through or why do they do the things they do.  Maybe they had traumatic experiences as kids or they are currently living through extreme hardship.  The thing is, people live through some very unique experiences and we just don’t understand it, (nor do we really want to – if we are being honest).  Most of the time, we find it hard to relate to their experiences (like when someone has cancer or close death in the family).  Even if we could relate, the circumstances are different, somewhat tragic and all that is left for us is to offer well wishes and luck. 

At the end of the day, people do what they do for reasons that perhaps is only apparent to them.  So there is not a lot of point in projecting our values onto them and judge people based on our own moral metrics.  After all, people are not going to change because you think or say so.  If anything, we should perhaps feel a bit sad for the things they do, for the hurt they’ve taken on themselves and onto others.  If only maybe they got a bit luckier in life with having a happier childhood or had more education, parents that are good role models, etc, then perhaps they’d live a more productive lives (in our view of course).  

Bottom line is, we should feel compassionate because we are the fortunate ones and others not so.  Like most of us are not afflicted with limiting health or persecution.  We’ve been lucky to have opportunities and support.  Sure, things can be lot better but conversely, they can be a lot worst.  Which is why it is important to be mindful, appreciative of the things you have and acknowledge the lucks and advantages you’ve been given.  There is only a very small separation between your lofty heights and the dirt of the earth, where at any given moment, everything can be taken away.  

The moral of this story is simple, just live your best life and not worry too much about others, as there is very little you can do to change others and what they do.  Engaging in your own schadenfreude moment might make you feel slightly better about your own life – especially in comparison – but ultimately it does not contribute anything to make your life better.  I.e. your life is the same as it was before.  Also, someone right now might be looking at you and having their own schadenfreude moment at your expense.  It doesn’t matter if you are right or the righteous, they just think you are wrong and thus the idiot.  Obviously, you want the final word and you want your antagonist to agree on your point of view but that is not going to happen.  So rather than waste more time on hitting the brick wall with your forehead, your best bet is to work on your own skills so that you can smash the wall with overwhelming superiority.  

In conclusion, schadenfreude serves only to limit your mindset and you are far better off with a growth mindset, where you are going to become the best version of yourself.  Having compassion helps recast the idiots in a new light as they are the unlucky ones and then, you’d realise you have far bigger and more important problems to worry about.  Living your best life means solving your own problems and then at some point you will have the capacity to help others.   This friends, is essentially what life is about.  

29-April-2020

Economist often simple down the complex world into basic concepts and abstracts, think of say supply and demand – to explain the world in action.  In the same vein, at the time of writing, the current debate is about the economy vs health, to paraphrase the tag line in the hit TV show ‘Iron Chef’ from Japan (and redubbed in English), “who will reign supreme?”.

To put it simply, most of the world’s governments have chosen to place health above the economy.  That is, to limit the number of deaths and to mitigate the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, officials have elected to shut down pretty much everything, to flat line the number of cases, so that their respective health systems can cope.  Obviously, the solution is not ideal for everybody and the results being, the loss of incomes and the loss of freedoms, causing tremendous amount of pain, hardship and suffering.  

On the other hand, there are a few countries who have chosen to put the economy first and they aren’t exactly in a happy place either.  Their health care system is overwhelmed and there are numerous infected and leading to significant number of deaths.  Even if shops and restaurants are open, people are afraid to go in and spend money anyway.  To put bluntly, the crisis has had a significant impact and life is definitely not the same as before.  

So the question really comes down to is, which is the better choice, which one gives you the least pain?  The answer really depends on your personal circumstances.  If you are a business owner, who’s income has evaporated and your family is now starving, you’d want to at least be able to open and earn a few bucks.  Catching the virus or not is a later problem, the acute pain felt and brought on by an empty stomach trumps all future considerations. 

On the other hand, should you be a health worker on the front line, who’s working shifts after shifts, putting your body on the line to help the sick, dealing with the trauma of seeing people dying, you’d be saying, give me a break as people’s health is more important than the economy.   

In life as in all things, there will always be winners and losers.  It all depends on which side of the fence you are sitting on.  Also, being a winner today can easily mean becoming a loser tomorrow, so the key is to success is being able to look at the options and to choose wisely for both short term and the long run. 

As humans, we make decisions on imperfect information, based on our emotions, our biases and prior experiences.  We value certain things above others but another group might feel that is stupid.  Take one of Trump’s key policies to build the wall, so if you think that a wall provides good security, which is what you value above other considerations, then you’d vote for Trump.  On the other hand, you might say the billions can be better spent on addressing inequality, then most likely, you’d think building the wall is stupid.  In short, we value different things in accordance with our whims and because we believe ourselves to be right (all the time), it does make for some very interesting and heated debates.   

To put my neck on the line, I thought I offer you my own personal perspective on the economy vs health debate.  Again, what I think is important could be stupid to you.   

Firstly, I don’t want to get sick, whether it is the flu or covid-19.  Obviously this is not something I can absolutely control but I can minimise risks where possible.  I know you can take all the precautions and you can still get it, whereas some people who hang out in large crowds in areas of known infections and still test negative.  That said, I feel a bit more comfortable for taking some control of my life – to mitigate the risks of catching the SARS-Cov-19 virus.   I don’t feel it is too much of a burden to stay at home and in the grand scheme of things, I understand the trade offs, where I feel the benefits of not getting sick outweighs losing a bit of (temporary) freedom.  

Secondly, I’m not so gung ho.  I’m old enough to know I’m not invincible.  Yes, the stats showed only a small % of people die and only a small % of people have severe symptoms.  However, I’d like to be a little bit cautious and be on the right side of the numbers.  That is, I don’t want to take that chance and hope to never have the ‘opportunity’ to find out whether I’d be one of those small % of people.  

Thirdly, let’s suppose you got it and you showed little or no symptoms.  By a large degree, you are ‘fine’.  However, because of your close proximity to other close family members and they in turn got it from you.  Let say, subsequently they then suffered and even died.  This is definitely a scenario I don’t want to happen to my family and I’d like not to have live life with that burden of regret.  

Forth, let’s assume you got it, it’s gotten worst and you ended up in the hospital.  If you think being holed up at home for days on end is bad, then being holed up in the hospital is a lot worst.  Also, from the news report that I’ve read, some patients’ conditions do turn for the worst very quickly.  So if you are one of those, you’d be struggling to breath, you’d be sedated and there are tubes going down your throat.  Not exactly a pleasant experience.  Sure, it beats dying but if that is something that I can avoid, then yes absolutely I want to avoid it.  

Fifth, you are also assuming you’d get health care, you’d get a hospital bed, you’d get a ventilator when you need one.  During a health pandemic, there are hundreds, if not thousands of the same patients in your condition, all are fighting for a bed and all are fighting for a chance to live.  Already, there are reports of health systems being overwhelmed with people being turned away and only to die in their homes or out in the streets.  Again, I prefer not to tempt fate and take my chances that way.  

Lastly, when there isn’t enough beds, someone will have to make a choice about whether you receive care (or the amount of care).  Being in a lottery of life and death is not fun.  You might not care about the feelings of health professionals having to make that heart breaking choice but you on the receiving end certainly would feel the magnitude of that choice.  What if someone else was chosen above you to live?  You certainly wouldn’t be too happy about that.  Or what if you were chosen to live, say above another child?  Or how is your life more worthwhile than an 80 year old grandmother with 20 grand kids, up until then was still actively volunteering in the soup kitchen.  Would you have the ‘courage’ to say to those not chosen to get a chance – “sorry buddy”.  Could you then look into their love ones’ eyes and explain to them why you lived and they died?  It’s something that boggles the mind and is something I’d like not to think about.  

In life, I don’t get to pick and choose all my outcomes.  However, if I can help it, then I will do what I can within my sphere of control, which right now is being sensible and responsible.  I feel that by being able to avoid the negative outcomes, I’m already out in front and winning.  Being alive means that you still have game and that’s a very good outcome in itself.  Yes, the game has gotten tough, you are beaten down and your face is covered in mud.  Though, do take a moment to smile, as you are still in it and still have a chance to win it.  

24-Apr-2020

Humans are funny creatures.  Even the wealthiest among us can get bored.  Try eating the finest Russian sturgeon caviar for every meal and see how long before one craves for anything else.  Of course, for the average worker/person, boredom is very much part and parcel of life.   Chances are, you have a job you don’t quite like, doing the same monotonous task over and over, or perhaps you live life by a routine that you must follow.  So, in response, you binge on TV, take a holiday or two, buy stuff on the internet, all to distract yourself from your current realities.  Of course, these measures only have limited effectiveness and so you quickly move onto planning your next holiday, watch another TV series and wait for your next shopping package in the mail.  Then here comes the rub, when it comes to money, as you don’t all the trappings of wealth, you moan about not being able to afford to pay for all the other entertainments and fun stuffs you wanted.  So, at the end of the day, you are still bored – with what you have gotten and haven’t gotten.    

At the time of writing, most of the world is in some form of lock down and restrictions.  That is, there are rules and laws stating what you can or cannot do.  Even if you could afford a holiday but the borders are closed.  Even if you can scrimp for a cappuccino with friends but social distancing means you can’t.  The end result is, there is now a limit of choices imposed upon you and because you can’t do whatever you wanted to do or do what you normally do, your boredom is now higher than ever before.    

To be clear: if your health or finances are badly affected by the covid-19 crisis, your issues are one of survival and not boredom.  If that is the case, Yours Truly wish you resilience and strength to overcome and please do reach out & seek help.  The human species’ greatest strength is the ability to work together and overcome in both good times and bad.  There is always hope, provided you are willing to participate and contribute.  On the other hand, if you happen to be mere bored, then it is very likely that you still have your money/income and possibly have little clue or don’t care about the suffering of others.  

It is ironic that we find boredom to be in such bad taste/company, after all in the grand scheme of things, the very ways most of us construct our lives is a road to the ultimate boredom.  For example, most of us are against changes, as we like things to be the way they are.  We like security and want to feel safe.  We want governments to do everything for us so that we have to put in very little effort ourselves.  Another way to look at this is to think of ourselves as the next zoo animal.  

Zoo animals (at least in developed countries’ zoos) by its very nature live in a protected environment, with no fear of predators or worry about food or water.  Health is looked after by vets and animals are generally well treated and live to ripe old age.  The very things a lot of people have been seeking.  With the Covid-19 crisis upon us, governments have done just that, people are now holed up inside their homes for their own protection.  So now people are ‘safe’ and live in a constant – just like a zoo animal in the confines of their own 4 walls, yet people are complaining they are bored.  Talk of have your cake and eat it.   

Of course, you might say, “I didn’t ask to be locked up”, or you rather take your chances with the virus and chat ‘Liberty or Death’.  That’s all great if all your decision affects you only but sadly, your decisions have wider impacts onto others and even followed by deadly consequences.  Get this fact, you are not the centre of the universe and the world does not revolve around you.  Yes, freedom is important but freedom also comes with social responsibility.     

Regardless, you are bored because your very own important little world has gotten into a pause.  As much as you blame someone else for your current dilemma, be it President Trump or President Xi or even WHO, it does not change the fact that you are the one with the issues – that of less freedom and more boredom.  You are bored now because previously, throughout your life, you have craved for distractions and you’ve gotten it in spades.  However, as the choices have now dwindled due to lock downs and social distancing, the various options to alleviate boredom had shrink considerably and it just so happens, the one thing you wanted to do right now is a bust.  Put simply, like a child with singular focus on a particular toy, even though there are plenty of other toys to choose from, by not getting the very thing you wanted right now, you felt your world has ended in that instant, hence throwing the adult version of a tantrum, which is whining about being bored. 

Another point is that by being distracted so much, as a collective, we have lost the use of our faculty, our imagination.  We no longer think for ourselves and rely on others to think for us.  We defer to others & their products to entertain us.  In short, a large part of society has thus become useless and are unable to deal with the slightest change or challenge.  It might sound strange or old fashioned to some of you but before iPad, Youtube and social media was invented, people did just fine.  For example, there are kids with no access to modern amenities and their play/games are still fun and enthralling to them, perhaps because they had to use their imagination and is thus rewarded.  Maybe it is time to exercise your brain a bit more.  

Another unescapable conclusion with being bored is, it stems from the fact that a lot of us are essentially adrift with no purpose and no direction in life.  We are just existing, hoping for some miracles and while we wait, we casually fill our time with useless distractions to pass the time.  Sad to say, Yours Truly does fall into this category from time to time and so far, it’s been a long wait for such miracles and he is still waiting.   

Bottom line is, you should not be bored because there is so much to be done.  You can help yourself first and foremost by living a better life by doing things that matter.  Or you can help others who are less fortunate than yourselves.  There is definitely no shortage of things that needed to be done and should have been done yesterday.  Boredom should be a reframed as a sign, a prompt to nudge you into action.  Having boredom creep up on you means you are not doing enough and that is a sad indictment of your current life.

The take away is, if you have a real and true purpose, then every waking seconds should be spent in pursuing that purpose and there wouldn’t be time left for you to feel bored.  Being bored means you have not succeeded in finding a purpose or worst, too lazy to work on your purpose.  So take this moment to recognise boredom is merely a symptom of a deeper disease, that is you are in need of some soul searching for a real purpose and the courage to take action & follow through.  Take heart, it is a very common problem but also very curable.  All it takes is to acknowledge you can push yourself further and you can do more.  

7-April-2020

If your government or jurisdiction authority is telling you to wear a mask, then you should.  If they are advising you not to wear a mask, then you shouldn’t.  Just listen and follow instructions, it shouldn’t be hard.  What’s harder in this instance is determining whether there are concrete scientific proofs and evidences, that definitely suggest mask wearing will stop you from catching the (current) SARS-CoV-2 virus.  Simply, there has not been enough time elapsed since the outbreak, for studies to be undertaken and to demonstrate one outcome or the other.  In short, a lot of the literature (published) are still subjected to debate and conjecture.   

Before reading further, please be aware Yours Truly is not a health or a scientific professional.  He knows nothing and therefore this should not be counted on as advice or what to do – so please listen to the advice of your respective governments.  Anyway, consider this piece as a demonstration of the average person’s understanding and psyche of the mask situation.  

Wearing masks is not new, just as people have worn clothing as protection against the elements, masks are an extension of that.  This is particular evident in the tribes who built their lives around sand or people who live in the icy and cold conditions.  Fast forward to the modern era, the usage of masks is more cultural and very selective like as a personal protective equipment (PPE).  Certainly, during normal times, say the 1980s, you wouldn’t walk into a bank wearing a mask, unless you are a bank robber trying to disguise your identity.   

If you google pictures of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, you will find people wearing masks too – as it was the ‘norm’ during those times.  However, as soon as the outbreak had been done and dusted, people stopped wearing masks and it was all forgotten.  In recent memory, as far as Yours Truly had perceived, the emergence of mask wearing in popular culture stemmed from Japan.  You’d easily come across mangas (comics) of daintily high school boys and girls wearing masks or pictures of Japanese workers in masks squeezing themselves into overcrowded trains.  In contemporary Japanese culture – at least to the foreigners – there is a huge element politeness and competitiveness.  That is to say, having a bit of a cough does not mean you can take a day off work or miss school.  So, to still be at work or at school and not annoy others, the politeness element comes into play, which is to wear a mask.  Sure, the mask wearing could mitigate some diseases transmission as a side benefit but the point is, if you are truly sick and didn’t want the germs to be passed on, you’d have to stay home.  

Of course, with things like fashion, trends do go around and this mask wearing began to appear in other more affluent East Asian countries like Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong.  So from time to time, you see the odd person wearing a mask and not much more is thought off.  This of course really changed with SARS – the first big corona virus outbreak in the early 2000s.  It has been worked out that one (of the many) way SARS was transmitted is by the carriers coughing and the next person breathing that in.  So, the public’s ensuing response is to buy masks and wear them, as no one wanted to get sick and SARS did make people very ill and the death rate is quite high (10-20%).  [1]

The problem as is now, when everyone goes out and buy a bunch of masks, there is just not enough to go around.  Then, you have this big panic of people who are without masks.  Consequently, a multitude of responses that followed, was obviously to manufacture and procure more masks for everyone, rationing and surprisingly, a real look into whether masks are effective at stopping transmissions of SARS in public settings.  

Long story short, at least for SARS (back in the 2000s), there are theories/reports where wearing a mask in certain instances would actually increases your risk of catching SARS.  It was theorised and demonstrated that SARS can survive in moist environments, so after wearing your mask for 10 minutes, your mask will be moist due to the condensations from your breathing and thus presents an attractive place for SARS to ‘live’.  Should you then breath across a SARS virus contaminated droplet, where your mask did stop it going further, then the virus will stay viable on your moist mask and eventually you could eventually breath in the SARS virus.  The only counter for this quark of SARS is if you change your mask like every 10-20 minutes, which is highly impractical to say the least.  (From news reports, it seems the current SARS-CoV-2 can survive in more environments for longer – although still need substantiation and further research!)

The second point is whether your mask is any good.  Not all masks are created equal and it might not be good enough to filter out the virus particles – in short, you can have a mask and still be breathing in the virus.  Then there is the fitting of the mask, the average mask has some gaps around the edges and that’s like having an armour with holes in it.  It offers some protection but it’s not complete protection.  If you look at the front line health workers, they use (higher grade) masks in conjunction with other PPEs and have systems and measures in place mitigate the risks.  Having masks is only one part of the many defences in place.  Hence, people should not be so foolhardy to believe that if they wear a mask, they’d be 100% safe.  

The third is, by wearing a mask, unless you are used to it, it is very likely you are going to touch your face more, to either adjust the mask or scratch your face.  So in effect, you are touching a very contaminated piece of cloth and then onto your face.  There are some arguments that wearing a mask is akin to putting out a big sail cloth catching whatever that is out there.  

In summary, the pros of wearing a (good, proper and well fitted) mask is that it is a barrier and it is your first line of defence – even if it’s not 100% fail safe.  Of course, the onus is on the individual to use it correctly.  It might also give you some comfort against the anxieties you are facing.  It might also give others members of public security too, as in East Asian countries, where everyone now wears masks as a sign of respect and showing care for the community – whether the masks are (100%) effective or not.  

The cons of not wearing a mask really comes down to social-economic.  In the West, if you wear a mask, people think you are sick and thus ostracised.  There are even cases of health care professionals told not to wear their scrubs out in public because they have been attacked for being high risk/potential carriers.  If a country does not have enough masks – and there generally isn’t enough, then masks need to be allocated to the front line where they are most needed.  Plus, there is some unknown as to whether mask wearing is helpful or a hindrance and people can be lured into a false sense of security.

The bottom line is, a mask does stop/block most of your (own) germs from escaping out into the open air.  So, with some people showing no symptoms from the current SARS-CoV-2 and the suggestions of people merely talking can spread the virus, it might just be a good idea to assume you have it and the mask serve as a protection for others.  To make clear, you are wearing a mask not so much as a protection for yourself but mainly for the protection of others.  A bit like Japan mentioned earlier – we have come full circle.  

At the end of the day, for the average punter, masks do help a little but the big thing everyone can do now is to observe the proper distancing rules.  By not breathing next to each other closely will certainly help more.  That is why most jurisdictions are advising or forcing people to stay home first and foremost.  The sooner we help each other out, the sooner we can get back to normal.  

[1] https://www.who.int/csr/sarsarchive/2003_05_07a/en/