Be positive and lead a happy life

 

RULE NO. 1

Be a positive, optimistic and kind person. Whether you are a happy or unhappy person depends largely on yourself. Negative and pessimistic people are generally unhappy people. Be kind to others. Kindness begets kindness. Try to do a good deed every day. You will find that by brightening the lives of others, you will brighten your own life.

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RULE NO. 2

Maintain a healthy and happy family. If your parents are elderly and living by themselves, try to visit them at least once a week and share a weekly meal with them. One of the problems encountered by our older folks is loneliness.

Be on excellent terms with your spouse. Be faithful to your wife, treat her as if they were still courting and give her all your money.... however, if in case where your wife is a spender and not a saver, then you decide or not to give all.

As for how to behave towards one's children, the advice given by Kahlil Gibran: "And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts."

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RULE NO. 3

Find a job you enjoy doing. One of the reasons so many Singaporeans are unhappy is probably that they do not like their jobs or complained about their salary and expenses. Since we spend so much of our lives and time at work, maybe it is better to have a worklife balance to find a job which is not a chore to endure but a pleasure to do. In recent years, it has been noticed a trend of many locals and Singaporeans leaving their jobs for other jobs which pay them less and lesser bonuses but give them greater satisfaction. This could be a good thing and demand lesser stress on individual who value their personal life more.

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RULE NO. 4

Treasure your true friends. In your life journey, you will make many friends - at school, at university, in sports or other activities and at work. Try to develop a small circle of very good friends, friends who will stand by you in good times and bad times. In work place, do not involve in office politics. You will not gain any better if you are poor in handling office politics.

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RULE NO. 5

Exercise regularly. Exercise not only makes you healthier, it also makes you feel better. Therefore, make regular exercise a part of your lifestyle. You can't be a happy person if you are not in good health. Work stress may hit you with extra sickness if you are weak and it may be too late if you are not able to cope with stress.  So get out the stress by some workout.  Any form of workout with colleagues may also help, eg. bowling, jogging, etc.

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RULE NO. 6

Enjoy eating but eat healthily and avoid the sin of gluttony. Singapore is a culinary paradise. Food is abundant, diverse and affordable. If you reach your 50s' like me, eat moderate and watch your diet.

You can eat well on any budget. Let us enjoy our food but let us also exercise some discipline when choosing what to eat. I have always tried to follow the ancient Asian wisdom of stopping when I feel 80 per cent full and not over indulged.

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RULE NO. 7

Be a volunteer and support philanthropy. Mrs Barbara Bush, the wife of the 41st President of the United States said there was a period in her life when she suffered from depression. Instead of seeing a psychiatrist or taking medication to overcome her depression, she decided to be a volunteer. She found that by helping others less fortunate than herself, her depression gradually disappeared.

Whether we are rich or poor, we should contribute to a cause or causes close to our hearts. In spite of our favourable tax regime and the presence of many wealthy people in our society, it was very disappointed to see how lowly Singapore ranked in the table of countries for philanthropy. A saying  that no man could be truly happy if he lives only for himself.

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RULE NO. 8

Read books and listen to music. Reading is an excellent habit. Books keep youcompany when you are alone.  Reading is an endless source of happiness. So is music. With the web around these days, you may also start to do your own blog. Some of the personal blogs which you could see nowadays are very well done and you do not need to pay a single cent but the practicing of blogging improves your knowledge and networking with the outside world.  

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RULE NO. 9

Take pleasure in the little things in life. Try regular walks in the Botanic Gardens. Try to find joy in meeting old friends, attending a concert at the Esplanade and visiting a wonderful exhibition at one of our museums.  Outing on weekends with your family members is definitely one of the good workout.

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RULE NO. 10

Don't envy others. Dr Wee Kim Wee, our sixth President once said that one of the reasons which caused people to be unhappy was that they were envious of others. Dr Wee said he never envied his friends who had a better education or earned more money or lived in bigger houses or owned more expensive cars. His rule was to be contented with what he had. This is a good rule. Philosophically, it would be even better if you could feel vicariously happy when you see your friends and former students doing well in life.  Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

 

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough”
― Oprah Winfrey

 

“Be content with what you have;  rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking,  the whole world belongs to you.”
― Lao Tzu

 

“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
― Leo Tolstoy

 

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.”
― Ann Brashares

 

“You say, 'If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon

Turning 50 doesn't mean you are past your prime

Extracts and with courtesy of Sunday Times, 16th Sept 2012

It's never too late to achieve success, turning 50 plus doesn't mean you are past your prime - many successful entrepreneurs were late bloomers.

The corporate world is no exception. We tend to idolise the extraordinary achievements of entrepreneurs such as Apple's Mr Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mr Mark Zuckerberg when they peak early in their businesses. But this leaves the impression that if we fail to achieve success by a certain age, we will never make it.

There are many success stories involving late bloomers. Fast-food chains that dot our island Kentucky Fried Chicken was started by entrepreneur Harlan Sanders, the "Colonel Sanders" whose picture featuring his distinctive trademark goatee and white suit still appears on the company logo.

After spending nearly a lifetime trying out various jobs without much success - working as a farmer, a steamboat pilot and an insurance salesman - he finally hit the big time when he was 66, promoting his style of frying chicken. Then there is the ubiquitous McDonald's which is usually located side by side with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Milkshake mixer salesman Ray Kroc was 52 when he came across a small, thriving hamburger shop in southern California. He offered to be the shop's agent and later bought out its owners. The business prospered in his hands and was transformed into the world's biggest fast-food empire, as its restaurants with their familiar bright yellow arches planted themselves all over the globe.

In the financial world, few traders are aware of the remarkable story of Mr Roy Thomson, the man behind financial data provider Thomson Reuters.

Mr Thomson was a moderately successful radio station owner in Canada when he moved to Scotland after he turned 60, when his wife died and his business partner left to enter public life. He went on to create a media empire, buying up newspapers such as The Scotsman and The Times of London and numerous book publishers. In 2008, Thomson Corporation, the company he created, took over Reuters Group to form Thomson Reuters.

Even in our own backyard, there are examples of businessmen who achieved extraordinary success after reaching an age many regard as past their prime.

One good example is banker Wee Cho Yaw, who, when he was in his 70s, led his bank United Overseas Bank (UOB) to successfully out-bid DBS Bank for Overseas Union Bank in 2001.

It turned out to be a transformational deal which cemented UOB's position as a leading lender in South-east Asia.

There is also the example set by 68-year old Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, the owner of Thai Beverage, who is currently engaged in a fierce tussle with Dutch brewing giant Heineken for control of Asia Pacific Breweries, the iconic maker of Tiger Beer. At an age when most people are supposed to be playing with their grandchildren, Mr Charoen is giving this European giant a run for its money, as he presses ahead with an audacious bid to become a leading brewer in Asia's fast-growing but fractured beer market.

It promises to be a battle of epic proportions which gets even a hard-bitten newsman like me all fired up with excitement over the outcome of the fight.

So, rather than succumb to the de-motivating belief that it is too late for any of us to do anything after a certain age, we should tell ourselves: It is never too late. Not even if we have turned 90.

We need to change our mindset - and believe that any deterioration a person may encounter past the age of 50 is really all in the mind.

Many people find that life is a lot easier after turning 50 years old. Suddenly you know who you are and what it is you want out of life; there isn’t anymore having to find yourself. It also seems as if you have a lot more control over your life than you once did. When we are young we seemed to be taken along by the tide and may be pushed into directions that we didn’t intend on going, but once you are older you have enough wisdom to know how to go against the tide and be exactly who you want to be.

Just because you are turning 50 years old doesn’t mean you have to look and feel like you are 50. If you eat right and get plenty of exercise you will probably look and feel years younger than what you are. There is no doubt that you are likely to have a few more aches and pains than you did 10 or 20 years ago, but all things considering, 50 should be a time you are looking forward and enjoy life as you wish to and do what you had wanted but did not get a chance due to your work life and see what you missed out in the past.

Self-worth quotables :-

“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”

― Malcolm X

“Life is too short to waste any amount of time on wondering what other people think about you. In the first place, if they had better things going on in their lives, they wouldn't have the time to sit around and talk about you. What's important to me is not others' opinions of me, but what's important to me is my opinion of myself.”

― C. JoyBell C.

“Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you're worthy of the trip.”

― Glenn Beck, The Christmas Sweater

“If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.”

― Brian Tracy

“Most lives are not distinguished by great achievements. They are measured by an infinite number of small ones. Each time you do a kindness for someone or bring a smile to his face, it gives your life meaning. Never doubt your value, little friend. The world would be a dismal place without you in it. (tweaked version of a passage from Scandal in Spring)”

― Lisa Kleypas, Scandal in Spring

“A diamond doesn't start out polished and shining. It once was nothing special, but with enough pressure and time, becomes spectacular. I'm that diamond.”

― Solange nicole

Courtesy of Straits Times, Sunday, 18 November 2012 

Don't call me old...      

Being over 50 does not mean being over the hill, with many of the over-50 set defying ageist stereotypes

In his last job, resident technical officer Lee Joo Mong cycled to and from work every day for six months. It was about 14.5km or an hour each way from his three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio to his worksite at the Pan Pacific hotel.

His current worksite, Credo Residences, opposite the Ang Mo Kio MRT station, is just a 15-minute walk away. So Mr Lee cycles 32km, goes home for a shower and then walks to work.

On Sundays, he puts in an extra 112km on his bike around the island.The 59-year-old, who is single, says older people should not slow down.

"In fact, we should put in more effort to maintain the same level of fitness we had when we were younger," says Mr Lee, adding that in his physically demanding job, "I can do anything my younger colleagues can do".

Members of the over-50 set SundayLife! spoke to decry the notion that people past a certain age should prepare for life in a rocking chair.

Ageist attitudes persist in Singapore, says Mr Dennis Heath, a Singapore permanent resident of 10 years, who wrote to The Straits Times Forum page. The executive coach observed in his letter, published on Nov 5, that employers think that workers who are over 50 are past their sell-by date.

The 58-year-old Briton notices four ways that the "over-the-hill thinking" manifests itself: "They think older people are not as fit, not as tech-savvy, that we demand huge salaries because of experience and that we are set in our ways and refuse to learn new skills."  The owner of his own coaching company since 2006 puts paid to such ageist notions with a busy work, sports and social life.

He cycles or walks most mornings and trains with a dragon boat team twice a week. He also works out with weights in his Bedok condominium's gymnasium at least once a week.

Evenings find him at a concert or a movie with his Singapore girlfriend, aged 42, a voice-over artist.

He also started two part-time careers at 55 - as a television actor and voice-over artist.

A telecommunications industry veteran of 30 years, he had come to Singapore about 12 years ago to do international sales for a software company. It was just before the dotcom bust of 2001.

"Within 18 months, I had stock options worth nothing, no job and one month's redundancy pay," recalls Mr Heath, then 47. He went job-hunting for about one year. "There were no responses and I don't even remember having interviews," he says.  Finally, a headhunter friend persuaded an outplacement company to give him a chance. "Even then, it took the headhunter some persuasion to get the company to see me," he says.  But he got the business development manager job: His years of global sales experience were a match, despite his age.

Ms Annie Yap, group managing director of human resource company AYP Asia Group, says that employers' assumptions of veteran workers' sell-by dates are "not entirely accurate".

Ms Yap, 41, adds: "We have come across senior employees who want to continue their careers while taking as much as half their previous salary but they are overlooked by employers because of their age."

National University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser sees no reason that "50 is deemed to be old, given that current convention considers aged 65 and above as old".

Also, the "soft" retirement age of 62 is scheduled to be raised in the future.

In any case, age should not be the only consideration. He cites a running group, with whom he has jogged on Sunday evenings for close to 26 years. "The oldest member is close to 80 and he is still going strong, while someone in his early 50s has quit as he suffers from a serious knee problem," says Prof Tan.

At soyabean chain Super Bean International, where a quarter of its 550 employees in Singapore are older than 50, work has been streamlined so that each task - whether it is making pancakes or preparing soya milk - can be handled by anyone regardless of age.  Its managing director Kang Puay Seng, 52, sets an example - his younger colleagues often complain that he "walks too fast", he says, when they go to mega tradeshows abroad that are held in sprawling complexes.

Seniors SundayLife! spoke to say learning is important - at any age.

Ms Peggy Tan, a nurse of 25 years, received a World Health Organization scholarship to do a nursing degree at Curtin University at 42.  At 51, she received a scholarship from Nanyang Polytechnic, where she was lecturing, to do her master's in nursing at King's College London.

Now retired, the 68-year-old grandmother of three keeps busy planning monthly activities for the Australian Alumni Singapore as its vice-president.

Last Thursday, she organised a closed-door sales event for alumni members at a designer boutique.

The well-groomed Ms Tan has a piece of advice for seniors fighting ageist stereotypes. Sloppy dressing does not command respect.

She says: "I'm not the sort to go to the market in pyjamas."



Ageing Wisely

Some ways to live life more useful and possibly improve your prospect in the year of rabbit 2011:

Some feel that we should get less on the virtual internet and more real networking with professionals and "people on the street". Engage with them and networking in the real world will do far more good if you are into some business than networking in the virtual social networld. Most of the activities in virtual networking will likely not get you into any kind of productive or "economic" benefits, so to speak, unless you have that much free time to spare. Office seniors or executives often face issues they can’t discuss with others at the company. Sometimes they just need an outside perspective from another management executive. Example, some of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s friends are Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Mark Hurd ( HP ex-CEO). They met and discussed. I cannot imagine what happen when Bill Gates or Warren Buffet meets. A huge component of any manager’s success is their ability to anticipate significant changes or innovations. While nobody could really glaze at the crystal ball and predict, if you get enough anecdotal data from enough sources, you can get a pretty good idea of what’s going on. You don’t know what you don’t know. While there are exceptions, know-it-alls don’t typically get ahead. Managers know what they don’t know and do not try to be smart and fool themselves. It means they depend very much on comparing notes with others in their networking.

Whether 2010 was the best "recovery" year on record or a "lull and dull" year waiting for another few more unexpected world crisis to happen, learn what you can from the numerous events happened around the globe and move on. We all probably will be better off living in and focusing on the present and plan out what we should do in the coming future, be it with some risks, no risk at all.

Whether it is your lousy job, your unreasonable boss, or your a**hole colleagues, either do something about it or suck it up. Whining does not help but make everyone around your office as miserable as you are. It just dampen the office spirit further. If you need to spoonfeed your staff, give it to them bit by bit and tell them it is time now for them to "swim by themselves". Whatever it is that has you all wound up, if you actually bite the bullet and deal with it, it’ll free your mind for what really matters.

Put the E-gadgets down. Safe advice for pretty much all of us in this gadget-crazy world. You’ll be more productive and have more to look out for in life than what you think you have achieved so far.

If all else does not seem to work on your end, try changing it. We all faced with thing or issue at times we know aren’t working on our side. Whether it’s your job, your marriage, or your investment portfolio, once you know for sure, the sooner you change it, the likelihood you will work around it better.

Take care of yourself and not be hard on yourself. Just do the best you can and then, be good to yourself and those around your family members. Spend time with yourself and your love ones. Work out, eat right, meditate, get out and have fun. 

Try new things, take on some challenges, even if they might seem a bit of risky. Don’t take dumb risks but reasonable, calculated ones. Most people are too risk averse for their own good.

We all spend a good deal of time on "bs". You know what this is - mindless distraction. If it’s fun or with colleagues and friends, that’s great. But if you sit around for hours with your eyes glued to your LCD TV or notebook, you’ve likely got some problem and need to re-assess yourself. Keep away your laptop for a while, check your I-phone no more than once a day. Go for a walk every day and think about one of the issues on your list. Don’t worry about conclusions. Just think and think and you may realise you have been missing the point.

It maybe true that every chinese new year’s resolutions don’t really work except psychologically in your own mind. The start of a english or chinese lunar new year is as good a time as any to take stock of what is and isn’t working in your life and doing something about it. Do not look back and try to "search your soul" for what doesn’t exist and, instead, just do something worth about it. Simple said than doing it but with a little bit of push and commitment, you should be able to see some "light at the end of the tunnel", as they say.

People when asked how they feel about getting older, and they will probably reply : “Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative.” Stiffening joints, weakening muscles, fading eyesight ( these are what my parents are now going through at the seventies ) and the clouding of memory, coupled with the modern world’s careless contempt for the old, seem a fearful prospect—better than death, perhaps, but not much. Life is not a long slow decline from sunlit uplands towards the valley of death. It is probably a U-turn and how you personally going to deal with it positively.

Options to useful retirement ....

Some ways to useful retirement and not just work alone but to be useful again to the society :

With some ideas and suggestions for re-employing and redeploying silver talent, culled from the experience of companies :

1 Avoid the retirement mindset

It is the societal and company culture that often puts off older workers from staying on or applying for jobs. Job advertisements asking for applicants with 'energy' and 'fresh thinking' for a workplace that is 'fast-paced' implicitly tell older candidates that they are not welcome.

2 Reinvent and Rehire in different positions

At a property giant here, 'senior silver hairs' are placed in positions where they are not responsible for profit and loss. This means they are not in charge of balance sheets and their performance is not based on the bottom line. This allows them to avoid the pressures of the corporate world while remaining as experienced advisers.

3 Offer better re-employment contracts

Re-employment contracts often slash pay and health benefits, which older employees find humiliating. Although a pay cut is inevitable especially if the employee's work load is lighter, salary should be determined on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with the employee.

Re-employment contracts are usually offered on a yearly basis, subject to renewal. This takes away an employee's sense of security, which could be detrimental to morale. A three-year contract is a better compromise.

4 Rethink and redesign work habit arrangements

Older workers often want to continue working, but in a less intense and time-consuming environment. Being flexible with work arrangements or job-sharing would achieve this.

One company in America, business process outsourcer, allowed some 100 call-centre employees to work off-site. To fill the positions, it recruited older workers who proved excellent matches for its mature customers. When younger workers fill the roles, it found that they tend to quit after a while.

5 Offer and Provide flexi-retirement working time

Silver talent can be persuaded to remain in the company if they are given ample time to enjoy some amount of 'retirement'. Working six months a year or three days a week could provide this, as will taking a specified break in service (six months to a year) and then returning on contract.

6 Get retirees on retainer basis

Some companies also retain a pool of retirees who become management's first port of call when a sudden manpower injection is needed, whether in the case of cyclical spikes, job-sharing, or as a stop-gap measure in case of unplanned or long leave. As these employees already know how the company works, their deployment will avoid too much disruption.

7 Continue to Let the passion flow

Allow your silver talent the opportunity to take on passion projects of their own, whether running an innovation camp for employees, or getting involved with the company's corporate charity work.

Silver talent are no longer in the phase of life where work is the be-all and end-all. If they are convinced that they can use the company's resources to pursue the other interests they are passionate about, they are more likely to stay engaged at work.

8 Pass on the experiences learnt

The older executives or senior managers would have already gained a lot experiences from their years of working and it is surely useful for them to impart their experiences to the younger generation.

The Kolb Model and Subject Disciplines :

Kolb has undertaken extensive empirical work using the Learning Styles Inventory to relate different subject disciplines to the quadrants of the learning cycle and hence to different forms of knowledge: partly for reasons of space and partly for copyright reasons, you are referred to the text for the results.
Broadly speaking, he suggests that practitioners of creative disciplines, such as the arts, are found in the Divergent quadrant.
Pure scientists and mathematicians are in the Assimilative quadrant
Applied scientists and lawyers are in the Convergent quadrant

Professionals who have to operate more intuitively, such as teachers, are in the Accommodative quadrant
There are also differences in the location of specialists within the more general disciplines

This would suggest that different subject areas call for different learning styles, and raises the usual chicken and egg question as to whether the discipline promotes a particular learning style, or whether preferred learning style leads to adoption of a discipline, or of course, both. (All of the above assumes that there is some validity in this conceptualisation of "learning styles")

Silence is more than golden ......

It seems that the evidence for the benefits of silence continues to mount these days. Studies have demonstrated that silent meditation improves its practitioner's ability to concentrate.  Teachers who introduce silence into classrooms report that it fosters learning and reflection among the students.

Working adults and professionals involved with conflict resolution have found that by incorporating times of silence into negotiations they were able to foster empathy that inspires a peaceable end to disputes.  [ Maybe this is not workable in tense environment, such as manufacturing industry or shipyards where they are rush for time and schedule and the pressing need to deliver on time the construction project and this led to intense argument and many excuses for delay or work stoppages,etc]

The old idea of quiet zones around hospitals has found new validation in studies linking silence and healing.

If you have the means, you buy your luxury silence in the form of spa time, or products like quiet vacuums, which are always more expensive than their roaring bargain cousins. The affluent pay for boutique silence because, like silk on the flesh and wine on the palate, silence can kindle a sensory delight.

Unfortunately, in a world of diminishing natural retreats and amplifying electronic escapes, this delight is in ever shorter supply. The days when Thoreau could write of silence as 'a universal refuge' and 'inviolable asylum' are gone.

With all our gadgetry punching up the volume at home, in entertainment zones and even places of worship, young people today often lack any haven for quiet. These problems are everywhere, but can be especially acute in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Too many people think of silence only in terms of 'being silenced', of suppressing truth. In consequence, silence itself is now often suppressed.

People who appreciate the value of silence have, by and large, done a poor job of sharing their understanding, let alone making silence more accessible. Yet silence can be nourished in our larger spaces not just by way of an inward journey that most people lack the tools to embark upon, but via education and architecture.

Some of the imaginative work is being done today by urban planners involved with soundscaping. It is easier to create oases of quiet - by, for example, creating common areas in the rear facades of buildings with plantings that absorb sound - than it is to lower the volume of a larger area by even a few decibels.

And having access to these green oases can greatly enhance quality of life. A recent Swedish study found that even people who live in loud neighbourhoods report a 50 per cent drop in their general noise annoyance levels if residential buildings have a quiet side. These modest sanctuaries can provide at least a taste of silence, which is then recognised not to be silence at all, but the sounds of the larger world we inhabit: birdsong and footsteps, water, voices and wind.

Even a little bit of silence can create a sense of connection with our environment that diminishes alienation, and prompts a desire to discover more quiet.

Will money bring Happiness ?

Extract from ST paper By Irene Tham
Are Singaporeans happier when they have lots more money?

A study shows that people who have a university or postgraduate qualification and earn $5,000 or more a month are the happiest.  Is this really the case ?
However, they are also dissatisfied with their achievements and enjoy life the least, compared with those who are less well-off.
Indeed, it is the Singaporeans earning less than $2,000 a month who enjoy life the most, concluded the three academics behind the study.
Senior lecturer Tambyah Siok Kuan, associate professor Tan Soo Jiuan and professorial fellow Kau Ah Keng - all from the National University of Singapore Business School - presented their findings in a book, The Wellbeing Of Singaporeans, which came out recently.
The survey in 2006 polled more than 1,000 people, aged 20 to 69.
They were posed questions such as whether they enjoy life, how happy they are, and how much they feel they are accomplishing what they want in life.
It could hold quite some weight that some may live in a million-dollar homes but if they owe the bank a lot of money, you are not going to enjoy life very much. Conversely, some who lives in an HDB flat may be able to enjoy life more as they are less committed financially and able to spend within their means and what they earned.
According to Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Indranee Rajah in the report, the ability to enjoy life and the feeling of achievement ultimately bring about happiness.
'It all boils down to expectations. Happy people can field the pressure and strike a balance between competitiveness and complacency,' she added.
The fear of not being able to sustain the high life 'can be a source of strain or unhappiness', she noted.

Psychotherapist Stephen Lew, 30, from the Positive Psychology Centre, said happiness is a state of mind.
'Happy people know and use their strengths. Naturally, they are better able to enjoy life, which leads to happiness,' he said.

Sonja Lyubomirsky in her 2007 book, The How Of Happiness says 40 per cent of a person's happiness is within his control, said psychologist and University of California professor of psychology. The rest is genetically determined, she claimed.

Maybe we should start an internal survey in your workplace and find out what leads to joy in the hectic workplace and is challenges and achieving goals providing you the fighting spirit to hang on to tough work place, eg. in Shipyard as compare to downtown office life in Orchard road