The Simple Life



Life is not complicated.


It is Easy…


The phrase is repeated time and again by the Thai farmer, Mr Jon Jendai in his TedTalk. It struck a chord in my heart, as for the past few weeks. I have been worried about a lot of things.

  1. My father’s health

  1. How to grow my business and income

  1. What car to replace my current ride

All this thoughts have been running through my mind, day and night.

It is hard not to worry about my father’s health despite of my frustration with his self-destructive behaviour. There is also very little we can do.

As for No.2, business is running well. Income is growing. However, as an entrepreneur I should always be on the lookout for newer opportunities.  Especially on sources of passive income. At the moment, I only earn when I work. There is little money coming in when I am not. It is not a good prospect if I am disrupted from my schedule.

To be fair, I tend to run to No.3 as a form of refuge, as cars are a pet topic with me. It is therapeutic in a way to browse through car adverts and have daydreams of running a German thoroughbred or upsize to an SUV. But even that, with the myriad of choices available, together with each choices offering pluses and minuses had taken a toll on my mind.






The Simple Life


Mr Jon Jendai gave an inspirational talk on how to make life easy and light for oneself. Admittedly, the solutions that he proposed are not feasible for an urbanite like me in a city like Singapore. Not unless I am a billionaire, and am able to buy my own land in Singapore. There is no way I can retreat to a farmland to do subsistence farming to feed my family and build my own home. But I do like his outlook in life and the way he manages it.





Food, Shelter, Clothes and Health


It is true, regardless of our wealth, status, race etc, we only need the above four things at one time. And we need only very limited amount of each of the items.

Food = We need only what is enough to get through the day, regardless if it is expensive or affordable

Shelter = we need only one room and one bed to sleep in every night. It doesn’t help if you have more houses.

Clothes = you only need to wear 1 set of clothes per day. As long as you are dressed and is comfortable, it doesn’t really matter how much they cost.

Heatlh = Money can't buy health right? We need to take care of ourselves in the best way we can. No one else can do that for us.


Being Happy


Right now, I am typing comfortably in my office. I have had lunch and there is work and thus income coming in. My wife is at work. My boy is playing happily in school. I have a fine car to drive around in.  I should be happy.

Too often, we concentrate on what we do not have or yet to have. We forget the present. We forget to treasure the present. 


Look at your present, treasure what you have. Now.

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