The official website of Nicholas Yong Cam-U

Instantaneous.

2012-02-19T16:09:00.001+08:00

We want happy relationships but we always build them with effortless monetary gifts; what happened to devoting time, effort, and attention?

We want successful businesses but we focus on earning a fast buck; many settle for so little when businesses could easily grow into empires if only we cared more.

Though it’s important to understand the urgency of “seizing the moment”, but many of us are simply clouded by the urge to “get it now” that we unconsciously compromise on our decisions.

It’s hardwired into us, we rush now to only regret later.

But it shouldn't be so. Let us foster back that respect we once had for nature’s design of time and process. Let's together honour the dynamics of matters and understand that not everything has got to be instantaneous.

If you had a second chance, what decisions you would opted for the long way instead?

Cheers,
Nicholas.

4 deconstructed thoughts on the psychology behind social-media marketing.

2012-01-21T14:24:00.000+08:00

I’d like to share some short thoughts, 4 in particularactually, that break the common mentality and psychology about social-mediamarketing - Facebook being a prime example.

Your audience hasbeen desensitized.

Facebook is a platform that houses thousands of brands. Promoting yourbrand in this amount of noise isn’t very effective is it now? It should be toppriority to give your audience a unique brand experience; serve them somethingthey can remember your brand by.

Statistics for you,experience for them.

Let’s be honest, the LIKE counter is just for showboating. The numbers playso very little in actually enhancing your audience’s experience. Though itsomewhat promises traffic, but keep in mind that traffic doesn’t mean sales.

Attentions aresegmented and divided.

The more the merrier so they say – it isn’t so in this case. In this digitalera, it is actually asking a lot to want someone to pay full attention to you.Hence, decide wisely; lead them to your site and give them a completeexperience, instead of segmented ones across the Internet.

Is it another bridgeor barrier?

Many think it’s a bridge, but I say it’s a barrier. It is another extra stepbetween you and your audience; another lost chance to understand yourdemographic better. Would you rather know more people but know them less, or knowless people but know them more? Take your pick.

I’d love to hear how social-media marketing is treating you.

Cheers,

Nick.

An attempt at appreciating the Starbucks brand.

2012-01-15T11:13:00.000+08:00

Before anything, I must begin by admitting that I am indeed a huge fan of Starbucks as it is to me, such a brilliantly conceptualized and executed project; there are so many clever design decisions along the way that assisted in the crafting of this majestic brand.

I however, would like to tackle this casually short write-up from another perspective; instead of analysing the visual side of design, I’d like to talk a little about the psychological side of the Starbucks brand experience design in which I find is highly interesting.

The one thing that immediately caught my attention when I was observing around and would like to talk about today - is the role of the colour (Or “shade” if you’re picky about the design language.) black in their brand experience. Despite having the deep green colour lead the frontline of the brand, black underlines as an equally important colour.

Baristas on duty in their black uniforms exhibit a strong sense of professionalism; a “I know what I’m doing” vibe if you would. This unconsciously reassures the customers by evoking trust towards the baristas. It is a spark of brilliance when contrasted to your typical brown or white uniforms which give out a “just a worker” feel, which is not one bit pleasant or convincing. The presence of black in the Starbucks’ uniform also unconsciously permits the staffs a superior position above the customers; allowing baristas to lead them through the designed brand experience.

I can’t believe I’m about to talk about them but yes – floor tiles – they’re a brilliant choice. Starbucks’ selection of black (Or a very dark colour which can easily be perceived as black.) is such a clever decision when you take into consideration one chunk of their market’s demographic – suits and ties. Can you imagine wearing a black or dark coloured full formal and walking into a shop with white or bright tiles? You’ll feel so contrasted, tensed up and unfitting, but with the black tiles however, you’ll blend right in – a comforting feeling.

These two tiny (Or to me, epically large.) details made a whole world of a difference. The shear brilliance becomes clear when I prolonged my observation on people walking in and out of the coffee house. I constantly compare elements between elements, and I kept finding myself repeating in a monologue – “wow, they just fit”, one time after another. It can’t be denied that there are so many invisible psychological cues which happen simultaneously in which helps to position the brand where it is today - being aware of little matters like these set them apart from your standard mediocre brands out there.

I will be on the lookout to deconstruct even more design decisions on my next visit because I believe there’s definitely much to be learned from this brand design.

Do share if you've noticed any brilliant design decisions that you feel is often overlooked in the Starbucks brand, or any other brands for that matter! Love to hear them!

Cheers,

Nick.

Ounces of water.

2012-01-07T04:54:00.000+08:00

Tried out more minimalist lighting cause I'm liking it! :) Decided to test out with something more delicate to light - water! Love how noticeable the coating of light is, and how soft when it touches a flat surface compared to a spherical surface which creates amazing highlights.

Until next time.

Cheers,

Nick.

3 valuable fundamental mindsets in design.

2011-12-30T17:41:00.000+08:00

Party of three.

I'm betting on it that if you were drawn to this article by the title, you too have at some point felt lost in design. It's frustrating isn't it? I know the feeling very well too as I find myself facing creative blocks so very often. It was until a day when I got so fed up with these creative blocks, I had a profound thought. Though design is an extremely vast field, the core concept of what we do is plain simple - we solve problems.

From that, came a wishful thinking, why can't we have some sort of a "problem solving module" to aid and ease our process? I am aware of design processes out there, but I personally find them useless if you don't possess the right mindset to operate them.

So here, I'd like to share with you a "module" in which I feel is more designer-friendly and easily related to.

It’s MINE!

Initiate your project by calling ownership over it; live, breathe, and nurture the thoughts, ideas, and concepts which the project is built upon. Doing so unconsciously enables your “commitment cells”, drawing you closer to care more about the project and its future welfare. This principle works very well for both, individual and group endeavours. The underlying psychological concept is very simple but extremely true; we simply care more for our own possessions. It is a fact that “I broke a beautiful cup broke earlier.” doesn’t evoke a similar emotional reaction to “I broke MY beautiful cup earlier.”. This applies exactly the same when placed in a design context of ideas, concepts, and executions; you care more if you hold ownership over them.

The catch here however is to seek a proper balance; you should be bold in devoting yourself completely into a project but when the time for critiquing comes, take a step back and try to view it from an as neutral as possible perspective. The reason here is so that you do not get too attached to your project, both emotionally and egoistically that it clouds your judgments. This is vital for personal growth and improvement as you yourself, are fixing the high standards. Be daring in breaking down your previous efforts in favour of a better design; honour the potentials that your ideas and concepts hold.

Let’s DO this!

It is ever so vital to have a never dying yearning to initiate efforts. I say this because, we designers are responsible to pioneer the future through creativity; so if we do not initiate, who else will?

Foster a habit to explore actively; it is the only way to know what the world has got to offer. This allows you to learn from both the mistakes and successes of others because let’s face it, we don’t have the time nor want to repeat history. This is somewhat a cheat sheet in design for me because it enables me to build upon what others have done instead of starting from ground zero; empowering me to pace a few steps ahead. The level of comparison is solely up to you; it could vary from college peers to industry leaders and even legends. I’m also a strong believer in “Nothing can be taught but everything can be learned.”; a stubborn mind who doesn’t want to learn cannot learn even though taught, but a stubborn mind who wants to learn can learn even without being taught.

Recommended read: Psychological theory - “Upward and downward social comparison.”.

Inspiration is another noteworthy debate in this context, for inspiration can present itself in two forms; active and passive. I was with a skewed mindset when I began my design journey, that inspiration was a synonym to “Waiting for an idea.” or the o’ so famous “Light bulb moment.”. I then later found out that it was only one of two forms; the other form of inspiration being active research or scouting. This proves to be a more reliable form in the real world as it is somewhat scalable to your efforts invested. So, never stop exploring because there is so much out there to be learned.

HAVE at thee!

Sharing. This effort should be taken a step at a time and you’d be amazed by the beauty of starting small.

To begin, no matter if you’re unsure or dead confident that your idea is prepared for the real world, try sharing it to yourself in front of a mirror; enunciate your words and thoughts out loud and question yourself vocally if any doubts arise then try answering them. I’m asking you to take my word that it would feel absolutely different when you have it only in your mind compared to when it’s spoken out loud; you will begin to have profound thoughts of flaws and strengths about your idea in which you can use to improve on. This at the same time hones your confidence and clarity in speech and thoughts; and to boot, you get to hear it from somewhat a different point of view without the need to face the anxiety of another person being present.

This may to many, seem like quite a saddening scene of having to speak to yourself, but believe me when I say, if you don’t have the ability to present the idea to yourself, you don’t have the ability to present it to anyone else. Thoughts and words will get all jumbled up the moment you step on stage or in front of an audience; in which can only be prevented by an ample amount of preparation beforehand.

If you survived the whole run, I thank you for staying with me. I know it has been a long one, but I wanted to wrap the year up with something substantial. Feel free to share your creative thoughts and comments, would be delighted to hear them!

Until next time, have a merry new year folks!

Cheers,
Nick.

Post-Christmas update!

2011-12-29T15:17:00.000+08:00

Gingerbread cupcake.

Soft macarons.

Gingerbread man putting smiles on his minions.

Hope your Christmas was warm and sweet! :) I personally am pumped and can't wait for the coming new year, am so excited with all the future happenings and possibilities. Planning to tie myself down with more video projects and at the same time, be out on the look for creatives to get some collaborations going on!

Love to hear what excites you for the coming new year!

Cheers,

Nick.

Intention kings content.

2011-12-15T12:05:00.000+08:00

It always has; great content can never exist without a defined, focused and creatively-just intention.

“Content is King.” – Bill Gates.

A saying in which I came across only during my college days, but it was one that stuck well to me and it has ever since been religiously leading my approach to my creative efforts.

I didn’t adopt it with a static mindset however; I was constantly trying to deconstruct the thought in attempt to understand what makes it tick. I wanted to decipher the core idea to push it even further.

In this era of high-paced media, cost-cutting good looking content with only an intention to earn a fast buck are often opted over actual good content. This situation needs no particular example as it is an epidemic which so blatantly noticeable.

This doesn’t come as a surprise as most of the small-time business owners are money-driven and all about turnovers, whereas the big players are instead, led by a vision to create a brand.

Despite the situation, I hold strong that our concern should never be on the quality and look of the content but instead, on the underlying intentions which are driving them. It would be a premature thought to be worrying about the outlook when the essence itself does not hold substance.

It is very likely to have sub-optimal content when money is the core intention. This is an irreversible vicious cycle as it is only but characteristic for those who are tip-top at cost-cutting to would want to also mindlessly save in hiring proficient services to build up their brand.

Intention kings content.

Good content is knowing what you want to say and saying it well.

So, prioritize in equipping yourself with proper and just intentions for it is the most important element in design, it would without fail guide all the other forms of design - copy-writing, typography, layout, etc; in which would sum up to be the content.

Love to hear your opinions and thoughts; let’s stir it up and get a creative conversation going.

Cheers,
Nick.

Action inspires action.

2011-12-12T01:23:00.001+08:00

How about you, what inspires? I would love to hear them.

Cheers,
Nick.

Graduation!

2011-11-04T01:18:00.001+08:00

The red toss!

Good day to you! :DD Just wanted to drop a quick one.

GUESS WHAT. GUESS WHAT.

I am officially a Graphic Communication Design graduate! :DD It has been a truly amazing 2 1/2 years worth of experience; filled with emotions of both ends. I have learnt so much, from books, lecturers and friends, but yet, I know that the journey is still far and long. This is only the beginning, I am very excited to see what the future holds for all of us.

Congrats again to all of my batch-mates and all the best with your future creative endeavours!

Cheers!

Nick.

Lines.

2011-10-29T23:18:00.000+08:00

Good day you! :D I recently tried out minimalistic rim-only portrait lighting and I wanted to share with you a few of the shots from the attempt.

Side profile.

Front profile.

Cheers,

Nick.

Let there be light!

2011-10-25T18:23:00.000+08:00

Good day happy folks! I'm back with another short update! :DD

In-conjunction with the coming celebration of Deepavali - the festival of light, I decided to try out a type of photography I've been having my eyes on for quite a while now - steel wool photography! I know it sounds rather white, puffy and cute, with the mentioned of "wool" but I can assure you it is nothing of that sort but in fact, the right opposite - dangerous and adrenaline pumping.

8-ish, I started preparing and packing, trying to mass my humble set of gears together. I left nothing behind - tripod, lightstand, softbox, flash - I brought every single thing that I thought could help me make a great photograph. Despite the mild drizzle, I left for the location from home at about 9-ish, right after the darkness of the night has taken over the skies - dim enough to shoot properly.

The walk in the rain was a short one thankfully, after about 8 minutes-ish, I was on location.

It was a construction site by a very quiet and hidden residential area - perfect.

I then scouted around for compositions that I could use, but at the back of my mind, a worry grew. The mood of the rain was volatile as it would turn heavy one second, and mild another; I wasn't really comfortable setting up in a condition like this, also remembering that, this place is extremely dark, and once in a while, foreign workers would travel through this area.

So after about 10 minutes-ish of pacing around, contemplating on whether would I set up, and at the same time, praying that the rain would fade away, or at least weaken down - it did, and I decided, the heck with it, I'll just go for it!

My heart raced as I pull out my camera to set up, constantly looking around to check for signs of foreign workers. I worked as quietly as I could to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. It was dead quiet - I could even hear my own breathing.

Swiftly but steadily, things fell into place, and I was ready to get my exposures. It flowed perfectly, my first test shot was close to spot on exposure, and that put a wide smile on my face. I then quickly, rinse and repeat a few more times - constantly still looking around, being on-guard for any possible danger.

I then finished, and was home safe! :D Of course, I did accidentally smack my head once and twice back with the damn thing that I had to swing, thankfully nothing caught fire!

Here are the results from this first run!

Whipping it yo!

Unsuccessful attempt at drawing the Sun.

Second not-very-much-better attempt.

I've also included above here, a very short behind the scenes video for you! Until next time.

Cheers,

Nick.

Bending the light.

2011-10-22T12:52:00.000+08:00

Soul Reaver inspired.

Swing and smack em' about.

Feeling inspired while watching Rick Sammon's CreativeLIVE session tonight. Decided to try out some random stuff with shutter dragging and a cheap LED lamp. Knocked about the lamp on the wall a few times as I was doing my "light-painting dance" but it was all good. :D Pretty pleased with the strokes on the first picture, took me about 100+ exposures to get something I really liked. I have another portrait concept in mind which hopefully will be executed soon!

Until next time,

Nick.

Do you like it dirty, dry, or neat?

2011-10-20T12:58:00.000+08:00

Do you like it dirty, dry, or neat?

Click through the picture. :)
I'd like to slide in a special thanks to my sis and Sharyn for advising. :D

Cheers,
Nick.

From the oven.

2011-10-17T17:21:00.000+08:00

Crispy roasted bacon mashed potatoes.

Slow cooked beef in puff pastry.

Good food for dinner, done by.

Cheers,
Nick.

From the flames!

2011-10-02T02:02:00.000+08:00

Sweet 8-bladed aperture.

/Cue dramatic voiceover – start.

RISE IT DID 28 YEARS AGO, FROM THE SPARKS OF SMELTING METALS. AWAKENED IT WAS BY THE FIRE, TO THE CALLING OF – HELIOS!
/Cue dramatic voiceover – end.

And that my friends, is what I have here in my hands. (Obviously not now, since I’m typing, but you get what I mean.)

Helios-44M 58mm f/2.0!

A Helios-44M 58mm f/2.0. It is an instant charmer I must say, right from moment I first held it. Unlike your generic brands out there, this beast had quite a weight for its size and it was a mesmerizing touch. I loved how the weight fell onto my palm which gives good grip and stability. Based on my research, mine was from the very first design schematic, so with it, was all its flaws as a pioneer design – and that I loved a lot as it carried a certain character! So this baby I have here is already 28 years old (Even older than me!) of age, and that is some awesome history! It is a true beauty indeed. Just thought this lens deserves a post of its own seeing how much history it carries (And also because I needed something to test out my new soft-box! :B).

Cheers,

Nick.

Ego – a first degree calculation: The Self.

2011-09-29T17:27:00.000+08:00

Yup, that would be me.

It is an entity so beautiful yet so mysterious.

It holds responsibility to have caused nations to rise andprosper, but in other cases, to also fall and perish. From this we can learn;ego is a double-edged sword – it could help or it could hurt, it merely dependson how you aim it and where you aim it at.

Ego – a first degree calculation: The Self.

From the way I see it, there is “good” ego, and “bad” ego.This I believe might not be parallel with the society’s perspective towards thematter. As far as I know and understand, the masses define ego as straight downharmful and bad.

You might ask - “Isn’t that true, how can there be “good”ego?”

Well, we will get to that in a second; but do join me firstin analysing the “bad” egos. These are the familiar ones, the ones we havebefriended too well with.

Through time and interactions with others, we slowly developa perceived reality of ourselves and how we fit into the society - taking intoconsiderations of our strengths and weaknesses. Do note that I used the word“perceived” reality; this is because, what we see and how we see it might notbe in line with the perspectives of others and also, the actual reality itself.

Let us begin by striking at the very roots of bad egositself – pride. I liken this entityto a make-believe empire where you’re king, the king of everything – all thatis human, nature, and man-made. That is the essence of pride, the feeling ofbeing almighty above all, reigning supreme against any power. This dreamdoesn’t last long however, the bubble that contains it pops easily once metwith friction from the actual reality. Take this into a real world example;John is a person who reads a lot about Biology, and when he mingles around hispeers who are mostly accountants and bankers, he feels superior while sharinghis knowledge on Biology as he attempts to answer a question put forth by hisfriend. He enjoys that feeling of being “above the rest” and he unconsciouslyholds on to that state of mind – this is pride materialising.

From that, comes idleness.Imagine yourself being on top of the food chain, unrivalled by any, would youeven care to budge a muscle anymore? I’m assuming the answer is no. This isbecause you’ve reached that sweet spot of dominance, of confidence. Rememberhowever, all of this might or might not be happening in reality, but it isdefinitely in your mind as caused by pride. The moment we have this feeling ofbeing safe, we tend to breed idleness. Take for example, Nate, a very cleverboy who excels amazingly in Maths and is always the top scorer in the subject, farabove the rest of his peers. He feels well assured that he can score well aboveothers even if he does not revise for the exams, and so, he doesn’t prepare.Guess what, he came home with an A+, isn’t he truly a talent? The main pointhowever, isn’t his results; imagine that Nate practices this in the long run –it is definite that he will fall behind without a doubt as there is not any activeefforts to want to improve.

Self praise is alsoone of the most well-known of the bad egos. It is the simple act of attemptingto impart your imaginative reality into another person’s actual reality. It isa fact that many of us (Including myself.) have indulged in this unhealthyhabit; I too understand the very feeling of being in that moment when you’resinging so boldly about yourself right under the spotlight – it is amazing,isn’t it? But that is not the point, the fact of the matter still stands, perspectivesmight be manipulated but your knowledge or skill will not improve from self praising,instead, it will deteriorate though time from the lack of effort. I liken thisto the previous scenario in idleness – if you think you’re “high up there”already, would you still put as much effort as compared to if you were down lowon the food chain? I think not.

It isn’t all thunderstorms and dark clouds. We are over anddone with that, now let us push away all the negative vibes and bring in thebright and sunny good side of this matter we call ego, shall we?

The strength toaccept is the single strongest trait that good ego empowers one with, Ipersonally believe. I might contradict some points I made earlier, but bearwith me as I explain my justifications. Let us bring back the framework ofpride that I mentioned earlier, remember how John was all up in the clouds withhis “minor victory” among his peers? I shall push that scenario one stepfurther, what if another friend suddenly joined the conversation and correctedJohn on mistakes he made with the facts. How would John be feeling like rightnow? Try to imagine. Based on human nature and psychology, John would be onalert, as his position is being threatened by another greater power, right? Hewould be very defensive and deny anything his newcomer friend is trying to saybecause he wants to stay on top. It is clear that bad ego is definitelypresent. I’m sure if you were there witnessing this, you would for sure have afew words of advice for John, which would sound like “John, just tone it down,if he’s right, just admit it.” I believe. I’d like to flip that mindset around;instead of taming John’s ego, I want to fire it up even more. If I was in hisshoes, I would want to accept my mistakes and grow from them fast, because myego is dying to be back on top. Having this example in mind, imagine livingyour life with this state of mind, and how much you could and would grow andimprove from your daily life experiences as compared to the usual “just blockit away” mindset. The psychology behind this is a bit tricky because you’replaying with negative elements in hopes of getting positive results but it reallydepends on the balance one finds in order to keep it as a healthy practice.

How are you handling your egos in life?

Do note please: Seeing that this topic holds a lot ofpotential for exploration, I will be segmenting my writings into a couple ofposts;

Ego – a first degree calculation: The Self.

Ego – a second degree calculation: The Other.

Ego – a third degree calculation: The World.

Until then, have a good day,
Nick.

Herding the sheep.

2011-09-02T21:05:00.000+08:00

Blurring the lines.

There is agrave problem with education today; it is too accessible, it is too achievable.

And thementality of the urbanites is the main cause of this scenario.

“Moneymakes the world go round."

It is to myunderstanding that those quoted words acts as the leading mindset of thecurrent society, no matter where you might be on this planet. Parents give and sacrificeso much, working very hard simply to be able to provide for their children’seducations – primary, secondary, and tertiary. Through their eyes, there is somuch value in their efforts – to be able to allow their children to get thebest educations they can afford, but through the eyes of the kids however, itis a different story more often than not – many would have an “I deserve this”attitude when they look around and compare themselves to their peers who arealso well provided for their educations. Sad enough to say, it is how humannature works; items which are easily attainable lose its value. In this case,the children who are not aware of their parents’ sacrifices for their educationwill not appreciate the blessings.

This situationworsens however, as these parents’ efforts are spent on their children who aren’tprimed properly to take on decision-calling for their own future. In results,you get a majority of pre-tertiary students floating around, all clueless andlost about the direction of their future educations. They however, don’t havetime to stop and think, oh no, as they’ll be “left behind” from the “flow” ifthey do so - what happens here then? They immediately rush into a course, moreoften than not, tagging along with their friends into whichever course that ispopular amongst their group members. And years later, you will find a greatnumbers of unhappy and graduates who will continue to feel so when they entertheir career building stage of life.

This is aflawed system;

I believe you would notice too if you took time to examine it.

Change is possiblehowever, definitely.

I personallybelieve there has always been more to the roles as parents as how the societysees them; more than merely providing financially and casting the customary timeto time disciplinary nagging. These guiding hands can do so much more tocultivate a better and more fruitful future for the kids.

I wouldlove to share with you, a reminder of efforts from my current self to my futureself as a parent.

Passion

Encouragestrongly the value and importance of passion to your children. Inspire themwith great minds and world movers; and never stop believing that they too haveit in them, unique ways of their own, to be one in the future. Believe alwaysthat with passion, there are truly no boundaries, as any obstacles that presentthemselves will be demolished and nullified with effort and initiative.

Respect

Honor thewords and actions of your children, and soon enough they will respondaccordingly. There is a catch here however, you must “give first to receive” –lead by examples and not words. I believe many parents don’t operate this way; theyexpect the kids to respect them first as they keep on the yelling and scoldingin hopes to achieve this. Give to receive I say, when the kids have gonethrough the experience of being respected, they will value it, and in return,mirror the attitude.

Involvement

Give yourkids the participation rights they deserve. Provide them sufficient freedom tomake decisions as only so will they be able to learn from their mistakes andunderstand the consequences their choices bring. Concurrently, this promotesyour kids to be comfortable in the active seats, to stand up and take controlof their own lives and not just be pushed around by the flow. By granting theminvolvement, they will also care more for their decisions as it is in us ashumans to want to give more attention and love to matters you takeresponsibility and ownership of.

Measure

No - don’t doit, ever. Never compare the achievements of your children against others as itisn’t one bit relevant. Understand the fact that we all have a special place onEarth, each blessed with a particular set of talents that no one else has.Properly cultivate this set of talents and you will reap an identity. So stopforcing your kids to be good in something that is irrelevant as it is verydestructive towards your children’s talents.

Exposure

Make aneffort to constantly introduce your kids to various new activities as it allowsthem to explore around and flavour what the world has to offer. “Knowledge ofthe world” is what I like to call it, the more often your children dip in thispool of information, the more they’re able to see and learn about beautifulhappenings around the world before they set out on journeys of their very own. Onecannot possibly love something one never knew existed, right?

This is mytake on how I would PRIME my kids for their future, what’s yours?

PRIME - Passion, Respect, Involvement, Measure, Exposure.

Cheers,
Nick.

Worded words.

2011-08-21T20:02:00.008+08:00

Identity.

I wholeheartedly and boldly believe that “you are who you want to be”, the present is only temporal – a yet to be crafted artwork if you would. This is why I see the great importance in decision making and the thoughts behind those choices.

Here, I would like to share some few amazingly inspiring words I have found and hope to hold by and grow with until the end.

“Never mistake motion for action.”
– Ernest Hemingway.

Get results. Though I am personally a very “the journey matters” kind of person, but I do try my best to keep myself in touch with the actual world by constantly nudging my realist side to remember that results are important – that it happened only if it happened. Effort is beautiful but if the end result didn’t happen, it DID NOT HAPPEN, and hence it will only remain as a selfish personal experience. I relate well to this as I am often contemplating over the “better” option, and at times taking too long to decide and hence, nullifying the whole effort all together.

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Be brave to initiate – make an effort. This is one of the most dominant notions in me at this present time as I try hard to combat the bad habits I have picked up from this passive society we live in. To try to be active, to be the one who invokes a change whenever I see a change is fit and in need instead of hoping for the best or waiting for someone else to do it. Honestly, it has been really hard for me so far, to actually take charge of my life and my decisions, to change for the better. I nonetheless am trying my best with little baby steps.

“Never lie; never cheat; never steal. Don’t whine; don’t complain; don’t make excuses.”
– John Wooden.

To live with honor, holding strong to all of that is right and just; to not surrender to the degrading norms of the society. I try to remind myself always that the society has a very strong influence on opinions and habits but I try my best to retain the independence of thoughts and actions. The second part of these words struck me greatly; I understand now that I must not cave in to whining or complaining as by doing so I have effectively lost the psychological war to these challenges, acknowledging that my actions cannot change or affect these happenings.

“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.”
– Dalai Lama.

Never stop learning. The world is such a beautiful place with so much of knowledge and wisdom to be discovered. I never want to hold myself back with a closed mind filled with stubbornness and ignorance. I want to take in every single thing the world has to offer even though it might be against my beliefs or perspectives; I want to grow and mature, to be able to entertain these information without being affected against my own will but yet hold respect for them.

“Be not simply good; be good for something.”
– Henry David Thoreau.

I believe the relevant keyword here in this context is justification. I personally prioritize the thought that every move should root from a solid reasoning, the entity that holds an answer to the question – “Why?”. This is because an action without justification is superficial but when reasoning is present, there is depth and meaning. These amazing words also push me to not be in my own world but reach out and share my talents and passions to affect others in positive ways, to make a difference to something or someone without caring how minor it might be.

With that, I end my post.

Have a good day folks,

Nick.