Day 4: It's not you, it's me...

"Actually it's you. I hate you, it is all your problem. YOU are the cause of all my problems."

Whenever we encounter a problem at work and life, we think, "how dare you do this to me", "what an idiot", "I have done nothing wrong!", "It's not my fault you're..." so and so forth.

We would like to think that whatever just happened is nothing to do with us. We're being treated unfairly. Life hates us. Why is everyone treating me like that. Why can't I be like (name of someone very popular/successful), why does he get everything and not me?

Wanna know a secret?

The problem is really you. I'm sorry, it's true. The doctor says you are the source of all your unhappiness.

OK, there is no doctor but there is some truth in what I'm going to talk about in a minute.

"The world is a reflection of you"

You know that really obnoxious/nasty person in your office/class/neighborhood? The one that treats everyone badly as though he is a movie star? Everybody hates him and gives him a hard time whenever they have anything to do with him.

Remember that cleaner, security guard in our office/home/school? The one who is very friendly and talks to you every time you see him? Everyone like him, buys him snacks and coffee, sometimes even gives him stuff during Chinese new year.

How about the classmate/coworker that is always happy for some reason? The one that doesn't panic or get stressed up about the amount of work or the deadline and somehow is able to finish all his projects on time and does it better than everyone else?

And lastly the coworker/boss/project leader who is always bitching about this and that? The one that drives his team crazy with all the over-time and unreasonable demands? He gets things done, but at the cost of everyone's sanity, happiness. Rarely his work is up to standard.

Of course, we see all these people in our daily life.

The big questions is:

"Which one of these characters are you? Are you surprised at why others treat you that way?"

Try sometime different tomorrow. When someone pisses you off tomorrow, stop to think for one second, why did he just do what he did to you. Not from your perspective. From that person's perspective.

China Breakfast ends at 8 am (true story)

I could give an example of something that happened this morning when I was going to Mc Donald's for breakfast.

I arrived at 9.55 am. since I remembered breakfast ends at 10 a.m. Sweet lady at the counter tells me sorry breakfast has ended, would you like to look at our lunch menu instead? I was pretty pissed since I actually made it a point to leave the house a bit early so I can get a sausage Mc muffin with egg.

So I asked, "Anything left over from the breakfast menu?"

She said none whatsoever and told me that they usually stop preparing breakfast stuff from 9.30 since most people stop having breakfast by 9 as they have to reach their office by 9.

So I got a lousy Fillet O Fish and sulked to office.

When I told my assistant about my unhappy morning visit to Mc Donald's. This is what Mary (my assistant) has to say.

"Do you think the whole of China revolves around your bourgeois lifestyle? Breakfast is served from 6.30-8.00, lunch 11.00-13.00, dinner 16.30-18.00. If you're late you get no food, got it?"

I think she sums it up for me.

It's not you, it's me...