Doodle

 

Exchange ideas.
アイディアを出し合おう。

 

Exchanging ideas with others always helps us think further. It also gives us a leap of the imagination and help us create something new.

Thanks to the Internet, we can easily connect with the people who have interesting thoughts. It would be a waste not to take advantage of that.

But be cautious; not everybody is able to exchange ideas with others. Some people are just busy proving themselves right and others wrong, although they may seem to be willing to have a conversation with others—in fact they are just looking for their victim. Stay away from them.

 

 

Create your dream job.
夢の仕事を創ろう。

 

A dream job—what the hell is that?

You do what you love to do and get paid very well, you love people around you and they love you back, the employer gives you countless opportunities… If that is a dream job, there’s no such thing. At least no one would give it to you. You have to create it yourself.

What’s your definition of a dream job? How will you (or did you) create it yourself?

 

 

Manage your environment.
環境をうまく扱おう。

 

Your environment is a product of you.

One of famous self-help gurus said the opposite in the past; you are a product of your environment. But we all have a power to create or choose the environment around us. We tend to forget this fact because things around us—for example, a social norm, culture, your family or employer—force us to be in their environment.

Our environment either inspire us or drain us. If it doesn’t work well for you now, create a new one. Or choose a different one. Free your mind, and acknowledge the power you already have.

 

 

Find inspiration in town.
街中でひらめきを得よう。

 

Walking around and observing people can be a great source of inspiration, especially if you’re living in a large city.

I often visit popular retail stores and see everything around. What they sell, their pricing, their package design, demographics of people visiting the store… As I see around, many ideas come up. I also like to observe people in a crowded cafe. Nowadays quite a few people are just watching and touching the screen of their phone, but I sometimes find very interesting people there.

Most of the time, we sit on our desk and focus on getting things done. That’s perfectly fine. But when we get things done, it’s time to go out, see how this world is, and get ourselves inspired. No matter what we do, we are always connected with this world anyway.

 

 

Choose to be stronger.
より強くなることを選ぼう。

 

Friedrich Nietzsche puzzled us. Because his famous quote, “What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger,” is not always true.

How about your job? If your employer or boss is not evil enough, it can make you stronger. But if you are forced to work 16 hours every day without any support, it may not kill you instantaneously, but can kill you eventually. It’s not rare here in Japan, and we call it ‘karoshi (過労死),’ meaning ‘death from overwork.’

How about alcohol and cigarettes? If you drink or smoke only occasionally, it may not kill you immediately; but if you get addicted to them, they will hurt your body and mind, and can kill you in the long run.

So we have three options:

• What doesn’t kill us now kills us later;
• What doesn’t kill us harms us; or
• What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Which one would you choose?