cheerleader or critic?

Looking forward to The Church's camp and my extension in BKK. Hope I can get some filming done there too!

I've been asking God, you can call it 'praying fervently' about TBO. Embarking on a love relationship to lead to marriage would be one of, if not the most important thing in life - the decision to make it, and with who, should be, too.

I've hit upon what I can say now to people who ask me to date more often or to consider Mr So-and-so (actually no one asks me that, whew.) - 'God has someone in mind for me.' Heh. Actually I believe that when we all ask God, somehow or the other, He will reveal. Not only about this but about other things as well. CJ doesn't believe in 'the best one' but he believes that there are a lot of girls (Not a lot la, Uncle CJ) for him out there that could possibly fit into his life and vice versa. Well, when I make The Decision I wanna be 100% sure. Not to choose the 55/45% one and then wonder what happens if I choose the 45/55% one. Of course, not all decisions in life are that straightforward. Sometimes you wonder if you should have worked two more years before you started your startup, then you would have saved more $, but at the same time, you would have been two years older... ... There is no such straightforward decision to make in many areas, even the decisions everyday - what to buy, what not to buy, what to eat... There is also an element of surprise and fun, just trusting God to take you along in the journey of life.

Anyways I've always respected people who dared to venture out on their own, like CJ, like The Boss - people I'd be happy to lend a supporting hand to - but I did say a little discouraging thing to CJ this week. Nothing much really, just pointing out the 'downturn' factor which will affect his biz here in sg. But downturns affect everyone! And so, instead of pointing that out, I should have been a cheerleader instead of a critic. I've seen some entrepreneurs meet with a lot of disapointments and naysayers, but they really had the vision and determination to carry through, and I'd prefer to cheer on the heroes in my life.

Having gone through some rough times myself this year, I've had lots of advice thrown at me, all were well-meant, I don't doubt that anyone had ill intentions. But some I would say were ill-advised. If I had just blindly followed all the people giving me instructions or advice, I think I would be in a worse shape than I am now. I called one of my TAG team guys yesterday, and I was heartened to receive sensible, firm advice. I know I want to succeed in my marketplace, so a TAG team is a must for me to succeed. Being an extrovert I do look for people to guide me along. And sometimes when I'm down I need to blabber to a few people too.

I watched a bit of a rerun of Oprah today, it was a mother's day segment and they were interviewing Demi Moore who said something I could identify with, 'after all these years, I've learnt that I've not learnt anything much at all and I still need to keep on learning' - words to that effect. And something resonated in me, that I felt exactly the same way, especially at this point of time.

Though the inner me is always, always so thankful to God, sometimes the outer me doesn't show it. Though I like to see myself as a cheerleader, perhaps more often than not, I am a critic. I get frustrated all too easily by CJ who keeps asking me about bottomlines and value propositions, but in hindsight I know he means the best, and this frustration, channeled effectively, can only mean that I will be a better worker and a better me.


I think we are all learning, and it's important to keep learning. Sometimes the people in our lives faze us. Sometimes life sucks - or we feel that it does for an all-too-long period of time. It's good if we face the facts - and know that what is past cannot be changed so there's no point worrying about it everyday, or what people may say, or what people will try to do to us. As what my Tag team guy said, sometimes we just need to say firmly, 'Back off. Go away' - and we need to say that to our negative thoughts too.

Because everyone likes cheerleaders.