Everyday is a skool day

I was having lunch with neighbour just now, giving her advice over certain things in the office (funnily enough she now works for my company - good luck luv!) but as I sat explaining things, it dawned on me how much I have learnt since living in Malaysia (the last year in particular) and how much of what I have learnt I have actually begun applying to my life. Three things are very apparent to me:

1) I have learnt to lower my expectations of people. I realised that all my life I have had very high expectations of people. Why? Because I set high expectations for myself. For years I have felt disappointed in people not living up to MY expectations and why should they? They are pretty darn high. And so by lowering my expectations which I have only realised just today that I have been doing over the last few months, I am becoming less dissatisfied in those around me and more surprised at things they do that exceed my... hahaha - Expectation!

2) I have learnt that you CAN put "number one" first. People always say "put number one first" and my motto has been this - If I make someone else unhappy by putting MYSELF first, I end up MORE unhappy doing what I WANT rather than just not doing what I want but knowing that I have kept someone else happy. It may sound silly but I have always got more happiness over putting other people first, but always been a bit bitter that I didn't get to do what I wanted. But I've come to realise it's not about putting yourself first it's about thinking things through and not (hahahah) RAISING people's EXPECTATIONS! If you can't do something that you wanted to and you're going to make some one unhappy. HANDLE IT head on. Explain why and clearly and if you're being fair they WILL understand. This works. I have put it into practice, initially I found it hard but when I realised that people weren't as disappointed as i EXPECTED it became easier. (see point 1 above)

3) I have learnt that you must participate in the game to win it. As much as you want to BE you and be ACCEPTED for who YOU are. Sometimes, just sometimes, you have to play the game in order to win. I have only done this in my business life these last few weeks but my determination and strength which felt almost non existent over the last month has pulled me through. Why? Because I played the game and I played it so well, that I won. Don't hate the player remember, hate the game.

I have to get back to work now - I can't WIN all the time, dammit :P