When people repeat something I’ve already heard, I’m prone to say… “You already told me” or “I already know that.” As with most things – Its different when I’m the receiving end of my own actions. When someone cuts me off, it doesn’t feel good. “You already said that” is a quick way to invalidate […]
“I already know that” Read More »
You are not your likes. You are not the # of followers you have. You are not the number of matches you got on Tinder. You are not your phone. You are not your Google search history. You are not your Netflix recommendations. You are not a millennial… Or whatever arbitrary label sociologists
Fight Club Mantras, 2018 Edition Read More »
It was a poster taped on a street sign – Make $12/hr with complete freedom to set your own hours! I was 16 and this hooked me. I called the number and was invited to a meeting in a nondescript business park in Pasadena. The meeting went on and on about the benefits of working
The Reason Why I Never Joined Multi Level Marketing (MLM) Companies Read More »
A friend asked me recently: “How do I become more grateful in my life?” By instinct, we know that gratitude is a good thing. Yet, there’s a weird guilt around what we should be grateful for. If you’re not grateful for your family, friends, God or the “big” things in life, then you’re selfish. You’re
Small vs big gratitude Read More »
On Saturday, July 28th, 2018, in an alternate dimension similar to Earth, Oz Chen died when a truck rear-ended him on the 101 freeway. Fortunately before the accident, he already told his family and friends that should he ever die unexpectedly, that he regrets nothing. A Ford F-150 almost rear-ended me at 80 miles per
Leave a message for your loved ones, in case you die early Read More »
The moment my sisters had kids, they said goodbye to a normal sleep schedule. My sisters are not morning people. But they wake up at any hour of the day to tend to their newborns. Hanging around parents made me realize that the capability of waking early – and doing it – is more important
How I wake up early without being a morning person Read More »
Every suburban kid has their watershed moment of humility. Mine was in the commune of Hinche, a year after the Haiti earthquake. I was on a medical aid trip1. A dentist I was assisting told me something that blew my mind: “If we don’t remove the abscess, the tooth can get infected and the patient
Upgrade your problems Read More »
Nothing makes a person project their values more than being a parent. My single mother worked full time jobs while starting businesses on the side. Instead of encouraging my sisters and I to follow her path, she wanted us to get advanced degrees and pursue stable, high status careers 1. Both my sisters became doctors
We are value projection machines Read More »
I was a bit startled by his reaction. We were surrounded by street peddlers on the streets of Cusco. Overpriced tours and kitschy trinkets. A normal occurrence for any touristy site. But he blew up. His face turned red and he screamed at the solicitors to go away. I held this memory with me as
The Street Peddlers of Your Mind Read More »
It was the ultimate irony – I learned how to meditate to decrease stress. But I stressed out about not meditating enough. A friend pointed this out to me when I complained about breaking my meditation streak on Headspace. So I asked myself, where did the stress come from? Even deeper irony: it came from
Mindfulness lies just beyond the meditation app Read More »