Category: Off Beaten Track Page 9 of 44

As the saying goes, “use it or lose it.”

The “it” I am referring to is a hunger for challenge or knowledge. I suspect that the more we become complacent, the less we are willing to take risks – consequently, less chance to grow and become better than what we were.

Time for a change?

It used to be that having a good memory was a good thing. You can, for example, do well in exams, dazzle people with obscure facts and figures, or simply have a better handle on things because it’s easier to mentally associate many ideas and concepts if they can actually be recalled. Unfortunately this also means ghosts from the past cannot be easily shaken off.

I suppose, at some level, almost everyone craves for some form of “routineness” and “unchangedness”? “For I am as constant as the northern star,” so said Shakespear’s imaginary Julius Caesar.

Picture this. As so often happens in TV shows and movies, you walk into a bar/restaurant and you can just belt out to the waiter, “The usual!” Now, isn’t that something good to look forward to?

As a matter of fact, having stayed in the same flat for about 5 years now, it IS getting to the point where the breakfast lady can almost predict what I want as soon as I walk up to their stall. However, from time to time, it can get a little unnerving to feel that you are too predictable, not to mention that it is rather contrary to the slightly rebellious streak in me too … read more