Happy New Years 2009 World

We wish everyone a Happy New Year. 2009 may not be as prosperous but it will be the year where we have to watch our purse more carefully as the world economy may recover slowly. For serious investors, it will be a year of opportunity as well.No doubt many have already made plans and resolutions for the new year while the others have not. It is important to know what we want to do and achieve if we want to achieve more in life. A general framework is needed so that the details can be fitted in as time moves on.

I like to break mine into various aspects of things which affect my future as well as those close to me. However whether I can fulfill all the goals set or not, it does not make me quit in my quest to be a better person or life at the end of the day. I start by deciding what I want my obituary will be like - the type of person that I will be remembered by, when my “external shell” is ready for burial. Next is my commitment to leave my village, my friends, my family and my country a better place than when I first found them.

Financial Needs

This is a key area where one must establish a goal. Without money, life will be a mess. With too much money, life can also be miserable as well. There needs to be a balance where life is worth living. Had I gone for too much money, there will be no STAR to-day. However without the money needed, STAR can only as much as it has up to now.

Thus for anyone who aspires to rise up to be on the top of the cream, you must plan your financial needs now. To ensure that you will have the fund you need for any of your plans, you will have to adopt the principles used by a very poor man who sought and followed the advice from a very rich old man, later he, himself, became the richest man in Baghdad. In accordance to the principles he learned, you must pay yourself at least 10% of whatever you earn and invest it in a solid investment with guaranteed interests every month. This fund can only be used to buy land or properties in a good area later. The other ninety percent is the only amount available for your daily needs and for paying your debts if any. Your target is always to be debt free… The more you can save and invest safely above the minimum of the 10% target the faster you will get rich.

Physical Needs.

There is no point to be rich and famous if you neglect your physical and health needs. Being a slave to medications or whatever before you are eighty means you have neglected your bodily needs to stay healthy. Your body needs time for work, relaxation and exercise. It also needs proper diet to meet your daily requirements. Whatever you eat and drink and make you feel fresh and alert is good for you except too much alcohol in whatever forms and also smoking, whatever amount. It is also advisable to stay away from those who smoke, as secondary smoking is bad for your lungs.

Spiritual needs

It is important in the present world of competing spiritual interests to be confident enough of your own faith so as not to be swayed into worrying about what will happen to you when you die. GOD has provide us with our own souls. Just listen to your own soul and be happy that you are alive and well and as our Deputy President, Dr. Dripin Sakoi, does, “He congratulates me for living another day!” I do the same to him. Yes every other day we live in peace , in harmony and in health deserves a “CONGRATULATIONS”.

It is also important to understand as much about others’ beliefs that I have made it a point to read as much as I can about the BOOKS of the GREAT religions of the world.

Family needs

No matter what eventually every man needs a family. It is not only the immediate but also the extended family. The closer we become the happier one can be. Only when the family is all right, only then we can really look after the bigger family, the State and the Nation. It is important we keep in contact and have quality time as much as we can or else we will lose each other.

In Malaysia, we have a number of occasions when families can get together as we celebrate a minimum of four New Years and many other holidays. Besides these holidays, IT has made it possible for immediate and constant contacts through phone calls, SMS, e-mails, Twitter, Facebook and Blogging. Thus interchange of information, ideas and help can be immediate.

Social Needs

Being more of a social animal, we also need to keep a circle of friends for various reasons. I found out that having many friends made my work easier as a politician, even as an opposition member. If we are lucky enough to have friends in the corridors of power, it would better still. The only thing about friendship is that it can also be a handicap if the character we portray or exude is offensive, unreliable or exploitative then one will asking for trouble. I have known characters who have a lot of friends and know a lot of people but command little or no respect.

Thus it is also important to cultivate relationships with honor and respectability.

Overall self development

Finally it is important really to ponder why are we here, now and then? Why are we born? What really is our part and role? Many missionaries from various faiths are ready to provide us with ready answers, but should be satisfied. If we are here to do GOD’S will, how are you going to know that will?

We have to survive to our present status using our five senses. What if there are other dimensions we have been schooled not to explore or believe? Should we not develop our sixth or seventh senses to really know what our soul is really like?

For a better future and a better New Year, we ought to know our real mission for being born by trying to know “what we yet to know”. It is only when we know we can move forward to be a better person. Only when we know more and do more than what we know and do, we can change our world to be a better place than it is now.

Now I wish you a VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR. For Muslims, a few days late and the Chinese twenty seven days early, the Dayaks six months too early, showing that even for new years we differ, but we still share the same air, water and land. We do share the same struggle which is to live a happy, healthy and worthy life. Till our souls leave our bodies, we can suffer together or we can laugh together. The choice lies with us all….

HAPPY NEW YEAR, SELAMAT TAHUN BARU, ……