Like most people on this planet, I joined the hopeful and like the hopeful, I set new year resolutions. As most of us have expected subconsciously, resolutions are not meant to last. The only hope is that may our resolutions last as long as long as our problems!
While I have no problems missing resolutions, this year was a bit different as I set myself for the first time a resolution of a new category. A few months ago, a client of mine gave me a few CD's with the title '4 lessons of Liao Fan'. In a synopsis, it's about a guy whose life was going 100% as fated until one day he made some good deeds. To his surprise, his fate started to change. The learnings are about how our actions can still change the destiny. Being motivated by these cd's, I made a resolution to do 1000 good deeds a year. For a statistician, that will mean about 3 good deeds per day.
First day, well...life was a bit slow so I missed my daily target. 2nd day...completed 2 but must work harder the following day to catch up with 'lost sales'. After a week, I realized that my best score was 2 per day. A week later my 2 remained the best score but the problem was that the quality of 2 dwindled. I had to include 'good deeds' like slowing down my car to allow a kid to cross the road, holding the lift door for a stranger...which was more of a courtesy than good deeds. But like any other sales guys, we have to do what we have to do.
I can miss my resolution to lose 3 kg or to improve my golf by 5 strokes and I don't think it has any spill over effects to the following days. But missing the good deeds as resolution is something very different. It blatantly tells me that I have not created enough good deeds to build a better aura for the future but that is still ok if there were also not many bad deeds done daily. But a quick check will easily reveal 5 incidents of bad deeds per day!
If I were to treat good and bad deeds as credit and debit, I have a NET DEFICIT!!! And why I'm still ok is primarily because I'm using my savings from past lives. But it's also quite true that opportunities for good deeds may also be hard to come by in our daily life style. For me, I'm in a car to work in the morning, office from 9am to 6 pm. During lunch, I'm surrounded by temptation of good hawker stores above everything else. Have dinner at malls or home. Watch TV for a few hours and...hmmmm. I guess that's it! While I'm sure there are opportunities, but it's so easy to miss if I don't pay attention.
Now, if we look around us, whether it's ourselves or our colleagues and friends, chances are low too if we do not make an effort to find. From time to time, we have heard comments like 'how could this happen to a nice guy like him, who does not do any harm all his life' (but the question is has he done anything good?). I have seen how religious people pray but sometimes it is more a 'request or wish list to God' than good deeds. God, please bless my kid so that he recovers fast, please bless my husband so that he travels safely, please bless my family to be free from harm...if you notice, the word bless is almost as good as 'help me'. So, where's the good deed? I'm not saying that we should not ask for blessing but I think that we need to do more than that.
One thing I benefited from 'missing my resolution' is that I have created a sharper eye for good deeds within the ecosystem of my work life. Example, we can read the paper and once we see any plead for donation and we think it's genuine, let's write a cheque while it's still hot. Put some inspirational cd's in the car for some moments of coaching while stuck in a jam, look for a vegetarian restaurant around the office and encourage colleagues to go green once a week, surf the net during lunch for some organization who need help. You need not donate but you can definitely send the mail to people like me who are desperate. Spread news that you like to help needy people in the office and I'm sure some will come forward iwth some charitable organizations they know. Use your 'authority' to set a target for your staff to find you at least 1 opportunity per week and I'm sure they are happy to help out. As you can see, the list can continue!!
Since I miss my target so badly, I shall include this blog as one of my good deeds...if you don't mind :)
