Daily Lesson from Life 02 March 2009

No news headlines for me today to comment on.

Just a few words on what I had just come back from this evening.

I attended a Speaker Event organized by the 'Focus on the Family', a non-profit organization I believed that specialized in building up family as a cohesive unit in the USA.

This event is about how to help Singaoreans to be more resilient in the crushing financial tsunami and keeping the family intact! It talked about the 3 fronts:

1. financial - e.g. the need for a back-to-the-basic: a 'simple life free of the shackles of materialism' mindset!; budgeting technique; cutting debts especially credit card debts!; universal good principles of: save for a rainy day and spend within your mean!; etc...

2. personal - e.g. the need for, again, back-to-the-baisc: a 'simple life' mindset!; strengths to overcome the shocked change forced upon us - shock->denial->blaming others->self-doubt and acceptance -> learning to let go->pick oneself up again!; keeping fit and exercise; find a hobby so that one does not let 'an idle mind be the devil's workshop'!; etc...

3. family - e.g. effective communication with the spouse and children; from results in item 2 above, to build on keeping the family together with commitment and pro-active actions like having family outing together; keeping it simple and be creative to have fun without incurring too much expenses; etc...

I find the program useful though it can be enriched further with specific tools and techniques for budgeting and maybe provision of 'where and how to get community financial assistance'.

I will try to help in it's roll out as it is another chance to give back to society with my skills and expertise!

p/s: I want to thank my new friend, Joshua Ng, ex-Motorolan, for introducing me to this group!