Random rants 1 - Colours

Here’re some random stuff, nothing significant, just quick thoughts and occurrences that colour my life:

• One Million. My blog views crossed 1 million last week! Woh! didn't even think this could happen. Anyway, yeah... it did.

• Elderly Auntie. I was doing my exercise topless by the park connector recently. The connector was a shortcut from the bus stop to a housing estate. In the distance, an elderly lady walked towards me. She probably wanted to take a short cut home. She was about 80m away from me when she saw me. Then she stopped, turned around and started running. She turned her head several times and looked in my direction as she ran. I wondered why.

• Merlion-ing. I was in the MRT when people seated around me started vacating their seats and ran (literally - ran) to the next carriage. I noticed a long-haired girl seated two seats away, slumped forward, hair falling and almost touching the floor. The next thing I knew, her wallet and phone dropped. She had some difficulty picking them up and gave up after a few feeble attempts. I slid towards her, picked them up and placed them by her side, then went back to my seat. The next thing I knew, she vomited violently onto the floor (merlioned, as we Singaporeans call it)... ewww. I alighted at the next stop, which was my intended stop, and reported it to the station master. The girl needed help. The train needed cleaning.

• Be Helpful. I told a peer trainer: don't chase for training runs and don't worry about things you cannot control. Instead, be helpful and stay relevant, and most importantly, focus on your delivery when assigned. The opportunities will come. That's how I contributed to the trainer team. My coordinator appreciated my contributions and my learners benefitted. And the opportunities came - not just from the coordinator, but also from fellow trainers who needed help covering for them when they couldn't make it.

• Identity. It's been three years since I left corporate. A new phase in life after 4 decades of working. I realised that my identity had been so tightly intertwined with my working life that it has taken me a lot of effort and time to rewire my identity into that of a freelancer and semi-retired person. It's been an interesting journey - redefining myself, changing the mindset, reframing my thought processes, adjusting to new routines, expectations and lifestyles. But what has kept me going is the constant reminder to focus on what's meaningful to me as a person. In other words, what is my identity as a person, and not as a professional.

• Retirement. A constant thing that people say to me is, "When I retire..." And my question to them is: how do you define "retire"? To me, retirement is not about "stopping work". It is a state of mind. And if I continue working, I work because I want to, not because I need to. Financial freedom. Engagement. Meaning in life. Purpose. And from this perspective, I can still be working, yet retired.

Ok, enough for now. Just some quick rants as I eat my breakfast.