Last week, many of you may have read a Straits Times article about Dr Lee Wei Ling on " More Than Life Than The Pursuit of Happiness". In the article, she said:
" Happiness, in whatever form one sees it, becomes more elusive the harder one tries to pursue it. That's why my personal aim is much more realistic: All I ask for is calmness and contentment. These at least are partially within my control."
In case you do not know, Dr Lee Wei Ling is the daughter of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who's Singapore's first prime minister and minister mentor. Contentment is not easy to achieve in life. But I can see that most people who are contented are happy in life. They don't compare with others, they don't seek happiness from things that are superficial. There is this inner happiness and peace in those who are contented in life. Don't get me wrong. Contentment is not being lazy. It is also not an excuse to not improve or work hard.
Writing a financial blog is not about the pursue of money. It is the pursue of freedom. I have never set myself out to pursue money but its more about learning how to create a system where money grows so that it takes care of itself later on. This lets me have more time for the more important things in life such as spending time with my loved ones and living a fulfilling life that makes a difference. As the saying goes, why work for money if you can have money work for you? Contentment is part of the freedom equation. If we keep seeking more things or more money in life, there will never be an end. We will never achieve freedom even if we work all our lives if we live like this. It is not wrong to be rich but to be blinded by material things will leave us feeling empty.
Anyway, I saw another article written by Dr Lee Wei Ling which is so profound but yet easy to understand. What do we really seek in life? Read on and find out more...
Article written by Lee Wei LingIn 2007, in an end-of-year message to the staff of the National Neuroscience Institute, I wrote:
'Whilst boom time in the public sector is never as booming as in the private sector, let us not forget that boom time is eventually followed by slump time. Slump time in the public sector is always less painful compared to the private sector.'
Slump time has arrived with a bang.
While I worry about the poorer Singaporeans who will be hit hard, perhaps this recession has come at an opportune time for many of us. It will give us an incentive to reconsider our priorities in life.
Decades of the good life have made us soft. The wealthy especially, but also the middle class in Singapore, have had it so good for so long, what they once considered luxuries, they now think of as necessities.
A mobile phone, for instance, is now a statement about who you are, not just a piece of equipment for communication. Hence many people buy the latest model though their existing mobile phones are still in perfect working order.
A Mercedes-Benz is no longer adequate as a status symbol. For millionaires who wish to show the world they have taste, a Ferrari or a Porsche is deemed more appropriate.
The same attitude influences the choice of attire and accessories. I still find it hard to believe that there are people carrying handbags that cost more than thrice the monthly income of a bus driver, and many more times that of the foreign worker labouring in the hot sun, risking his life to construct luxury condominiums he will never have a chance to live in.
The media encourages and amplifies this ostentatious consumption. Perhaps it is good to encourage people to spend more because this will prevent the recession from getting worse. I am not an economist, but wasn't that the root cause of the current crisis - Americans spending more than they could afford to?
I am not a particularly spiritual person. I don't believe in the supernatural and I don't think I have a soul that will survive my death. But as I view the crass materialism around me, I am reminded of what my mother once told me: 'Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul.'
My family is not poor, but we have been brought up to be frugal.. My parents and I live in the same house that my paternal grandparents and their children moved into after World War II in 1945. It is a big house by today's standards, but it is simple - in fact, almost to the point of being shabby.
Those who see it for the first time are astonished that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's home is so humble. But it is a comfortable house, a home we have got used to. Though it does look shabby compared to the new mansions on our street, we are not bothered by the comparison.
But I personally think the hard times will hold a timely lesson for many Singaporeans, especially those born after 1970 who have never lived through difficult times.
No matter how poor you are in Singapore , the authorities and social groups do try to ensure you have shelter and food. Nobody starves in Singapore ..
Many of those who are currently living in mansions and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle will probably still be able to do so, even if they might have to downgrade from wines costing $20,000 a bottle to $10,000 a bottle. They would hardly notice the difference.
Being wealthy is not a sin. It cannot be in a capitalist market economy. Enjoying the fruits of one's own labour is one's prerogative and I have no right to chastise those who choose to live luxuriously.
But if one is blinded by materialism, there would be no end to wanting and hankering. After the Ferrari, what next? An Aston Martin? After the Hermes Birkin handbag, what can one upgrade to?
Neither an Aston Martin nor an Hermes Birkin can make us truly happy or contented.. They are like dust, a fog obscuring the true mean ing of life, and can be blown away in the twinkling of an eye.
When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the latest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this world a slightly better place than how we found it?
We know which is the correct choice - and it is within our power to make that choice.
In this new year, burdened as it is with the problems of the year that has just ended, let us again try to choose wisely.
To a considerable degree, our happiness is within our own control, and we should not follow the herd blindly.
The writer is director of Singapore's National Neuroscience Institute. And also Lee Kuan Yew's daughter...
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