Doodle

 

Pause and reflect.
一旦止まって、よく考えよう。

 

For us, it’s quite easy to lose track of what’s important to us — especially when we live up to someone’s expectations.

This is our life. So as not to lose our direction in life, we sometimes have to pause for a while and ask questions to ourselves to find where we are:

• Do I have goals? What do I really accomplish in the next two weeks, three months and one year?
• Do I enjoy what I do every day? If not, why? How can I make these actions meaningful to my life?
• Am I certainly moving toward the goals? What distracts me most often? How can I get rid of these distractions?
• Am I doing what I ought to do to accomplish what I want to accomplish, or just doing what I want to do or what I am told to do?
• What are my next steps? Can I divide the next task into small pieces? What is the ‘baby-step’ – the easiest task I can complete within 15 minutes?

By asking these simple questions every now and then will help you (re)gain momentum, even when you feel stuck. It’s okay to get lost sometimes as far as we know how to get back from there.

Grab a pen and a piece of paper. Or your notebook. Write down your own questions and your thoughts. Your brand-new life starts here.

 

 

Be the person you want to keep company with.
自分が一緒にいたくなる人になろう。

 

Arrogance is one of the personalities we can never hide.

I was arrogant. Extremely arrogant. I was a sort of “me-me-me” personality and rarely listened to others. I was not aware of that because I was with the people who were as arrogant as I was. No matter what I thought, I was arrogant enough to make people go nuts. And after delusional short-term success, I failed miserably in many aspects of my life.

While overcoming the failure I created by myself, I learned to be ‘weaker’ than before. It doesn’t mean that I am literally weaker; I intentionally focus on listening to others first and try to ruminate on what they say, before I say something firm. This is what arrogant people would never do, and this way I can identify the person who is arrogant like I was before, and gradually stay away from them.

I am sick and tired of dealing with arrogant people. It’s because not only do I dislike arrogance now but I was fatally hurt by my own arrogance in the past.

I’m doing whatever I can do to let my arrogance go. It helps me become the person I want to be with. And this is also the best way to detect and stay away from arrogance of others.

 

 

Listen to the music that makes you feel good.
気分が良くなる音楽を聴こう。

 

Music can be a strong tool for brainwashing.

If we listen to a song repeatedly, we unconsciously remember — and internalize — the lyrics of the song. This can be good and bad.

In the late 1960s, one of the most popular female singers in Japan was singing a song that went “My life was dark…” in a deep voice. This might not be the song you like to listen to every day.

As long as you listen to music, choose the music that really makes you feel better. Music can change your feelings, thoughts and behavior — and eventually your life.

 

 

Forget it when it’s over.
済んだら忘れよう。

 

In the past several months, people emailed and requested me to draw something. However some of them quickly lost interest and never responded to my reply.

That’s okay. That’s how we humans behave, and I don’t have any control over what others do.

If we care too much about what others do, it can be a huge distraction. All we need to do is forget and refocus. Just forget what happened without adding any narratives to it. Then refocus on what matters most to us. This 2-step approach helps us survive in the era of information overload.