CARPE DIEM: SEIZE THE DAY

Wasted opportunities, abandoned dreams, lost hopes: do not give in to the fear of the unknown. Live your life as you would have loved to live it, as you want to live it! Do not let fears or dream killers stifle your dreams, your hopes, your greatest ambitions. Success stories are never told of those who feared to dare! Take a bold step, move forward, take that leap of faith. You might not succeed at the first try but guess what, there are no laws yet against trying, trying and trying again until you get there! There are no boundaries to what you can achieve once your mind has conceived it. If serial killers can conceive, execute and achieve, all in the pursuit of fame (or infamy) as the case may be; then nothing stops serial successors from existing and achieving their dreams. Take that first and bold step, take a deep breath and plunge into the unknown. If at first you don't succeed, you have the satisfaction of know

ing you tried and best of all, you have learnt one sure fire way and technique not to proceed. Sometimes all it might need to achieve success is a little tweaking of the blueprint that failed, but you must be ready to dare. You must DARE to DARE!!

It is a new day folks, a new week, on the thresholds of a new month. I must add a christian perspective to all this (not my fault, I looooove the Lord): I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me - (Philippians 4:13). ALL people, not SOME, not MANY, not MAJORITY: ALL!! So when life hands you a lemon, go ahead, make lemonades, pickled lemons, bake a cake with it, stew the lemons, whatever you feel like. And toot your horn when you are done, I will be one of the first to patronize you and spread the word on afterwards.

Have a Blest day and week ahead. DARE to DARE, and I would love to hear how it went. Major Hugs - Vio

Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)

Hm, no thank you very much! I am not talking banking or economics here. I am talking life! Every action or inaction of ours costs us something. Just as we also gain some form of benefits from what we decide to or not to do.

I see a new pair of shoes as I walk past a boutique and ruminate on whether to buy that shoe. Well, the cost of buying that shoe to me could be missing some luxuries for a specified period of time in order to make up for the expense, going into debt as a result of making that purchase or drawing from funds that have been set aside for a particular purpose.

Now the benefits on the other hand could be looking good in the shoes at a party, having a warm fuzzy feeling of satisfaction that I have kept up with the joneses, seeing the green look on my friends' faces while I strut around in my new heels.  Benefits could be quantified just like the costs too, or they could be measured in terms of emotions.

Whatever it may be, before you take any of life's decisions: marrying a wife, going to the movies, buying a new dress, chastising your child, whatever: weig the costs against the benefits to determine if you should go ahead and take that decision or whether it would be more prudent to beat a hasty retreat.

Your values usually determine what that choice would be. Candid advice however is that if the costs outweigh the benefits (what bankers and economists call potential loss), then you need to quietly back down the hall way! If on the other hand, the benefits outweig the costs, then, it is a done deal.

Just remember to measure like and like. In the example above, weighing mushy, feel good emotions against parting with cash are unlike terms. If however, you are weighing emotions against emotions and values against values, you are more likely to take a more balanced opinion!

Peace. Talk to you all soon!